Latest news with #JohnKane
Irish Independent
10-07-2025
- Health
- Irish Independent
Real Health: What to expect when taking Ozempic?
John Kane, who used weight loss drug liraglutide better known as Ozempic or Wegovy to go from 19 stone to just under 14 stone, joins me on this week's episode of The Real Health podcast. I spoke to John first about the effect weight loss drugs have on the appetite. He told me, 'On the meds and you just weren't hungry. None of that (food) really appealed to me. What appealed to me was the benefits and the benefits were, I ate far less. I mean, my portions were way down (smaller).' One element of weight loss drugs that I wanted to discuss was the fact that users tend to be on the medication for life. John Kane explained, 'I was asked if I would be on this for life. I said yes. It's no contest, my quality of life is so much better on the medication.' You can listen to the full episode here or wherever you get your podcasts.
Daily Mail
30-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
I lost five stone on a weight loss jab...but there's an alarming truth about what happens when you stop
A man who shed five stone in a year thanks to a skinny jab has told of how he fears he will have to be on the drug for life—after he regained half the weight in months when he tried to stop the medication. John Kane, 76, from Dublin, weighed nearly 19 stone and plummeted to under 14 within a year of taking liraglutide in 2016. Liraglutide works in a similar way to semaglutide—the generic name for Ozempic—triggering the release of the hormone GLP-1 that makes us feel full. The jabs, which he obtained privately, initially vastly improved Mr Kane's life. The medication helped get his type 2 diabetes into remission, and enjoy active social excursions that he couldn't before, including hikes in Spain. Despite the success, he decided to stop the injections in 2018 due to the eye-watering £232 a month cost. Speaking to the Irish Independent, he said his raging appetite returned with a vengeance almost immediately. 'I had really put a lot of effort into the last two years, and was determined not to put back on the weight,' he said. 'But whether I liked it or not, even watching my food, the weight just started to creep back up.' Within six months, Mr Kane had regained half the weight he'd lost. The major setback caused him to 'hit the rocks, mentally'. 'It was really affecting me,' he said. 'I'm not one to be depressed, but it really bit into me.' After six months without the medicine, Mr Kane's wife suggested he 'bite the bullet' and pay for more injections, to stop the decline of his health. When semaglitude, better known as Ozempic, was rolled out at a cheaper cost of £118, it became a more affordable option. He has now been on taking the medication for nearly eight years—a maintenance dose of 1mg a week. He has no plans to stop again and said if he were to ever come off he'd become a 'very sad, dejected, depressed person.' Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic have burst onto the scene in recent years, hailed as a potential fix for the UK's spiraling obesity crisis. Semaglutide mimics glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), a naturally occurring hormone released in the small intestine when you eat. It tells your brain you're full and slows digestion. After years of rigorous scientific trials, semaglutide has been chemically modified to last far longer than the body's own, short-lived supply of GLP-1. As a result, it keeps people feeling fuller for longer. US researchers at Cornell University in New York found those on the injections typically lost lost around 13.7 per cent of their body weight, on average, over a 72-week period. But a study in the journal Epic Research found that 44 per cent of people who lost at least five pounds using semaglutide and then stopped the drug regained at least 25 per cent of their lost weight within a year. Dr Emma Cunningham, an aesthetics expert who treats patients suffering cosmetic complications of Ozempic, said some choose to go on a maintenance dose and wean off the drug that way. 'You can't be solely reliant on the drug,' she said. 'You need to be using this as an opportunity to address your lifestyle. Our most successful patients will have really gotten on board with healthy eating and exercise.' She said the jabs help people stay motivated to make a change to a healthy lifestyle because they are seeing rapid weight loss. It's those who become completely reliant on the drug, and fail to make lifestyle changes, who end up putting the weight back on, Dr Cuningham said. Scientists at Oxford University discovered the effects of GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy are short-lived if patients do not maintain a healthy lifestyle afterwards. Even those taking newer, more powerful jabs drugs like Mounjaro put their weight back on once treatment was removed.
Belfast Telegraph
27-05-2025
- Health
- Belfast Telegraph
Life after Ozempic: ‘Half the weight I'd lost, I put back on over six months'
The possibility of weight regain is just one variable that people on medications like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro need to consider if they decide to stop John Kane always had an easy solution to being overweight: buy bigger suits. And then, came one fateful afternoon. 'I remember sitting on the couch, and I dropped something and I went, 'yeah, I'll leave that',' the 76-year-old from Killiney, Co Dublin recalls. It reminded him of his mother, who had mobility issues in her final years. 'She too would drop something, and would often just have to leave it there.' Up until that point, nine years ago, Kane's climb to just under 19 stone had been slow yet inexorable. 'I used to have a very active life and played sports in my 30s, but then I had started to entertain people [for work], so I used to have lunch with somebody, then take someone else out at night,' says Kane, who worked in sales and marketing. 'I didn't think about it too much but then someone said to me, 'you can't come on this walk with us. You just won't be quick enough'. Socially, you start to lose out.'
Irish Independent
27-05-2025
- Health
- Irish Independent
Life after Ozempic: ‘Half the weight I'd lost, I put back on over six months'
The possibility of weight regain is just one variable that people on medications like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro need to consider if they decide to stop John Kane always had an easy solution to being overweight: buy bigger suits. And then, came one fateful afternoon. 'I remember sitting on the couch, and I dropped something and I went, 'yeah, I'll leave that',' the 76-year-old from Killiney, Co Dublin recalls. It reminded him of his mother, who had mobility issues in her final years. 'She too would drop something, and would often just have to leave it there.' Up until that point, nine years ago, Kane's climb to just under 19 stone had been slow yet inexorable. 'I used to have a very active life and played sports in my 30s, but then I had started to entertain people [for work], so I used to have lunch with somebody, then take someone else out at night,' says Kane, who worked in sales and marketing. 'I didn't think about it too much but then someone said to me, 'you can't come on this walk with us. You just won't be quick enough'. Socially, you start to lose out.'
Irish Independent
27-05-2025
- Health
- Irish Independent
Life after Ozempic: ‘Half the weight I'd lost, I put back on over six months'
The possibility of weight regain is just one variable that people on medications like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro need to consider if they decide to stop John Kane always had an easy solution to being overweight: buy bigger suits. And then, came one fateful afternoon. 'I remember sitting on the couch, and I dropped something and I went, 'yeah, I'll leave that',' the 76-year-old from Killiney, Co Dublin recalls. It reminded him of his mother, who had mobility issues in her final years. 'She too would drop something, and would often just have to leave it there.' Up until that point, nine years ago, Kane's climb to just under 19 stone had been slow yet inexorable. 'I used to have a very active life and played sports in my 30s, but then I had started to entertain people [for work], so I used to have lunch with somebody, then take someone else out at night,' says Kane, who worked in sales and marketing. 'I didn't think about it too much but then someone said to me, 'you can't come on this walk with us. You just won't be quick enough'. Socially, you start to lose out.'
