Brooke Burke shared her thoughts on the pros and cons of Ozempic, the injectable diabetes medication that has also become a popular weight-loss drug.
The 52-year-old fitness guru and TV personality is gearing up to host her latest wellness retreat in partnership with Yogando Style later this month in Carefree, Arizona. Held from March 21-25, Burke’s Longevity | Building your own ZONE retreat is a five-day getaway for women to focus on their fitness, mindfulness and self-care.
During an interview with Fox News Digital, Burke weighed in on the Ozempic debate that has taken over Hollywood.
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“I can’t speak medically about it, but I do know that there’s so much information about what’s working and what’s not,” Burke said. “I think that Ozempic has some great benefits, and I also think it has some dangers.”
Brooke Burke shared her views on the potential benefits and dangers of Ozempic. (Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)
She continued, “I think the lazy person that’s turning to quick fix for numbers on a scale, that doesn’t have boundaries, that’s not disciplined, that doesn’t understand the value of muscle, of weight training and of boundaries within a nutritional plan is going to crash and burn. I think it’s super dangerous.”
“Somebody who can’t move the needle for whatever reasons it may be, diabetics, hormones. There’s a whole long list of them that can work with a doctor under their care, manipulate the system, bring down glycemic levels. I think it has some great benefits, but it requires a purposeful plan,” Burke added.
The Brooke Burke Fitness founder explained that she takes a holistic approach when helping her clients achieve their health goals.
“The type of work that I do with people isn’t about that quick fix, that pill, that diet, that fad thing that’s going to fade away,” she said. “It’s about longevity. It’s about a sustainable lifestyle. It’s about mobility, strength. For me, it’s really this marriage of strength and weakness. Can I understand my own body?”
“I struggle with a lot of different autoimmune diseases, so I know how to manipulate my body,” Burke added. “I know how to biohack my system. I know what my body needs. I know about anti-inflammatory foods. I know about energy. I know about cellular repair.”
WATCH: Brooke Burke on how biohacking helps her stay healthy and staying fit
Burke previously revealed that she is battling three autoimmune diseases. The former “Dancing With the Stars” host suffers from vitiligo and inflammatory bowel disease as well as Hashimoto’s disease, a chronic autoimmune disorder which can cause hyperthyroidism. In 2012, Burke shared that she underwent a thyroidectomy after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She has remained cancer-free since the surgery.
The entrepreneur has credited practicing biohacking for helping her manage her autoimmune diseases and maintain her sculpted physique. According to Healthline, biohacking is described as “citizen or do-it-yourself biology.” “For many ‘biohackers,’ this consists of making small, incremental diet or lifestyle changes to make small improvements in your health and well-being,” the website noted.
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Burke told Fox News Digital that the advantages and potential risks of Ozempic and similar weight-loss medications is a “big topic.”
Ozempic, which is semiglutide injection, was originally approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes, but the medication has increasingly been prescribed off brand for weight loss, along with several other similar medications.
Novo Nordisk, the pharmaceutical company behind Ozempic, also manufactures the semaglutide injection Wegovy, which is FDA approved for weight loss. The company recently announced that it is developing a weight loss pill that has proven twice as effective as Wegovy in clinical trials.
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Oprah Winfrey, Sharon Osbourne and Amy Schumer are among the celebrities who have spoken out about their experiences with using weight-loss drugs. While the medications have been hailed for their efficacy, critics have expressed concerns over short- and long-term side effects.
“It’s a mystery,” Burke said of Ozempic. “It’s very misunderstood. And it’s also great for a lot of people. And then there’s a percentage of people that it’s not good for.”
She continued, “You’ve gotta partner up with your doctor in all areas. You got to be a great patient, and you have to have an intimate relationship with your practitioner. I feel that way in the intentional wellness space with people that I work with and train and design a lifestyle for.”
“I think it’s a partnership and I think it’s grossly misunderstood,” she added. “We want a quick fix in our country. We want a script and we want a quick fix. And we want easy.”
“I’m not about easy,” Burke said with a laugh. “I’ll give you a little tough love.”
Burke has credited biohacking with maintaining her health and fit physique. (Michael Simon)
During her interview with Fox News Digital, Burke shared her tips for staying healthy and staying fit, noting that the two were “very contrasting concepts.”
“Staying healthy, I think is really about what we fuel our body with, what we put into our body as much as how we treat our body, how we move our body. It’s not just the workout, it’s just like a full package. And that’s what I’m really passionate about.”
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She continued, “But it’s also how we speak to our body, how we meet our body. Do we carve out time? Do we know how to rest and recover? Do we know why we feel fatigued? Do we know when we need more energy? Do we know how to manipulate and biohack our system? There’s so much science right now. I’m in the space – everybody’s in the mindful space right now. You know, ‘I hear this works, woo hoo!’ But if we learn how to really discover what makes our system run smoother, we have mad energy.”
“And fit, I mean, for me, it’s really about lean muscle power, strength, functional fitness or not getting injured,” Burke explained. “I work out for energy. I work out for safety. I work out for dopamine, adrenaline, oxytocin – more than the body, more than the bikini body. I mean, I can teach people how to do that. It’s not about that. I think we’re far beyond that right now.”
The TV personality is gearing up to host her latest wellness retreat in partnership with Yogando Style later this month in Carefree, Arizona. (Brooke Burke Body)
Burke told Fox News Digital that she has incorporated a couple of new practices into her daily routine, including meditation, which she said was “really hard” for her.
“For me, I had to surrender to the challenge and learn how to just slow down,” she said. “And I make up my own style. Sometimes it’s guided, sometimes it’s walking. Sometimes it’s a journey through music.”
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“What I’m doing is making a commitment to slow down and just calm down in my body so that I can get clarity and more energy so that I can learn, ask questions, and then I’ll get the answers. I do,” Burke added with a laugh. “So meditation daily for me. I’m doing a March meditation challenge, and it’s five minutes a day. Really, if you do the math, I think it’s like 0.03% of your day. Like we have five minutes a day to devote to self-care. I think self-care, self-love equals change.”
The former “Wild On!” host also explained that she was focusing on improving her sleep quality. “One of the things that I started doing different this year, which was a big challenge for me, was I’m trying to sleep when I’m sleepy. Really learning how to shut my system down, get off the devices, shut it down and rest, so I can recover.”
She continued, “I’m learning how to just listen to my body, and I’m a bit of a biohacking geek, so I do believe in that circadian rhythm. I do believe in tracking my sleep. I do believe in all that data. I do believe in becoming a detective of your own system.”
“I think as soon as we learn how to go inward and fuel our body and discover what we need and roll through the hormones and all these like complicated layers of being human, we create more energy,” Burke added. “And that’s what we’re all trying to do; live longer, stronger, smarter. Mobility, energy. It’s an amazing time. We have access to so much.”
WATCH: Brooke Burke reveals the two new practices that she has added to her daily routine
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Since making her Hollywood debut in the early 1990s, Burke has embarked on a number of other professional ventures, including her fitness brand, several product lines and her wellness retreat business.
In January 2023, Burke announced that she had partnered with travel management and experiential wellness company Yogando Retreats to launch a series of wellness retreats. According to a press release, the retreats will be held in “bucket list locations worldwide” and each will be “finely curated by Burke – for the mind, for the body, and for the soul.”
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During her interview with Fox News Digital, Burke detailed the experiences that attendees could expect from taking part in her retreats.
“I get so many questions about, ‘Why a retreat? What the heck happens there? What is it about and why should I take a chance and spend that kind of money to sort of escape from my normal life?’” Burke said. “So many different things happen. I mean, honestly, if it was a fitness retreat or a yoga retreat, that would be easy. I could do that all year long.”
She continued, “This is really a mind body energy. Think of it as sort of an internal reboot, an opportunity to retrain the brain to reboot your system. We meditate every day, sometimes twice a day. We work out. We do yoga, sisterhood circles. Men are welcome as well. We do a lot of journaling. We get off-campus, we explore the Sonoran culture. We hike. We transform the body.”
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“We work out twice a day, but we share our workspace with like-minded people, and it’s a great opportunity for people to get away,” she added. “Some people come for creative energy. Some people come because they need a break. Some people come to begin again, some people come for the workout and some people come in for just personal connection.”
“And it’s all different walks of life. Every retreat is different. I leave better than I arrived. I love this work. It’s changed my life. I think everybody should find a way to do this type of work somewhere. I never did it as a younger woman. I don’t even know about this kind of work from my own mother.”
“Every time I do it, it makes me want to do more,” the former model said. “It really does. And friendships are formed. It changes you.”
