Ozempic Linked to Elevated Danger of Blindness

Ozempic and Wegovy, which comprise the glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) semaglutide, proceed to be blockbuster medicine for Danish pharmaceutical large Novo Nordisk. A Might 2024 report from Forbes famous that the corporate’s general gross sales doubled in comparison with the earlier 12 months, accumulating a whopping $1.35 billion.¹

Whereas these choices could appear handy, the fixation on weight reduction “magic bullets” could also be doing extra hurt than good. Printed analysis² has proven that semaglutide can improve your danger of great gastrointestinal adversarial occasions. One current research suggests these medicine can put your imaginative and prescient in danger, too.

Ozempic Might Improve Your Danger of Blindness

In a retrospective research³ printed by JAMA Ophthalmology on July 3, 2024, researchers counsel there’s an affiliation between semaglutide consumption and non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) amongst Sort 2 diabetics and/or overweight and chubby individuals.

For context, NAION is a situation marked by lack of blood circulate to the optic nerve, which is the neural pathway connecting your eyes to your mind. As soon as blood circulate is disrupted, blindness (with out ache) can all of a sudden happen. In keeping with Brightman and Ladies’s Hospital, NAION causes “vital lack of imaginative and prescient in a single eye instantly waking up within the morning,” and that the loss stays steady as soon as it happens.⁴

Within the JAMA Ophthalmology research, the authors chosen papers printed from December 1, 2017, to November 30, 2023 with a complete of 16,827 individuals. From this inhabitants, 710 had been recognized with Sort 2 diabetes, and 194 of them had been prescribed semaglutide. Furthermore, 979 had been chubby or overweight, and from this quantity, 361 had been prescribed semaglutide.⁵

After accounting for covarying elements equivalent to gender, age, systemic hypertension and hyperlipidemia, researchers decided the cumulative frequency of NAION from the inhabitants. Outcomes confirmed that within the Sort 2 diabetic subset, 17 NAION occasions occurred. Within the chubby/overweight subset, 20 NAION occasions had been recorded.⁶

Utilizing a mannequin to calculate the danger of creating NAION, the evaluation confirmed startling outcomes. Semaglutide can considerably improve your danger of NAION in comparison with different standard drugs for diabetes and weight problems. In keeping with the researchers, utilizing this drug will make you 4.28 instances extra prone to develop NAION for those who’re diabetic, and seven.64 instances extra doubtless for those who’re chubby/overweight.⁷

Word, nevertheless, that the research was observational. “Future research is required to evaluate causality,” the researchers stated, as they did not go into the specifics of how semaglutide can result in NAION. Nevertheless, the research nonetheless has deserves — all NAION instances prescribed with semaglutide had been confirmed by skilled neuro-ophthalmologists. To their information, this research is the primary to take a look at the hyperlink between semaglutide and NAION.⁸

A Nearer Look Into the Hyperlink Between Semaglutide and Retinopathy

Whereas the JAMA Ophthalmology research was the primary to analyze the hyperlink between semaglutide and NAION, it is not the primary occasion different researchers found a hyperlink between semaglutide and eye injury, particularly within the context of diabetic neuropathy.

For instance, a 2023 research⁹ printed in Diabetologia famous that in the course of the trial section of semaglutide (again in 2016), the drug was noticed to extend the danger of retinopathy, particularly once you’re already diabetic. In one other research,¹⁰ semaglutide was linked to considerably greater charges of retinopathy issues, equivalent to blindness and vitreous hemorrhage.

What are the elements contributing to this complication? In keeping with a research printed within the World Journal of Diabetes, uncontrolled Sort 2 diabetes could also be a contributing issue when semaglutide is taken. Specifics embrace longer diabetes length, greater preliminary HbA1c within the blood and better insulin-treatment fee when the trials started.¹¹ Briefly, for those who’re already chronically diabetic, taking Ozempic can considerably improve your danger for retinopathy.

Curiously, the research highlights the essential position of intestine well being with managing diabetes, and the way a wholesome intestine could assist decrease the danger of diabetic retinopathy:¹²

“Intestine dysbiosis, i.e., the continual disequilibrium inside the many alternative microbial colonies, appears related to a number of inflammatory/metabolic ailments and central nervous system (CNS) problems, together with retinopathy as an expression of the rising idea of the so-called ‘microbiota-retina axis.’

Certainly, as longstanding diabetes is related not solely with retinopathy but in addition with vital intestinal dysbiosis, related modifications within the bacterial inhabitants would possibly set off the onset of retinopathy by way of their affect on the lipid content material of each retinal and CNS tissues …”

Inhibiting Your GLP-1 Receptor Might Have Different Aspect Results

Taking GLP-1RAs will be disastrous to your well being. A 2021 research¹³ printed within the Journal of Investigative Drugs famous that that these medicine can improve your danger of gastroparesis (abdomen paralysis), a situation that slows or stops the motion of meals out of your abdomen to the small gut.

The research offered two sufferers. The primary is a 52-year-old lady with well-controlled diabetes. She visited the clinic of the researchers, hoping to unravel her post-meal epigastric ache, which was marked by fullness, bloating and nausea. Upon tracing her medical historical past, they found that she had been taking semaglutide injections for a month earlier than her signs appeared.¹⁴

After testing, it was found that semaglutide brought on delayed gastric emptying. Consequently, the drug was stopped for six weeks, and one other spherical of checks confirmed that gastric emptying improved.¹⁵

The second affected person, a 57-year-old feminine, had the same case. She had Sort 2 diabetes for 16 years and had been taking weekly dulaglutide (one other GLP-1RA) injections for 15 months. Exams revealed that the drug brought on delayed gastric emptying, and stopping the injections normalized gastric motion.¹⁶

One other research,¹⁷ printed in JAMA, famous that along with gastroparesis, GLP-1RAs may also improve the danger of biliary illness, pancreatitis and bowel obstruction. EudraVigilance, the European Drugs Company’s system for monitoring adversarial reactions in medicine, additionally famous metabolic, dietary, urinary, cardiac and eye problems related to semaglutide.¹⁸

Different printed research have linked GLP-1RAs within the improvement of pancreatic carcinoma¹⁹ and acute kidney accidents.²⁰ Rodent research have additionally proven Wegovy to trigger thyroid C-cell tumors at doses just like these utilized in people and is a contraindication for sufferers with a historical past of medullary thyroid carcinoma.²¹ Furthermore, Wegovy’s product label warns customers of the next adversarial reactions:²²

Enhance Your GLP-1 Receptor As an alternative By means of Polyphenol-Wealthy Meals

Going again into the position of your intestine microbiome, boosting GLP-1 expression, as an alternative of inhibiting it, could also be higher for weight reduction. A technique to do that is by colonizing your intestine with Akkermansia muciniphila, a kind of micro organism that naturally secretes a GLP-1-inducing protein. Researchers famous in a research printed within the journal Nature Microbiology:

“A. muciniphila will increase thermogenesis and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) secretion in high-fat-diet (HFD)-induced C57BL/6J mice by induction of uncoupling protein 1 in brown adipose tissue and systemic GLP-1 secretion.”

The significance of Akkermansia in supporting intestine well being can’t be emphasised sufficient. In my interview with Georgi Dinkov, I clarify why Akkermansia is such a keystone species. Nevertheless, many individuals lack this particular microbe, which I consider is attributable to inadequate vitality manufacturing, leading to oxygen leakage into the intestine.

Sure meals, notably these wealthy in polyphenols, can nourish the expansion of Akkermansia in your intestine and help general well being. Wholesome sources embrace berries, broccoli, apples, ginger, onions, inexperienced tea and carrots.²³ A research²⁴ printed within the Worldwide Journal of Molecular Sciences explains why Akkermansia is linked to higher well being:

“Akkermansia muciniphila is a mucosal symbiont thought-about a intestine microbial marker in wholesome people, as its relative abundance is considerably lowered in topics with intestine irritation and metabolic disturbances.

Dietary polyphenols can distinctly stimulate the relative abundance of A. muciniphila, contributing to the attenuation of a number of ailments, together with weight problems, Sort 2 diabetes, inflammatory bowel ailments, and liver injury.”

Nature Already Has Its Personal Ozempic

A naturally occurring compound present in goldenseal, barberry, Oregon grape and tree turmeric, berberine has been dubbed as “nature’s Ozempic” due to its means to help weight reduction naturally.²⁵ In keeping with a research printed in Molecules,²⁶ its properties could assist with the administration of Sort 2 diabetes, weight problems, atherosclerosis, most cancers and cardiovascular issues. The researchers define how these advantages happen:

“It positively contributes to elevated ranges of fasting, postprandial blood glucose, and glycosylated hemoglobin, whereas lowering insulin resistance. It stimulates glycolysis, bettering insulin secretion and inhibits gluconeogenesis and adipogenesis within the liver; by lowering insulin resistance, berberine additionally improves ovulation.

The antiobesity motion of berberine has been additionally well-documented. Berberine acts as an anti-sclerotic, reducing the LDL and testosterone ranges. The alkaloid displays an anti-inflammatory property by stalling the expression of cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) and prostaglandin E2.”

These findings have been verified in different printed analysis as effectively. In keeping with one systematic overview, berberine could assist regulate blood sugar ranges and enhance insulin sensitivity.²⁷ This is a vital issue as a result of insulin resistance is intently linked to weight acquire and weight problems, and addressing these could enhance insulin sensitivity, and thus, weight reduction.²⁸

One other research²⁹ printed in Frontiers in Mobile and An infection Microbiology discovered that berberine could assist “alleviate the pathological situations of metabolic problems, and the mechanism is expounded to the regulation of intestine microbiota.” Furthermore, berberine’s means to control the intestine microbiota could increase its absorption.

Reduce Linoleic Acid Consumption for Higher, Lengthy-Time period Outcomes

I consider that the elusive magic bullet for weight reduction the world is chasing won’t exist in our lifetime. Because the proof has proven, counting on medicine that alter your physique’s important capabilities places you prone to debilitating well being points. And when you get off Ozempic/Wegovy, you are prone to acquire again the load you’ve got misplaced. In keeping with a report,³⁰ most individuals who cease semaglutide injections regain two-thirds of misplaced weight — a phenomenon often known as “Ozempic rebound.”

For safer, more healthy weight reduction, it is vital to handle one of many largest elements presently driving the weight problems epidemic — extra consumption of linoleic acid (LA). It is an omega-6 fats present in seed oils extensively utilized in cooking. Outstanding examples embrace soybean, cottonseed, sunflower, rapeseed (canola), corn and safflower oil.³¹

Along with avoiding any meals cooked or made with these oils, ditch the processed meals, quick meals and restaurant meals. For those who completely should exit to have a meal, take a look at the Templeton Checklist,³² which lists eating places recognized for his or her more healthy meals choices. They think about standards equivalent to regionally sourced, sustainable substances and utilization of wholesome oils in cooking.

Lastly, I like to recommend minimizing your LA consumption to beneath 5 grams (and even higher, beneath 2 grams) per day, which is analogous to what our ancestors’ consumption earlier than the widespread look of continual well being situations plaguing trendy society immediately. To study extra concerning the hazard of LA, learn my article “Linoleic Acid — The Most Damaging Ingredient in Your Weight loss plan.“