Overall, thinness is the beauty standard for women in China, and some are even willing to demonstrate it and pursue it to the detriment of their health, Pan Wang, a senior lecturer in Chinese and Asian studies at Australias University of New South Wales, told Al Jazeera
A 2023 study published in The Lancet observed that patients taking semaglutide (Ozempics active ingredient) lost an average of 15% of their body weight compared to just 2% in those using a placebo
Those results were striking: starting a GLP-1 treatment was linked to a 31 percent reduction in substance-use-disorder-related emergency department visits, a 26 percent decline in related hospital admissions, a 39 percent decrease in overdoses and a 25 percent reduction in suicidal ideation or attempts
Several indirect factors contribute significantly
Treat poorly documented capsules as the bigger near-term risk, not the compound itself
It's also worth noting that when antidepressants don't seem to work, it's rarely a simple fix
