Catherine Deneuve already said it back in the 60s: “At a certain age, you have to choose between your face or your butt.”
Half a century later, if we look at the latest red carpets, it is easy to conclude that Hollywood has chosen the latter.
At the Oscars this March, host Jimmy Kimmel made this the
slap
of the night: “Everyone looks great.
When I look around this room, I can't help but wonder, 'Will Ozempic be right for me?'”
The comedian was referring to the furor over semaglutide, that drug designed to treat type 2 diabetes or obesity that should be prescribed by a doctor and that, however, many people (not just celebrities) are using to benefit from its side effect. most famous: loss of appetite and a consequent express weight loss.
The media coverage of the red carpet reflected the issue in all types of publications: “Which Oscars 2024 stars could or could not use Ozempic to lose weight for the biggest night in Hollywood?”
headlined
The New York Post
pointing directly to America Ferrera, Brendan Fraser, Emily Blunt or Jesse Plemons among others, and the
Financial Times
wrote about the dangers of “Living in an Ozempic world.”
The topic was also widely discussed on social networks, with countless users tweeting in the thread, and went around the world: “Ozempic brings a different dimension to the Oscars red carpet this year,” published
The Sydney Morning Herald
.
Paris Match
also echoed the “pilule magique” of the stars to lose weight.
“Forget Chanel, Dior or Prada: this year, the most prominent designers on the red carpet are Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, whose injectable weight loss drugs are the new haute couture,” published the famous newsletter on the cultural impact of Hollywood
The Ankler
.
Days before the gala, Eli Lilly, which actually manufactures two drugs - Zepbound for obesity and Mounjaro for diabetes - that compete with Novo Nordisk's Ozempic published an advertisement advancing the matter: “Some people have been using drugs that were never intended for them to [fit into] a smaller dress or tuxedo, for a big night, for vanity.
But that's not the goal: people whose health is affected by obesity are the reason we work with these drugs.
“It matters who receives them.”
But Hollywood has chosen express butt and in doing so, as in Deneuve's phrase, it faces something that everyone knows: when we lose weight too quickly, we lose the youth of our face.
Ozempic has its best showcase on the red carpets, but in reality it is a global phenomenon and business is going like a shot: sales figures confirm that Novo Nordisk's operating profits have increased 58 percent since 2017, the year it introduced Ozempic.
And not only is it growing exponentially among people with no history of diabetes, but it's increasingly popular among younger demographics: according to Komodo Health, a company that tracks healthcare data from 330 million U.S. patient records, including all non-diabetic patients. Of those who have been prescribed Ozempic or Mounjaro, almost 40 percent are between 25 and 44 years old.
As explained by Novo Nordisk, the pharmaceutical company that created Ozempic, this is “an injectable solution in a pre-filled pen.”
It contains the active ingredient semaglutide, and “helps your body to lower blood sugar only when blood sugar is too high and can help prevent heart disease.
Ozempic is used to treat adults (18 years of age and older) with type 2 diabetes, when diet and exercise are not enough semaglutide.”
For diabetics, it reduces blood sugar levels.
But it also controls the appetite, so when you start pricking it the kilos begin to disappear.
That is why many people who are not diabetic and who are not necessarily obese are using it as a weight loss method.
In Spain, Social Security finances prescription medication in very specific cases with a price of four doses for 4.24 euros, which is causing many to opt for private healthcare, despite the price involved: 130 euros each. dose.
And this is not only changing the figure of many people, but also their face, the way we approach beauty and the future of aesthetic medicine.
Sagging and sagging, the Ozempic face
The effect most sought after by those who use semaglutide for aesthetic purposes is loss of appetite: Ozempic gives you the feeling of always being full, so snacking disappears and food portions become smaller.
However, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and constipation soon also appear.
After a few months, the “Ozempic face” arrives, or what is the same, a prematurely aged face.
In an interesting article on cosmetic surgery trends of 2024, the American magazine
Allure
analyzes how the “Ozempic face” is changing the plastic surgery procedures that patients request and the way in which doctors perform them and ensures that patients who have never They would have undergone a
facial lift
or are seriously considering that many more twenty-somethings are demanding procedures designed for people over 50 because they present symptoms of sagging, sagging and loss of facial volumes.
We spoke with five doctors about how Ozempic is changing, also in Spain, the faces of many people and their way of approaching beauty.
In reality, Ozempic has only given an attractive name to what happens after sudden weight loss.
“It is a term that has been used in several articles to refer to the facial skeletonization that occurs after a significant weight loss, of at least 8 or 10 kilos,” explains Dr.
aesthetic doctor Mar Mira, co-director of the Mira+Cueto Clinic in Madrid.
As he explains, there are different facial structures in the face, among which are deep and superficial fatty packages, which reduce their size with overall weight loss, not only in the case of weight loss related to the use of drugs, but when you lose weight in general.
“It is always more evident in the case of thin basic faces that have a significant weight loss, since, in overweight or obese patients, weight loss does not usually result in significant facial skeletonization.
However, shadows can be accentuated at the level of the cheek due to reabsorption of the fat packets at this level, or facial sagging in the jowls and jawline can be accentuated due to the loss of the temporal and preauricular fat packets, which are usually the first to be reabsorbed. with the aging process.
This doctor says that patients who come to her office with this concern see that their appearance “begins to look tired or that their sagging is accentuated.”
“The problem is not losing weight: it is doing it expressly”
The name refers to the impact of weight loss on the face.
As Dr. Celia Gonzalo, a specialist in Endocrinology and Nutrition at Neolife Medical Group, explains to
S Moda
, “a sudden and significant decrease in facial fat can accentuate expression lines, cheekbones and also cause sagging in the cheeks. .
In short, in some cases, it can give a more aged appearance.”
"The loss of volumes in the face is usually one of the signs of aging since, as we get older, there is a lower capacity for cell regeneration, the musculoskeletal system changes, muscle mass and bone density are reduced, and there is a lower capacity to generate collagen and elastin, which causes changes in our skin, which loses smoothness and, consequently, the holding capacity of the internal tissues, as well as the appearance of wrinkles," adds Dr. Gema Pérez Sevilla, maxillofacial surgeon and expert in facial aesthetic medicine, with her own clinic in Madrid.
“A large weight loss affects the entire body, including the face, and of course it affects the volume of the double chin, cheeks, and others.”
This is what Deneuve was referring to when he talked about choosing: when we lose too much volume in the body, ergo also in the face, we age our appearance.
“
Indeed, with marked volumetric deficits we go from a face with a youthful and healthy appearance to a skeletonized face.
In the skeletonized face, the facial fat (which makes up the padding of the face) has atrophied and the bony ridges are accentuated.
This conveys an appearance of fatigue due to sagging of the cheek at the anterior level, sometimes of sadness, the temples look sunken and also favors the progression of sagging and the rotation of facial structures that provide a greater degree of sagging.
All of this makes us look older and we look less favored,” says Dr. Mar Mira.
After a certain age, it has this effect: “Losing weight quickly and at advanced ages prevents the dermis from recovering from the new physical conditions.
It is very important to lose fat healthily and accompany it with a healthy diet, exercises, and put yourself in the hands of a professional,” recommends Dr. Irene Cruz, a surgeon specializing in advanced Aesthetic Medicine and Nutrition, and a member of the medical team at the De Benito Institute with offices. in Madrid and Barcelona.
Weight fluctuations are a recurring issue for many aesthetic medicine patients seeking to rejuvenate their appearance.
“The loss of volume means there is less support and therefore, the adjacent structures sag more intensely.
All of this leads to accelerated aging due to the folds and wrinkles that are caused and the loss of luminosity in the face.
In this regard, we do get asked for treatments by young people who have suffered this problem at younger ages and who under normal conditions would have started 10 or 15 years later," says Dr. Moisés Amselem, an aesthetic doctor specializing in facial rejuvenation with his own clinic. in Madrid.