[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.