A Florida woman who has been taking a weight-loss shot for nearly a decade is urging Americans to stop taking these drugs solely for the sake of weight loss.
Danielle Payton, 33, is considered one of the longest-serving patients on a GLP-1 agonist, first approved in 2010.
These drugs are at the center of concerns about long-term safety risks, as they are already associated with severe vomiting and suicidal ideation.
Ms Payton – a publicist – started the once-daily injection of Victoza – a precursor to Ozempic and Wegovy – in 2014 to prevent type 2 diabetes.
She weighed 209 pounds at the time and was prediabetic. Her doctor told her that if she didn’t lose weight, she would have to add diabetes to her long list of chronic illnesses.
Danielle Payton, 33, of Florida, started taking Victoza in 2014 for prediabetes. At the time, she weighed 209 pounds. Although she didn’t take it to lose weight, she lost an estimated 80 pounds
Ms. Payton now fluctuates between 120 and 130 pounds, and she no longer has most of the physical side effects she experienced to begin with
Ms. Payton originally went to her doctor for a breast reduction. She was then a size 38F.
“(The doctor) wouldn’t put me on the operating table and he told me to lose weight,” Ms Payton told DailyMail.com.
She had to lose up to 165 pounds before the doctor would perform the surgery.
Doctors said taking the medication could help her lose some weight, even though the drug is not approved for weight loss.
“I never imagined losing so much weight because of an injection that ended up not being about weight loss,” Ms Payton said.
“I got an injection and was told, ‘This is going to prevent you from getting diabetes. The side effect is you might lose some weight.’”
Now, nine years later, Mrs. Payton weighs only 120 to 130 pounds.
“I wasn’t told, and I didn’t even think about it, that I could lose between 80 and 90 pounds. Wait a minute,” she said.
Victoza was approved in 2010 by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of type 2 diabetes in adults.
Similar to the popular Ozempic and Wegovy injections, the drug binds to the GLP-1 receptor, which triggers hormones in the brain to slow down digestion and keep the stomach full. This reduces cravings and the risk of overeating.
Unlike these, which use the active ingredient semaglutide, Victoza uses liraglutide. Although the drugs are largely similar, some studies suggest that semaglutide is more effective for weight loss.
a study published last year in JAMAfound, for example, that participants who took semaglutide had a 16 percent weight change compared to liraglutide participants who saw a 6.4 percent difference.
However, there are few long-term data on GLP-1 agonists. And neither Ozempic nor Victoza are FDA-approved for weight loss.
Despite its rise in the US, there are widespread fears about Ozempic being associated with harmful side effects such as severe vomiting and suicidal thoughts.
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, manufacturers of Ozempic and sister drug Wegovy, have also come under fire in a lawsuit over claims the drugs cause gastroparesis, or stomach paralysis.
On Victoza, Ms. Payton’s weight loss was gradual.
“It won’t come off right away. You start seeing results after a few months,” she said. “It really took me seven months to go from 209 to 175.”
She estimates it took about seven years in total to get to her current weight.
Victoza is a once-daily injection approved for type 2 diabetes. Like Ozempic, it is not approved for weight loss
Mrs. Payton believes she will have to stay on Victoza for the rest of her life to avoid developing diabetes. “(Victoza) is part of my daily routine, and my daily routine keeps me from getting sicker and sicker, so as bad as it is, it’s also what keeps me going,” she said
Nor did she intentionally change her diet. However, she found herself choosing odd combinations. “Your taste buds change,” Mrs. Payton said.
“When I first got the shot, I thought I was a pregnant, hormonal woman. All I wanted was pickles, green juices and the strangest things I’d never craved before in my life.”
“It’s not that I’ve changed my diet per se… it’s that recording actually changes how you look at food, what food becomes appealing to you, at least in my experience.”
“It’s a mind game.”
Victoza also reduced Ms. Payton’s appetite, which is a common side effect.
When she first started taking it, she went to the grocery store and stocked up on a refrigerator full of healthy foods.
But “I’d look at it and say, “None of this looks appetizing.” I couldn’t eat it anymore.’
She also experienced constipation and bouts of nausea and vomiting, which have since subsided.
Mrs. Payton has since suppressed the weird cravings, but they left her with more lasting habits.
Instead of giving in to temptation and snacking too much, she now only eats when she’s hungry.
“The shots actually taught me to do that,” she said.
However, Victoza has had a lasting impact on her social life and mental health.
Friends have shamed her at group dinners for not being hungry, even when those friends started taking Victoza and similar drugs for weight loss instead of diabetes.
“There’s a lot of embarrassment involved in taking the picture,” said Ms. Payton.
Losing so much weight has led to judgment.
“It’s a huge difference to your friends,” she said.
“Unfortunately, friendships have been lost from taking these kinds of drugs. People are like, “You’re too thin.” And I’m like, “You don’t get it. This isn’t a choice.”‘
Doctors have told Ms. Payton that she will probably have to take Victoza for the rest of her life to avoid developing diabetes.
She takes about a dozen other medications each day for multiple chronic illnesses and said it’s worth staying on Victoza to avoid diabetes.
“If I don’t have to get diabetes and have to take multiple other medications, that’s a win for me,” she said.
“(Victoza) is part of my daily routine, and my daily routine keeps me from getting sicker and sicker, so as bad as it is, it’s also what keeps me going.”
Staying on the medication for a long time was difficult because Victoza, like Ozempic and Wegovy, was hit with shortages as it grew in popularity.
Last December, she was off work for several months, which brought her back 15 pounds.
“I was flipping out. I was like, “You guys don’t need it. You’re just doing this to get thin, and I’m doing this so I don’t get diabetes,” she said.
“It’s a mean, mean game.”
Despite her mental health and social issues, Ms. Payton still considers the medication a healthy option for prediabetics and diabetics.
“Just don’t listen to the chatter in the background and do it for yourself so that you can live a healthy life in the future…so you’re not stuck with diabetes,” she said.
However, she encourages those taking diabetes shots for weight loss to look for other options.
“Really keep in mind that people really need this drug and there are other ways for those people to lose weight,” she said.
“Please stop taking the stock that is left in this country, because it is dwindling by the day. And we don’t know if we can get the next script.’