{"id":948610,"date":"2026-05-09T16:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T16:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/948610\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T16:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T16:00:15","slug":"scientist-celebrates-life-changing-weight-loss-as-generic-ozempic-heads-to-sask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/948610\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientist celebrates life-changing weight loss as generic Ozempic heads to Sask."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), uses her social media presence to advocate for the weight loss drug she credits with changing her life.<\/p>\n

“I’m a corona virologist and I study emerging coronaviruses and viruses that cause pandemics. So I was constantly working. I was under a ton of stress, and I gained quite a lot of weight,” Rasmussen said.<\/p>\n

She was doing all the right things to lose weight, like watching what she ate and exercising regularly, but nothing seemed to work, so she decided to talk to her doctor about her options.<\/p>\n

That’s when Ozempic was brought up. Rasmussen said she had thought about it previously but didn’t know much about it, so she decided to give it a shot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I ended up losing 80 pounds, and it completely transformed my life,” she told CBC’s Blue Sky.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Sask. scientist who lost 80 lbs. on Ozempic applauds access to generics:<\/strong>\"\"<\/p>\n

Sask. scientist who lost 80 lbs. on Ozempic applauds access to generics<\/p>\n

Angela Rasmussen, a world-renowned virologist at the University of Saskatchewan, endured a lot of body-shaming when she spoke publicly during the pandemic. She talks with CBC\u2019s Leisha Grebinski about her life-changing experience on Ozempic, and her expectations for generic versions.<\/p>\n

Cierra Giesbrecht, who founded The Curvy Club YXE, a body-positive group in Saskatoon with some members in Regina, sees it in a different light.<\/p>\n

“I feel like people are hyped for [the generic version of the drug],” she said. They’re like, ‘Yeah, you should do that,’ because we’ve been so ingrained to make our bodies smaller. That makes perfect sense that you would want to try these drugs.”<\/p>\n

Losing weight does not always fix how people feel about their bodies, Giesbrech said. Many still need internal work on the way they perceive themselves, not just a change of physical appearance.<\/p>\n

“I respect every single person, whether they’re living in a larger body or a thinner body, because truly, bodies change throughout so many different pieces. So you don’t deserve any more respect being in a thinner body or a larger body, [or] vice versa,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ARasmussen from a 2022 U Sask article (David Stobbe)<\/p>\n

Rasmussen is open about the side effects she endured when her dose was increased, including severe nausea.<\/p>\n

“That did provide a lot of challenges, just because if you’re in a professional situation and suddenly you’re overcome with nausea, you know that that’s not always a very desirable position to be in,” she said.<\/p>\n

She’s not bothered by the prospect of taking it for the rest of her life in order to maintain her lower weight.<\/p>\n

“This drug was originally developed for people with type 2 diabetes who do have to take it for the rest of their lives, and I know that it’s safe for them to take it for the rest of their lives,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I have other drugs that I will have to take for the rest of my life. I’m hypothyroid, like many other people, with no explanation, and so I will have to take thyroid hormone for the rest of my life. It doesn’t really bother me because that’s just a normal feature of taking medication.”<\/p>\n

Rasmussen welcomes the release of new generic versions of the drug and said every person’s journey with weight loss drugs will be different.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I just think that it’s really important for people to do with their own health, you know, what is going to make them the healthiest,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"AAngela Rasmussen is a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) at the University of Saskatchewan. She lost 80 pounds using Ozempic. (Angela Rasmussen\/Twitter)<\/p>\n

Dr. Angie Braewald, a medical co-director with the Women’s Midlife Health Program in Saskatoon, said new weight-loss options are a positive medical development.<\/p>\n

Similar medications have been around for several years, but Ozempic and the generic brands seem to be working better, she said.<\/p>\n

“We know that obesity itself has risk factors for our cardiovascular health, for our brain as we age, for our heart as we age, for our liver. It also has risks to our metabolic functions, say for diabetes,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It has risks for many people for mental health as well. So there’s lots of different aspects of health that can be optimized by treating obesity or weight management if it’s needed.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4315],"tags":[105,4326,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-948610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-medication","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116545455966047033","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}