Glp1 agonists Ozempic® and Wegovy® semaglutide

Medicines
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Saw a story on CBS this morning about a woman who has a family history of T2DM and trouble losing weight. Her doctor prescribed her a GLP1 agonist. Everything was fine. She lost weight and cravings for food

Out of the blue she passed out. Husband rushed her to the hospital, at some point her daughter was informed that her Mom might not make it.

She was stabilized and it was determined her colon had died. They did a colonectomy and she now has a colonostomy.

I don’t mean to scare anyone. It was the fact that it came on suddenly.

I don’t do Facebook but here’s the video

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Thanks for sharing. Differently something to be cautious about.

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I get the intention behind sharing this, but there is a reason this made the news - it’s so rare. These drugs have been out for a long time, so the researchers have lots of data on side effects etc. I take Ozempic (and have used Victoza and Trulicity) and am not going to lose sleep over this.

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Wow, yes, this is very unfortunate. I dont have any experience with these drugs but I have a friend on one. She told me that they do have side effects and is probably not for everyone depending on pre existing conditions.

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Every drug has side effects. I don’t think the destruction of the colon is listed or that she had preexisting conditions. Maybe we will learn more.

I am on an immunotherapy that can have dire side effects of which I was fully informed. They are eye, liver, kidney and thyroid. I have blood draws the day before each infusion looking for red flags.

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There is increased occurrence of 4 different conditions. I think that anyone using GLP1 Agonist drugs should pay careful attention to things like bloating, constipation, annd abdominal pain. I suspect any who already suffer from gastroparesis avoid this class of drugs.

The researchers analyzed the records to see how many patients developed one of four gastrointestinal conditions, and compared that rate to patients using another weight loss drug, bupropion-naltrexone. Compared to bupropion-naltrexone, GLP-1 agonists were associated with a:

  • 9.09 times higher risk of pancreatitis, or inflammation of the pancreas, which can cause severe abdominal pain and, in some cases, require hospitalization and surgery.
  • 4.22 times higher risk of bowel obstruction, whereby food is prevented from passing through the small or large intestine, resulting in symptoms like cramping, bloating, nausea and vomiting. Depending on the severity, surgery may be required.
  • 3.67 times higher risk of gastroparesis, or stomach paralysis, which limits the passage of food from the stomach to the small intestine and results in symptoms like vomiting, nausea and abdominal pain. Weight-loss drugs linked to stomach paralysis, other serious gastrointestinal conditions - UBC Faculty of Medicine
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