A large new study suggests that weight-loss drugs have quietly moved from being a medical tool to what one researcher calls a “great Ozempic experiment.” By reviewing the records of more than 92 million American adults, researchers found that more than 1.1 million people taking GLP-1 drugs had no documented conditions (such as obesity or diabetes) that would typically qualify them for a prescription, reports the New York Times. This increased 15-fold between 2021 and 2025, notes Medscape. For their study in the journal ObesityResearchers did not document why these users took these drugs, but the group likely includes people who are not obese but looking to lose some weight.
Beyond that, researchers are exploring all kinds of new avenues for these drugs, notes the The Wall Street Journalfrom endometriosis to Crohn’s disease, depression and even longevity in general. “You see it everywhere,” said lead author Babak Orandi of NYU Langone Health. Times. “There are people who publicly describe their experiences with these drugs, some good, some bad.” A potentially troubling finding from the study is that those who took the drugs off-label were more likely to have a history of eating disorders. “We don’t know how this is going to happen,” says researcher Nils Kruger of Harvard Medical School. “It’s like this great Ozempic experience.”
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