Non-stop vomiting… exploding body parts… blindness. The devastating new Ozempic side effects bombshell that no one saw coming: JILLIAN MICHAELS

Have you noticed an uptick in gaunt faces, protruding cheek bones and sunken eyes in your neighborhood? 

All you had to do was scan the Grammys audience last Sunday to see a few more.

GLP-1 weight loss drugs have officially escaped the clinic and entered pop culture, used not just as medical interventions anymore, but as beauty shortcuts.

By now everyone knows the origin story of GLP-1 drugs. The medications were developed to treat dangerously overweight adults and those suffering from or at risk of type 2 diabetes. Some GLP-1 users struggle with multiple co-morbidities.

These life-threatening conditions — if left untreated — can wreak havoc on the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar, leading to blindness, loss of kidney function, poor circulation and even limb loss.

For these patients, GLP-1s — like Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy — can save lives. But I fear these medications, when not used for their intended purpose, have transformed from a necessary evil, in those instances… to just plain evil.

As we’ve all seen, the ill and obese are not the only people taking these drugs, which come with possible side-effects ranging from mild to severe.

No longer are patients risking the rare side-effects of GLP-1s, including kidney problems, stomach paralysis and pancreatitis, just to treat their diabetes.

Let’s be honest, people are risking these complications in the pursuit of vanity and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to pretend otherwise.

Oklahoma grandmother, JoHelen McClain, 72, told USA Today this month that she began taking Wegovy in 2023 for weight loss, dropping from 205 pounds to 165. Then, in March 2024, she was driving her granddaughter to softball when she heard a disconcerting pop.

‘My colon blew up. Literally blew up,’ she said.

A 63-year-old Maryland man, Todd Engel, took Ozempic to manage his diabetes. After four months, he claims he woke up with loss of vision in one eye. Nearly a year later, he lost sight in his other eye.

Both McClain and Engel are now suing – adding their cases to at least 4,400 state and federal challenges alleging that pharmaceutical companies failed to sufficiently warn them of the risk of serious injuries.

The drug companies named in these lawsuits refute the claims and are vowing to fight them in court. McClain, Engel and others will likely have to prove that their injuries were the results of the medication they took, so who knows how these cases will turn out. 

These horror stories might change the calculus for otherwise healthy people taking GLP-1s just to lose a little extra weight.

In January, an attorney for Novo Nordisk, maker of Wegovy, revealed in court that 75 percent of federal lawsuits related to weight loss drugs, include an allegation of gastroparesis, a condition where the stomach stops emptying food into the intestines and can cause severe vomting. 

Another one in five cases involved a claim that bowel muscles are failing. In addition, 18 percent say they have intestinal obstructions.

Are these potential conditions, if they are caused by GLP-1s, worth fitting into those jeans?

Now GLP-1s users are being warned potential side-effects may extend beyond the physical to the mental.

Specialists are claiming that GLP-1 drugs can trigger dormant eating disorders or create entirely new ones. That should not surprise anyone.

Let’s be honest, people are risking these complications in the pursuit of vanity and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to pretend otherwise

After four months of taking Ozempic to manage his diabetes, Todd Engel (right) claims he woke up with loss of vision in one eye. Nearly a year later, he lost sight in his other eye

These medications chemically suppress hunger, override normal satiety cues and facilitate extreme restrictions. For individuals with a history of disordered eating or even vulnerability to it, this sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

Public health experts have spent decades trying to dismantle a dominant culture that glorified extreme thinness and starvation, culminating in the heroin chic looks of the 90s. Now, that look is back: Ozempic chic. Except this time, it comes with a prescription.

And the potential complications don’t end there.

Rapid weight loss on GLP-1 drugs is increasingly linked to significant muscle loss which can damage your metabolism and reduce bone density, ultimately making you weaker, frailer, and more accident-prone.

Falls are already the leading cause of injury-related death for Americans over 65, yet the medical community seems to be prescribing fragility.

Even more troubling: multiple metanalyses of these medications suggests that GLP-1 users typically can’t get off the drugs without gaining weight back. That sounds like permanent drug dependence. No thanks!

Here’s the inconvenient truth: for otherwise healthy people, wellness does not come from a syringe.

Real, lasting health changes are developed by strengthening metabolic health, preserving and building muscle, addressing mental well-being and creating sustainable habits.

That’s slower. It’s harder. And it doesn’t create lifelong pharmaceutical customers. Which is exactly why these practices are under-prescribed and under-promoted.

Instead of pouring billions of dollars into marketing GLP-1 drugs to people who don’t have a bonafide medical need for them, imagine investing more in nutrition education, gym access, trauma-informed care and early metabolic screening. Imagine if the system incentivized doctors to heal, not manage symptoms indefinitely.

To the man or woman staring at their reflection in the mirror and wondering if GLP-1s are the answer, hear this: Ozempic is not an Advil. It is a powerful drug that changes biology and has potential physical and psychological adverse effects.

No number on a scale is worth your muscle, your mind or your wellness.

If you have a medical necessity, by all means, take GLP-1s.

But in the wrong hands, these drugs aren’t medicine.

They’re just more illness.