Lucy Devine
Stephen Fry has revealed why he stopped taking Ozempic after he was prescribed the drug several years ago.
Ozempic is a drug used to treat those suffering with type 2 diabetes. It is not currently licensed as a weight loss treatment, despite some people using it for this purpose.
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Ozempic works by helping the body regulate blood sugar levels by producing more insulin, as well as suppressing the amount of glucose produced in the liver.
While Ozempic isn't licensed for weight loss, the active ingredient - semaglutide -helps regulate your appetite.
Another treatment, named Wegovy, also has the same active ingredient and has been approved for weight loss.
Ozempic comes in the form of an injection that you place into your thigh, abdomen, or upper arm, once every week.
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Recently, a number of celebrities, including James Corden and Sharon Osbourne, have opened up about using semaglutides, and the side effects they had experienced.
Now, Stephen Fry has recalled his own experience of taking the drug.
“I tried Ozempic years ago; I'm an early adopter of these things,” he explained on the River Café Table 4 podcast.
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“I happened to be in America, and I'd read about it, and I asked my doctor in America, my physician as they like to call them, and he said, ‘I think I can get you some.’
"He tried me on it, and the first week or so, I was thinking, ‘This is astonishing. Not only do I not want to eat, I don't want any alcohol of any kind. This is going to be brilliant.’
“Then I started feeling sick, and I started getting sicker and sicker and sicker.
“I was literally throwing up four, five times a day and I thought, ‘I can't do this.’ So that's it.”
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In 2019, Fry revealed he had lost over five stone in a year.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, he said: "I've lost a bit of weight so I'm feeling proud of myself.
“I was overweight, I have lost five and a half stone. I was 21 stone (294 lbs) nearly in April. I was that heavy."
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Fry explained that he tries to 'walk a lot' which also benefits his mood.
"I walk a lot and that helps my mood as well I find," he added.
"It's not a guaranteed help for mental stress and anxiety or anything else but it does help me and it means I can listen to audiobooks as I walk, and podcasts, and you eat up the miles that way, and talking of eating up, eating sensibly."