Gallbladder problems have happened in some people who take Ozempic®. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get symptoms which may include: pain in your upper stomach (abdomen), fever, yellowing of the skin or eyes (jaundice), or clay-colored stools.
Ozempic can cause other digestive side effects, such as gas, burping, bloating, diarrhea, and constipation. These side effects may affect your belly pain. Belly pain can also be a symptom of pancreatitis (inflammation of your pancreas). This is a rare but serious side effect of Ozempic.
Common Side Effects of Ozempic
“The most common side effects are gastrointestinal in nature: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and constipation.” While the majority of people who take Ozempic will most likely experience these symptoms at some point during their treatment, they should subside over time, continues Dr. McGowan.
Other serious side effects of Ozempic include thyroid tumors, pancreatitis, changes in vision, hypoglycemia, gallbladder issues, kidney failure and cancer. The most severe complications Shah sees in her patients are pancreatitis and gallbladder issues — either can lead to hospitalization.
How Long Can You Stay on Ozempic (semaglutide)? A person can stay on Ozempic® so long as they are tolerating the medication and it is deemed appropriate by their treating provider. There is no specific time frame when someone should stop taking Ozempic as it is a medication that is intended for chronic (long-term) use.
The drugs also come with a warning that they may increase the risk of thyroid cancer, acute pancreatitis, gallbladder disease, low blood sugar, kidney injury, damage to the eye's retina and suicidal thinking or behavior.
Some individuals may actually gain more weight after stopping an obesity drug than they initially lost, Conde-Knape added. Studies have similarly shown weight rebound in people who stop taking Ozempic.
You'll need to stay on the drug to keep seeing weight loss effects from Ozempic. If you stop taking it, you will most likely regain the weight you've lost.
Gastrointestinal side effects from Ozempic are common, but manageable. They include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and constipation.
Ozempic stimulates the release of insulin and lowers blood sugar. When you abruptly stop using it, the amount of glucose in your body can spike, especially if you have diabetes. Some may end up in the ER due to sheer exhaustion from the blood sugar spikes and crashes.
For most people, the nausea was mild and temporary. You're more likely to have nausea when you first start Ozempic treatment or after your doctor increases your dose. For most people, this side effect goes away within a few days or weeks.
What happens when you stop taking Ozempic? Weight loss caused by GLP-1 agonist drugs is not always permanent. In clinical trials, people who stopped taking semaglutide regained the majority of their prior weight loss within a year.
Teresa Shepherd said she lost 90 pounds while taking an off-brand version of the drug Ozempic for around eight months. Shepherd, who lives in Florida, told " Good Morning America" she has been able to maintain her weight loss two months after stopping the medication.
Treatment with Ozempic demonstrated meaningful weight loss for up to 2 years compared to a placebo or other diabetes treatments.
Will Ozempic or Wegovy reduce belly fat? The answer appears to be yes. That Novo Nordisk-funded study of almost 2,000 overweight or obese adults without diabetes also found their visceral fat — the type that accumulates in the belly — was reduced from baseline with semaglutide, along with their total fat mass.
One theory is that the drug can reduce your appetite, so you may start eating fewer calories and therefore your body has less fuel and will feel tired as a result. It may also affect your sleep, which can tank your energy levels.
For people who are trying to lose weight, whether or not they need to, Ozempic will flush out of your body and you'll go back to where you were, Sadhu said. There's no withdrawal and you don't need to taper off the drug, although you may feel hungry again and regain the weight.
Ideally, you should not take Ozempic if you do not have diabetes, or if you're pregnant, breastfeeding, or planning on becoming pregnant. Ozempic may cause serious (but rare) side effects, including thyroid C-cell tumors and medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC).
Takeaways. Ozempic is a long-term medication used to control blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes. It is a once-weekly injection using a prefilled Ozempic pen. If you take too much Ozempic, you could develop severe hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).
The Ozempic lawsuits claim Ozempic semaglutide injections can cause acute gallbladder disease. Our law firm is investigating cases where individuals have developed acute gallbladder disease after using Ozempic—especially at higher doses, for longer durations, and for weight loss.
For those on the drug, Rubin recommends increasing your intake of lean protein such as chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, beans, soy and low-fat dairy.