Weight-loss medication have exploded in reputation over the past yr, with folks filling social media with their success tales. However these drugs include potential dangers — and a few are extra critical than others.
As medication like Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound turn into family names, there may be an rising variety of testimonies from former sufferers a few vary of issues they’ve skilled whereas taking the drugs. Abdomen paralysis, gastrointestinal sickness and suicidal ideas are only a few of the issues sufferers have handled.
Listed here are their tales, together with data from medical doctors concerning who’s most in danger — in addition to find out how to assist decrease the chances you will encounter this as nicely.
‘This drugs made my life hell.’
Joanie Knight informed CNN that she was identified with extreme gastroparesis, aka abdomen paralysis, after taking Ozempic. (Gastroparesis is a situation that slows and even stops the motion of meals out of your abdomen to your small gut, resulting in signs corresponding to belly ache and vomiting, in line with the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases).
“I want I by no means touched it. I want I’d by no means heard of it in my life,” the 37-year-old from Angie, La., mentioned. “This drugs made my life hell. A lot hell. It has price me cash. It price me a number of stress; it price me days and nights and journeys with my household. It’s price me so much, and it’s not price it. The worth is simply too excessive.” Knight mentioned her physician suspects her situation was both brought on by the treatment or exacerbated by it.
Knight mentioned she begin vomiting violently after having a birthday dinner in 2021, although she didn’t eat a lot. “I believed, ‘I hadn’t eaten. How am I throwing up this a lot?’” She ended up seeing a gastroenterologist who informed her that her abdomen was filled with meals.
Knight mentioned she felt continuously nauseous and took a prescribed antinausea treatment “prefer it was sweet.” She ultimately went off Ozempic and had abdomen bypass surgical procedure. “Beforehand, I used to be on an excessive quantity of nutritional vitamins as a result of I wasn’t consuming. Now I can eat sufficient that I’m not malnourished,” she mentioned.
‘She had a bit little bit of brown stuff popping out of her mouth and I spotted she wasn’t respiratory.’
Australian dad Roy Webster mentioned his spouse, Trish, died after taking Ozempic together with weight-loss drug Saxenda to drop some weight for his or her daughter’s wedding ceremony. Webster informed “60 Minutes” that, whereas his spouse misplaced weight, she was additionally sick so much.
Final January, Webster mentioned that “one thing went severely incorrect” and Trish stopped respiratory. “She had a bit little bit of brown stuff popping out of her mouth and I spotted she wasn’t respiratory and began doing CPR,” he mentioned. “It was simply pouring out, and I turned her onto the facet as a result of she couldn’t breathe.”
Trish’s demise certificates lists acute gastrointestinal sickness as her explanation for demise. Webster believes the drugs contributed to his spouse’s demise and now urges different folks to be cautious of them. “I by no means thought you possibly can die from it,” he mentioned.
‘Burps that style and scent like rotten eggs’
Derron Borders informed the Atlantic that he skilled a facet impact each couple of minutes that’s been dubbed “Ozempic burps” whereas taking the treatment. “‘Burps that style and scent like rotten eggs’ — I feel that’s what I typed in Google,” he mentioned.
The Ozempic website lists nausea, diarrhea, abdomen ache, vomiting and constipation as potential unintended effects, but it surely does not point out burping. Nonetheless, burping (or, extra formally, eructation) affected 9% of patients in scientific trials for semaglutide, the lively ingredient in medication like Ozempic. Since these weight-loss medication sluggish abdomen emptying, the sulfur burping could also be brought on by air building up within the digestive system.
‘Tooth falling out because of extreme vomiting’
Louisiana resident Jaclyn Bjorklund is suing Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic, after alleging that the treatment made her severely in poor health. The lawsuit, which is posted on her lawyer’s website, says that the 44-year-old was “severely injured” after taking the treatment.
Bjorklund mentioned within the lawsuit that she used Ozempic for greater than a yr, and switched to Mounjaro in July 2023. In keeping with the lawsuit, taking the drugs prompted her to develop “extreme vomiting, abdomen ache, gastrointestinal burning, being hospitalized for abdomen points on a number of events together with visits to the emergency room, [and] enamel falling out because of extreme vomiting, requiring further drugs to alleviate her extreme vomiting, and throwing up complete meals hours after consuming.”
‘I simply really feel like killing myself’
The household of a person recognized solely by his first title, Anthony, is talking out after they are saying he died by suicide after he started taking Ozempic for Kind 2 diabetes.
Anthony’s sister Merlene Corridor informed NBC News that her brother turned uncharacteristically quiet across the identical time as he began taking Ozempic in February. By early Could, he appeared fatigued and his temper seemed to be getting worse.
“He’s often very charismatic, speaking and joking. He’s a fairly outgoing man. However he was pretty quiet,” his fiancé, Carolyn Hasty, mentioned. “I got here dwelling and he was sitting within the kitchen and he mentioned, ‘Assist me, babe, you bought to assist me. I simply really feel like killing myself.'”
On Could 14, Anthony died by suicide in his dwelling. His household mentioned he skilled melancholy prior to now, however believes that the treatment exacerbated his signs. “I feel the Ozempic was placing these suicidal ideas in his thoughts,” Corridor mentioned.
Not like Ozempic, Wegovy has a warning about suicidal thoughts. In keeping with Medicine.com, semaglutide (Wegovy) for weight reduction “should be avoided in sufferers with a historical past of suicidal makes an attempt or lively suicidal ideation.”
‘If I knew what the unintended effects have been … I might have by no means gone on it’
Daybreak Light took Ozempic for her Kind 2 diabetes between 2018 and 2021, however she informed Healthline she was rushed to the emergency room in 2021 after experiencing excessive abdomen ache. There she was identified with pancreatitis, an irritation of the pancreas.
“I came upon about this facet impact after I used to be rushed to the emergency room on the hospital,” Light mentioned. “The physician requested me in regards to the drugs that I used to be taking for my diabetes. Once I knowledgeable him about taking Ozempic, he mentioned to ‘cease taking that drug straight away.’ It had prompted my pancreatitis.”
She stayed within the hospital for per week and, since receiving her prognosis, has had 4 procedures to deal with her situation. She additionally discovered that she had a cancerous tumor on the top of her pancreas. “Once I requested the physician if it was additionally brought on by taking Ozempic, he was good sufficient to tell me that it was strongly potential,” she mentioned.
Nonetheless, Dr. Rekha Kumar, chief medical officer at Found, informed Healthline that analysis hasn’t thus far proven that GLP-1 medication trigger pancreatic most cancers. “This can be a correlation and never a causation. This has been nicely studied,” Kumar mentioned.
Light mentioned she needs she had by no means taken the treatment. “If I knew what the unintended effects have been … I might have by no means gone on it,” she mentioned.
Docs weigh in
Weigh-loss medication have turn into a well-liked method to drop some weight. In keeping with a Kaiser Family Foundation survey, 4% of adults say they’re at present taking a prescription drug to drop some weight and one in 10 say they’ve beforehand taken one among these drugs for weight reduction prior to now.
Regardless of the scary tales, medical doctors say that critical issues of those drugs aren’t widespread. “It doesn’t matter what treatment we give, there may be some danger,” Dr. Mir Ali, a bariatric surgeon and medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Heart in Fountain Valley, Calif., tells Yahoo Life. “The general thought is that these drugs are protected and that the incidence of significant complication is low.”
Dr. Kunal Shah of the Rutgers Robert Wooden Johnson Medical Heart, agrees, telling Yahoo Life that critical issues are “very, very unusual, however they actually can occur.” He says that “gastrointestinal points are comparatively widespread. Individuals may have a baseline degree of nausea, or may have diarrhea or constipation — that often does go away after a time period.”
Docs usually prescribe these drugs at decrease doses to start out after which improve the dosage in an try to decrease the danger of those unintended effects, Ali explains.
A recent study discovered that these taking GLP-1 drugs, corresponding to Ozempic, for weight reduction had a better danger of pancreatitis, bowel obstruction and gastroparesis. However everyone seems to be totally different, Steven Batash, a gastroenterologist and main doctor on the Batash Endoscopic Weight Loss Center, tells Yahoo Life. “It’s necessary to keep in mind that the results of weight-loss drugs can fluctuate extensively amongst people,” he says. “Elements corresponding to total well being, different medical situations, drugs being taken concurrently and particular person responses can affect how [these medications] have an effect on sufferers.”
Sufferers who have already got abdomen points and people with thyroid situations could also be at a larger danger of issues than others, Ali says. The hyperlink between weight-loss drugs and suicidal thoughts hasn’t been established past anecdotal proof, Shah says, but it surely’s nonetheless one thing to debate along with your physician in the event you undergo from melancholy.
Total, medical doctors stress the significance of getting a dialog along with your medical care supplier earlier than happening one among these weight-loss drugs, and persevering with to speak to your physician about the way you’re feeling when you’re on them. “It’s necessary to seek the advice of a medical skilled as they’ll correctly educate sufferers on potential signs,” Batash says.
Docs suggest being affected person with minor unintended effects like nausea when beginning one among these drugs. “Customers should give weight-loss medication a while to regulate to their our bodies,” Batash says. “Within the interim, staying hydrated is crucial.”
However Shah additionally recommends flagging any persistent signs to your physician. “Persistent gastrointestinal signs are regarding,” he says. “These are comparatively protected drugs, however everybody ought to concentrate on the potential unintended effects.”
