I don’t know about you, but I feel I can’t go on the internet, turn the tv on or open a newspaper or magazine without being confronted with the latest headline on the latest weight loss injection. The incredible benefits of microdosing on Mounjaro! They’re the future in disease prevention! These are the side effects they don’t tell you about! During a recent dinner with friends, it was the big topic of the night. My colleagues are looking suspiciously great, I think they’re on Mounjaro! Would you take it? I’m not sure, would you? Knowing precious little about them, beyond the big headline notes, I couldn’t contribute much beyond, eh no, I’ll control my weight the old-fashioned way…diet and exercise. But is this a little short sighted? Are they worth considering as a long-term wellness strategy? I mean, the pounds are certainly getting stickier as the years progress, and my go to Louise Parker Method (link to Louise Parker Post) may soon be a relic of a bygone era when we had to consciously alter our food and exercise habits to see results on the scales. But, in order to form any sort of opinion, I thought it might be a good idea to get a little more clued up on what these jabs are all about.

Weight loss jabs have come into our consciousness in a similar fashion to a meteorite hitting earth: in a stratospheric explosion. They are both commercially lucrative and scientifically exciting. Weight loss injections were originally developed as treatments for type 2 diabetes. Semaglutide (active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy) and tirzepatide (used in Mounjaro), mimic the hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). This intestinal hormone plays a crucial role in regulating blood sugar and slows down digestion and so reduces appetite. The significant weight loss enjoyed as a side effect by those taking these drugs resulted in their approval for weight management. 1 Mounjaro also emulates a second hormone (GIP) and has been found to be even more effective than its competitors, with participants in the first head-to-head trial between Mounjaro and Wegovy 2 losing on average 20% of their body weight after 72 days of treatment. This was compared to 14% for those taking Wegovy. Its effectiveness has earned it the title King Kong of weight loss drugs. 3 And all of this is achievable from simply administering these drugs once a week using a pre-filled injector pen.

Beyond the obvious celebrities and influencers, over 500,000 people in the UK are now
taking either Mounjaro or Wegovy. But in order to do this safely and to have them
prescribed on the NHS, you require a Body mass Index (BMI) of 30 or 27 and above if you have a pre-existing medical condition. However, there is obviously significant interest and demand for these wonder drugs and Wegovy and Mounjaro can be bought privately at chemists and even some supermarkets. Pens cost between £200-£300 depending on the dose. But since February this year, online pharmacies now have to employ stricter checks in order to prevent people who are a healthy weight buying weight loss injections. 4 Having read some accounts of those with a healthy BMI who managed to buy these drugs online, I’d strongly recommend you don’t do this! Symptoms included D&V, dehydration, lethargy and the general side effects of your body going into a starvation process! 5 Hospitalisation and IV fluids don’t sound that appealing to me.

Taken correctly, in addition to exceptional weight loss, these jabs have incredibly been linked to a reduction in risk of 42 conditions, including dementia, regardless of whether or not the patient suffers diabetes. Having watched my mother and maternal grandmother suffer through dementia, this is worth sitting up for. It’s also thought they could halve the risk of obesity-related cancers. While losing weight alone can reduce these risks, weight loss injections have been found to have an even greater protective effect than simply losing weight. So there’s now a real hope they could also be a leading light in cancer prevention. It’s just early days.

However, as well as the benefits of weight loss drugs, there are some cons to consider and not all the risks associated with their use have been fully evaluated. But of the known side effects, some have received more attention than others! We’ve all heard about celebrities and their bathroom disasters! As well as this and nausea and muscle loss, other rarer side effects include acute gallstone disease and pancreatitis. Women taking these drugs have recently been warned about the potential danger they present to unborn babies and there are also concerns they reduce the effectiveness of oral contraception. These are basically new drugs, and all side effects will only be known as use and time increase. Then there’s the question of what happens once you stop taking these drugs? Many people regain some of the weight they have lost and have to rely on old fashioned healthy lifestyle habits to help limit this. So there is the real risk of relapsing into old ways. This is especially interesting, as long-term effectiveness and safety studies for drugs such as tirzepatide in Mounjaro suggest their use be limited to a maximum of 2 years.

So having known precious little about these drugs, after a some digging I now feel a little more clued up. Hopefully you do too! When friends with no significant weight issues have seriously considered and have actually gone on the pen, I of course have questioned my sanity in slogging it out the old-fashioned way of diet and exercise. Especially as this seems even harder now than it was in my thirties. But when you take all the facts into account, unless you come within the medical criteria for taking these jabs, is it worth the associated risks for what is a potentially short term-solution to a life-long issue? Once you’ve had the rush of excitement of the pounds melting away, there’s the maintenance to think about. And if you’ve gotten out the way of exercising, suffered muscle loss and have relied on the jabs to supress your appetite, are the old foes of diet and exercise going to bite even harder in the aftermath? Of course if you’re starting from the legitimate stand point of having to
shed significant weight, this is an exceptional opportunity to achieve and sustain a healthier lifestyle. But if it’s a vanity project, it’s one that requires some serious thought. So I think for now, it’s a definite no from me to going on the pen. But this feels like just the beginning in an exceptionally exciting new era for medicine from which we may all benefit at some point in the future.