Doctors Have One Weird Trick to Tell When Their Colleagues Are On Ozempic

Doctors have begun noticing a trend among their colleagues: they seem to be getting full before finishing dinner, likely thanks to GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic sweeping the medical profession.

In interviews with the New York Times, medical professionals who use the popular weight loss drugs — which replicate the stomach's feeling of fullness — have begun sniffing each other out.

Though there don't appear to be any surveys tracking how many physicians take the drugs or what doses they're on, Harvard Medical School cardiologist Michael Gibson said that he and his colleagues at heart disease meetings often now seem to hit a wall at the same time during meals.

"We will sit around at dinner and halfway through the meal, we will simultaneously push our plates away," Gibson described. "We look at each other and laugh and say, 'You, too?'"

University of North Carolina diabetes specialist John Buse said he's shed 25 percent of his body weight, which "totally changed [his] life" after years of struggling with his weight. Since starting on Wegovy, he's noticed that others in his field have lost a lot of weight — though he never asks people outright.

"There are people who have changed a lot," said Buse, who conceded that he consults with both Mounjaro-maker Eli Lilly and Ozempic manufacturer Novo Nordisk. He added he'd "bet dollars to doughnuts" that his fellow diabetes doctors are taking the popular weight-loss medications.

Although those Harvard and UNC doctors are open about their use of the drugs, which have surprised even experts with formidable health benefits in addition to the weight they help lose, others are "in the closet," as Gibson put it.

A Boston-based cardiologist who spoke to the NYT is one such closeted GLP-1 user. Speaking under condition of anonymity, the physician hasn't told many people that she's taking Ozempic after a fellow female heart doctor and GLP-1 user prescribed it to her. She's experienced the same mid-meal group fullness with colleagues as Gibson, though, which ends up outing her and her fellow doctors.

"Yes, you can definitely tell," the cardiologist said. "And when you go to dinners, you can definitely see. We eat, like, an eighth of our meal. I know what’s going on here."

Interestingly, none of the medical professionals interviewed by the newspaper discussed the side effects of GLP-1 drugs, which include mild to severe gastrointestinal distress, not to mention a popularity among those with eating disorders. To be fair, however, none of the people who spoke to the NYT were GI doctors or nutritionists.

Their lack of discussion about the drugs' physical downsides doesn't mean they're unaware of the inequities surrounding the expensive drugs, which can cost upwards of $1,300 without insurance coverage, or the privilege they have in accessing them.

Buse, the UNC diabetes specialist, said that after his insurance stopped covering Wegovy, he was lucky enough to get a six-month bulk prescription from a colleague in Europe during a conference on that continent and fill it for a fraction of the cost.

Gibson, meanwhile, said he's had little trouble getting various GLP-1s covered by his Harvard insurance as he experiments with which will help him lose the most weight.

One clear takeaway: it's interesting to see medical professionals — not to mention specifically cardiologists and diabetes specialists — starting to shed the idea that weight is purely an issue of willpower.

"A lot of people are of the mindset that it is shameful, that it is cheating to use a drug," the Harvard cardiologist said. For Gibson, however, it's the "greatest thing [he] ever did."

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