The effects of Ozempic and other weight loss injections | 60 Minutes Australia

this is our snow room it is one of my favorite how much weight did you lose 25 kilos the Allure is lifechanging weight loss one word game changer this is transformational medicine but does it come with life ending risk he was only on it for 19 days I can't accept that someone can just stop living on 60 Minutes the breakr to treat Parkinson's drug addiction early onset ALS ERS the drugs reshaping the world are these drugs safe we don't leave matches in the hands of children has to be supervised so how far would you go

why are we risking Our Lives to be thin is a recall something you're considering blame it on our success as a wealthy Western Nation but we live with an enormous problem our size too many Australians are too big everyone knows excess weight is is bad for our health but battling the Bulge is a fight too few of us win and that's the reason drugs like OIC are so in demand they promise a quick fix to losing kilos even though they're not designed as weight loss remedies but users beware the OIC hype is starting to wither

replaced with the reality that it and similar drugs are very risky even deadly for much of her life growing up debilitating pain was Shannon Natalia's unwelcome but constant companion it was an Agony made worse by not knowing what caused it or how to fix it it feels like you are in a wet suit and fill the inside of the wet suit with like just sludge and heavy heavy sand and then you're having to walk around found in that wet suit and it's just strapped to your legs after years of scratching their heads in 2020 doctors

finally diagnosed Shannon with lipedema an incurable disease that had produced an abnormal buildup of fat in her lower body at first pain management was limited there's everything here that you could even think of to be honest the gym and cold therapy recovery sessions provided minor relief so this is our snow room it is one of my favorite components to use for pain management okay so this is the Himalayan rock salt room but then Shannon's GP prescribed injections of OIC I felt normal all of a sudden my inflammation was gone my pain was gone all because

of OIC nothing had made the impact that that made OIC had originally been developed to treat diabetes but when it became known a side effect of the drug was rapid weight loss its popularity exploded I wanted to show you guys that everyone starts somewhere even if you're starting back somewhere Shannon is proof it's effective her transformation was amazing and not only did her pain disappear so did the excess kilos lipedema had cruy inflicted how much weight did you lose 25 kilos lipedema is now one of many conditions scientists believe could be treated successfully with medications

like OIC and with a mass of enthusiastic spooking from social and mainstream media it's no surprise these products have taken on the label of Wonder drugs drugs like OIC may also help curb drug addiction o zic could help people with early onset Alzheimer's if you could use it for all these applications it would truly be a miracle drug I liken this to when the te Ford was first um invented and suddenly we had changes in transportation and the horse and cart went out professor of medicine and endocrinologist at St Vincent's Hospital Dr Katherine zaris is

Blown Away by the potential of drugs like OIC have you ever seen a drug explode around the world the way o empad not really when I think back at other points in medical history probably the introduction of penicillin has been as transformative so this is it's a game Cher incredible yes but by no means a miracle in the making while OIC and a number of similar weight loss injections come with promise they also bring risk a g drug Roy Webster is convinced about the cause of his wife's death 12 months ago Trish Webster had been

taking an OIC like medication called sax sender to lose a few kilos because she wanted to look her best at her daughter's wedding she shouldn't be gone you know I don't think she should be gone she didn't deserve that Trish was thought to be the first Australian Death linked to these weight loss injections but after 60 Minutes reported it late last year more families contacted us with similar stories how did he feel about his weight he used to joke that you know you needed a big carcass to carry around a big heart but he wanted

to be healthy he wanted to live a long life and now I can carry his ashes around in one hand Sue and Elise Ramsey want answers they want to know why 18 months ago their much-loved husband and Dad Tim died after taking injections of sax sender what made him decide he wanted to lose weight I think it was um the prospect of um maybe walking at least down the aisle that he thought I do need to lose weight Tim was a trucky it was a job that made exercise and eating well difficult so when the

58-year-old decided to try sax sender to lose weight Sue thought it was worth a try so Tim went to the GP and asked for it y she gave him the script and said it will be good for all aspects of your life it it will protect protect all your organs and so that's when he thought yep that sounds good to me Tim was confident the injections would work but after only 19 days something was clearly wrong here the truck would you be a to come down and take hospital please thank you when Elise received this

voicemail you can hear the desperation in his voice it doesn't sound like him that's not his voice she rushed him to hospital Tim was complaining of severe stomach pain but after a series of tests the doctors couldn't find anything a Miss did you mention to the doctors that he was taking sxender yes and I asked if that would was um bit problematic for his other medication and he said no that would be fine so really there was nothing more they said about the sex sender they just sent him home the following night Tim's pain got

worse he collapsed in the bathroom at home 40 minutes of CPR couldn't save him last November 14 months after he died a coroner ruled Tim's cause of death was undetermined but Sue says that doesn't make sense I don't believe that anybody should die without an explanation there has got to be you just don't expire there has got to be a reason for Tim's death and so I think that's when we really really thought maybe the sex Ender had a lot to do with it [Music] yeah you just do not expect to find your daughter on

her knees in front of the toilet ball dead Leoni margets knows the distress Sue and Elise Ramsey feel her 39-year-old daughter Naomi Rooney died in June 2022 after taking OIC injections Naomi was desperate to be a mom and had been told she needed to lose weight to have any chance of falling pregnant she was very aware of turning 40 and her options of being a m were they were running out as an experienced nurse Naomi had an expert knowledge of drugs and their side effects but even so something tragic happened after she started using the

zic my first thought through my head was this cannot be happening this cannot be happening this cannot be real but things just happen so quickly and then it was an awful awful tussle to wrestle her out of the out of the toilet and to get her onto the floor to try and do CPR yeah and she never regained Consciousness no now when a partner um picked her up he said straight away that she was blue around her mouth and there's nothing that I can do to erase that image Leon is angry at the ease in

which her daughter Gotto zenic she bought it online after filling out a simple questionnaire and having a telephone consultation with a Doctor Naomi Rooney and Tim Ramsay's deaths are now both being investigated by Australia's drug regulator the therapeutic Goods Administration but their families want more they're demanding the TGA make doctors do more to ensure their patients use drugs like OIC safely why can't you give them more than guidance why can't you tell them don't do it Ashley Keenan was the perfect patient to be prescribed OIC the Canadian has diabetes and is overweight but the drug

that was supposed to save her life almost killed her I was only on OIC for about 4 months when I ended up in the ICU an intensive care unit for 10 days I nearly died Ashley suffered what's now emerging as a serious concern a severe gastrointestinal reaction to the drug the doctors told me it was what they call a perfect storm the side effects of the OIC gave me pancreatitis the pancreatitis caused me to vomit uncontrollably I actually remember one of the ER doctors telling me that he roped in every specialist that he could so

so that he could try to save my life despite her near-death experience OIC had been doing what it's become famous for Ashley was losing the kilos but when she stopped taking the drug and returned home from hospital she quickly put weight back on what she did next was confounding I'm quite ashamed of this at one point I actually went back on OIC because I hated how much weight I had re gained and my doctors gave it to me they they said okay well we're going to monitor you more closely this time and after two months

I had pancreatitis again it made me realize like okay this medication is harmful doesn't that show the power of this drug though even though you nearly died you went back for more I know it's it's not something I'm proud of um but it did really open my eyes to how I I thought about myself and my body Ashley's experience is what Dr Mahia etan has been researching at the University of British Columbia he's been studying the increased prevalence of gastrointestinal issues in people taking AIC and similar drugs for weight loss what he found worries him

we looked at the risk of for um gastrointestinal type conditions and I can say on average there was an added increase in risk of around 5% in absolute terms why were these findings concerning to you Doctor because although the 05% uh on the surface may not seem like a large number when we consider that millions of people around the world are taking these drugs it could translate into a relatively uh large number of people affected in fact Dr etan calculates the current OIC craze means several hundred, people could be suffering potentially deadly side effects but

back in Australia Professor Katherine zarus says the risks can be mitigated with proper medical care doctor are these drugs safe used appropriately cautiously Guided by experts these drugs are very safe currently OIC is only approved by the T GA to treat diabetes it's no secret that drugs like OIC are landing in the hands of people who shouldn't be on it why do we need to be cautious we need to be cautious because these drugs have adverse effects and these adverse effects can be really very severe but this can be prevented but you have to be

advised how to do that and a handout and an internet consultation is not enough one needs to see an expert these can be dangerous drugs if they're left in the hands of people we don't leave matches in the hands of children we shouldn't leave these drugs in the hand hands of people it has to be [Music] supervised and the benefit of these drugs I don't think should be overlooked but they're not the Silver Bullet for weight loss Professor Robin langum is the chief medical advisor at the therapeutic Goods Administration one of her roles is to

investigate adverse outcomes associated with pharmaceutical drug use she's well aware of the tragic cases of Trish Webster Tim Ramsey and Naomi Rooney but is guarded about whether their deaths could impact the use of OIC like drugs in Australia clearly anytime anybody loses a loved one in association with a drug that they've been prescribed or a device that have they've been using is just absolutely devastating and you know we really feel a responsibility every death that's reported to us is investigated and if we do see that there's a need to change the messaging with the drug

the information that goes with the drug or even in some cases to withdraw the drug then we have the power to do so is a recall something you're considering a recall is a very serious decision that we'd make and only done when the risks are completely outweighing the benefits of these drugs determining that will take time but more immediately Professor langum warns of another danger at present GPS should only prescribe OIC for the treatment of diabetes not weight loss but the reality is many doctors are simply ignoring the guidelines our guidance to doctors is that

they focus the use of the limited amount of asmic that's in the country that they focus the use of that OIC on patients that have type 2 diabetes why can't you give them more than guidance why can't you tell them don't do it our work is is uh guided very much by the legislation that we have and we don't have the powers to uh mandate it's less than one 1% of people who have these adverse effects but that's still somebody's dad it's still somebody's sister it's still somebody's loved one absolutely absolutely it's a very serious

and and uh and very tragic problem for the families that are concerned and uh we don't wish to minimize that at all but there's yet another frustration faced by the TGA the success of OIC for weight loss has caused a worldwide shortage of the product and that's led to a growing practice by pharmacists to make their own versions of the drug for patients that are receiving compounded semaglutide type products this is not a zic this is not the drug that has been uh extensively evaluated and tested and approved uh for its safety and uh its

efficacy it's a dilemma what to do about the use of OIC and drugs like it for weight loss Shannon Natalia is convinced they work the families of Tim Ramsey and Naomi Rooney say otherwise for many of us the desire to be thinner is over helming but at what cost what's your warning to people who would be watching this and they know they shouldn't be on it I don't think people who want to fit into a frock for their school reunion uh or look good on their social media should be using this I think that that's

a complete waste of time and dangerous and preventing people who need the drug from accessing it hello I'm Emelia Adams thanks for watching 60 minutes Australia subscribe to our Channel now for our brand new stories and exclusive Clips every week and don't miss out on our extra minute segments and full episodes of 60 Minutes on .com. and the ow app