Botched and Real Housewives of Orange County star Terry Dubrow has candidly revealed he used Ozempic but has now quit taking the weight loss drug. The 65-year-old plastic surgeon revealed the reason he stopped taking the weight loss drug while promoting season eight of Botched with Paul Nassif. Even though he was a ‘huge fan’ of the blockbuster medication meant for those with type 2 diabetes, he told Page Six on Friday that he experienced ‘some side effects’.

Ultimately, the reality TV star — who looked unrecognizable after he debuted a new hairdo — said he quit because he wanted to get his appetite back and enjoy food again. ‘[Ozempic] really took all the joy of eating away,’ he explained. The husband of RHOC star Heather Dubrow added that he did not feel like it was worth it for him as he only wanted to lose a little bit of weight.

‘I’ve tried it. I thought it was amazing,’ he said. ‘I didn’t have that much weight to lose. But I wanted to try it because so many of my patients were on it and I wanted to see what it was like when you’re not diabetic and you only have 10 to 15 pounds to lose,’ he continued.

However, he noted that the accelerated weight loss came with ‘low-grade nausea’ combined with disinterest in food for him. On his decision to quit, he recalled: ‘I thought, “You know what, I kind of want to get my appetite back. The holidays are coming. I want to enjoy myself.”‘

He explained that he wanted to ‘go on a food vacation’, adding: ‘I want to be able to eat again.’ He also stressed that people taking Ozempic cannot consume alcohol. 

‘You can’t drink on it,’ he explained. ‘You’ve got to be really careful with alcohol because people are being put in the hospital with pancreatitis.’ Despite his all, Dubrow insists Ozempic is ‘amazing’. ‘I think it’s a miracle,’ he said. ‘The biggest breakthrough in medical history.’

Nassif, Dubrow’s co-star on Botched, added that he believes that Ozempic could possibly lead to ‘living longer’. One thing he is certain of, however, is that they are seeing an increase of plastic surgery patients with concerns about sagging skin due to rapid weight loss. 

‘Your skin does not accommodate, so it hangs,’ he said, adding that people using the drug tend to have something he called ‘Ozempic body and face’. 

‘Then you lose muscle, you’re not taking enough protein and then they’ve got a lot of hanging skin,’ he said. To combat this, Dubrow drew on his own experiences in his practice and advised people taking Ozempic to exercise and increase their protein intake.

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