Vanessa Etienne is an Emerging Content Writer-Reporter for PEOPLE.
Jackie Goldschneider is criticizing the misuse of the type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic.
On Wednesday, the Real Housewives of New Jersey star — who has been vocal about her recovery from a 18-year eating disorder — commented on a recent PEOPLE article about Ozempic, an FDA-approved prescription medication for people with type 2 diabetes. It’s one of the brand names for semaglutide, which works in the brain to impact satiety.
Taken once a week by injection in the thigh, stomach or arm, the medications have recently been trending on social media and some people have used it for weight loss, even though they don't have diabetes or clinical obesity.
Goldschneider, 46, wrote that Ozempic was "an eating disorder in a needle."
Real Housewives of Orange County star Tamra Judge quickly responded to her comment adding, “That’s what I said! I can’t believe anyone would put this in their body for anything other than diabetes. It’s not a forever thing and when these girls stop they will go into depression or severe eating disorder!”
Goldschneider said the current trend is "sad and sickening" and she "can't imagine what will happen if people need to suddenly stop."
Content creator and model Remi Bader recently shared her own experience with Ozempic after her doctor prescribed her the medication in 2020 because she was pre-diabetic, insulin resistant and gaining weight.
However, Bader said on an episode of the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast that it wasn’t the best treatment for her as it eventually worsened her binge eating, which she’s struggled with for years. She explained that although she was able to lose weight from the medication, when she stopped taking it her binge eating immediately returned.
"They said I need this. And I had a lot of mixed feelings," she said of being prescribed Ozempic. "A few months later I went off it and got into the bad binging."
"I saw a doctor and they were like, it's 100% because I went on Ozempic," Bader continued. "It was making me think I wasn't hungry for so long, I lost some weight. I didn't wanna be obsessed with being on it long term. I was like, I bet the second I got off I'm gonna get starving again. I did, and my binging got so much worse. So then I kind of blamed Ozempic."
Bader added that she "gained double the weight back" after stopping the medication and she thinks it really should just be used for those with diabetes.
Ania Jastreboff, M.D., PhD., an obesity medicine physician scientist at Yale University, tells PEOPLE that for those who use drugs like Ozempic — or its counterpart Wegovy, which is prescribed for clinical obesity — they have to continue taking the medications if they want to maintain the weight loss because diabetes and obesity are chronic conditions.
Some doctors have expressed frustration that Ozempic and Wegovy aren’t getting to people who need them, and the FDA has listed a shortage for both drugs.
"The Hollywood trend is concerning," Dr. Caroline Apovian, co-director of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, recently told PEOPLE. "We're not talking about stars who need to lose 10 pounds. We're talking about people who are dying of obesity, are going to die of obesity."
"You're taking away from patients with diabetes," she continued. "We have lifesaving drugs… and the United States public that really needs these drugs can't get them."
If you or someone you know is battling an eating disorder, please contact the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) at 1-800-931-2237 or go to NationalEatingDisorders.org.
