What are Ozempic and Mounjaro doing to your body that you can’t feel yet?
I’m a pathologist with obesity medicine training. I read the long-term trials, FDA prescribing information, and newest safety studies on Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound to separate what we know about semaglutide and tirzepatide from what lawsuits, headlines, and social media make these drugs sound like.
I organized the long-term safety questions into 5 files: cancer, gut and kidneys, eyes, muscle and face, brain and mood. That includes the thyroid cancer warning, pancreatic cancer, pancreatitis, gastroparesis, gallstones, kidney injury, anesthesia risk, diabetic retinopathy, NAION and sudden vision loss, muscle loss, “Ozempic face,” depression, and suicidal thoughts.
3 of the 5 files were more reassuring than the headlines suggest, while 1 safety signal has become harder to dismiss. We also still don’t have 10-year data at today’s weight-loss doses.
Near the end, I cover a warning on the Mounjaro and Zepbound labels about birth control pills that many people taking these medications have never been told, plus what the labels say about pregnancy.
CHAPTERS
00:00 What is this doing to me that I can’t feel yet?
03:48 File 1: Cancer
07:43 File 2: Gut and kidneys
12:40 File 3: Eyes and vision
17:18 File 4: Muscle and face
18:59 File 5: Brain and mood
20:35 What we still don’t know
22:57 Pregnancy and birth control
WHERE I LANDED
Cancer: reassuring, not closed. Tell your prescriber about any family history of medullary thyroid cancer or MEN 2.
Gut and kidneys: uncommon, and this is where the emergencies live. Tell your anesthesia team out loud before any procedure. Severe upper belly pain through to the back is an emergency. Don’t let vomiting turn into dehydration.
Eyes: emerging. The newer NAION signal is primarily associated with semaglutide, while a rapid drop in blood sugar can worsen pre-existing diabetic retinopathy. Sudden vision loss in one eye is a same-day eye emergency.
Muscle and face: reassuring, with homework. Protein and lifting twice a week, guided by your prescriber.
Brain and mood: reassuring. Report a mood change lasting more than 2 weeks after starting or raising your dose.
THE GLP-1 METHOD
A 90-day program of short daily videos on the habits that hold your weight steady: protein, muscle, sleep, and how you eat. Built for people raising their own GLP-1 without a drug, people on the drug who want a foundation under it, and people who’ve stopped and want to limit the rebound.
Waitlist:
WATCH NEXT
Why these drugs work at all (the bridge video):
The Biological Cost of Ozempic and Mounjaro:
What Happens When You Stop Ozempic:
References Shown In this Video:
SELECT, semaglutide 2.4 mg, 17,604 participants, median follow-up ~3.3 years: Lincoff et al., NEJM 2023
FLOW, semaglutide and kidney outcomes, 3,533 participants: Perkovic et al., NEJM 2024
SUSTAIN-6, retinopathy complications: Marso et al., NEJM 2016
GI adverse events, semaglutide and liraglutide vs bupropion-naltrexone: Sodhi et al., JAMA 2023
Gallbladder disease, 76 trials, 103,371 participants: He et al., JAMA Internal Medicine 2022
French thyroid cancer cohort: Bezin et al., Diabetes Care 2023
Scandinavian thyroid cancer cohort, 145,410 users: Pasternak et al., BMJ 2024
NAION and semaglutide: Hathaway et al., JAMA Ophthalmology 2024
Suicidal ideation, 240,618 patients with obesity: Wang et al., Nature Medicine 2024
Tirzepatide withdrawal and regain, SURMOUNT-4: Aronne et al., JAMA 2024
Tirzepatide 176-week data: Jastreboff et al., NEJM 2025
[From the reference pack, with DOI links for these newer ones only: 2025 six-database thyroid study, 2026 93-trial analysis, 2026 NAION meta-analysis, FDA January 2026 suicidality review, 1.65 million-patient pancreatic cancer cohort]
DISCLOSURES
I have no financial relationship with Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, or any pharmaceutical company. This video has no sponsor. I have no relationship with any seller of compounded or gray-market versions of these drugs, and I don’t recommend buying them. I’m an independent educator. The major trials discussed were funded by the manufacturers, and I say so on camera where it applies.
This video is for education only and isn’t medical advice. Decisions about starting, continuing, or stopping a medication belong with you and your physician. If you have sudden vision loss, severe abdominal pain, or can’t keep fluids down for more than a day, contact your prescriber or seek emergency care.
Subscribe: If you want medical claims separated from medical evidence, please subscribe and hit the notification bell so the next video appears in your feed. It helps the channel more than you think and motivates me to make more of this resource extensive videos.
#Ozempic #Mounjaro #GLP1
source
Which file surprised you most: cancer, eyes, or muscle?
Fewer than 4% of the people watching this are subscribed, which means most of you will never see the next one. I research and record every video myself, as a practicing physician with no pharma sponsorship. Subscribing and turning on notifications is the entire distribution budget for this channel.
If you've been on Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, or Zepbound for more than a year, tell me how long and how it's gone, because your answers pick what I cover next.
My overall conclusion after reading all of it: the long-term data are more reassuring than the headlines suggest, but there are uncommon risks worth knowing and questions we can't answer yet because we don't have decades of data at these doses.
Cancer: reassuring, not closed. Know your family history.
Gut and kidneys: uncommon, and where the emergencies live. Tell your anesthesia team, treat severe belly pain as an emergency, stay hydrated.
Eyes: emerging, mainly semaglutide for NAION. Sudden vision loss is a same-day emergency.
Muscle and face: reassuring, with homework. Protein and lifting twice a week.
Brain and mood: reassuring. Report a change lasting more than 2 weeks.
I have been on Ozempic for almost two years. I went from 259 to 200 lbs. I have now hit a plateau. I am diabetic. I was diagnosed with a Pseudo hole in my right eye/retina. In your opinion, could this be a side affect from the GLP-1?
I’d very much appreciate a deep dive on allulose please sir
Eye doctor here and we generally pronounced NAION letter by letter not like it's a word. Also, from what my colleagues can kind of parse out from their own clinical practices, it is way more common in " discs at risk" which is to say very crowded optic nerve heads. So yes, discuss this with your eye doctor.
What do you do if you have to go under anesthesia for an emergency like an accident that can't be scheduled?
I am concerned of what will happen to me if I don't lose weight
creatine its helping with muscle loss?
I dont think you read 1,000's of comments every day – thats about 20hrs….. so now we trust you ?
If you do not have a gall bladder, are you more prone to bile duct disease? or just more bile dropping directly to intestines? With respect to taking Semaglutide.
Can you do a video about how disabled people can do resistance training pls.
Is there any research on the side effects of using Mounjaro & Repatha together?
I've had instances bowel obstruction and gastroparesis that landed me in the hospital a few times since severe food poisoning, so my doctor has me on an older drug, phentermine/topiramate, for weight loss instead. I'm a little worried about the kidneys since mine is a horseshoe. and of course, I'm trying to get through it without having a rebound at the end… Assuming I ever do stop?
I don't have alcohol problem I don't have cigarettes🚬 problem I don't have drugs💉problem
Brother, I just started shaving my head again after about 15 years and I just like learning about things I’m not even taking these drugs and I just have to stop and tell you, bro what a nice beautiful perfectly clean, healthy looking scalp wow
Is there ONE doctor who can just GET TO THE POINT????????? It's absurd, when the topic of the video is, "The Ozempic & Mounjaro Cost You Can’t Feel Yet." ONLY talk about that, there is ALWAYS 80% of the video that is hemping and hawing and reexplaining how it works, and about you as a doctor, and how you looked at this study and that study… JUST SKIP ALL THAT AND GIVE THE BOTTOM LINE!!!!!!!!!! Sure all the info might interest someone, but EVERY medical video does this same thing, we aren't doctors, JUST give us the conclusions!!!!!!!
THREE Years!?!?
Try TWENTY, my friend.
Having a mother with Pancreatitis I don't TRUST it….not until it's Clarified.
Three years! 🤣
Indeed! jk
You went to the FDA for “evidence” of a drugs harmful side effects?! Really? The same FDA that pushed highly addictive oxytocin as safe and effective resulting is massive casualties and a opioid crisis? The same FDA that tried to hide the Pfizer clinical trial data for the experimental product line not a vaccine mRNA covid shots for 75 years? The FDA that had to be sued to release the side effects of the mRNA shots and found the rate of adverse events was 1 in 8000 not 1 in 1 million? The relvoling door FDA where the regulatory members always seem to land in the industry they were regulating? Oh yea very reliable source for your data.
I'm a transgender female and tried to do keto and other diets to lose weight but it's very difficult and costly. I'm about to start Tirzepatide and to me the possible side effect of muscle loss with bulk weight loss is actually the most attractive thing about it. There is almost no other drug or any other advice or anything else that you can do to get muscle and bulk loss together.
I started Retatrutide omg I felt it go from injection sight and spread fast over my chest. I had terrible depression fatigue sunburnt skin dropped 9lb in a week. Ive always been obese since starting pregabalin and mirtrazipine I was astounded at the weight gain 4 stone in 4 months! Ive starved myself for years until found keto even then because of menopause I had to keep it strict under 20 carbs. I felt amazing losing 1lb a week. I kept it going and my body was never hungry. No more hangry arguments with the kids plenty of energy but ugh no carbs. My go to dopamine hit is sweets crisps etc I was so sad all the time. I developed CHSP eating disorder chewing and spitting it out in a cup. For 4 years now. My teeth are terrible. So daughter found Reta lost 2 stone but also ate nothing drank not enough. But I hadn't found that out yet so I went on it. Exhation first then skin burn. I already had hepatic nerve damage under thigh around knee and in spine I felt it hit like fire all over but I didn't believe that anything could work. Over 30 years I tried. 9lb 1 week!!!! Yaaay then boom daughter emergency surgery op booked.
Then my friend said Reta was too strong go mounjaro so im wondering if i do this plus keto would I still suffer?
My daughter had not drank fluids or fats and now diseased gall bladder hundreds of stones
Do you know of any research done with people who have Hachimotos and who use Mounjaro? I'm concerned as I recently had a hysterectomy due to severe endometriosis and non-cancerous tumours. On the drug to lose weight so that I can have my abdominal hernia repaired.
You should warn people that HRT may need adjusting as GLP1 makes the progesterone dissolve much more slowly and is not as effective at protecting the womb from cancer
It’s all uncommon or rare…1-2 out of xxx amount of people until it happens to you. I’ve taken only 2mg of tirzepatide total over two week period. I felt like I was going crazy had tingles in my extremities, restlessness, hot flashes, tingles in my face, blurry vision. I’m now almost 10 days out since my last dose and I’m back to feeling normal. Thank you Jesus 🙏 Never ever again! I’ve lost 45lbs on my own and have 20 more to go! I can do this without worrying about causing something a lot more serious. Stay safe people! Try it out but don’t ever think it won’t happen to you!
Thank you so much for this video; my biggest concern is my eyes, as it is a major concern, being on Mounjaro for 11 months now and having had minor eye issues. Also how do I come off the drug , I am scared .
I am a subscriber from California ❤
I’m concerned about vision loss as diabetic.