[Misc] Weight loss jabs - Mounjaro, Wegovy etc.

[wehatepalace]

My next door neighbour has been using Mounjaro and described it as a miracle drug that has helped her lose two and a half stone. However, she has now been diagnosed with gallstones that are blocking her bile duct which has caused reduced liver function and she needs an urgent cholecystectomy to remove her gall bladder. Her consultant believes that this is all due to the Mounjaro. She has also had numerous painful UTIs and a large number of sick days off of work because of the side effects and unbearable pain. She said that if anyone is considering Mounjaro then please, please do plenty of research, be super aware of the side effects, and be very careful. Do your research and if you have any concerns whatsoever go straight to your GP before it escalates. She adds that, of course, she doesn’t plan on using Mounjaro anymore!

I’m assuming this is one of the main reasons they recommend drinking plenty of water whilst using the treatment

 

[Munchkin]

Been on Mounjaro for 4 months and this week hit my 4 stone weight loss target.

Pretty much changed my life and with hardly any or very few side effects.

Generally ate quite well prior to the medication but snacking in the evenings was excessive and I enjoyed excessive alcohol most weekends combined with weekly take aways.

Will still have a few beers on the odd occasion but to be honest 3 or 4 pints is my limit and anymore than that I know I’ll feel terrible the next day and suffer with nausea.

I reintroduced fitness alongside the medication and went from being out of breath walking from Falmer Station to the Amex to now running 10k a week.

Believing you can take the jab alone and the weight will fall off is a myth, you have to change your diet and IMO combine fitness in your day to day life to get the maximum benefits.

 

[Zeberdi]

I am a pharmacologist but have not been paying much attention to this. My impression is that there may be adverse effect risks....let me have a read and I'll get back to you. I could do with losing a bit of weight myself.....

OK, I see what these drugs do - mimic the body's 'I feel full' hormones.

Recommended use is presently cautious, with two years maximum use, and an expectation weight will increase when you stop taking the medication.

The wiki page lists lots of adverse effects.

Semaglutide - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

My take is there is no evidence that the benefits, when used purely to lower weight in otherwise healthy people, outweighs adverse effect risks. All the data we have so far is short term benefit in people quite unwell with type 2 diabetes and obesity.

I personally wouldn't touch these meds until there is good data from several thousand people taking the drugs for at least two years purely to lower weight.

If you consider that aspirin is a good drug for reducing the risk of a heart attack, and yet is prescribed for regular use only as secondary prevention (meaning prevention of a second heart attack in survivors of a first heart attack) because of side effects (increased risk of gastric bleeding) and aspirin has been with us more than 100 years, there is good reason to be cautious over these new meds.

So unless you have type 2 diabetes, and need some help with morbid obesity to lower a real risk of heart attack and stroke, I would avoid tapping up your GP.

And absolutely do not buy any of this stuff off the internet.

Excellent post.

Basically what my GP said. They come with very strict criteria on the NHS, not even sure they are available in my NHS Trust. ( Also, they require a commitment to a level of physical exercise which I am not able to do.)

I was prescribed Ortistat instead which helps stops your body absorbing fat.

I now have a £200 plumbing bill for a blocked toilet.

Don’t ask

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Excellent post.

Basically what my GP said. They come with very strict criteria on the NHS, not even sure they are available in my NHS Trust. ( Also, they require a commitment to a level of physical exercise which I am not able to do.)

I was prescribed Ortistat instead which helps stops your body absorbing fat.

I now have a £200 plumbing bill for a blocked toilet.

Don’t ask

Orange poo?

I tried something similar years ago and after a high fat meal (eg curry/chinese) my output would be spectacular. Velocity and colour of note.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

It’s not specifically a Mounjaro issue. Gallstone problems are not uncommon for people who lose a lot of weight in a relatively short period of time. People who have bariatric surgery are particularly prone. Mounjaro, Wegovy, Ozempic etc users all have relatively high incidence of gall bladder problems but it’s the rapid weight loss they have in common. There’s a lot of interesting discussion of this on Mounjaro Reddit groups. There’s no reason not to resume these treatments after the issues have been resolved.

But you’re right to bring attention to the link between rapid weight loss and gall bladder problems. Just not Mounjaro specific.

Is high gallstone issue occurance also linked to any rapid weight loss / crash diets? I've not heard of this but aware of other risks like on the Atkins (no carb) diet.

 

[Professor Plum]

Is high gallstone issue occurance also linked to any rapid weight loss / crash diets? I've not heard of this but aware of other risks like on the Atkins (no carb) diet.

I’m no expert, just going on various references to gall bladder issues on things like Reddit and Facebook groups. You’re still statistically highly unlikely to have this problem (I read a 1 in 200 chance but don’t quote me on that) but yes it’s associated with sudden sharp weight loss so presumably could result from any new eating regime.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

"The death of a nurse from North Lanarkshire has been linked to the use of a weight-loss drug recently approved for use on the NHS.

Susan McGowan, 58, took two low-dose injections of tirzepatide, known under the brand name Mounjaro, over the course of about two weeks before her death on 4 September.

Her death certificate, seen by the BBC, lists multiple organ failure, septic shock and pancreatitis as the immediate cause of death – but "the use of prescribed tirzepatide" is also recorded as a contributing factor."

A consultant commented on the radio that there is no evidence from clinical trials that this outcome is an adverse effect of this drug. He is correct.

Rare adverse drug reactions can be hard to identify till millions of scripts have been written.

In the case of terfenadine, it took around 4 million prescriptions before it was statistically proven that this antihistamine caused a rare but lethal syndrome known as torsades de pointes (a cardiac arrhythmia).

So it may be some time and millions of patients before it becomes proven that this drug can kill you, or not.

 

[Whitechapel]

Just over a month since this thread was started so I’m wondering if there are updates from the people who are about a month in to their treatment.

I ended up biting the bullet and ordering some Mounjaro, partly due to the positive stories in this thread, although I hasten to add I had been doing research before this thread popped up so it wasn’t a spur of the moment type thing

I wasn’t sure it was having much effect over the month tbh, in fact there was one week where I thought I must have done my injection wrong as I was expecting more of a reaction than I had. I have tried to keep my weekly online shop fairly similar as taking a new drug and then massively changing my diet before claiming the drug is working seemed a bit silly. Over the month I’ve definitely slowly felt less hunger pangs so I told myself I’d stick with it for a couple more months even if I didn’t see any results when I weighed myself. However stepping on the scales this morning it turns out I’ve lost about 11 pounds in a month, which obviously I’m delighted with and shows that it obviously is working.

Side effect wise I can’t say I’ve noticed many. I’ve had sulfury burps a few days but apart from that I haven’t noticed anything, even when I’ve been out drinking the day before.

Interested to hear anyone else is finding it.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Just over a month since this thread was started so I’m wondering if there are updates from the people who are about a month in to their treatment.

I ended up biting the bullet and ordering some Mounjaro, partly due to the positive stories in this thread, although I hasten to add I had been doing research before this thread popped up so it wasn’t a spur of the moment type thing

I wasn’t sure it was having much effect over the month tbh, in fact there was one week where I thought I must have done my injection wrong as I was expecting more of a reaction than I had. I have tried to keep my weekly online shop fairly similar as taking a new drug and then massively changing my diet before claiming the drug is working seemed a bit silly. Over the month I’ve definitely slowly felt less hunger pangs so I told myself I’d stick with it for a couple more months even if I didn’t see any results when I weighed myself. However stepping on the scales this morning it turns out I’ve lost about 11 pounds in a month, which obviously I’m delighted with and shows that it obviously is working.

Side effect wise I can’t say I’ve noticed many. I’ve had sulfury burps a few days but apart from that I haven’t noticed anything, even when I’ve been out drinking the day before.

Interested to hear anyone else is finding it.

The drug is intended to make you eat less. If you force yourself to eat the same stuff as before you started the drug you won't lose an ounce of weight.

"Tirzepatide slows down how quickly food leaves the stomach, which helps people feel full for longer."

 

[Whitechapel]

The drug is intended to make you eat less. If you force yourself to eat the same stuff as before you started the drug you won't lose an ounce of weight.

"Tirzepatide slows down how quickly food leaves the stomach, which helps people feel full for longer."

Thank you for explaining the drug I said I researched and ignored the fact I said I’ve lost 11 pounds.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Thank you for explaining the drug I said I researched and ignored the fact I said I’ve lost 11 pounds.

Sorry I didn't meant to be patronizing.

Did you, in fact, after all, find you are eating less?

As you know from your research the drug is not a laxative, anabolic steroid or HMGCoA reductase inhibitor. In which case the only way it can result in weight loss (in the absence of increased exercise) is if it makes you eat less.

 

[wehatepalace]

I’m end of month two, lost a stone and a half, my next injection is up to 7.5mg

 

[Whitechapel]

Sorry I didn't meant to be patronizing.

Did you, in fact, after all, find you are eating less?

As you know from your research the drug is not a laxative, anabolic steroid or HMGCoA reductase inhibitor. In which case the only way it can result in weight loss (in the absence of increased exercise) is if it makes you eat less.

Sorry for being a bit bitey there, I know you didn’t mean any harm by it.

Yeah, I’m definitely eating less. Snacking almost entirely cut out, smaller portions and I seem less impulsive when I am in a supermarket on the way home from work.

I’m starting from being very, very overweight so this weight is in theory the “easy” pounds to shed but quite excited going forward now.

 

[herecomesaregular]

I only know a little about this drug from meeting a close friend who is on Mounjaro (5mg going up to 7.5mg soon). Yes it does suppress appetite ,she wants to eat less often and eats smaller portions. Due to other mobility issues she is not able to exercise more. She's type 2 diabetic, with blood sugars still not well controlled/steady. The struggle with her is that because appetite is small and she wants small portion size it's difficult to get her to eat a meal which is still a good proportion of protein, carb and vegetables. Small meal often equals tea cake and a small yoghurt because she has no desire to eat. Or one and half weetabix. That's not a healthy diet. To be brutal she doesn't have the highest IQ and also some severe mental health problems so I'm really not convinced this is a long term solution (especially as you lose all benefits of the drug when you stop it?). She's lost a few pound her and there, maybe half stone overall in a few months.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Sorry for being a bit bitey there, I know you didn’t mean any harm by it.

Yeah, I’m definitely eating less. Snacking almost entirely cut out, smaller portions and I seem less impulsive when I am in a supermarket on the way home from work.

I’m starting from being very, very overweight so this weight is in theory the “easy” pounds to shed but quite excited going forward now.

No worries

I'm glad it's going well for you.

I have my concerns with this class of med when used for weight loss, but this is simply from the standpoint that I am a pharmacologist (with additional expertise in safety pharmacology - toxicity assessment) and understand that use of these agents for weight loss is under review by NICE, with 'actual' approval limited to very specific circumstances, including diabetes. That it is possible to obtain these drugs and use them is not enough for me to feel fully comfortable over their use purely to reduce weight in the absence of diabetes. I am not saying they will cause problems, just that they may and we don't yet know, outside of the diabetes framework.

So it would be very helpful if folk do what you have done and provide intermittent updates on benefits and any adverse effects .

Cheers!

 

[Smirko]

No worries

I'm glad it's going well for you.

I have my concerns with this class of med when used for weight loss, but this is simply from the standpoint that I am a pharmacologist (with additional expertise in safety pharmacology - toxicity assessment) and understand that use of these agents for weight loss is under review by NICE, with 'actual' approval limited to very specific circumstances, including diabetes. That it is possible to obtain these drugs and use them is not enough for me to feel fully comfortable over their use purely to reduce weight in the absence of diabetes. I am not saying they will cause problems, just that they may and we don't yet know, outside of the diabetes framework.

So it would be very helpful if folk do what you have done and provide intermittent updates on benefits and any adverse effects .

Cheers!

Slightly off topic, whats a Pharmacologist do and entail. Only asking as son is newly qualified (ish) Pharmacist and is already thinking about future career paths etc, wants to work in research/clinical if possible, don't know if that tallies with what you are/do? Thanks

 

[Whitechapel]

No worries

I'm glad it's going well for you.

I have my concerns with this class of med when used for weight loss, but this is simply from the standpoint that I am a pharmacologist (with additional expertise in safety pharmacology - toxicity assessment) and understand that use of these agents for weight loss is under review by NICE, with 'actual' approval limited to very specific circumstances, including diabetes. That it is possible to obtain these drugs and use them is not enough for me to feel fully comfortable over their use purely to reduce weight in the absence of diabetes. I am not saying they will cause problems, just that they may and we don't yet know, outside of the diabetes framework.

So it would be very helpful if folk do what you have done and provide intermittent updates on benefits and any adverse effects .

Cheers!

Yeah I do get that mate, they very well might end up having some adverse long term side effects but then being fat definitely has those so I’ll take the risk.

The only thing I’ll say which won’t alleviate your fears - when I filled out the online form to buy my first dose I typed in the name of my GP surgery, accidentally selected a surgery with the same name in Scotland. They didn’t realise until after I’d received my meds. Does suggest they aren’t checking that thoroughly with new customers really.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Slightly off topic, whats a Pharmacologist do and entail. Only asking as son is newly qualified (ish) Pharmacist and is already thinking about future career paths etc, wants to work in research/clinical if possible, don't know if that tallies with what you are/do? Thanks

Happy to help. I think that the best route into research is to do a PhD. That is another 3 or 4 years. On the plus side, these are funded and the student gets a stipend. No more fees and loans. There are unfunded PhD places but they are unfunded because they are crap so avoid those.

If this doesn't appeal then get a job as a hospital pharmacist and actively seek out research opportunities within the department.

Pharmacy like medicine is a profession, with national assessment standards and expectations. Pharmacology is a 'basic science'. I got a pharmacology BSc, which qualifies me to do nothing in particular except move on to the next level, PhD, which is where I went. Pharmacology is the science of how drugs work (actions on receptors like the beta receptor in the heart, use of animal models to study new drugs, etc.).

Pharmacists study pharmacology as part of their BPharm or MPharm (degree). I teach them a little bit about heart drugs, albeit this is very superficial compared with what we teach in the pharmacology BSc. Pharmacists study very little about a great deal of different things it seems.

Clinical pharmacists can work in the pharmaceutical industry. I would expect the person to have a PhD. They will be involved in considering a new drug's pharmacokinetics (how the body deals with the drug - absorption, metabolism etc.) and pharmaceutics (designing ways of administration, tabletting, injectables etc.). There are also legal aspects of pharmacy practice (about which I know nothing). So there are career opportunities.

The default career is working in a dispensary, counting pills, labelling stuff, checking that the right patient is getting the right drug. Basically, shopkeeper.

I worked in a dispensary as a teenager doing stuff I was not legally allowed to do. I became pals with one of the pharmacists (who gave me the double "LP Fill your head with rock" when he left, good lad). Of course I decided I would apply to study pharmacy. Kanti Patel (for it was he) told me to study pharmacology instead as I was curious about drug action. I wimped out, applied for pharmacy but failed maths A level. And got into pharmacology via clearing. Lucky boy! Pharmacy would have bored me.

We occasionally get pharmacy graduates in our department doing a PhD. One can shift right out of pharmacy and do a PhD in any biomedical discipline, physiology, biochemistry or pharmacology, depending on whims and interests. The pharmacy degree is a great job back up though, and some graduates do locum work to supplement income during a PhD.

Happy to chat by PM if you have more questions

 

[WSU Dilettante]

Just over a month since this thread was started so I’m wondering if there are updates from the people who are about a month in to their treatment.

I ended up biting the bullet and ordering some Mounjaro, partly due to the positive stories in this thread, although I hasten to add I had been doing research before this thread popped up so it wasn’t a spur of the moment type thing

I wasn’t sure it was having much effect over the month tbh, in fact there was one week where I thought I must have done my injection wrong as I was expecting more of a reaction than I had. I have tried to keep my weekly online shop fairly similar as taking a new drug and then massively changing my diet before claiming the drug is working seemed a bit silly. Over the month I’ve definitely slowly felt less hunger pangs so I told myself I’d stick with it for a couple more months even if I didn’t see any results when I weighed myself. However stepping on the scales this morning it turns out I’ve lost about 11 pounds in a month, which obviously I’m delighted with and shows that it obviously is working.

Side effect wise I can’t say I’ve noticed many. I’ve had sulfury burps a few days but apart from that I haven’t noticed anything, even when I’ve been out drinking the day before.

Interested to hear anyone else is finding it.

I would say my experience of Mounjaro is almost identical to yours.

I've been on it a little over a month, lost 11 lbs (6lbs in the first week, then a fairly steady 1-2lbs per week after that) and I haven't really changed my diet either. I wasn't sure it was doing anything for me because it wasn't really curbing my appetite or the 'food noise', and I've still been snacking.
Side effect wise, next to nothing. Some constipation and quite burpy, but thats it.

I had my first 5mg injection midweek and it is having more of an effect on my appetite. I couldn't finish my pre-game pie on friday night, my last 2 meals I've only eaten half the meal before feeling full.

I want to see better results so, I'm going to start being more proactive about cutting out the snacking and also adding more regular exercise (currently my only exercise is playing 6-a-side once a week, dog walking and climbing the stairs to the West Upper which is a challenge in itself!)

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

As with any new drug you'd hope / expect that "clinical trials" would ensure they are safe and have no unacceptable side-effects. In 1959 my mum was offered Thalidomide as she was suffering terrible morning sickness with me. Thank the Lord she didn't take it!! Now we have NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) here in the UK to help with this.

However, there is a notable cynicism of new medication, you only have to read some of the conspiracist theories on the COVID vaccine with many folk deciding not to put their trust in modern medicine.

Well, how nice to learn that sometimes new drugs are found to have positive side-effects. This thread discusses the topic of Semaglutide for weight-loss (aka Wegovy et al). Many on NSC will be aware I have been a Type 1 diabetic for some 35 years and am now just beginning to suffer some of the (expected?) side-effects of carrying elevated blood-sugar levels for all of this time. One such issue is excess body fat - my BMI has been > 30 for 15 years or so. So, for a while now I have taken a close interest in Diabetes science, particularly around weight management. I'm a subscriber to Diabetes UK and they spend most of their donations on medical research. I received my latest monthly newsletter and, although I'm not medically trained, take a specific interest in their Research Highlights section.

There is a section in this one [scroll-down a little to find it] that covers the subject of:

Semaglutide may lower the risk of Alzheimer’s in people with type 2​

If this is true, then the global rush for Semaglutide will just get stronger ....

I'm sure our resident medical chaps here on NSC will offer their wisdom on this, but just thought it would be nice to identify (possible) positive side-effects for a new(ish) drug for a change.