I'm not coming to their defense, because 123 deaths, and reports of intestinal obstruction, pancreatitis, blindness, loss of consciousness and disability are extremely serious adverse events and definite cause for alarm. And of course over 900 cases of harm considered bad enough to warrant lawsuits against Novo Nordisk and Eli Lily due to inadequate warnings is no small matter either.

But it does need to be pointed out that the adverse event reporting system for drugs also includes all kinds of rather innocuous adverse events, because adverse events are anything different from feeling 100% normal, which means it could be anything from "I felt nauseous" (because I ate too much after the first dose) to "I had a headache" or "I felt lightheaded" (because it worked so well to control my appetite that I forgot to eat lunch) to "The injection left a red mark" (for a couple of hours).

If there are millions of people taking a drug (9 million in 2022, closer to 31 million by the end of 2023), and only 18,000 "adverse events" even reported - that's still a very small percentage of people actually having adverse events - only one report of adverse events for every 33,000+ users.

Again, I'm not negating the serious harms that have occurred, and not saying that the drug manufacturers should not be making the warnings very, VERY clear - preferably in bigger and bolder print than the name of the drug itself.

As Sandy pointed out, there are risks involved with every drug, and that includes over the counter drugs. Acetaminophen (which was described to me when DD1 was a baby as "pretty innocuous") has the potential to cause irreversible liver damage. NSAIDS can cause all kinds of serious problems, from internal bleeding to organ damage. Antihistamines, eye drops, anti-diarrhea drugs (such as pepto-bismol) - they all have side effects, some worse than others. For that matter, vitamin supplements can cause damage if you take too much. (Or sometimes even if you don't take "too much" - I know that my mother was never able to take a mulit-vitamin that had even a small amount of magnesium in it, because with her Irritable Bowel, even a small amount of supplemental magnesium would inevitably cause diarrhea for days.)

When we have real need of medication, Sandy is right that we are better off sticking with older drugs where at least the possible side effects are known.

... Or at least the [B]known[/B possible side effects are known. It's always possible for someone to have a previously unknown side effect to a medication that's been around for a century or more. But the same is true for a medication that's only been around for a year or a decade - As we've often pointed out on here, everyone is different. Most side effects will become known during drug trials... but as WB points out, the true long term study really only occurs once the drug is released for use by the general public. That's when all the previously unknown side effects start showing up, as well as the "everyone is different" extremely rare, previously unknown side effects.

Should the GLP-1 type drugs be withdrawn from the market? I think so, yes. Or at least reserved for only the most difficult cases where a diabetic is unable to control their blood sugar even with a strict reduced carb diet: One where they truly do stick to the diet, one where the carb count is low enough that it really should keep the blood sugar under control, with the distribution of macros such that they don't have insane cravings or an uncontrollable appetite.

But the main reason I think they should be reserved only for those cases is because there is a better way to control appetite, lose weight, and control blood sugars that really does work for most people. It takes quite a bit of discipline of course to get through the "induction flu", and also to continue the diet long term, as well as figuring out what really does work for YOU.

That of course is one of the primary problems with the GLP-1 drugs: as soon as they wear off, your appetite returns with a vengeance, which means you then regain weight, and need to go back on the drugs again, and the risks involved with the known (and unknown) side effects.