Tright here’s no query that the wildly in style injectable weight-loss medicine assist folks drop kilos, decrease heart-disease threat, handle obstructive sleep apnea, and extra. However as extra folks use these medicine, which goal hormones together with GLP-1, docs are studying extra in regards to the potential downsides, as nicely.
Within the newest examine revealed on MedRxiv—a website that hosts early analysis not but peer reviewed by specialists—scientists in Canada report that utilizing GLP-1 medicine can contribute to a better threat of hair loss, particularly amongst ladies.
Dr. Mohit Sodhi, a resident in emergency drugs at College of British Columbia, and his colleagues analyzed information from simply over 1,900 individuals who have been prescribed semaglutide and 1,300 who have been prescribed bupropion-naltrexone—an older weight problems remedy often called Contrave. Semaglutide is the compound within the medicine Ozempic, which treats diabetes, and Wegovy, which treats weight problems. Sodhi centered solely on folks taking Wegovy to deal with obese or weight problems to keep away from any potential confounding results of diabetes on hair loss.
He and his staff then in contrast the diagnoses for hair loss in these sufferers’ medical data and located that these prescribed semaglutide had a 50% greater threat of being recognized with a hair-loss situation in comparison with these prescribed Contrave. That threat was twice as excessive for girls as for males.
Learn Extra: The Well being Dangers and Advantages of Weight-Loss Medication
How Weight Loss Medication Work
Whereas it’s not clear why semaglutide is linked to larger hair loss than older weight-loss medicine, Sodhi says scientists have some theories. The primary pertains to the physiological stress that the physique goes by means of underneath the affect of semaglutide. The drug contributes to a better share of body-mass weight reduction in comparison with earlier weight-loss medicines, and accomplishes this extra shortly. “As a result of semaglutide causes larger weight reduction and extra fast weight reduction than Contrave, there’s extra physiologic stress on the physique and subsequently extra hair loss,” he says.
Second, as a result of the drug suppresses urge for food, individuals who take it eat much less and absorb fewer vitamins, significantly protein, which is crucial for hair development. The gastrointestinal uncomfortable side effects related to the medicine, which result in nausea and vomiting, can additional diminish folks’s want to eat and get the nourishment they—and their hair cells—want.
Is the chance sufficient to discourage folks from utilizing these medicine to shed pounds? That will depend on why they’re taking the medicines—whether or not to deal with diabetes or weight problems—and the way a lot of a well being threat these well being situations pose. For those who’re attempting to handle diabetes, “you might be extra keen to just accept the potential threat of hair loss than somebody who could also be utilizing semaglutide to lose a number of kilos to look good for an occasion,” Sodhi says.
Outcomes like this, and extra research on the longer phrases results of GLP-1 medicine, are essential to serving to folks steadiness the dangers and advantages of those medicines. “If folks don’t know the potential uncomfortable side effects,” says Sodhi, “then they might be moving into one thing they didn’t join.”
