Ozempic and Wegovy Side Effects Linked To BLINDNESS?

does ozempic and wegovy actually cause blindness?  the news and people are in a frenzy right now with  

the new research that has come out showing a  stronger association with developing a serious  

eye condition called an NAION or a nonarteritic  anterior ischemic optic neuropathy. it's a type of  

eye stroke that can cause permanent blindness so  what's actually in this research what does it mean  

for you and with this and previous research I'm  actually going to go over three different ways  

these types of medications can actually change  your vision let's focus in ozempic or semaglutide  

has been a booming prescribed medication for  type 2 diabetes and has an added side effect  

benefit for weight loss and so now it is commonly  prescribed off label to help with weight loss and  

this is where we go comes into the picture they  actually took that same semaglutide changed the  

dosage repackaged it and actually now can be  prescribed for weight loss is actually FDA  

approved for weight loss and how these medications  work it helps secrete a hormone gp1 that makes you  

feel more full when you're eating so it kind  of acts like an appetite suppressant and at  

the same time can increase your insulin which  can decrease your blood sugar so in the study  

for the people that take these medications there  was a significant increase in the Association of  

developing an NA people with diabetes four times  more likely and people with obesity over seven  

times more likely so what exactly is an ni and  how bad is this like I said before it is a type  

of an eye stroke where blood flow is restricted or  blocked for whatever reason to the optic nerve in  

the back of the eye and when this happens it can  cause a sudden loss in Vision that you don't even  

feel it's painless and fact a lot of times the  more common way people notice this is actually  

when they wake up and all of a sudden they notice  maybe they're closing one eye cuz they're rubbing  

the sleepies out and they'll notice that in that  eye half of their vision is gone dimmed out blurry  

and it's usually the bottom half of the vision and  it's commonly referred to as an altitudinal Vision  

defect now it's definitely more common to have it  happen in one eye you can have it happen in both  

eyes but that is pretty rare and this can actually  severely affect someone in their day-to-day activ  

ities walking up and down steps they're more  prone to tripping over things might make it  

more difficult for driving seeing the dashboard  seeing the road seeing if there's something on the  

road and so this can be a very serious condition  and the thing that's really unfortunate is that  

there's not a treatment for an NA people that get  this vision loss likely will not have any recovery  

from it and will be permanent now we want to make  two important notes from this study number one  

they are not claiming that ozempic or wegovy is  causing an NAION. it's not causing this blindness  

they can't make that claim but they are showing  that there is a stronger Association for people  

that take this medication and developing this eye  condition number two a lot of times these people  

that are taking these medications are already in a  category that are at a higher or increased risk of  

developing this type of an eye stroke this can  include obesity people with diabetes and high  

blood pressure the second way these medications  can cause a change in Vision or vision loss is  

sometimes when people are put on these medications  it can cause a sudden drastic decrease in blood  

sugar which can be good but for some reason can  actually cause some diabetic retinopathy to show  

up or worsening diabetic retinopathy at least  at first diabetic retinopathy is usually when  

the blood vessels in the back of the eyes will  pop or leak fluid sometimes we'll see bleeding  

in the back of the eyes or sometimes we'll see  these things called cotton wool spots areas of  

the retina that aren't getting enough oxygen  and sometimes some fluid that's in there might  

accumulate and cause some edema or swelling and  definitely change the vision causing distortions  

and blur now this is not unique to a zic or W  goie it's also found with other type 2 diabetic  

medications for helping control blood sugar now  all these findings from this type of research does  

show that in the the long run it is better for  overall health and Eye Health it is kind of unique  

that at first when you start in the medication it  can cause more diabetic retinopathy so you just  

want to work really carefully with your eye doctor  and your primary care doctor that's treating your  

diabetes so you can just watch your overall Eye  Health in combination with your overall health  

because a lot of times in the research it shows  in the long run it should be better the third  

way these medications can actually affect your  vision or change your vision is along the same  

lines of changing and drastically decreasing  blood sugar sometimes when you do that it can  

actually change the thickness or the size of  the crystalline lens inside of your eyes and  

I've seen this many times in the clinic a patient  will come in just got put on a new medication for  

their diabetes they have a drastic change or drop  in blood sugar their vision is really blurry and  

we measure their prescription and there's  a drastic change and this is likely due to  

a change in thickness of the crystal lens inside  their eyes and what's unfortunate is that it can  

actually take 3 to 4 months before it actually  stabilizes so in those months the vision can  

still fluctuate and change and sometimes we have  to remake the glasses to try and catch up with  

the prescription change and it could be pretty  frustrating definitely for the patient now I  

actually go into more detail how blood sugar can  actually change and blur your vision in this video  

right here definitely recommend checking it out  because it is all kind of linked and related to  

this if you have any questions let me know in  the comments I hope this helped stay focused