We examine the misuse and side effects hidden behind the severe shortages of the weight-loss injections Wegovy and Mounjaro that have shaken the world.
In the SBS NewsStory airing at 8 a.m. on the 11th, the program looks into the light and shadow of the Wegovy and Mounjaro craze through vivid testimonies from actual users and focuses on the dangerously rampant misuse of obesity drugs that has recently spread uncontrollably for cosmetic purposes.
Wegovy and Mounjaro are being hailed as a new turning point that has changed the global paradigm of obesity treatment.
Jang Hyung-woo, a professor of thoracic surgery at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, always emphasized weight loss to his patients, but he himself was an extremely obese patient who once weighed as much as 118kg. He even underwent stomach-resecting surgery, but after regaining weight due to yo-yo effects he began to put weight back on; after encountering Wegovy, he escaped the shackles of obesity. Professor Jang praised the new era opened by obesity drugs, saying, "Obesity is not a matter of willpower but a disease that requires treatment."
Comedienne Nam Hyo-na also succeeded in losing nearly 30kg through obesity medication. As she lost weight, chronic conditions caused by obesity improved as if cleansed, and Ms. Hyo-na said she was able to wear the clothes she wanted to wear and called the obesity drug the "miracle drug" that completely changed her life.
But the drug could not be a miracle for everyone. Behind the success stories that flooded social media, there is a string of people reporting terrible side effects.
A woman surnamed Lee in her 20s, a company employee, went to the emergency room with severe abdominal pain three months after receiving obesity medication and was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis. With inflammation levels 10 times higher than normal, part of her pancreas suffered fatal necrosis, and she was shocked by warnings that she could live with diabetes for the rest of her life as an aftereffect.
Another patient, a woman surnamed Jung, succeeded in losing 8kg but stopped the medication due to severe nausea and hair loss side effects. In the end, her weight returned to its previous level after two months. Even so, Ms. Jung confessed that she had recently begun receiving injections again, saying that enduring the side effects was better than the hellish process of dieting and exercise, which provoked sympathy.
The bigger problem is that obesity drugs are being misused for cosmetic purposes. Originally, these drugs should be prescribed only in a limited way to patients with a body mass index (BMI) over 30, or to those with a BMI of 27 or higher who have comorbidities such as high blood pressure or diabetes. Yet so-called "Wegovy·Mounjaro shrine" clinics that indiscriminately prescribe the drugs to people of normal weight or even underweight are flourishing.
Choi Yoo-jin, a woman of normal weight at 160cm and 56kg, has been receiving the injections for four months. Her blog, which posts daily medication diaries on social media, is flooded with comments asking where she got the prescription. Even though she has already reached her target weight of 48kg, she shows signs of addiction, unable to stop the drug out of an obsession to be thinner.
Medical experts warned strongly, "There has not even been research on what fatal adverse effects long-term use of this drug would have on the bodies of people of normal weight who are not obese," and said, "It should never be prescribed solely for cosmetic purposes."
[photo] Nam Hyo-na SNS, NewsStory
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