Mounjaro - have i given myself diabetes

[CheekySwan]

Not sure what I aim to get from this post. I took Mounjaro last year, had side effects such as head aches, dehydration, food not digesting, lightheadedness, dizziness and towards the end got a bit shaky. I only took it for 6 weeks and stopped. The side effects were minimal to begin with but got progressively worse so stopped. I stopped taking it beginning October. I did lose weight.

I have annual blood tests due to arthritis and was called in last week, didn't think anything about it. I received a message from my GP yesterday saying I have prediabetes, borderline for Type 2 diabetes.

I'm beating myself up about this because I think I could have caused this myself by taking MJ? Could it have damaged my pancreas and caused diabetes?

This is a long shot but has anyone had the same?

I very much doubt it. I’m assuming you are overweight if you started MJ? That will be what has caused it x

There is nothing to suggested that MJ can give people diabetes but we do know that being over weight can cause diabetes.

The drug doesn’t cause diabetes, that’s what you’re eating and your weight.

I have no idea how you can possibly come to that conclusion.

I don’t see how that could be possible? Could you talk us through the mechanisms of how you have reached this conclusion?

Kindly, you are thinking about this in entirely the wrong way. The obesity which made you eligible for MJ will be the main factor which led to your pre-diabetes, not the MJ itself.

Pre-diabetes is reversible and your GP will give you more advice.

No. It is a treatment for diabetes and often helps people with pre-diabetes avoid it progressing.

You may have been diabetic sooner without MJ.

Would you consider trying it again and going more slowly to avoid side effects?

Yes, as a pp said, this is a diabetes drug in the first instance, it puts diabetes into remission/reverses it. It does not cause it. I’m also unsure who you came to the conclusion it was the drug.

diabetes is reversed when you lose weight in many instances, and the diabetes association website will also help you with diet to enable that, so low carb, low sugar etc,

but it is your weight and food habits I’m afraid.

Having arthritis increases the risk of developing diabetes by around 50%. An annual blood test if you haven't changed anything to reduce the risk of developing diabetes may have been worse if you hadn't tried mounjaro and lost some weight.

Mounjaro is used to treat diabetes very effectively. It's not working for me as a WLI or having the many other effects commonly reported but it has normalised my blood sugar, more effective than oral semaglutide for me.

However pancreatitis is a very rare risk amd if you have the symptoms of it, you need to get it checked.

Thanks for the replies, my heads all over the place at the minute, I have read so much in the last 24hours.

I was just connecting the rare side effect of pancreatitis which can cause diabetes, I didn't know if i've possibly done some damage to my pancreas.

I was borderline obese when I took MJ, I lost 10kg in 6 weeks, completely cut out carbs. My blood sugar levels have not been high before, i've had a look back through my previous blood tests.

I'm just clutching at straws.

@9ToGoal thank you for that, I will have a look into it, I had no idea there was a connection.

I just think maybe I have a lot of research to do.

You'd know about it if you had pancreatitis

pancreatitis damage causes diabetes type 3 not type 2 so no it's nothing to do with the injections.

Luckily for you, type two is a lot more easy to manage than type one.

Second this, you'd be in a hostipal bed if you had it.

My DP got pancreatitis on mounjaro, and his symptoms were feeling nauseous, throwing up whenever he ate, intense stomach pain though didn't radiate to his back and wasn't in a specific location, pain when laying in certain positions, a fever with chills, the worst headache of his life and difficulty taking in liquid.

It is also in the side effects booklet that you can get hypoglycemia if you're not eating enough of the right stuff.

If you ever, EVER suspect pancreatitis you should call 111 at the very least to get an immediate blood test for pancreatic enzymes, however it's also important to not panic as pancreatitis from mounjaro is still really rare and it's more than likely to be something less severe.

Your ‘side effects’ sound more like low blood sugar symptoms to
me. No carbs at all
migjt mean your blood sugar was over corrected ?

Op if you’d damaged your panceas you’d be in a hospital at the time, and not with us any more if you weren’t.

10kg in six weeks is awful , shocking, and that’s why you were so very ill. You just have been eating very little, your blood sugar dropping and effectively hypoglycaemic. It wasn’t the drug which made you unwell it was what you were eating.

them coming back and eating properly again has spiked your blood sugars.

this is down to what you eat and your weight. It is not the drug. Please stop looking for reasons to blame something else.

It is good it is due to weight and consumption, as you can reverse this. But you need to take responsibility and eat sensibly. On or off the drug.

Thanks everyone, I think I am thinking about this the wrong way.

I think I panicked with the side effects.

I think I may have been on the path to diabetes before MJ and then took MJ and it probably helped because I had the last blood test in Oct when I had just stopped taking it and my levels were really low, and now 3 months later it has gone right back up because I stopped taking it.

I am seriously looking into my diet, I only have myself to blame. I think this was a panic post. I have read all your responses and thank you for making me see it clearer. x

@Shrinkingrose why is that loss ‘awful, shocking’? I have just read your comment and gone off to calculate my first 6 weeks’ loss and it was 22lbs so a tiny bit less than the op if we are being completely accurate with kgs/lbs!

I was NOT eating very little. My blood sugar clearly DIDN’T drop and DIDN’T make me hypoglycaemic.

Whilst this may possibly be what happened to the OP, your comment is quite ridiculous and frankly rather offensive!

Don't be so hard on yourself, diabetes type two can be down to genetics too. It's not all about weight.
The important thing is that you're prediabetic, not full blown diabetic so you have a chance to fix this.

And that’s ok for us to disagree, but two stone in 6 weeks seems a very large loss to me,

Don’t beat yourself up. It will be a mix of stopping and maybe reversing back to eating habits of old. But it’s reversible, and you are pre diabetic.

I suppose we look for ways that it’s not something we are in control of, op may find that more palatable than it’s her weight. So an unexpected side effect, not my fault .

You are predbetic so have a good chance at fixing it. I expect you're hooked up with diet advice but check out how Michael Mosley reversed his with 5:2.
Also a good hack at reducing bs after eating is to immediately move - walk round the block or march on the spot. Pre cooking starches and cooling completely before recooking makes them resistant starch. You still need to control quantity carefully but that will help too. Good luck.

If you were eliminating carbs or going very low carb many of your side effects would have been "keto flu" not mounjaro.

There is no need to follow an extreme diet when on MJ. Trying to build good sustainable habits for the long term is the aim.

I'm sorry but you can't be serious, this is an absolute leap of assumption, onto a totally incorrect assumption.

You were probably pre-diabetic before, just didn't know it. Taking MJ didn't bring on diabetes. I haven't even seen that suggested before.