Historically struggling with extra pounds, Oprah Winfrey has become the latest testimonial for prodigious anti-diabetes drugs such as Ozempic that in recent months have proved to be a powerful weapon in the fight against obesity Initially reluctant to resort to the weekly injection ("I think that if I resort to a drug it's like taking a shortcut," she had proclaimed in July during a panel with doctors and dieticians), The queen of TV lounges has recently given up, at the same time deciding to come out of the closet.
From 107 kilos in weight, Oprah has dropped to 75, only three kilos above the goal she had set for herself: "The fact that there is a doctor-approved prescription to maintain a healthy weight and stay healthy gives a sense of relief, of redemption, as a gift, not something to hide," the presenter said in an interview with People. Ozempic, such as its sister drugs Wegovy and Mounjaro and the FDA-approved equivalent Zepbound recently approved specifically for obesity, have become so popular in the U.S. that they have caused distribution shortages to the detriment of patients who need to use them to contain their diabetes. There have therefore been many controversies that have accompanied, as well as in Italy, the success of these drugs, starting with the exorbitant cost and not always covered by mutual funds that make them inaccessible to the less well-off population and more commonly victims of diseases related to overweight.
Oprah, who will turn 70 in January, entered the debate with a straight leg by introducing a new element in the complex of motivations that drove Ozempic and company to success: "For 25 years, making fun of me because I was fat was a national pastime. I was blamed and shamed, and as a result I blamed myself," she said in the public confession with People: "Fluctuations in weight took up five decades of space in my brain but it was me who blamed myself, thinking I didn't have enough willpower." The July panel was the moment of the enlightenment: "I realized that I had a predisposition that no willpower could control, like a disease in the brain." And here, for her, is the meaning of being on a medicine to be taken potentially for life: Ozempic and the other drugs in the series cancel what in the US is called 'food noise', the irresistible desire for food at any time of the day or night.
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