First, it was “Ozempic face,” now it’s hair loss. Anecdotal experiences are flooding in from all instructions on social media that individuals utilizing Ozempic and associated diabetes medicine for weight reduction are shedding their hair.
Is it true? If you’re taking Ozempic, Rybelsus, or Mounjaro to your diabetes, do you’ll want to fear about hair loss now?
We’ll clear up the controversy.
Ozempic and Its Relatives
Ozempic is solely essentially the most well-known of a brand new era of diabetes medicine that is totally altering the panorama of weight problems medication:
- Ozempic (semaglutide), an injectable drug indicated for kind 2 diabetes
- Wegovy (semaglutide), basically Ozempic marketed for weight reduction
- Rybelsus (semaglutide), an oral formulation of semaglutide
- Mounjaro (tirzepatide), a associated diabetes remedy that causes much more dramatic weight reduction
Semaglutide is a GLP-1 receptor agonist, considered one of a household of medicine that mimic the impact of a hormone that stimulates insulin secretion and prompts emotions of starvation. Tirzepatide, a associated drug, is technically a twin GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonist — it acts as a further hormone to create a fair stronger metabolic impact.
These medicine have grow to be so fashionable for weight reduction within the final 12 months that individuals with diabetes have been unable to get their prescribed drugs as a consequence of intermittent shortages. And the hype exhibits no indicators of going away.
Ozempic and Side Effects
These new medicine appear miraculous, however many customers discover there’s a value: Ozempic and its cousins are related to a number of unwanted side effects. Some of those results had been tracked in scientific trials and formally acknowledged by regulatory authorities, and others solely revealed after the medicine had been launched into the true world.
- Most considerably, a considerable minority of customers expertise nasty gastrointestinal unwanted side effects similar to nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, particularly when beginning the meds or stepping as much as a better dosage. While most customers aren’t bothered for lengthy, others have to discontinue the remedy as a result of the consequences are insupportable.
- Complaints about “Ozempic face” flooded social media after semaglutide gained recognition as a weight reduction drug outdoors of the weight problems neighborhood. It happens when customers lose a lot weight that additionally they lose healthy-looking fats from their faces, which can lead to a saggy, aged look. This facet impact is completely as a consequence of weight reduction, and may happen when folks shed some pounds with out Ozempic.
- Some medical doctors have frightened that Ozempic is additionally inflicting extreme muscle loss. More examine is needed to make certain, however within the meantime, medical doctors typically suggest strength-building workout routines to assist protect muscle mass throughout weight reduction; high-protein diets might assist too.
- The information hasn’t been all dangerous — a report in The New York Times famous that many individuals utilizing Ozempic have mysteriously misplaced their want to drink alcohol, stumping scientists.
There are even experiences of weird dreams on Ozempic.
Is Ozempic Causing Hair Loss?
For months now, Ozempic customers have been utilizing social media to complain of a shocking further facet impact: hair loss.
Experts see no cause to doubt the tales.
While hair loss isn’t listed as a facet impact on Ozempic’s FDA label, it is listed on the official label for Wegovy, basically the identical remedy marketed for weight problems moderately than kind 2 diabetes. Three % of examine contributors reported hair loss, 3 times as many as those that used a placebo. And a study of tirzepatide (Mounjaro) discovered a fair stronger impact: 5.7 % of these utilizing the strongest dosage reported alopecia, the technical time period for hair loss.
So, sure: Ozempic and associated medicine are inflicting hair loss. But they aren’t doing it straight; this isn’t a worrying chemical impact of the medicine. Hair loss is brought on as a substitute by the load loss that these medicine produce, and never by the medicine themselves. Diabetes Daily has reviewed the statements of many medical specialists on the topic, and their opinions look like unanimous.
The easy truth is that dramatic weight reduction, irrespective of the way it’s brought on, typically causes hair loss. For instance, a 1974 study of crash dieters discovered a number of instances of “profuse hair loss.” And greater than half of folks that obtain bariatric surgical procedure experience hair loss, too.
The excellent news: A 2017 study discovered that “hair loss stopped and new hair gradually grew out in all patients.”
Why Does Weight Loss Cause Hair Loss?
Here are a minimum of a few attainable explanations:
- Nutrient deficiency. Practically everybody that loses numerous weight does it by consuming much less. Ozempic and associated medicine basically pressure customers to crash weight-reduction plan by dramatically decreasing appetites. In such circumstances, it may be tough to devour as many vitamins as you want, and lots of research have discovered that hair loss throughout weight reduction is correlated with deficiencies in protein and in nutritional vitamins and minerals similar to iron and zinc. (In uncommon and excessive instances, some Ozempic customers have even skilled important ranges of malnutrition.)
- Stress. Losing numerous weight can put your physique below stress — each psychological and bodily. There’s a situation named telogen effluvium that, in keeping with the Cleveland Clinic, “affects people after they experience severe stress or a change to their body.”
Can You Prevent Hair Loss?
Maybe!
With or with out the worry of hair loss, these wholesome habits are nice concepts for anybody with diabetes.
Youtube and TikTok are additionally full of recommendation on over-the-counter hair loss prevention, although Diabetes Daily is in no place to judge the efficacy of such different approaches.
If the hair loss is actually bothersome, medical doctors can prescribe remedy which will cease it.
In most instances, fortunately, the hair will develop again.
Do People with Diabetes Need to Worry?
It looks like there’s no cause to fret for folks with diabetes that use Ozempic, Mounjaro, or associated medicine.
Hair loss, if it occurs to you, is actually unlucky, however this beauty subject has no different well being results, and your hair ought to come again in time.
It’s additionally notable that the trials to have formally recognized hair loss as a facet impact had been performed in folks with out diabetes. Researchers aren’t fairly positive why, however folks with diabetes are inclined to lose much less weight on these groundbreaking medicine than folks with out the situation. That’s not essentially excellent news for sufferers attempting to lose numerous weight, however a minimum of it most likely means fewer instances of Ozempic face and hair loss within the diabetes neighborhood.
And should you’re utilizing semaglutide or tirzepatide to your diabetes, you have already got bigger well being points to fret about. The potential advantages — weight reduction, improved blood sugar management, and decrease cardiovascular threat components — are immense. Experts are extraordinarily enthusiastic in regards to the new era of diabetes medicine for a cause, and the opportunity of short-term hair loss is not altering their minds.
