On a recent flight, I reached into my bag, took out my insulin pen and prepared to inject before a meal. The passenger sitting beside me glanced over and asked a simple question: “Is that one of those weight loss injections?”
It was an innocent assumption. Yet the question stayed with me long after the plane landed.
For more than three decades, I have lived with Type 1 diabetes. Insulin is not optional for me. It is not a wellness trend, a lifestyle choice or a shortcut to a health goal. It is the reason I am alive. Yet in that brief exchange, I was reminded of how dramatically public conversations about medicine have changed. Today, when many people see an injection pen, their minds often jump straight to Ozempic, Wegovy and the growing family of GLP-1 medications that have become some of the most talked-about drugs in the world. The assumption is understandable. These medicines dominate headlines, social media feeds and celebrity interviews in a way that few other treatments ever have.
That shift is not really a story about pharmaceuticals. It is a story about culture.
For most of human history, medicines were largely invisible to the public. Doctors prescribed them, patients took them and discussions about them remained within clinics, hospitals and research journals. Today, medicines have entered the cultural mainstream. They appear in celebrity interviews, social media posts, podcasts and dinner table conversations. They are debated not only by healthcare professionals but by influencers, journalists, politicians and investors.
In many respects, this is a positive development. Greater awareness can reduce stigma and encourage people to seek treatment for conditions they might otherwise ignore. Obesity, metabolic health and chronic disease deserve serious attention, particularly as rates continue to rise across the world. Yet the popularity of GLP-1 medications also reveals something deeper about the way modern society engages with health.
We tend to pay attention to the outcomes we can see. Weight loss is visible in a way that improved blood sugar control is not. A dramatic physical transformation photographs well, generates headlines and creates compelling before-and-after stories. The prevention of future complications rarely attracts the same attention. As a result, some of the most important medical interventions quietly fade into the background while newer treatments become cultural phenomena.
There is a certain irony in this. Before its introduction in 1921 by Frederick Banting and Charles Best, a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes was effectively a death sentence. What followed was one of the most important breakthroughs in modern medicine, transforming a fatal condition into one that millions of people could live with for decades. Yet insulin rarely dominates social media feeds or sparks heated debates on television panels. It has become so essential that many of us barely notice it exists.
GLP-1 medications, by contrast, arrived at a moment when health, appearance and identity had become deeply intertwined. They entered a world already shaped by wellness culture, personal branding and an endless appetite for aesthetics, because we are living in a time where appearance is often mistaken for good health. Their success is not simply the result of medical effectiveness. It is also the result of timing. They offer a solution to a problem that many people experience publicly, in societies that increasingly reward visible transformation.
The reality is that health is not a choice between medication and lifestyle. Most people living with chronic conditions understand that both matter. Medication can be life-saving, but it was never intended to replace the everyday habits that support long-term health.
At the same time, there is a growing tendency to view health through a consumer lens. We search for the latest breakthrough, the newest supplement or the next innovation that promises better outcomes with less effort. Pharmaceutical companies, like all large corporations, operate within commercial systems. They invest heavily in research and development, but they also invest heavily in marketing. Public awareness does not emerge by accident. It is built through campaigns, media coverage and carefully managed narratives.
That reality does not mean we should distrust medicine. It does, however, mean we should think critically about how health information reaches us. The fact that a medication is popular does not automatically make it appropriate for everyone. Equally, the fact that something has become ordinary does not make it any less important.
Perhaps that is why the question on the plane lingered in my mind. It was not really about Ozempic at all. It was about visibility. It highlighted the gap between the medicines that capture public attention and the medicines that quietly sustain human life every day. It also raised a broader question about the kind of health culture we are creating.
If our understanding of wellbeing is shaped primarily by trends, headlines and algorithms, we risk forgetting that health is usually built through less glamorous means. It is built through sleep, movement, relationships, stress management and the ordinary habits repeated over many years. Medication can be an essential part of that picture, but it was never designed to replace the foundations entirely. The strongest outcomes often come when healthy habits and appropriate medical treatment work hand in hand, each supporting the other.
The passenger beside me on that flight asked a reasonable question. In doing so, they unintentionally revealed something about the age we live in. The way we perceive health is increasingly shaped by visibility rather than understanding. Perhaps the real question is not which medication is dominating the headlines this week, but whether we are spending as much time understanding our health as we are consuming information about it.
Kaajal Vaghela is a cultural wellness advisor with over three decades of lived experience managing Type 1 diabetes in Zambia and the diaspora. Having previously served as Chairperson of the Lusaka branch of the Diabetes Association of Zambia, she remains a passionate advocate for breaking down myths and building awareness about diabetes. For more personalised coaching or Corporate Wellness Workshops, visit: www.kaajalvaghela.com and for any feedback: [email protected])
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