Ozempic and Wegovy are once-weekly injections of semaglutide prescribed for Type 2 diabetes to help improve blood sugar control. Their popularity has soared, boosting Novo Nordisk, the drugmaker behind them, to new heights.

Ozempic San Diego comes in a prefilled injection pen that you inject yourself. Your doctor will teach you how to do this. You should rotate the injection site each time you use the pen.

Many people with obesity struggle to lose weight. They might try dieting and exercising, but they can’t get the results they want. Fortunately, new medications like Ozempic are changing the game. These drugs help you control your appetite and lower your body weight, so you can improve your health and live longer.

Ozempic is an injectable medication that works by mimicking a hormone in the digestive tract. This hormone helps lower blood sugar and promotes a feeling of fullness. By replacing this hormone, Ozempic enables you to eat less. It also slows down the way your stomach digests food.

It’s important to use Ozempic correctly to help you lose weight and manage your diabetes. You should not take it with other medications that affect your blood sugar levels or heart rate. Your doctor can tell you more about what types of medications to avoid with this medicine.

While some side effects of Ozempic are mild, others can be more serious. Some of the most common include nausea and abdominal pain. You may also have acid reflux, which can cause a burning sensation in your throat. Some patients have even stopped taking the drug because of these side effects. They might have a lot of discomfort from acid reflux, and they don’t feel as good when they’re taking the medicine.

Some people have reported difficulty with sleep, too. They might have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, and they might wake up often during the night. Other people have reported changes in their urine color or breath. People with these symptoms should speak to their doctor right away.

You should not take Ozempic if you have a history of pancreatitis or multiple endocrine neoplasia, which is a group of cancerous tumors that affect the glands that produce insulin and other hormones. It’s also important to tell your doctor about any other medical conditions you have, such as a history of depression or liver disease.

Some telehealth services can prescribe Ozempic for you. These services typically start with a telehealth professional giving you a health evaluation. If the evaluation shows that the medication would be a good choice for you, the service will send you an electronic prescription. Then, you can get the medication at a pharmacy or have it shipped to you. You should still check with your doctor before using any telehealth services.

Blood sugar control

For those with type 2 diabetes who are looking to improve blood sugar control as well as shed pounds, Ozempic is a safe and effective long-term treatment option. It mimics the effects of natural GLP-1 hormones to suppress appetite and promote weight loss while improving glucose management. In addition, it has also been shown to have cardiovascular benefits in clinical trials. When combined with a healthy eating plan, regular physical activity, stress reduction techniques, and routine blood sugar monitoring, it can lead to better long-term health outcomes for individuals with type 2 diabetes.

However, long-term commitment is necessary to get the most benefit from this medication. Often, it takes four weeks to reach steady state levels of the drug in the body and achieve optimal effectiveness. However, this varies from person to person and depends on other factors such as age, additional medications, body fat percentage, kidney or liver function, and other medical conditions. Your doctor will give you specific information on your expected response time to Ozempic.

During the first four to eight weeks of taking the drug, some people may experience nausea and vomiting. Luckily, this side effect is typically mild and can be managed with changes to diet and/or anti-nausea medications.

In addition, it’s important to regularly monitor your blood sugar with the help of a glucose meter. This will allow you to recognize when your blood sugar is too high (hyperglycemia) or low (hypoglycemia). You can also ask your healthcare team for advice about dietary and lifestyle changes that could help improve blood sugar control.

Finally, it’s important to tell your doctor about all medications and supplements you take, including over-the-counter drugs and herbal products. Some of these can have an impact on how the drug works or cause harmful side effects when taken with Ozempic.

Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA)

If you have type 2 diabetes, your doctor may prescribe Ozempic (or Wegovy) as part of a treatment plan that includes regular medical checkups and a healthy diet. The drugs can help you lose weight and control your blood sugar levels. But they also come with side effects, including nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. These side effects usually go away after a while. But you should call your doctor if they don’t. In rare cases, they can be a sign of a serious problem that needs to be treated right away.

Aside from gastrointestinal symptoms, other common Ozempic side effects include muscle soreness and fatigue. You may also experience headaches and dizziness. Some people may develop antibodies that decrease the drug’s effectiveness over time. These antibodies are not harmful but can prevent you from getting the full benefit of the drug.

It is not recommended to take Ozempic if you have severe liver disease or a kidney disorder that requires dialysis. The drug can also increase the risk of pancreatitis, a painful inflammation of the pancreas. People with a history of medullary thyroid cancer or multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2 should not use the drug either. The FDA has issued a boxed warning for this drug.

Nausea is a very common side effect with Ozempic and other GLP-1 medications. If you have nausea, it’s important to eat slowly and stick to your diet. You can also try taking over-the-counter or prescription anti-nausea medication. But if your nausea gets worse or doesn’t go away, contact your doctor. It can be a sign of a serious condition, such as pancreatitis or malabsorption of nutrients.

You should avoid mixing certain foods, vitamins, herbs or supplements with Ozempic. These interactions can change how the medicine works or even cause a dangerous reaction. Your doctor will tell you which foods and supplements are safe to eat with the medication. It is also very important to use a different injection site each week. Doing so can reduce the chances of a skin allergy. Talk to your doctor before starting a new injection site.

Pregnancy

Across social media, women are sharing their stories of unexpected pregnancy while taking GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic. It appears to be happening because the weight loss caused by these medications corrects hormonal imbalances that can cause fertility issues. But it’s not entirely clear why this is happening, and it’s important for patients to know the risks involved with these drugs before deciding whether or not they want to use them.

GLP-1 agonists like Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy, and Zepbound have been shown to improve insulin resistance in people with type 2 diabetes. These medications also work to suppress appetite by slowing the movement of food in the stomach, which can help you feel full longer. But they may have a side effect that many people don’t realize—they can interfere with the absorption of birth control pills and can make them less effective.

The reason for this is likely because the drugs affect the way your body processes sugars. This can lead to a decrease in the amount of sugars that reach your ovaries, which can prevent them from releasing an egg. And if you’re not using effective birth control, it could be easy to get pregnant—especially since 45% of pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended.

But it’s possible that there are other reasons why people are getting pregnant while on these medications. For example, the weight loss that occurs while taking these drugs can increase the rate at which you ovulate in women with irregular periods. It can even help you ovulate if you weren’t previously ovulating, according to Dr. Karen Wheeler, a reproductive endocrinologist.

But there’s one big problem with all of this: These medications haven’t been studied in people who are pregnant. Because of ethical and safety concerns, most new medicines are only tested on animal models before they’re approved for human use. But this isn’t the case for GLP-1 agonists, which have been tested in pregnant rats and monkeys. And the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) warns that semaglutide can be harmful in pregnancy and has been shown to cause fetal abnormalities in these animals.