Semaglutide drugs are all the rage for weight loss these days. You know them by the brand names Ozempic and Mounjaro.
Originally developed to help patients with Type 2 Diabetes, the drugs are prescribed more often now for weight loss in people who are not diabetic. Semaglutide works by altering the body’s chemistry in a way that dampens appetite so that people naturally eat less and thus lose weight.
But doctors and patients are just beginning to see the potentially dire consequences of the drug if it is not used and monitored carefully. A 62-year-old man in the UK is in very bad shape after a course of Mounjaro left him with thyrotoxicosis. This is when the thyroid goes into overdrive and produces too much of its hormone.
The consequences for this man, who is now in the hospital, have been severe. While he did lose nearly eighty pounds on the medication, it appears that his weight loss was too rapid. The unidentified patient was left with heart palpitations, severe sweating, mental fog, shaking hands, and more. He was so alarmed he drove himself to the emergency room at the hospital.
The man was a Type 1 Diabetic. Type 1 Diabetes is also known as “insulin-dependent,” and it describes someone whose pancreas makes little or no insulin, thus requiring injections of the hormone to metabolize sugar. Type 2 Diabetes, by contrast, is also known as “insulin resistance.” The patient’s pancreas produces insulin, but excess weight and bad diet weaken the body’s ability to effectively use it. Some Type 2 patients also have to inject artificial insulin.
Hospitals tests showed the man had atrial fibrillation, which is when the heart beats too quickly and too irregularly. It often produces few detectable symptoms, but it can be fatal. The tests also revealed thyrotoxicosis, which is likely the cause of the other symptoms.
Doctors warn that semaglutide users must be monitored closely, especially in the first few months of treatment. The patient in question was slowly upping his dose of the drug on doctor’s orders, but had missed some check-ins for crucial tests.
