Ozempic warning: Experts warn of side effects from weight loss drug
Experts are warning of the possible side effects of popular diabetes medications such as Ozempic and Mounjaro when used for weight loss.
Influencer Remi Bader is opening up about how her weight loss procedure led her into a “deep depression.”
The TikTok star appeared on Khloé Kardashian’s podcast “Khloé in Wonder Land.” In an interview posted Wednesday on X, Bader, 30, opened up about undergoing a bariatric surgery called SADI-S over a year ago due to her health issues and her struggle with opening up about the surgery due to privacy concerns.
Bader explained that she gained “80 to 100 pounds” in 2023, and suffered from knee pain. At one point, she was bedridden for a month due to back pain.
Bader said other weight loss methods didn’t work for her, including trying Ozempic twice and Manjaro once.
“I tried Ozempic before it was even a thing,” she said. “My doctor was just like, ‘Oh, you’re pre-diabetic, you should try this.’ I lost probably, like 10 pounds, but I was really sick and threw up a lot from it.”
She then began considering other methods. Though she was concerned with public perception, a doctor referred to her convinced her to have a single anastomosis duodenal-ileal bypass with sleeve gastrectomy, a newer procedure recommended for her situation that is supposed to be simpler than other weight loss surgeries such as gastric bypass.
Why Remi Bader calls weight loss surgery recovery ‘worst thing of my life’
Normally, the surgery is a brief recovery process, her doctor told her, but for Bader, it was the “worst thing of my life.”
“I couldn’t leave the hospital. I couldn’t swallow water. I was like, projectile vomiting,” she said. “But then that went on for six weeks.”
Things got so bad that Bader went to stay with her parents, she said. She describes the recovery process as a dark time: “I got (in) a very scary, deep depression. I did not want to live anymore, I would literally just stare at the wall all day and be sick. It was just horrifying.”
She also battled with feelings of guilt.
“I think at that time, I had a lot of regret. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve been this person that people looked up to online for this whole time,’” she added. “I was very open that I was struggling, but I was this person that was like, ‘But be confident in whatever you look like.’”
Now, she said she’s in a much better mindset and is getting to a place where she loves herself internally and externally.
The model emphasized that people with bigger body types could be healthy, and admitted that she was “so jealous” of her friends who were confident in their bodies. But, she said, “My journey was different.”
“I was in pain. I was struggling with health, and this is what I felt I needed to do,” she said.
What is SADI-S?
SADI-S is a bariatric, or weight loss, surgery combining two weight loss procedures: a sleeve gastrectomy and a duodenal switch, according to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. For the sleeve gastrectomy, a doctor removes nearly 80% of the stomach into a smaller, tube-shaped stomach. For the duodenal switch, the first part of the small intestine is divided just below the stomach, and a section of the intestine is rerouted and connected to the stomach.
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