Joanie Knight has a message for anyone considering drugs like Ozempic or Wegovy, which have become popular for the dramatic weight loss they can help people achieve.
“I wish I never touched it. I wish I’d never heard of it in my life,” said Knight, 37.
The diabetes drug Ozempic, and its sister drug for weight loss, Wegovy, utilize the same medication, semaglutide. These and other drugs in this family, which includes medications like tirzepatide and liraglutide, work by mimicking a hormone that’s naturally made by the body, GLP-1. One of the roles of GLP-1 is to slow the passage of food through the stomach, which helps people feel fuller longer.
If the stomach slows down too much, however, that can cause problems.
Knight and [Emily] Wright have been diagnosed with severe gastroparesis, or stomach paralysis, which their doctors think may have resulted from or been exacerbated by the medication they were taking, Ozempic.
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Wright said she has also been diagnosed with cyclic vomiting syndrome, which causes her to throw up multiple times a day.
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The FDA said it has been unable to determine whether the medications were the cause or if the gastroparesis may have been caused by a different issue.
