Ozempic May Not Be The Most Effective Health Tool
Five Ways to Match Ozempic without Medication
UPDATED: July 22nd, 2025
Welcome to the Healthy Aging Newsletter, a free publication where I translate trustworthy medical research into simple habits so my clients can stay healthy and avoid common chronic conditions. I’m Dr. Ashori, a family medicine doctor turned health coach.
The blockbuster drug Ozempic or its many progenitors to come aren’t about to be affordable. As its use increases we hear about as many unknown positive as negative side effect reports. All this confusion and hype for a drug that doesn’t even have the best compliance rate. Maybe there is a way to achieve the same results without Ozempic.
The Main Reason We Prescribe Ozempic
If the only thing you’re worried about is your belly or dress size, prescription medications should be the absolute last resort.
Medications like Ozempic help suppress the appetite which helps with weight loss and helps fix insulin, blood sugar problems, sleep apnea, arthritis, and blood pressure.
The end goal should always be better health, which is either living better with less suffering or living healthier, longer. So, you’d take Ozempic if you could have fewer chronic diseases that would cut your life expectancy or help you avoid taking a whole lot of other medications that might cause other problems.
A medication only ‘works’ when it achieves the actual health effect we’re after. Remember this for the rest of this article.
Ozempic’s Limited Reach
Most who start medications like Ozempic stop it. We call this ‘compliance’ in clinical medicine because some medications are just hard to tolerate, too expensive, or interfere with other medications we take. Ozempic has turned out to be one of the least compliant medications in this regard - few can tolerate its side effects long-term.
Though it helps with weight loss, in the real world (not just highly massaged research studies) Ozempic doesn’t lower the risk of developing diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, stroke, or dementia. Remember, a medication ‘working’ means that it has actual long-term health benefits. Ignoring the short-term gains, Ozempic can’t hold a candle to other interventions that we know are far more effective at lowering the risk of the major diseases in modern society.
Where medications like Ozempic shine is when it’s prescribe to someone who is 5’5” and weighs 420 lbs or a type 2 diabetes with severe insulin resistance and very high amounts of visceral fat. These are the far, far minority of patients we deal with.
Is a Medication Aligned With Your Health Goals?
In my practice, I explore what health means to each patient. Healthy Aging in your 30s and 40s requires that you have a goal or direction in mind. Here are some sample health goals my patients have shared with me:
Stay free from cancer
Be as functional in my 40s as in my 70s
Hike and camp for life
Keep my mind sharp to run my company into my 90s
Avoid diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol
Enjoy life without pills or surgeries
It’s almost never the excess weight my patients worry about, once we dive deep into their fear and health priorities; it’s the diseases they associate with being overweight.
1. Appetite is Driven By Stress
Stress, anxiety, worry and poor sleep are the biggest drivers for what we crave daily. It’s hard to pass on chips, ice cream, beer, or pizza when your mind is desperately craving the calm that comes with those foods.
Taking a few responsibilities off your plate, trying to achieve a little less success in life, and doubling down on doing things you love are naturally calming.
2. Recruit More Muscles
Teenagers are muscle bound because their hormones are through the roof. As we get older our best weapon is hiding immediately under the skin, minus the hormones to fuel them. A walk, a few pull ups, pushups, crunches, yoga, swimming, frisbee throwing, or tennis will wake up these muscles; they really don’t need much.
For every repetition of muscle flexion and relaxation you’re driving sugar out of your bloodstream, adding more mitochondria to the body, and opening up your blood vessels for more circulation and oxygenation.
3. Calorie Shifting is Better Than Restricting
Diets fail in the long run because they feel unnatural and are hard to stick to. But each of us can make minor adjustments without compromising our joy of eating and living. If most of your calories come from more processed carbs, a better quality bread, carbonated water instead of soda, fruits instead of ice cream, etc. are often enough to get lasting positive effects on the cardiovascular system.
4. A Consistent Eating Window
If you let me spend and eat whenever, I’ll be deliciously round and broke, it’s human nature or at least my nature. So, I set savings goals and spending goals. The same way, I don’t eat after 8 pm unless I missed dinner, in which case it’ll snack on something light. A healthy feeding window is about 3 times per day from 6-9 for breakfast, 1-3 for lunch, and 5-7 for dinner. That’s almost 17 hours of a fasting window without any snacking or eating, except for a black coffee or tea or water.
Don’t aim for perfection, but habits tend to become habits when you do them consistently. It’s freeing to not worry about your next meal or snack until the alarm goes off.
5. Share Your Journey
Being vulnerable with yourself and loved ones means being honest about what you’re doing or not doing and what you really want to achieve. Our greatest support are the people we love around us. They can help if you invite them and share with them your hurdles, headaches, setbacks, and your journey. It won’t always be smooth but you will feel supported most of the time and grow a stronger bond.
Closing Thoughts
When your health is in imminent danger, almost any medication with any side effect may lower your risk enough to turn things around. But when it’s about temporary weight loss or an aesthetic goal, you might miss the big picture.
Sustained energy, lower disease risk, and the freedom to pursue your passions are the real goals. If a prescription medications can’t help you achieve that then it’s simply a crutch that will cause more harm than good.