health
Jun 19, 2023 | 5:57 PM
This injection, touted by celebrities, can cause cancer, blurred vision, pancreatitis, and gallstones. So is it really worth the injection?
Ozempic is the hottest prescription on the market, loved by the A-List and touted as a quick fix for unwanted weight loss.
But the drug, originally designed for people with type 2 diabetes, can cause serious side effects, and doctors are now seeing a surge in ER admissions for its users. It is said that
Ozempic and its sister drug Wigobee are semaglutide and are injected into the stomach, thigh, or arm once a week. When blood sugar levels rise, the pancreas releases the right amount of insulin.
“Semaglutide is produced during meals. It tells the brain that we are full,” New York City internist Dr. Catherine H. “It helps people feel less hungry, feel full sooner and stay full longer, but also when they actually feel full. the following full. “
But that feeling can lead to a variety of health problems, which are becoming more prevalent as Ozempic and Wegovy continue to grow in popularity.
Just last week, an emergency doctor I wrote on Twitter: “Many people come to the ER with side effects of Ozempic. Diarrhea. Nausea. Bloating.”
Meanwhile, other doctors warn of additional side effects such as blurred vision, kidney failure and gallstones.
Dr. Laurie A. Kiefer, academic health psychologist and director of psychobehavioral research in the Department of Gastroenterology at Mount Sinai, said: told CBS News She said she has personally seen Ozempic patients with the latter two problems.
Amazingly, he declared that given the drug’s relative newness to the market, some serious long-term side effects may still be undiscovered.
of Official Ozempic Prescribing Guide Side effects may include “potential thyroid tumors, including cancer,” it said.
Below is a list of Ozempic side effects, ranging from super serious to superficial.
blurry vision
Pam Peters, 71, was prescribed Ozempic earlier this year to manage her type 2 diabetes.
But the Ohio woman said her vision started to blur after just three injections of the drug.
“It was like someone flipped a switch,” Peters said. Local network WKYC before going to the ophthalmologist.
“I couldn’t read street signs, my lights had a halo, and I had lost my night vision,” she said. “I can no longer drive at night.”
An Ohio Ozempic user reported vision problems to the Food and Drug Administration and said he believed many others had experienced similar problems.
“they [doctors] There are probably more people with vision problems, but they said they didn’t associate it with Ozempic. ‘ she affirmed.
“Changes in vision” are listed as a side effect, Ozempic Official Siteit is unclear whether the drug directly causes the symptoms or whether diabetics taking the drug happen to cause the symptoms. diabetic retinopathy — An eye disease that can cause vision loss or blindness in people with diabetes.
according to a British website, Diabetics are most likely to experience blurred vision while taking Ozempic due to high blood sugar levels, which can damage the retina.
The site adds that vision changes are a “rare” side effect among users.
pancreatitis and gallbladder problems
On the other hand, recently another diabetic Ozempic user told healthline She was also prescribed the drug in 2018 to help manage her illness.
She then suffered a completely different and very serious side effect.
Dawn Gentle said she started feeling severe stomach pains and was taken to the emergency room.her doctor later diagnosed her as pancreatitis – swelling of the pancreas – and a neoplastic cancer was found in the organ.
She had used Ozempic for three years before a doctor diagnosed her in 2021.
“I asked my doctor if it was because I was taking Ozempic, and he kindly told me it was very likely,” Gentle said.
According to Healthline, at least one medical trial has confirmed that ozempic causes thyroid C-cell tumors in rodents, but it’s unclear whether ozempic causes similar cancers in humans.
Dr. Levka B. Kumar, associate professor of medicine at Cornell University, is skeptical that the drug directly caused Gentle’s development of pancreatitis and cancer.
“This is rare, but more common in patients with other risk factors for pancreatitis. [including] You have a history of pancreatitis, high triglycerides, heavy alcohol consumption, or other genetic predisposition to pancreatitis,” Kumar told Healthline, arguing the side effects were “correlation, not causation.” .
Similarly, many Ozempic users called the emergency room. gallbladder problems Some experts attribute this side effect to the body’s inability to adapt to rapid weight loss quickly enough.
“Rapid weight loss causes the liver to excrete more bile and cholesterol, both of which can lead to the formation of gallstones in the gallbladder,” pharmacist Dr. Dunn recently explained. With a viral TikTok video.
“Similar situations are seen in people undergoing drastic dieting or bariatric surgery. In some cases, it can be severe enough to require the removal of the gallbladder,” he explained.
stomach and digestive problems
Some Ozempic users have created a stench storm, claiming stench side effects include putrid belching and unpredictable explosive diarrhea.
As the Post recently reported, About 30% of Wegovy users experience diarrhea. Some of them claim that they woke up in the middle of the night to find they had bowel movements in their sleep.
Some people who take injections say their burps start to smell like rotten eggs.
Only 3 days after starting the drug, 1 TikToker Despite noticing an increase in her burping, Twitter owner Elon Musk admitted to using Wegovy to lose 30 pounds last year. He said his burping was “next level.”
On the other end of the spectrum, some Ozempic and Wegovy users claim they can’t get what they’ve ingested and are constipated and crippled.
User Angela Adams, 47, recently told an insider She said she hadn’t pooped in over a week.
“We’ve come to a bit of a scary point,” said the nurse. “My stomach hurt. It hurt.”
Like many other Ozempic and Wegovy users, Adams then turned to laxatives to help her feel better, and then found she couldn’t control her bowel movements.
Dr. Kiefer told CBS News that these side effects are beginning to affect patients’ social lives.
“Anxiety about when and where symptoms may occur can also lead to avoidance of social activities, particularly those focused on eating, and when toilets are not readily available,” she said. “Because the brain and gut are so closely connected, emotional symptoms can exacerbate gastrointestinal symptoms, creating a vicious cycle.”
malnutrition
Ozempic and Wegovy help users lose unwanted weight, but some find it difficult to maintain a healthy, balanced diet due to nausea and satiety.
The New York Times recently reported “People taking Ozempic tend to lose weight because they are burning fewer calories, not because the drug itself magically burns fat,” which can lead to malnutrition in extreme cases. It is said that there is
“You can’t eat what you want and what you want,” Renata Ravach-Savi, 37, told the magazine. “You have to eat what your body accepts.”
Ravaha-Savi was told by her doctor that she was malnourished after just four months of using Ozempic.
She said the drug had completely lost her appetite and deprived her body of the nutrients it needed to function effectively.
Meanwhile, one doctor who has started prescribing Ozempic said he counsels patients about their diets to ensure they are getting the food they need.
“We’re not trying to put you to nothing,” Dr. Andrew Kraftson, a clinical associate professor in the Department of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Diabetes at the University of Michigan School of Medicine, told The Times, noting that users are still the largest. Per day that said you need to take in 1,500 calories.
aesthetic side effects
Although not as serious as other side effects, changes to the face, fingers and wrists have worried some Ozempic adherents.
A doctor recently coined the term “ozempic aging face” to describe the wrinkling and sagging that often occurs on a user’s face after they start taking the drug.
“I see it every day in my office,” says doctor Paul Jarrod Frank. told the people. “A 50-year-old patient comes in. All of a sudden she’s super skinny and needs fillers that she didn’t need before. I looked at her and said, ‘How long have you been in Ozempic?’ . And I’m 100% right. “
Jennifer Berger, 41 years old, told the New York Times Although she lost 20 pounds after being prescribed Ozempic, it had a negative impact on her overall appearance.
“I remember looking in the mirror and it was like I didn’t even recognize myself,” she said. “My body looked great, but my face looked tired and old.”
Several frustrated users recently told the Post that their fingers and wrists were shrinking in front of them, making it impossible to keep wearing expensive wedding rings and bracelets.
Jessica, a 40-year-old part-time kindergarten teacher in Houston, started taking Ozempic injections last October and lost 17 pounds in just six weeks. But there was also a downside.
“I didn’t expect weight loss to happen on your hands, but suddenly my ring didn’t fit,” she said, referring to the “ozempic finger” phenomenon.
Despite all the side effects, the drug is still off the shelves, and doctors have declared the injection to be generally safe when used properly by the right patients.
Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic and Wegobee, told CBS News that the drugs are “an established class of medicines that have demonstrated long-term safety in clinical trials.”
The Post has reached out to representatives of Novo Nordisk for further comment.
load more…
{{#isDisplay}}
{{/isDisplay}}{{#isAniviewVideo}}
{{/isAniviewVideo}}{{#isSRVideo}}
{{/isSR video}}
