Streaming the Games and the Commercials too — Ozempic and your Eyes
Blog vol 5.9. Streaming the Games and the Commercials too — Ozempic and Your Eyes
It was great to have access to the events of the Paris Olympic Games, in spite of the many commercials. One commercial that kept coming up was an ad for Semaglutide, or Ozempic. Ozempic is prescribed as a weekly injection of .25 mg, self-administered, that helps control blood sugar levels for people with type 2 diabetes.
“Just ask your doctor if Ozempic is right for you,” was the slogan.
This drug was first introduced in 2017 by the FDA for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, and in 2021 for weight control under a different name. There has been a 60 % increase in the use of Ozempic in the past two years, with many people not diagnosed with diabetes using it off-label for weight loss. This is a drug. Every drug needs to be treated with respect. Every drug has side effects. There are good reasons why Health Canada does not allow advertising directly to the consumer for a specific drug (the FDA does not have such scruples believing that people have a right to know what is available to them. Interestingly, the FDA has recently tightened the rules about making adverse side effects clear). The relationship between the doctor and patient should not be circumvented. Bottomline, the drug companies want to sell drugs.
Every drug has a safety profile, with unwanted side effects and drug-to-drug interactions. There are several concerns about Ozempic side effects. I, of course, will stick to the eyes. A recent study by Dr. J.T. Hathaway et al. has shown a link between Ozempic and a serious eye condition called Nonarteritic Ischemic Optic Neuropathy (NAION) (Read more here).
In NAION, the blood flow to the optic nerve is reduced, resulting in reduced visual acuity and loss of visual field. The acuity can mostly return, but field losses are more permanent. With diabetics, the incidence is more than doubled the average person, and with those taking it for weight loss, the incidence is almost quadrupled. Admittedly, these are relatively small numbers, but this is a serious condition. The study concludes that how and why NAION occurs is unclear and whether Ozempic is the actual cause is not conclusive. More work needed here. Still worrisome.
It is one thing to use a drug with its risks to treat a difficult and serious condition like diabetes or severe obesity, it is a whole other thing to use a drug with these risks in a healthy body where other options are available. Cost-benefit.
So, if you are considering Ozempic, have a really good conversation with your doctor, going over all the risks involved. Weight loss can be facilitated in other healthier ways, again a discussion with your doctor. In the meantime, your eye doctors at Burlington Eyecare are seriously considering a set of baseline tests for visual fields and OCT angiography of the optic nerve for our patients on Ozempic.
Til next week,
The good doctor
