“Weight Loss Miracle Drug” Semaglutide Faces Misuse in China, Leading to Emergency Hospitalizations Due to Dehydration
To some extent, semaglutide offered a dignified way to lose weight. Song Zihao realized that as long as he didn’t tell anyone, no one would know he was using semaglutide. After using it, it didn’t affect his daily work and life at all. He saw some people mention diarrhea, but he didn’t experience it himself, “Nothing like the diarrhea from metformin.” Semaglutide smoothed out their feelings of shame with its potent efficacy.
Ten hours after injecting semaglutide, Du Xiaoyue felt as if her appetite had flown out of her body. She was delighted that she was no longer “controlled” by her body’s physiological reactions. In the following week, “I felt full after eating just a little bit and had no desire to eat.” After three injections, she lost about 15 pounds. Song Zihao also completed two injections last year, successfully losing 20 pounds before stopping the medication.
To some extent, they were relatively fortunate, avoiding the side effects of semaglutide—diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, constipation, injection site redness, and weakness are fairly common. Additionally, there are occasional cases of hypoglycemia, pancreatitis, diabetes, and retinopathy symptoms. Recently, the academic community has also noted that theoretically, semaglutide might increase the risk of medullary thyroid cancer—a type of malignant thyroid tumor, and might exacerbate the risk of depression.
Zhao Mingli often encounters people in his clinic who became ill after misusing semaglutide. One woman, who did not meet the criteria for using the drug, ordered it online and injected herself, resulting in severe diarrhea and dehydration. She was urgently admitted to the emergency department for treatment, in a critical condition. Without timely medical intervention, she could have gone into shock or experienced cardiac arrhythmias, endangering her life. Zhao Mingli remembered that she was tall and of normal weight, “but she kept saying that she was the fattest in her department.”
The Socially Shaped Middle Ground
Almost everyone around Du Xiaoyue has told her, “You are beautiful.” She has distinct facial features, deep eyes, and excels at makeup and dressing in the most flattering clothes for herself. No matter who she is photographed with, she is always the one who stands out the most in the picture.
But she doesn’t feel that way; she can always find faults: look, I have a pear-shaped body, I’ve been called “elephant legs” since I was young, compared to those with long, straight, and slim legs, mine are not good-looking; I have a lot of excess fat, a high body fat percentage, flabby arms, a thick back due to back fat, making me look bulky in clothes; my waist isn’t slim enough, I have a belly, and I have to suck in my stomach when standing…
It’s as if she’s using a magnifying glass to compare her body with the slender figures on the internet without an ounce of excess fat. She doesn’t consider herself fat, but also not slim enough, not ugly, but not exactly beautiful either, a “middle ground.”
Once, during an out-of-town performance, the company leader who was coordinating with Du Xiaoyue looked her up and down and commented, “You’re a bit overweight,” while another fixated on her legs. At that time, she weighed about 120 pounds, and her legs were a bit swollen. Hearing that remark, her first reaction wasn’t anger at being offended but panic, “I’m particularly sensitive to my own faults, I felt like it was my problem,” she decided to lose weight. During that period, she even dared not discuss a salary increase at work, “Appearance is also a part of a DJ’s competitiveness,” she felt undeserving.