A woman who says Ozempic made her life hell is among a small group of patients who got stomach paralysis on the drug
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- Ozempic user Joanie Knight developed gastroparesis and told CNN the drug made her life hell.
- Experts say they are seeing more cases of gastroparesis, or stomach paralysis, in Ozempic users.
- When severe, the stomach condition can cause violent vomiting, nausea, stomach pain, and bloating.
A woman said that taking Ozempic made her life hell, costing her too much money, stress, and time for herself and her family.
"I wish I never touched it. I wish I'd never heard of it in my life," Joanie Knight, 37, from Louisana, told CNN.
Knight recalled that eating three skinny French fries and two or three pieces of chicken on her birthday in 2021 triggered an episode of violent vomiting. She had been taking Ozempic — a brand name of the drug semaglutide used to treat type 2 diabetes — for two years at the time.
Semalgutide was approved for weight loss by the FDA in 2021 under the name Wegovy and is part of a family of drugs known as GLP-1 agonists. They work by mimicking a naturally occurring hormone called GLP-1, which slows down the speed that food is emptied from the stomach, leaving you feeling fuller for longer.
After seeing a gastroenterologist, Knight was diagnosed with severe gastroparesis, or stomach paralysis, which her doctors believe could have resulted from or been exacerbated by the drug. She is one of a small group of patients who have experienced severe stomach paralysis symptoms after taking semalgutide, CNN reported.
Stomach paralysis makes food pass through the stomach slower
Gastroparesis, also known as delayed stomach emptying, is when food passes through the stomach slower than it should. Symptoms typically start after eating and include feeling full quicker than normal, nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, and bloating. It can be a complication of diabetes.
Knight said that going off Ozempic provided her with some relief, but the issues continued. She eventually had stomach bypass surgery because she was malnourished from not eating. Now she is able to eat a few bites of some of her favorite foods occasionally.
Nausea and vomiting are common side effects of the drug, but persistent vomiting is not normal, Dr. Linda Nguyen, who specializes in the treatment of stomach paralysis at Stanford University, told CNN.
She and other doctors specializing in the condition are reportedly hearing more stories like Knight's as weight-loss drugs continue to grow in popularity.
In one extreme case, a patient had to take time off work because of frequent vomiting and was once hospitalized due to dehydration caused by vomiting.
Cases like these are believed to be rare, and they may be a result of the drug unmasking or worsening an existing "slow stomach," doctors told CNN.
In a statement to CNN, the FDA said it had received reports of gastroparesis with semaglutide and liraglutide, another GLP-1 agonist, through its publicly accessible adverse events tracking system, but that there was not always enough information in the reports to evaluate them properly.
The agency 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.
Insider has contacted Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic and Wegovy, for comment. It told CNN: "Gastrointestinal (GI) events are well-known side effects of the GLP-1 class. For semaglutide, the majority of GI side effects are mild to moderate in severity and of short duration.
"GLP-1's are known to cause a delay in gastric emptying, as noted in the label of each of our GLP-1 RA medications. Symptoms of delayed gastric emptying, nausea and vomiting are listed as side effects."