Woman left with horrific ‘weight-loss jab stomach mass’ side effect
This is not for the faint of heart. Or stomach.
Weight loss medication has become insanely popular over the last couple of years, with millions of people worldwide using the 'fat jabs' to aid in their battles with obesity and diabetes.
Patients have found it incredibly useful to help shift weight and many have enjoyed incredible body transformations from taking it.
A pill version of the 'fat jabs' has finally become available in the United Kingdom this week, too, with pharmacies expecting a huge demand for the tablets.
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Weight loss drugs are known medically as GLP-1 after the hormone in the body it replicates to trick the mind into thinking its full, even if it isn't, and helps digest food more slowly.
However, nothing is ever too good to be true. While the medications are considered safe, they can cause significant side effects.
Even a 'large stomach mass'.
Unnamed woman suffered a gastric bezoar while using weight loss drug
A 63-year-old woman from Massachusetts was prescribed a semaglutide - the generic name for the weight-loss medication - drug for a year, reports The New England Journal of Medicine.
It did the job! In 12-months, she lost over 2.8 stone (18kg), which was roughly 19.4 per cent of her previous weight.
But it came at a price, as she began feeling burning pain in her stomach, which wasn't cured by over-the-counter remedies for acid reflux.
A trip to hospital was needed, where an endoscopy discovered she had a gastric bezoar, large stomach mass of undigested fibres.
Thankfully, these revolting looking fatbergs of the body are fairly rare, but can be caused by eating foods that contain indigestible components like celery, pineapple and raisins. And they say fruit is good for you.
The American woman was taken off the jabs as it likely caused the bezoar due to slowing her digestion, doctors reckon.
Thankfully, there's an easy and ingenious cure.
Doctors gave her 1.5 litres of diet cola to drink over a 12-hour period and that helped dissolve the mass thanks containing chemical ingredients that do a similar job to gastric acid.
The nausea and abdominal pain soon disappeared and a second endoscopy discovered the bezoar has gone. She suffered no further pain or sickness, but had to stop taking the weight loss jabs.
Doctors said in the journal: “Existing evidence, largely from case series and anecdotal experiences, supports the administration of three litres [0.8 gallons] of Cola, either orally or through a nasogastric tube, within a 12-hour window.
“It is not well understood whether acidity, carbonation, or another mechanism accounts for dissolution of the bezoar.
“Bezoars formed from food material may be initially managed with oral administration of cola in patients in a clinically stable condition.
“This intervention is generally cost-effective and is associated with a lower risk of complications than invasive procedures.”
While Bezoars are uncommon, gastric side effects from weight loss medication can include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and constipation.
Topics: Health
Daniel Murphy