2023-08-14 07:49:52
These people used popular drugs to lose weight and treat diabetes.. and the result was stomach paralysis
Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) — Johnny Knight has a message for anyone considering the use of drugs such as “Ozempic” or “Wegovy”, which have become so popular that they contribute to achieving significant weight loss.
“I wish I had never touched it,” said Knight, 37, from Louisiana, USA. “This medicine has made my life hell…it cost me money, it caused a lot of stress.”
And Brenda Allen, 42, feels the same.
And her doctor prescribed Wegovy for weight loss.
“Even now, following being off the medication for regarding a year, I still have a lot of problems,” said Allen, who is from Dallas.
Allen said she recently received emergency care following vomiting so badly that she became dehydrated.
Emily Wright, 38, a teacher in Toronto, Canada, started using Ozempic in 2018.
Within a year, Wright had managed to lose nearly 36 kilos and avoid gaining that weight once more, but now she vomits so frequently that she has had to take time off from work.
The drug “Ozempic” for diabetes and its counterpart “Wegovy” for weight loss are used in the same drug, and it is called “semaglutide”.
These and other drugs in this family work by mimicking the GLP-1 hormone that the body naturally produces.
One of the hormone’s roles is to slow the passage of food through the stomach, which helps people feel fuller for longer.
However, problems may occur if the stomach slows down too much.
Both Knight and Wright were diagnosed with severe stomach paralysis, and their doctors believe that the condition may have been caused by the drug Ozempic they were taking, or that it had exacerbated their condition.
Allen was not given a specific diagnosis of her stomach problems, but said the symptoms only began following her doctor encouraged her to use Wegovy to lose weight.
Doctors noted that more such cases were emerging as the popularity of these drugs increased.
The US Food and Drug Administration said it had received reports of people who had suffered stomach paralysis while taking the drugs.
And last month, the American Society of Anesthesiologists warned that patients should stop taking these drugs a week before undergoing surgery because they may increase the risk of vomiting food during the procedure, even if they abstain from food as instructed.
In response to CNN’s request for comment, Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of Ozempic and Wegovy, noted that drugs in this class have been used for 15 years to treat diabetes, for 8 years to treat obesity, and have been extensively studied in the field. , and through clinical trials.
In a statement, the company confirmed, “GLP-1 is known to cause a delay in gastric emptying, as stated on the label of all of our GLP-1 RA medications. Symptoms such as delayed gastric emptying, nausea, and vomiting are listed as side effects.”
Referring to the people who shared their cases with CNN, Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist Dr. Michael Camilleri said, “They’re probably just very unlucky.”
On the other hand, that’s how the drugs work, but not many doctors or patients understand that, or the problems that might occur followingwards, he says.
According to Camilleri, “It is plausible that some patients may experience relatively slow gastric emptying, and that use of a GLP-1 agonist may lead to complete gastric paralysis.”
Benefit and risk assessment
Drug regulators say they have received reports of stomach paralysis among patients using GLP-1 agonists.
The reports were delivered via the US Food and Drug Administration’s publicly available adverse event tracking system.
The agency stated that there is not always enough information in these reports to properly evaluate them.
The Food and Drug Administration confirmed that it might not determine whether the drugs were the cause, or whether the stomach paralysis was the result of a different problem.
When asked whether it was necessary to warn doctors and patients regarding the risks to people known to have slow digestion, the FDA indicated that the drug’s benefits may outweigh its risks, even for this group.
“Gastric paralysis or delayed gastric emptying from GLP-1 agonists is definitely happening,” said Dr. Linda Nguyen, who specializes in treating this condition at Stanford University.
But what is unusual for her when it comes to Wright and Knight’s case is that they don’t get better following stopping the drug.
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