Stunning tales of people that went blind after taking Ozempic and Mounjaro – The Instances of India

Billed via many as miracle medication for its speedy ends up in weight reduction, the ‘silver bullet’ Ozempic and its cousins have now been connected to imaginative and prescient impairment and blindness, in a rising collection of circumstances.
Weight reduction medication like Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Zepbound have modified hundreds of thousands of lives via serving to other folks shed further kilos and succeed in a wholesome weight bracket, thus reversing many persistent sicknesses. Whilst this turns out virtually magical and holds an excellent promise for decreasing alarming ranges of weight problems international, one of the horrifying and irreversible unwanted side effects of the medication have come below the scanner. One among them is unexpected and everlasting imaginative and prescient loss, which could have a life-altering end result for other folks.
A learn about two months again revealed in JAMA Ophthalmology talks about 9 sufferers who advanced severe optic nerve-related prerequisites after taking semaglutide or tirzepatide, which is the lively factor in maximum weight reduction medication to be had lately.A up to date document within the New York Put up talks concerning the devastating imaginative and prescient lack of James Norris, a 56-year-old mechanic from Roxbury, New Jersey. All the time suffering with weight reduction, Norris determined to take a look at weight problems drug Mounjaro in March 2023, impressed via his spouse’s exceptional 60-pound transformation at the similar medicine. His previous makes an attempt at losing a few pounds thru vitamin and workout did not translate in effects, and weighing 289 kilos, Norris in point of fact idea that the drug used to be a very easy choice to shed some fast kilos. Inside a yr, Norris misplaced 89 kilos and used to be in a position to prevent taking medicine for hypertension and ldl cholesterol, which gave the look to be an encouraging development.

Whilst to start with he used to be on 1.5 milligrams dose – a reasonably low dose – issues modified abruptly for him when the dose used to be greater to two.5 milligrams. To his wonder, he awoke with a clouded imaginative and prescient in his left eye one morning. Two weeks later, his proper eye changed into blurry too. To start with, he pushed aside it as a imaginable sinus an infection, however after a chain of clinical checks, a neuro-ophthalmologist identified him with non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) — a situation wherein a unexpected lack of blood float to the optic nerve reasons irreversible imaginative and prescient harm.
“I used to be devastated,” he mentioned. “It’s extraordinarily uncommon to get NAION in each eyes.” Whilst Norris discontinued Mounjaro, he now struggles with day by day duties. Now not in a position to do hands-on-work, he’s now compelled to do administrative paintings. He believes the dangers related to those drugs, in particular at upper doses, don’t seem to be definitely worth the doable advantages.What research say about Ozempic blindness

A learn about revealed in JAMA Ophthalmology on January 30, 2025, via physician-scientists from the College of Utah’s John A. Moran Eye Middle reviewed 9 sufferers who advanced severe optic nerve-related prerequisites after taking semaglutide (the lively factor in Ozempic and Wegovy) or tirzepatide (utilized in Mounjaro and Zepbound).
Seven of the sufferers reported signs in line with NAION, whilst others skilled optic nerve irritation (papillitis) or a situation referred to as paracentral acute heart maculopathy, which will purpose blind spots.

This analysis follows a July 2024 learn about from Harvard’s Mass Eye and Ear clinic, which discovered that diabetics taking those medication had a fourfold greater possibility of growing NAION, whilst obese or overweight folks taking them only for weight reduction confronted a sevenfold possibility build up.
In some other learn about, diabetes sufferers the usage of Ozempic had been discovered to be over two times as prone to broaden a unprecedented eye situation referred to as NAION in comparison to the ones taking different diabetes drugs, in keeping with researchers who analyzed years of affected person knowledge from Denmark and Norway. If the danger stays constant over the years, a sort 2 diabetes affected person taking Ozempic for twenty years would face a nil.3% to 0.5% chance of growing NAION, in keeping with a non-peer reviewed learn about revealed Thursday on medRxiv.
Extra horror storiesThe New York Put up document mentions extra circumstances of weight reduction medication inflicting imaginative and prescient loss in other folks. Michael Sabellico, 1 60-year-old took Ozempic in March 2024 to regulate his Sort 2 diabetes and drop pounds. Weighing 185 kilos on the time, he to start with misplaced weight effectively. However after 8 weeks on a 1.5 mg dose, he awoke one morning not able to peer obviously. He used to be identified with NAION. At the moment, there used to be no right kind analysis across the hyperlink between NAION and Ozempic, so docs if truth be told greater his Ozempic dose to higher arrange his blood sugar. He in spite of everything stopped taking Ozempic in Would possibly 2024, however via then, the wear and tear used to be accomplished. He now has 20/70 imaginative and prescient in his left eye and 20/30 in his proper.
Cheryl Bovee, a 56-year-old from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has already filed a lawsuit towards Novo Nordisk, the producer of Ozempic, for what she calls “misleading and deceptive” advertising and marketing that downplayed the dangers of the drug.

Bovee, who used Ozempic as prescribed for diabetes control, is now legally blind after growing NAION. “I will be able to now not paintings. I will be able to now not pressure. I must be cautious simply strolling round my block. I will be able to’t see at evening,” she mentioned.
A widow, she had envisioned a retirement spent touring and taking part in time together with her circle of relatives. Now, she worries about shedding her independence fully.
“All of my hopes and goals had been dashed,” she mentioned. “I now not have the hope of seeing my grandchildren’s faces obviously.”
Regardless of the rising collection of circumstances, the reputable web pages for Ozempic and Mounjaro listing “adjustments in imaginative and prescient” as a possible facet impact, however none explicitly point out NAION.
Inside of Ozempic: Does the drug in point of fact lend a hand in weight reduction and what are its imaginable unwanted side effects?

Author: OpenAI