What’s all this celebrity talk about WLI making them go blind?

[EvangelicalAboutButteredToast]

It’s starting to worry me. My eyesight has deteriorated with age but I don’t like the idea that WLI could actively be making it worse!

I know Robbie Williams has come out saying that he thinks Mountjaro is making him lose his sight. Then today I see the headline in the Mail that the columnist Jenni Murray is also claiming the same. What’s going on do we think?

Im on a long term maintenance dose of Wegovey as it’s been nothing short of a miracle for the long term chronic health problem that I’ve had for thirty years. I do t want to go blind though.

I’ve not heard of this. How is it affecting eyesight?

It’s headline grabbing and attention seeking. It’s not a substitute for the actual research carried out into these medications and their possible side effects.

I honestly dont know. The Jenni Murray column is behind a paywall and I didn’t read the Robbie Williams blurb as I thought he was just being a bit thick. I might go read it now though.

GPL1 has been around for nearly 20 years, its been extensively researched, I think its unlikely that this side effect has not been observed before now.

Yes at micro dose levels for diabetics.

This new use is mega dosing.

I’ve just read a Robbie Williams article and it says the following;

His comments follow a US study suggesting a potential link between Semaglutide-based drugs and a rare optic nerve condition that can lead to blindness. Although scientists remain divided over how significant the risk may be, hundreds of reports referencing vision problems have been logged in the UK.

What levels are considered micro dosing?

Honestly, Williams just noticed his eye sight worsening, had an opticians appointment and now needs glasses. Totally normal for a 51 year old man, age related.

The Jenni Murray article, well the fact they’ve put it behind their paywall tells me that it’s a story they think has extra interest, due to it being a hot topic. She wrote an article for Saga in June about the long deterioration in her eye sight, well before she started on WLI. I have read the DM article via a paywall remover. She was categorically told that it was an age related issue and not to do with Mounjaro. She then waffles about the possible link to a different eye condition that she doesn’t have, called NAION which is very rare, and may show some signs of being slightly less rare in people taking semaglutide. But no actual evidence of a causal link, to date. So a load of attention grabbing waffle.

Actually I’ve just looked it up and it’s around the maintenance dose I take.

I think age related eye loss is quite shocking for people (myself included) when previously we’ve had 20/20 vision our whole lives. I just assumed Robbie was struggling with getting old.

There is a known problem with Ozempic

Scare mongering

What is that known problem? Do you mean diabetic retinopathy possibly worsening in diabetics with diabetic retinopathy, or do you mean the recent possible correlation with NAION, which has yet to be definitively linked and fully researched?

I’m prescribed it by the NHS for T2 diabetes and I’m not receiving a micro-dose. Are you able to provide any information about what the dosing regime is that you’re referring to?

This is a “correlation does not mean causation” situation.

People taking Mounjaro are (or should be according to prescribing guidelines) obese.
Obese people are more likely to have circulation and/or insulin issues
People with high blood sugar/poor circulation are more likely to have eye problems.

So is it the Mounjaro causing the very very small number of people to have eye problems, or is it obesity related conditions that have caused it?

Mounjaro can cause a sudden drop in blood glucose levels in people who had high blood glucose prior to starting the medication. That sudden drop can cause the blood vessels in the eye to constrict causing a decrease in vision which is generally (not always)temporary.

As mentioned upthread, MJ and other similar medications are not new, the availability of them is new though. What this means is that there is now a significantly larger pool of people taking them, some will be doing so against guidelines so that could cause health issues, but even if we were to assume everyone was doing exactly what they are supposed to it is logical that we will hear about more issues if 3 million people (made up numbers, don’t have the stats) are taking a drug than if 3000 are.

Interestingly, within the first couple of months of taking MJ I started having problems with my vision. I'm diabetic and wear glasses and had not long had an eye test but suddenly I couldn't see my work computer screen clearly. I went back to the optician who told me fluctuations in blood sugars can cause differences in vision and taking the MJ had actually temporarily improved my short sightedness. Thankfully I'd saved my old glasses which had a weaker prescription so I wore them until my eyes adjusted about a week later and went back to normal.

So I haven't seen any evidence of people going blind from MJ but the effect it had on my blood sugar did cause differences in my eyesight, albeit temporarily.

What are you talking about? The dose of mounjaro is the result of clinical trials over many years. There is no “microdosing for diabetics”.

Huh? What are you on about, it’s the same for both.

do people just make things up and post them ? 😂

the mail has constant articles on weight loss injections, one day it’s negative, the next it’s positive. I read the jenni Murray article, she’s 75 and it’s age related, she’s said she read the Robbie Williams nonsense and then asked her doctor, who told her it was age related, if it was mounjaro and the doc said basically there was no evidence to suggest that, but she’s got the fear sigh and wrote an article about her fear.

its just another click bait article.

I had an eye test at the weekend and bar my usual reading prescriptions they said my eyes are perfectly healthy. Robbie Williams is hugely vain and just can’t cope with aging. The other lady has squinted and worn glasses for years and is 75.

I got eye symptoms from MJ so stopped taking it.
It was from about 3 or 4 weeks in, still on a low dose.
My left eye started feeling really odd. I don't quite know how to describe it - like it wasn't properly working. A PP mentioned dry eyes. I got that too.
I don't think it was age related degeneration coming on super-fast. I think it was related to the MJ.
Everyone can make their own judgment about the risks to them and take it or not take it as they want. But I was scared and didn't want to continue. I would rather be overweight and be able to see, than thin and blind.

I put this post on the other thread about the same issue a few days ago.

The average age of a UK Mounjaro patient is 50. Half of all users are between the ages of 40 and 60, which is when presbyopia develops. 98% of people have presbyopia by age 51.

https://www.moorfields.nhs.uk/eye-conditions/presbyopia

What is the maintenance/ micro dosing dose, please?

its Based on the individual. I take 5mg, some take 10, others 2.5. It’s whatever works for you.

People love to say correlation isn’t causation without looking at the study design. The participants had no heightened risk at time points early in use, but did at the two year and later points. So yes more research needed but no it doesn’t look like it’s due to pre-existing risk factors. If there is an increased chance of a very low risk then obviously it will still likely be worth it for many people to avoid other serious health conditions, but at a population level it could be quite a rise in numbers of that rare condition and is very worth knowing about for anyone taking the drugs who doesn’t actually have health-threatening obesity or who could lose the weight another way

@Wickedlittledancer
This may be just a misuse of the term 'microdose'? I don't have the facts to hand but I understand that people taking glp1s for diabetes alone generally find the lowest doses are sufficient to manage their bloods, whereas those using them to lose weight often require the higher doses (there are exceptions of course)

No that’s not true, where did you read that?