What Is Ozempic?
Ozempic is a popular medication used to manage type 2 diabetes in patients who cannot take metformin, the most common treatment for type 2 diabetes [1]. It contains the active ingredient semaglutide, which can be injected once a week under the skin.
How Does Ozempic Work?
Ozempic is a peptide marketed by Novo Nordisk used for weight loss that stimulates the effects of the endogenous hormone glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1). By mimicking GLP-1's actions, Ozempic increases insulin release from the pancreas, which keeps blood sugar in a healthy range. Furthermore, GLP-1 receptors are also found throughout the brain, most notably in the hypothalamus, the regulator of satiety in the brain and homeostatic functions like breathing, water retention, and sleep [2].
GLP-1 is also considered to regulate the stress response, which will be important in understanding Ozempic brain fog. Notably, Ozempic, with the active ingredient semaglutide, works similarly to other GLP-1 receptor agonists, including dulaglutide, liraglutide and exenatide. This means that many of the effects of Ozempic brain fog can be generalized to other GLP-1 medications [3].
Ozempic Brain Fog: What Does It Mean?
Recently, the Daily Mail published an article discussing the phenomenon of Ozempic brain fog. The article discusses a type of depression, anhedonia, and loss of interest in activities people previously found rewarding [4]. The authors even claim that Ozempics change people’s personalities.
Ozempic brain fog refers to symptoms of hypoglycaemia, or low blood glucose, which can be experienced when you have enhanced insulin release or reduce body weight. Other causes of Ozempic brain fog are psychological and relate to changes in reward processing.
Symptoms of Ozempic Brain Fog
There are several key mental health symptoms of Ozempic brain fog:
- reduced libido
- reduced pleasure from sex
- reduced pleasure from drinking alcohol or dramatically ameliorated alcohol cravings
- reduced tendency to splurge in shops
- dulled emotions
- suicidailty (in extreme cases, although this claim is not directly supported by the European Drug Agency [1])
Amongst these psychological effects of Ozempic brain fog, there are critical physiological symptoms of brain fog that a rapid weight loss may cause. These include:
- dizziness
- inability to focus
- distractability
- feeling faint or like you don’t have enough energy
Potential Explanations of Ozempic Brain Fog
Your Blood Sugar Is Too Low
...