Last Friday, I found myself in hospital because of a side-effect that began when I started using Mounjaro but persisted even after I stopped using the weight loss jab eight months ago.
It’s a cautionary tale I feel compelled to share; don’t make the same mistake I did because the consequences are life-changing and can even be life-threatening.
As regular readers know, I began my weight loss journey in June last year. Heartburn – a burning sensation in the chest – kicked in within days of the first injection.
I found it was worse after long periods without eating, which was quite often.
Because that’s the whole point of the jab; it supresses the appetite. You don’t want to eat. And removing all that ‘food noise’ also removes the reminder to eat.
I don’t think I had breakfast once while I was on Mounjaro. I often skipped lunch, too, and if I did eat, it would be an apple or a couple of satsumas (which, due to their acidity, were the worst things I could have consumed).
I’d have a small meal in the evening, often late. That was when the heartburn peaked, usually after I’d gone to bed and was lying flat.
Heartburn – or acid reflux – occurs when acid produced by the stomach (as a normal part of the digestive process) moves back up the oesophagus (the tube connecting the throat with the gut).
Nadine Dorries experienced heartburn while using Mounjaro, which continued even when she stopped taking it. While on holiday in Cornwall in August, she suffered her first acute attack and it was so bad she could barely function
To get me through it and cope with the demands of a busy work and home life, I started to rely on an over-the-counter medicine that treats heartburn and indigestion by forming a protective barrier in the stomach to physically block acid reflux. It also neutralises excess acid production.
I never went anywhere without several sachets of Gaviscon in my handbag. Of course, I assumed that when I stopped Mounjaro – in January this year after losing more than two stone – the heartburn would go away.
Instead, it continued and on the first day of our family holiday in Cornwall in August I suffered my first acute attack.
It was so bad, I could barely function. I felt desperately sick and eating or drinking was out of the question because of the pain.
Luckily, there was a GP in our group who had brought with him a medical bag to die for. Two double doses of drugs known as proton pump inhibitors (which block acid production) and 24 hours later, I was over the worst.
But that’s when I noticed the lymph glands in my neck were so enlarged it hurt if I turned my head from side to side. As a former nurse, I should have known better, but I ignored the swollen glands and tried to get on with life.
Then, a few weeks ago, I had another acute attack. I couldn’t manage even a sip of water without experiencing a burst of pain across my diaphragm.
The glands in my neck were so large, I was beginning to look like a hamster. That was when my own GP told me: ‘We need to get a camera down there to see what’s going on.’
Within days of having her first Mounjaro injection, Nadine suffered from heartburn and the only way she could get through the day was by taking over-the-counter medicine. She never went anywhere without several sachets of Gaviscon in her handbag
That is how I ended up in hospital last week, undergoing an endoscopy – in which a flexible tube with a tiny camera at the end was passed via my mouth down my gullet. I received a diagnosis of Barrett’s Oesophagus, and the distressing news that it increases the chances of oesophageal adenocarcinoma, a form of cancer.
Barrett’s is, in short, a protective but abnormal change in the lining of the oesophagus caused by acid reflux. Four inches of my oesophagus had been damaged by excess acid!
The risk of disease is small but oesophageal cancer has one of the worst of all five-year cancer survival rates – just 20 per cent.
I’ve had biopsies taken and should know the results in two weeks. Even if I’m in the clear, I will have to have regular endoscopies for the rest of my life because Barrett’s isn’t reversible.
I must alter my lifestyle dramatically, too. No alcohol, coffee, or even mint tea because they ‘soften’ the oesophageal sphincter that’s supposed to keep stomach acid out. I will have to watch my diet and do my best to stop acid reflux ever developing.
So, here’s my warning to those on weight loss jabs. The side effects of drugs such as Mounjaro and Wegovy are well documented and discussed – from nausea, constipation, diarrhoea, dizziness, and mood swings to muscle loss and hair loss (which I’ve also experienced).
Most subside in the weeks after starting the jabs as your body becomes accustomed to the drug.
But what about the side effects that occur, not as a direct result of taking the drug itself, but because of the lifestyle changes they initiate? Like not eating nutritious food at regular intervals.
Many people who use fat jabs tend to be older and are at increased risk of Barrett’s by virtue of their age anyway. They’ve battled the bulge for years with varying degrees of success, but now they have access to a ’miracle cure’ for those hard-to-shift rolls around their middles.
As the pounds fall off, heartburn may seem a small price to pay. I have discovered that it isn’t.
I am still an advocate for fat loss jabs. I went on them after discovering I was pre-diabetic, had fatty liver disease and high cholesterol. As readers know, I’ve been delighted with the results.
But my advice now to anyone thinking of trying fat jabs is to discuss with your doctor taking a lower dose to lose weight at a slower pace over a longer period.
Suppress your appetite to the point where you eat less, but can still accommodate regular, nutritious meals. And breakfast – after stomach acid has built up overnight – really is the most important meal of the day.
Weight loss jabs do what they say on the syringe and are phenomenally good at it. But they are relatively new drugs, and all of us – doctors, too – are learning as we go.
The most important lesson I’ve taken from this is to listen to your body. Don’t ignore symptoms. And, whether or not you are on the jabs, if you have persistent heartburn get it checked it out.
Margot is no match for Selena
Margot Robbie leaving very little to the imagination at the London premiere of her new film, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, and (right) Selena Gomez looking glamorous and sophisticated in a red Louis Vuitton gown at the Emmys in Los Angeles
I’m not a fan of the new fad for ‘naked dressing’. It’s surely classier to leave something to the imagination.
I love Australian actress, Margot Robbie, but not what she wore for the London premiere of her new film, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey.
Thankfully, this trend was toned down for the Emmy Awards on Sunday. My favourite was Selena Gomez in a red Louis Vuitton gown.
Couture style exudes glamour and sophistication – the very opposite of Margot’s excuse for a dress.
For me the start of Autumn is synonymous with Strictly. So come Saturday, I’ll be in front of my TV hoping the Beeb’s family favourite show can, unlike the past two seasons, make it from beginning to end without a scandal or an inquiry.
Ex-Apprentice star Thomas Skinner has already made headlines by storming out of a press conference and having the grisly details of an extra-marital affair revealed.
You have been warned!
Well done to Danny Kruger, the first sitting Tory MP to defect to Reform. It’s good to be on the same team once again.
