Summary

A new study links GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic to serious eye conditions, including nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), which can lead to blindness.

Researchers reviewed nine cases where patients developed vision problems after starting semaglutide or similar medications.

While the study does not prove causation, scientists suspect the drugs may contribute to these issues by rapidly lowering blood sugar or affecting optic nerve cells.

Experts call for more research and suggest that adjusting dosage rates might help mitigate potential risks for high-risk patients.

  • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Awww man. We can’t have magic drugs in our cyberpunk future? Hopefully they nail down what’s going on.

    • EvacuateSoul@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      It’s a 9-person study. This is like the articles about bone density loss for these drugs (same as losing significant weight any other way, mitigated by exercise).

      These articles blow up and are widely shared due to our thirst for comeuppance, that people taking a “shortcut” will end up getting cancer someday and look like fools.

      I believe these drugs aren’t without risk and these links should be studied, but it would have to be orders of magnitude more prevalent to offset the good it’s done.

      I find the kneejerk cravings for scary downsides to be on par with Big Tobacco vape messaging or vaccine skepticism, and, at its root, I think it has some Puritanical holier-than-thou elements since the fatties didn’t suffer or risk enough.

      Edit: This isn’t directed at the scientists, rather the concern trolling on social media.

    • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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      11 months ago

      Right, my thought was close, “oh no, you mean to tell me the definitely-too-good-to-be-true drug turned out to be too good to be true”? I’m shocked, shocked!

    • prettybunnys@sh.itjust.worksBanned
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      11 months ago

      I mean this with all curiosity.

      Isn’t this a “stop a certain behavior and things get better” kind of thing?

      • Dharma Curious (he/him)@slrpnk.net
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        11 months ago

        It’s not, no. I’ve cut out basically all sugars. My A1C won’t go down. I start insulin once I get paid and can afford the prescription. So far ozempic is the only thing that has helped. It even allows me to be able to eat bread and pasta again, whereas before I had had to cut it out entirely, along with everything else that brought me any joy.

        • prettybunnys@sh.itjust.worksBanned
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          11 months ago

          Isn’t this typically a lifestyle issue and obesity related?

          Are you a type 1 diabetic?

          My ask is does a health professional not say “diet and exercise is the first line choice to solve this problem”

          It was a trick question: sat in my GPs office and we had this discussion juuuuust yesterday because I was curious about these drugs. Funny enough he said he prefers it to be kept for folks who are biologically incapable of naturally lowering their A1C as opposed to the new fad of this over diet and exercise.

          The safest way to lower your A1C is with weight loss through diet and exercise, but I suppose “wonder drugs with nebulous and unknown side effects are quicker”

    • Krazore@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      These side effects are almost always from abuse, meaning high dosages or taking it for too prolonged of a period. You can also wreck your pancreas and make your TSH/LSH levels so low that they don’t show up on blood exams if you have a massive bolus dose. If you’re being responsible and taking it appropriately you should be fine.

  • MudMan@fedia.io
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    11 months ago

    Man, can you believe anglophones went with “eye doctors” as a thing they say with a straight face? So weird.

    • Aedis@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Ophthalmologist is a hard word.

      Edit: also they went with “ear nose and throat doctor” instead of the word that just rolls off the tongue: otorhinolaryngologist

      • chingadera@lemmy.worldBanned
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        11 months ago

        Yeah so every once in awhile I’ll stutter when I’m speaking.

        I’ve never had a problem stuttering in my own head, but I just had that problem no less than 10 times reading your comment.

      • Dharma Curious (he/him)@slrpnk.net
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        11 months ago

        My only issue with that word is I can never remember how the first g is pronounced. LarynGAWLogist it larynJAWLogist. It trips me up. Long ass words and pronunciation is not something I generally have a problem with, I had speech issues as a kid, and also had a super thick southern accent, and in my preteens I worked hard to make sure my pronunciation was on point and worked to change my accent. But that word in particular just fucks me up every time.