For the record, I have no opinion on the health effects, positive, negative, short or long term of Ozempic or the other semiglutides.
After all, the benefit of losing weight was a "side effect" of this type of diabetic medication.
I recall the Fen-Phen drug rush of the 1990's. I had an MD friend who lost a lot of weight from it and lived a long life. Died in an accident at 78. Never any of the heart valve issues that resulted it being pulled off the market by the FDA. You know, the same FDA these conspiracy kooks insist are just a runner stamp in the pocket of Big Pharma!
Slippery Slope: Fen-Phen Users Recall a 'Miracle' Turned Nightmare
— Fen-phen use was linked to heart valve damage, as these two cases illustrate.
Fen-phen use was linked to heart valve damage, as these two cases illustrate.
www.medpagetoday.com
In the mid 1990s, Phyllis Hardy was eager to try the new "miracle medicine" that co-workers at her hospital in Milwaukee were using to effortlessly shed pounds.
At the time, she was in her late 30s and weighed more than 300 pounds. Her doctor prescribed the
combination drug fenfluramine and phentermineopens in a new tab or window -- known as "fen-phen" -- and within a few months she had lost more than 25 pounds.
"When you are fat, you just want to lose weight," Hardy said, then added. "I haven't been right since."
In 1997, the FDA ordered Wyeth to remove fenfluramine (Pondimin) and a related drug, dexfenfluramine (Redux) from the market, after a study showed
they caused damage to heart valvesopens in a new tab or window. That effectively put an end to the fen-phen craze.
Hardy, now 57, believes fen-phen -- which she took for several months -- caused her to develop a leaky heart valve.
She takes heart medications that address her symptoms, including drugs that slow her heart rate and lower her blood pressure. She gets winded at times and said she has had a burning sensation in the throat ever since using the drugs.
Fen-phen is one of many weight-loss treatments that gained rapid popularity, only to be pulled from pharmacy shelves when problems were revealed.