How to prevent complications from weight loss drugs
HOUSTON - Popular weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro need to be taken exactly as prescribed. A doctor is sounding the alarm that emergency rooms are filling-up with patients who are dosing on their own.
We talked to Dr. Brandon Roberts, who is the Chief Medical Officer of Noire Telehealth, and he's also the Medical Advisor for Renew Body Contouring and MedSpa.
He warns that managing these drugs on your own can lead to catastrophic, even deadly consequences, leading from dangerously low blood sugar to severe bowel blockages.
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We'll start with the positive side of these medications.
"They clearly are the miracle drug of the decade. The benefits cannot be understated, from a cardiovascular standpoint to neurological, any way you want to look at it. The general public is obsessed with them because of their dramatic impact on weight loss. What the concern is, having worked in emergency departments across the Southwest, is that we routinely are seeing people who are getting access to these medications online, and not having appropriate supervision. What's happening is that people are escalating the dose too quickly because they're impressed with the benefits, and oftentimes they're not having the guidance that they should in looking at some of the complications. Then, they wind up in a more severe situation where they're coming in and develop complications such as ileus, which is a term for basically stoppage of the bowel. This can lead to other significant problems where you can actually permanently injure the gut and may require surgery," explains Dr. Roberts.
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What he wants everyone who's taking these drugs to understand - make sure you are going to the bathroom regularly. If you have any unusual symptoms, talk to your doctor!
"When you develop nausea or constipation, being two of them, or just the general abdominal pain, it would be very important to check-in with yourself. How long has this been going on? Then reach out to the provider that you are working with on your journey with weight loss and make sure to prevent a more serious complication. In addition, they can also dial back on the dose that you're on. It's responsible management and just not being overly aggressive with the desire for weight loss," states Dr. Roberts.
He explains that you need to never ignore signs of constipation.
"There are some over-the-counter medications that can be provided, particularly for constipation. There are certain dietary things that you can do to try to provide more lubrication for the bowel that will allow you to work around these potential complications," Dr. Roberts says. "I think that the bigger problem is more people coming in having developed gastroparesis, development of an ileus, for pancreatitis, and that these people will need to be hospitalized to help work through this complication from the medication. It's not that it's common. What is common is the number of people on the medication and so when you have that small group of people that are doing this without proper supervision, they can suffer the most serious complications."
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