Ozempic side-effects:
The array of side effects are one of the reasons why it’s important to be issued the right dose and be monitored by a doctor or pharmacist. These can include nausea, cramping, diarrhoea, acid reflux, vomiting and constipation, as well as – less commonly – hair loss, heartburn and swelling at the site of injection. There is also a slight increased risk of pancreatitis, hypoglycemia and thyroid cancer, and it’s important to stay hydrated to avoid kidney issues.
Of course, for the medication to receive NICE and FDA approval it would have been rigorously tested for safety. However, while Dr Ahmet Ergin, endocrinologist and founder of the diabetes and lifestyle channel SugarMD, has not seen major complications in patients, he notes that the drug is relatively new. ‘There’s no way of saying long-term risks, unless we use the medications for 20 years and then look back retrospectively and find problems,’ he explains.
Indeed, other seemingly miracle weight loss solutions have left a bitter taste. In the past six decades there have been more than two dozen approved, only for some unsavoury side effects to come to light – including heart valve damage, strokes and a fatal lung condition called primary pulmonary hypertension. One of these, an amphetamine-based weight-loss drug, Tenuate Dospan, was linked to short-term ‘anxiety, insomnia and delusions of grandeur’ and long-term psychosis.
The latest alleged iteration of the ‘Kardashian effect’ – which we’ve come to know via lip filler and shapewear – is a global shortage of semaglutide, to the point where some type 2 diabetes sufferers are struggling to get hold of it.
Novo Nordisk has recently announced shortages in the UK and US due to ‘overwhelming demand’. Supplies haven’t been helped, notes Dr Ergin, by the pandemic and that it is ‘a very labor intensive, high-technology medication [to be manufactured]’.