Latest / Common Sense Health / GLP1: Side Effects
Transcript
- Stephen Thomas BSc. Hons: Hello. Today is a follow up video regarding GLP-1 agonists or fat jabs as people talk about them. Imagine purchasing a state of the art smart fridge, designed to monitor your food supplies and send helpful alerts to your phone whilst you're out shopping at your supermarket. And there you are, you're standing in the dairy aisle when your phone pings and it's a message from your fridge saying, hello, I'm fully stocked, there's no need for milk, eggs or butter. So relieved your head, home, empty handed from the supermarket, you open your fridge and discover it's completely bare. A smart technology has malfunctioned. It's sent you a false signal of abundance when there's nothing but empty shelves. Now this is essentially what the GLP-1 receptor agonists are doing inside your body. Glucagon-like peptide-1, GLP-1, works by activating receptors that are normally triggered by the presence of nutrients in your digestive system. It's an increasing hormone, your body's natural way of saying food arrived, let's get ready for it. So when you inject synthetic GLP-1 agonists like Azempic or Mugovie or Monjari, you're essentially telling your body that nutrients are present when there are no nutrients present. Now think about that for a moment using some joined-up thinking. We have a pharmaceutical intervention that mimics the physiological response to food consumption in the complete absence of food consumption. Well, your pancreas responds by secreting insulin your stomach slows its emptying your brain receives satiety signals your entire metabolic system gears up for nutrient processing but there's nothing to process Well, in that situation, what could possibly go wrong? Now, that's not a genuine question. It's a little bit of sarcasm. Now, the BBC reported in early 2026 that NHS England recorded a staggering 15 % annual increase in gallbladder removal surgeries in 2524. So the highest number in over a decade, surgeons were urgently calling for research into whether GLP-1 injections are causative, correlative, or was it just a coincidence that he had this huge surge along with the GOP1s. Ahmed, who is a consultant surgeon who also performs gastric band procedures, articulated the core dilemma perfectly. How I feel. We don't know whether it's the injections that are causing the gallstones or is it because the injections are causing rapid weight loss, which then in turn causes the massive rise in gallstones. So from reports, I can see the MHRA has updated guidance regarding acute pancreatitis and gallstone risks with these medications. That's the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. So it's updated its guidance on GLP-1 injections like Wagovi, specifically concerning things like acute pancreatitis risk, which is often linked to gallstones. Now, here's the critical point that deserves highlighting. Rapid weight loss in of itself is known as a risk factor for gallbladder disease. When you you lose weight quickly, your liver secretes extra cholesterol into bile, whilst the gallbladder doesn't empty properly, creating the perfect storm for gallstone formation. with GLP-1 agonists, we're adding another variable, a medication that directly affects gastric and biliary motility. The gastric effects listed for GIP medication show decreased gastrin and gastric acid secretion, and they're not isolated effects. They're all part of an interconnected digestive system. We're dealing with pharmaceutical disruption of normal digestive signals while simultaneously starving the body. So it's a bit like removing the oil from your car's engine and then pushing it to run faster. You might get where you're going briefly, but the long-term damage, well, that could be catastrophic. So the BBC coverage highlights several concerning side effects beyond the gallbladder issue. which I thought was interesting, they did go into this. So they looked at stomach paralysis. GLP-1s deliberately slow your gastric emptying. That's part of the mechanism of the drug. But in some individuals, this effect won't reverse when the medication stops. So that person is left with a stomach that's forgotten how to function properly. Vision loss was another one. Or non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, a form of sudden blindness, has been reported. in patients using these medications. I do have a look at the online forums for concerned patients and one actually sarcastically wrote, is there any side effects? Well, I've got a mild tummy ache. ⁓ and I've gone blind. Acute pancreatitis is another thing. Despite the pharmaceutical industry's attempt to downplay this one, reports of acute and chronic pancreatitis from users of Vizempic, Mwagovy, and some others have been substantial enough to warrant another review from the regulators. bowel obstructions and injuries. There is a class action lawsuit which mentions severe stomach and bowel injuries as grounds for this class legal action. there's muscle loss. Claims that the drugs do not destroy muscle are easily disproved by looking at the celebrities on this. Rapid weight loss without adequate protein intake and resistance training does lead to muscle wasting. But that aside, all you've got to do is look at celebrities promoting these drugs, how gaunt they look. They don't look healthy. ⁓ visual proof of what's actually being lost. And then you've got the psychological effects. know, many people report a lack of motivation or a lack of enjoyment and that appears in many online conversations and this makes perfect physiological sense. know, food is one of life's fundamental pleasures and it's a cornerstone of social interaction. So when you use a pharmaceutical to obliterate appetite and food enjoyment, you're not just affecting nutrition, you're affecting the quality of life, social connections and of course physiological well-being. So as predicted last year, class action lawsuits are already in the pipeline. Multiple law firms are actively recruiting plaintiffs for GLP-1 litigation. As of May 2026, against manufacturers of Wigovian ozempic have seen over 3,600 ⁓ Plaintiffs basically mentioned on legal websites and plaintiffs are seeking compensation for past and future medical bills and other damages. Multiple major law firms, including Motley Rice and Living Law, have dedicated practice areas for these particular cases. Now the manufacturers claim that patient safety was a top priority and they monitor reports of adverse drug reactions. Yet here we are with regulators issuing updated guidance, surgeons demanding research, and lawyers queuing up for clients. Now that's not the profile of a self-willed, understood medication. That's the profile of a pharmaceutical experiment conducted at scale on desperate patients. Now, recent headlines are trumpeting that GLP-1 drugs have benefits for inflammation, blood pressure, cardiovascular health, sleep apnea and kidney disease. Now, Harvard Health published a piece asking, do GLP-1 drugs reduce inflammation? Noting a 2025 study showing a 20 % reduction in heart failure amongst diabetics that are taking these GLP-1s. But here's a question that seems to get conveniently overlooked. these benefits coming from the pharmaceutical mechanism, again, are they simply the well documented benefits of weight loss in of itself? Because weight loss through any means improves inflammatory markers as adipose tissue is in itself an endocrine organ secreting inflammatory cytokines, blood pressure, reduced cardiac workload and improved vascular function happens. Sleep apnea improves because you've got reduced airway of airway obstruction, kidney function improves, cardiovascular risk factors like improved lipid profiles and reduced insulin problems. And we've known these benefits of weight loss for decades. They occur whether you lose weight through a ketogenic diet, a low carb diet, carnivore approaches, calorie restriction, or even just old fashioned diet and exercise. The GLP-1 narrative tries to claim these benefits are unique. pharmaceutical effects when they're consequences of carrying less. adipose tissue, basically losing weight. And then we come to the heart rate paradox when the body does sort of fight back. There's another concerning signal hiding in the research, which deserves some scrutiny. Whilst GOP1 studies trumpet modest blood pressure reductions, they do also to their credit document increases in heart rate. So using again joined up thinking, this should give us a pause. The body is compensating for the pharmaceutical induced blood pressure reduction by increasing heart and that maintains adequate blood volume and tissue perfusion. So this isn't a complementary effect. It's a counter regulatory response. Your cardiovascular system is essentially saying, well, the blood pressure has dropped, but we still have to deliver all this oxygen and nutrients to tissues. So we'll have to compensate by beating faster. And this suggests that blood pressure reduction may not be physiologically appropriate or beneficial in a way that it's being portrayed. So, you know, the body doesn't randomly increase your heart rate for no reason. It's a homeostatic adjustment indicating that something else isn't being considered in this simplified lower BP equals better health narrative. Chronic elevation of heart rate carries its own cardiovascular risk by the way including increased myocardial oxygen demand and potential for arrhythmias. So we're not witnessing pure cardiovascular benefit here. What we are witnessing is pharmaceutical disruption followed by a physiological compensation and that's a very different picture to the one that's being sold in all these research abstracts at the moment. So in my own personal practice I've witnessed over a thousand transformations through ketogenic and carnivore approaches and low carb and people are achieving all these same health benefits without injecting synthetic hormones. They don't have a risk of their GI tract going into paralysis, no potential blindness, no potential gallbladder removal, the improvements in inflammatory markers, blood pressure and metabolic health are dramatic and sustainable because they're addressing the root cause, which is a dietary mismatch and metabolic dysfunction. Now this conflation of weight loss benefits with pharmaceutical benefits is is intellectually dishonest, that's the best way to put it, and it serves the financial interest of manufacturers far more than it serves patient understanding. And the latest trend is towards microdosing. Now, microdosing typically refers to taking a smaller than standard dose of a medication. So often. it's lower than the FDA approved maintenance dose, for instance. So with GLP-1 medications, this might mean staying on a very low starter dose long term, using less than what's normally prescribed or spacing out injections beyond the recommended intervals. Now it's important to note that microdosing is not really a formal medical term and there aren't really established clinical guidelines supporting it as a weight loss strategy at the moment. Now, faced with the mounting evidence of side effects and the miserable experience of severe appetite suppression. This new trend has emerged. Microdosing. GOP want agonists doing that in a micro dosed way. The logic seems very appealing on the surface. If standard doses cause terrible side effects, why not just use smaller amounts? Multiple health systems and clinical experts have now issued warnings specifically against this practice. Now, the fundamental problems with microdosing are quite quite easy to understand. Firstly, there's no big evidence base at the moment. These medications were studied and approved at specific dosing schedules. We have safety and efficacy data for those protocols. Whereas microdosing is essentially at the moment freelance pharmacology or making it up as you go along without the clinical trials. There's no safety monitoring or long-term outcome data at the moment. Now, compounding pharmacy risks, many microdoses are obtaining compounded versions of these drugs to save money. the FDA declared USGLP-1 shortages were resolved in April 2025 and it removed these shortages or the list for the shortages, which should have ended the legal basis for compounding these medications. Compounded drugs, by the way, lack the quality control and consistency of FDA approved medications. It is a side issue. Now, this doesn't address the core problem. Whether you're using a standard dose or a micro dose, you're still activating nutrient sensing receptors in the absence of nutrients. You're still sending false signals to your metabolic machinery. Remember the smart fridge? Well, that's lying to you. ⁓ Even with a micro dose, it's lying to you, but just a little bit quietly. So longevity claims are also in the picture. Some micro doses claim they're pursuing longevity benefits rather than weight loss. As Anne Comay, a clinical pharmacist practitioner, points out, there isn't enough data to confirm that microdosing can help you live longer. This is pure speculation dressed up as biohacking. Then we get to food noise. Now, I understand the term. ⁓ The microdosing community often talks about reducing food noise, which is sort of the mental preoccupation with food and eating. But in the context of a carnivore, low carb, ketogenic approach, food noise normally disappears and it disappears naturally because you've achieved a metabolic stability and satiety through this proper nutrition. Needing a pharmaceutical to silence food noise suggests the underlying diets is still problematic. are other things like situational desires for food and stress. And the thing is you're still not fixing your relationship with food. As many online conversations astutely note, what happens when you stop the medications? You've not fixed your relationship with food, whether you're taking 2.4 milligrams or 0.25 milligrams. You haven't addressed why you're metabolically dysfunctional in the first place. You're just postponing the inevitable return of symptoms. when you stop taking the jabs. So a reasoned critique of microdosing doesn't dismiss the genuine struggles people face with appetite regulation and weight management. Rather it questions whether using a pharmaceutical to suppress these signals, even at low doses, represents a sustainable solution or simply another form of metabolic disruption with a friendlier sort of marketing angle. And I just also find there's a little bit of hypocrisy within the conversations in the health space. I don't think I'm the only one that actually, you know, many forum conversations make brilliant points about the double standards in our approach to chronic disease. You know, with comments like it's hypocritical if we say we don't fix blood pressure with a pill, we fix it with a proper human diet, but obesity, well, we can't fix that. You know, there's no logic there. And this perfectly encapsulates the inconsistency, the... The thing we increasingly recognise that type 2 diabetes, a hypertension and metabolic syndrome, they can all be addressed through dietary intervention. And I've personally witnessed diabetes reversal with my role as a specialist practitioner in obesity and diabetes. And I've done it through ketogenic and carnivore approaches. Yet when it comes to obesity, which is really just another manifestation of the same underlying metabolic dysfunction, suddenly we're told pharmaceutical intervention is necessary and appropriate. So. To me, the logic is absent because the framework is wrong. You see, if we persist in viewing obesity as a disease requiring, requiring pharmaceutical treatment rather than a natural metabolic response to an inappropriate diet, we'll continue down this path of symptomatic suppression whilst ignoring the root cause. So going back to my original analogy, is it time to go to that smart fridge and turn it off and just go shopping and use our eyes and our ears and our experience. You see, when your smart fridge malfunctions and sends false signals, the solution isn't to adjust the sensitivity of its sensors or microdose its alert system. The solution is to recognise it's providing unreliable information and turn off that faulty technology and actually put proper food in the fridge and use your eyes and ears and your taste and your hunger to work it out. Now, GLP-1 agonists might help some individuals transition away from processed foods to in a very critical period. They might provide a temporary intervention when someone is metabolically trapped, but it doesn't seem they can be the long-term answer to the problem that fundamentally stems from this dietary mismatch. There is this rising tide of gall blood removals, the paralysis of the stomach, the vision loss reports, the queue of lawyers taking on class action suits all point to the same conclusion. We're conducting a massive pharmaceutical experiment on desperate people and the results are increasingly concerning. Yes, there are some good results out there temporarily, but what's happening long term? After more than a decade working with private blood testing and seeing metabolic transformation, as I say, through ketogenic and carnivore approaches, I remain convinced that sustainable metabolic health comes from working with our physiology, not chemically overriding it. So when I look at bloods, I always interpret them in the context that matters enormously. physiology, what are you eating? it carnivore? Is it keto? Is it low carb? Because the different way of eating produces different blood markers and they're often misinterpreted by practitioners unfamiliar with the way we're eating. So going back to the smart fridge analogy, I mean, it isn't just a clever metaphor. It is a warning when technology lies about fundamental resources, systems will break down. When pharmaceuticals mimic nutrient signals in the absence of nutrition, metabolic systems break down. question isn't whether GLP-1s work in the short term. Clearly they do suppress appetite, they facilitate weight loss. The question is what price we're paying for that effect and whether that price might ultimately exceed any temporary benefit. Perhaps instead of fixing the malfunction in SmartFridge, we should focus on filling it with proper food. That's all I'm saying. What are your thoughts on GLP-1 medications? Have you or someone you know experienced side effects or have you had great results? Share your perspective in the comments below because I'd like to do a follow up. I'm very open minded to what people think. If I'm not ahead of the curve with the research, if there's things I've missed, I am more than happy to hear that. Please don't be angry or I am very open minded to this. If there are studies that you think are worth watching and looking at or whatever you want to send me, please do that because I do think it's a conversation. I don't think it should be me preaching what I think all the time. I want it to be two-way and I am definitely open and receptive to other ways of thinking about this. But for me right now, I don't like the situation we're in and definitely with all these side effects and all these reports coming out. When you've got solicitors and law firms actively looking for plaintiffs, you know that there is something wrong. So anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. If you did enjoy it, please consider like sharing and subscribing. And if you got to the end, but you didn't like it, well, thank you for staying to the end. And maybe the next video do will be a little bit more to your liking. Thank you for staying the course. It's a pleasure. And I'll see you on the next one.