10 side effects of Ozempic and other weight loss drugs, Ozempic face is what a lot of people are talking about when they talk about Ozempic. And they sort of designate this as sort of the mark that someone is clearly taking this medication. For anyone who's taking these new weight loss medications, it is important to know that while they are very effective for many people, there are real side effects and potential risks.
Ozempic was the forefront of this class of drugs that have actually been around for some time. The generic name is semaglutide. There's a couple of brand name drugs that are semaglutide. So Ozempic and Wegovy. And it's a class of drugs called GLP-1 agonists, and then there's another very similar drug called tirzepatide more commonly known Mounjaro and Zepound.
And these are medications that were originally designed to help diabetic patients. So they helped treat diabetes. And a side effect that was noticed was that these patients started to lose a pretty significant amount of weight. You know, everyone refers to them as sort of the magic bullet for these issues. And that's not the case for every patient.
Everyone's a little bit different. Their tolerance for some of these side effects can be a little bit different. So the most common side effects are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and constipation. So these drugs are essentially once weekly injections. So most patients will see these effects within the first one to two days of taking the injection, and the side effects may alleviate over the course of the next week.
10 side effects of Ozempic and other weight loss drugs
So people have a tendency to feel a little bit better a few days after the medication is given. As the dose increases of this medication, you may see further side effects. This moniker has sort of developed and kind of caught traction in the media of "Ozempic face." The bottom line is ozempic will help you lose lot of weight in a relatively short period of time.
And when that happens, a lot of people will see that initial weight loss in their face first. So you may see these sort of sunken cheeks, more prominent cheekbones because of that. And some people, you know, depending on your genetics and your age and other factors, you may experience sort of looser skin where you had this sort of fullness before.
Ultimately, it's just a sign of anybody who's losing a significant amount of weight in a short period of time will sort of, it'll be visible in different ways. The phenomenon of hair loss after significant weight loss is absolutely real. Most patients will experience some hair loss depending on how much weight they lose over a period of time.
For many people, it can be pretty distressing. And that's totally understandable. Basically, losing a big amount of weight in a short period of time and having the sort of decreased levels of nutrition, at least temporarily, are really what caused the hair loss. It's typically reversible, sort of maximizing protein intake under the care of a physician, certainly, especially if you have kidney disease.
Dangers of Taking Ozempic for Weight Loss
That has to be sort of balanced. But there are some supplements and some medications. That can help with this. We've seen sort of these rare instances in patients that are on semaglutide and other GLP-1 agonists who develop pancreatitis after they've been on a GLP-1 agonist for some time. Studies have not shown a direct correlation, so there is no real link or causation.
It's relatively low risk. So if I had a patient, I would tell them, this is something to be aware of not something that should necessarily stop you from taking this medication, unless you have a medical issue or a chronic issue with pancreatitis previously, if you develop abdominal pain that's unexplained, that doesn't get better, that's something to definitely call your medical provider about.
And potentially would stop the medication while it's investigated. There is this risk of a specific type of thyroid cancer that is seen with these medications. The studies that show this correlation between taking the GLP-1 agonists and thyroid cancer were animal studies. So they did see an increased rate of these types of thyroid cancers in animals that were treated with this medication.
While it's not a perfect correlation to humans, it is something to be cautious of. So that's why there is this warning in people who have a family history or personal history of thyroid cancer, specifically medullary thyroid cancer. And also patients who have syndrome of thyroid cancer associated with other issues.
Its not recommended they take these medications because there is this potential risk of increasing the chance of getting this cancer. Certainly, diabetes control is one of these great effects of these drugs. The other secondary effects that have been pretty well studied are people with kidney disease. They help sort of limit the progression of kidney disease in diabetic patients and also serious cardiovascular side effects.
Diabetes is a disease that has a lot of bad effects, as many people know. And one of these things is that it can progress cardiovascular disease. So your arteries get hardened you're at increased risk of your high blood pressure getting worse and potentially having a heart attack or heart failure. So these medications will secondarily alleviate those risks for a significant portion of patients.
And there is this issue of people that are taking these medications purely for cosmetic reasons. And I think that, you know, having known what these side effects are, that there are real potential issues and also real significant benefits for patients who are sick and have medical issues and can really benefit from these medications, really points to the fact that they have a role and it's really not purely cosmetic.