Tright here’s no query that the wildly standard injectable weight-loss medication assist individuals drop kilos, decrease heart-disease danger, handle obstructive sleep apnea, and extra. However as extra individuals use these medication, which goal hormones together with GLP-1, medical doctors are studying extra concerning the potential downsides, as properly.
Within the newest research revealed on MedRxiv—a website that hosts early analysis not but peer reviewed by consultants—scientists in Canada report that utilizing GLP-1 medication can contribute to the next danger of hair loss, particularly amongst girls.
Dr. Mohit Sodhi, a resident in emergency medication at College of British Columbia, and his colleagues analyzed knowledge from simply over 1,900 individuals who had been prescribed semaglutide and 1,300 who had been prescribed bupropion-naltrexone—an older weight problems remedy generally known as Contrave. Semaglutide is the compound within the medication Ozempic, which treats diabetes, and Wegovy, which treats weight problems. Sodhi targeted solely on individuals taking Wegovy to deal with chubby or weight problems to keep away from any potential confounding results of diabetes on hair loss.
He and his crew then in contrast the diagnoses for hair loss in these sufferers’ medical data and located that these prescribed semaglutide had a 50% larger danger of being identified with a hair-loss situation in comparison with these prescribed Contrave. That danger 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 better hair loss than older weight-loss medication, Sodhi says scientists have some theories. The primary pertains to the physiological stress that the physique goes via below the affect of semaglutide. The drug contributes to the next share of body-mass weight reduction in comparison with earlier weight-loss drugs, and accomplishes this extra rapidly. “As a result of semaglutide causes better weight reduction and extra fast weight reduction than Contrave, there’s extra physiologic stress on the physique and due to this fact 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 medication, which result in nausea and vomiting, can additional diminish individuals’s need to eat and get the nourishment they—and their hair cells—want.
Is the danger sufficient to discourage individuals from utilizing these medication to shed pounds? That depends upon why they’re taking the drugs—whether or not to deal with diabetes or weight problems—and the way a lot of a well being danger these well being situations pose. When you’re attempting to handle diabetes, “it’s possible you’ll be extra keen to simply accept the potential danger 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 medication, are necessary to serving to individuals steadiness the dangers and advantages of those drugs. “If individuals don’t know the potential uncomfortable side effects,” says Sodhi, “then they might be entering into one thing they didn’t join.”
