Health
Popular weight-loss medications linked to hidden side effects, study finds
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In a sweeping analysis of more than 400,000 Reddit posts, researchers have revealed some little-known GLP-1 side effects.
GLP-1 receptor agonists — such as semaglutide (Ozempic and Wegovy), and tirzepatide (Mounjaro and Zepbound) — have been most commonly associated with gastrointestinal side effects, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and constipation.
A new study published in Nature Health, however, uncovered some overlooked effects.
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University of Pennsylvania researchers used artificial intelligence to analyze more than five years of Reddit posts from more than 67,000 people taking the popular drugs for diabetes or weight loss.
While clinical trials are still the “gold standard,” the researchers noted that Reddit community feedback reflects a different population.
GLP-1 receptor agonists — such as semaglutide (Ozempic and Wegovy), and tirzepatide (Mounjaro and Zepbound) — have been most commonly associated with gastrointestinal side effects, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and constipation. (iStock)
“People often use medications differently than they’re prescribed, so it’s also important to look at real-world usage, which can diverge from usage in a clinical trial,” lead researcher Neil Sehgal, a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania, told Fox News Digital. “So there are many possible reasons we’re seeing signals that the trials may have missed.”
Overlooked effects
Nearly half of the users reported one or more side effects. The most common were nausea, vomiting and constipation, which aligned with what clinical trials found, according to Sehgal.
“We’re almost certainly capturing a skewed slice of the full picture.”
“We did notice a few side effects that have not previously been reported for these drugs,” he told Fox News Digital.
“For example, about 4% of users who described side effects reported menstrual irregularities. Other Redditors described unusual temperature-related symptoms, like chills or hot flashes.”
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Nearly 13% of users also experienced psychiatric symptoms, such as anxiety, depression and insomnia. More than 5% also complained of abdominal pain, acid reflux, headache and dizziness.
“Fatigue was also the second most commonly reported symptom overall, but has met relatively few reporting thresholds in existing trials,” Seghal noted. “This gap between what patients are self-reporting online and what gets captured in trials is really what motivated this whole line of work.”
Clinical context
Dr. Sue Decotiis, a New York City-based board-certified weight-loss physician, noted that many of the reported symptoms, such as disorientation and fatigue, are most likely due to dehydration and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).
“People often use medications differently than they’re prescribed, so it’s also important to look at real-world usage, which can diverge from usage in a clinical trial,” the lead researcher said. (iStock)
“Patients should be carefully monitored using a structured protocol that ensures proper nutrition and adequate hydration, ideally under the direct supervision of a physician experienced in metabolism and weight loss,” Decotiis, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.
“Additionally, body composition analysis can help identify issues such as muscle loss, excessive water loss or insufficient fat loss.”
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A significant concern, according to the doctor, is that many individuals are accessing these medications through online platforms or without receiving appropriate medical care.
“In my experience treating thousands of patients with various GLP-1 medications, complications are rare and typically occur only when patients are noncompliant,” she added.
Study limitations
As the data came from Reddit users, who tend to be younger, primarily male and mostly based in the U.S., it may not represent everyone taking these medications, the researchers noted.
“In my experience treating thousands of patients with various GLP-1 medications, complications are rare and typically occur only when patients are noncompliant,” a weight-loss doctor shared. (iStock)
“And even within Reddit, the people who post about their side effects are probably not typical of everyone on the medication,” Sehgal said. “If you had a good experience, you’re less likely to be writing about it online. So we’re almost certainly capturing a skewed slice of the full picture.”
The researchers also noted that the study can’t prove the drug caused the reported symptoms.
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“To be clear, we can’t say for certain whether these drugs are causing menstrual irregularities,” Sehgal said. “Patients on Reddit aren’t going to self-report every symptom they have, and they may also report things that aren’t actually linked to the medications. So it’s important to treat this as hypothesis-generating signals and do more research.”
The researchers noted that the study can’t prove the drug caused the reported symptoms. (iStock)
The study also didn’t include GLP-1 dosage, duration of the medication and symptoms, or other health conditions the users experienced. There is also the chance that the AI tools misunderstood meanings or context, the researchers noted.
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The results must be confirmed with more rigorous research, Sehgal said. “That’s how we’ll get real answers about prevalence and causality, which social media data alone can’t provide.”
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“These are signals, not conclusions – but I do think it’s always worth talking to your doctor about anything unexpected you’re experiencing while on a new medication, even if you’re not sure if it’s related,” he advised. “So if something feels off, say something.”
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All participants in a trial of bowel cancer patients remained cancer-free nearly three years after receiving an experimental treatment.
Led by researchers at University College London and UCL Hospitals, the study suggests that a short course of immunotherapy before surgery could produce better results than the current standard of care for certain patients.
The trial focused on 32 patients with stage 2 or 3 bowel cancer. These patients had tumors with a specific genetic profile called MMR-deficient or MSI-high, according to a press release.
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This profile, which is found in about 10% to 15% of bowel cancer cases, indicates a faulty DNA repair system in the body, the researchers noted. However, scientists hypothesized, that could make it easier for immunotherapy drugs to find and attack the tumors.
The drug shrank tumors so effectively that 59% of patients had no signs of cancer left by their surgery date. (iStock)
Instead of receiving standard chemotherapy after surgery, these patients were given a drug called pembrolizumab before their operations. The treatment lasted up to nine weeks.
Early data showed that the drug shrank tumors so effectively that 59% of patients had no signs of cancer left by the time they went in for surgery.
The latest data confirms that 33 months later, none of those patients have seen a return of the disease, including those who still had small traces of cancer remaining after surgery that never grew or spread again.
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“Seeing that no patients have experienced a cancer recurrence after almost three years of follow-up is extremely encouraging, and strengthens our confidence that pembrolizumab is a safe and highly effective treatment to improve outcomes in patients with high-risk bowel cancers,” said chief investigator Dr. Kai-Keen Shiu, a consultant medical oncologist at UCLH and associate professor at UCL, in the release.
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With the traditional approach of surgery followed by chemotherapy, about 25% of patients with this genetic profile would see their cancer return within three years, according to the study.
The study was a small trial with only 32 people and only looked at a specific genetic subset of patients. (iStock)
The research team also used personalized blood tests to monitor the patients. These tests look for tiny fragments of tumor DNA in the bloodstream, allowing doctors to determine whether the treatment was working before the surgery.
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“When tumor DNA disappeared from the blood, patients were much more likely to have no cancer remaining, and this matched the long-term results we’re now seeing,” said first author Yanrong Jiang, a clinical PhD student at the UCL Cancer Institute, in the release.
The study did have limitations, the researchers noted. It was a small trial with only 32 people and only looked at a specific genetic subset of patients, which means the results may not apply to everyone with bowel cancer.
“We now may be able to predict who will respond to the treatment using personalized blood tests and immune profiling,” said one of the members of the research team. (iStock)
Doctors also need to follow the patients for a longer period to ensure that the cancer doesn’t return, they added.
Even so, the researchers shared their optimism about the future of personalized care.
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“What is particularly exciting is that we now may be able to predict who will respond to the treatment using personalized blood tests and immune profiling,” Shiu said.
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“These tools could help us tailor our approach, identifying patients who are doing well and may need less therapy before and after surgery.”
The results were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2026 in San Diego last month.
Since last fall, new and deadly synthetic opioids called orphines have begun appearing in street drugs in the United States. They are far more potent than fentanyl but cannot be detected by standard toxicology tests.
Orphines are still much less common than fentanyl, but they are proliferating quickly. As of last month, they have been found in 14 states, mostly in the South and the Midwest. Law enforcement officials and public health officials are trying to assess the gravity and endurance of the threat they pose.
Here are answers to some basic questions.
What are orphines?
They are a class of opioids that was created in the 1960s by Paul Janssen, a Belgian doctor and pharmacologist, whose teams investigated rapid, safe pain relievers for surgery. As part of that effort, they also developed fentanyl.
Dr. Janssen and others discovered that orphines had life-threatening side effects such as acute respiratory depression and were highly addictive. Within a few years, the research on them was halted.
Researchers characterize orphines as 10 times more powerful than fentanyl, even in quantities no greater than a few sand-size grains. They can be lethal with stunning speed, with victims slumping over abruptly, respiration shutting down, chest walls rigid. Sometimes the classic signature of overdose, “the foam cone” — froth from the nostrils and mouth — does not even have time to bubble up.
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Still, it is possible for people overdosing on orphines to be revived with naloxone, the opioid reversal medication. But numerous doses may be required, many more than the one or two doses typically needed for fentanyl.
Why did orphines start showing up in United States?
Orphines are among the synthetic opioids that started to appear in the street drug supply in the wake of global crackdowns on fentanyl.
In 2018, the Drug Enforcement Administration issued a temporary ban on all fentanyl-related substances, called analogs. That same year, an article in The Journal of Medicinal Chemistry addressed the challenge of developing opioids without toxic side effects and offered orphines as cautionary examples. It described them as dangerous, because they are so powerfully addictive and may affect breathing.
Researchers speculate that rogue chemists, seeking illicit drugs that can evade international drug laws, may have been inspired by the article to develop orphines. By 2019, brorphine, an early orphine, was detected in Europe.
Around that time, another class of cheap, synthetic opioids called nitazenes had been circulating in Europe and the United States, alarming law enforcement and public health officials. But in July 2025, China, a key manufacturing source of chemicals for nitazenes, banned them.
Nitazenes began to fade but, within months, orphines popped up in the American illicit drug supply.
In what form are orphines sold?
The most common orphine is an analog called cychlorphine (also known as N-propionitrile chlorphine). It seems to be circulating in counterfeit pills or as a powder, bulking and boosting fentanyl. Overdoses and fatalities may occur because the user did not know that the intended drug — such as the stimulant methamphetamine — had been adulterated with the orphine.
Cychlorphine is so new, so difficult to seize that researchers believe it is often being delivered by international mail. In addition to the United States, it has been detected in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, France and Germany, where, cheap and available, it has been nicknamed “poor man’s fentanyl.”
There are indications in Europe that cychlorphine is being used on its own, not just to adulterate other drugs. Medical examiners in the United States are starting to surmise this as well because a few overdose fatalities do not test positive for conventional illicit drugs, like fentanyl and benzodiazepines. When further toxicology tests have been done, cychlorphine shows up as the only deadly drug on board.
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A former Ironman triathlete was stunned to learn that his vision problems were actually the first sign of stage 4 lung cancer.
Dave Nitsche, 57, was initially given just 12 to 24 months to live – but a newly approved drug has helped him surpass that timeframe by several years.
“In 2019, I noticed that I was having trouble seeing with my left eye,” the Canadian man shared during an interview with Fox News Digital. “I went to the optometrist, and they said it was probably a detached retina.”
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After scans revealed fluid buildup and rising pressure, doctors determined that Nitsche had lost vision in the eye — and ultimately removed it. A biopsy of the fluid revealed that it was cancerous.
Next, Nitsche saw more specialists, who extracted fluid from his lungs for more testing. “The next day, the oncologist told me that I had stage 4 lung cancer,” he said.
Dave Nitsche, pictured in Calgary, Alberta in 2025, was stunned to learn that his vision problems were actually the first sign of stage 4 lung cancer. (Dave Nitsche)
Nitsche said his doctors were “very shocked” to find that his initial eye issues had stemmed from lung cancer – particularly because he had never been a smoker.
Azam J. Farooqui, M.D., a hematology and oncology physician at Ironwood Cancer & Research Centers in Chandler, Arizona, agreed that Nitsche’s case was “very surprising.”
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“Cancer can find its way to some very odd locations, but the eye is a very, very rare one,” Farooqui, who did not treat Nitsche, told Fox News Digital. “Usually cancer will get there via a nerve channel or blood vessel, but it’s very uncommon.”
Nitsche, an ex-triathlete who has done multiple Ironman races, hadn’t experienced any other symptoms other than the eye issues. “I was running quite a bit at the time,” he shared. “I had a little bit of back pain here and there, but lung cancer definitely wasn’t on my radar.”
Nitsche, an ex-triathlete who has done multiple Ironman races, hadn’t experienced any other symptoms other than the eye issues. “I had a little bit of back pain here and there, but lung cancer definitely wasn’t on my radar.” (Dave Nitsche)
His first treatment was a targeted therapy called afatinib, which lasted about three months. When doctors found that the cancer had spread to Nitsche’s brain, he began taking another medication called Tagrisso (osimertinib), which crosses the blood-brain barrier.
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After six years, when those drugs stopped working, Nitsche started taking Rybrevant (amivantamab), a chemo-free drug that he receives via IV infusion every three weeks in a supervised medical setting. After a year on the drug, which is developed by Johnson & Johnson, his scans are looking “very, very good,” he said.
“There are days that you feel strong and there are days that you’re a little weaker, but you just adjust accordingly.”
“Science is catching up to me perfectly with all these drugs that I’m on,” Nitsche said. “Now, we’ll just wait for the next thing to come along, and we’ll jump onto that. But for now, the Rybrevant is working perfectly.”
Nitsche has experienced a few side effects, but said for the most part, the drug he is taking is “very tolerable.” (Dave Nitsche)
Nitsche has experienced a few side effects, primarily skin irritation and fingernail infections, but said for the most part, the drug is “very tolerable.”
Compared to the full-dose chemo and other lung cancer treatments, Farooqui agreed that Rybrevant is “very manageable.”
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Other common side effects can include infusion reactions, muscle and joint pain, mouth sores, swelling, fatigue, nausea, bowel changes, vomiting, cough, shortness of breath and low appetite, according to FDA prescribing information.
In rare cases, serious effects can include lung inflammation, blood clots, severe skin reactions and eye problems. Pregnant women should not take the drug due to fetal risks.
Embracing his role as an advocate, Nitsche now speaks openly about his experience and what others should know. (Dave Nitsche)
“If somebody is having too many side effects, or if it is feeling too aggressive, we can do dose reductions,” Farooqui noted. “In my experience, we’ve had patients do really well on it, and we’ve been able to manage their side effects without any major concerns.”
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Rybrevant has now been approved to treat certain types of non-small cell lung cancer in the U.S. and Canada, and Nitsche said a few of his friends are also taking the drug.
“Doctors gave me a year to two years – they told me to get my affairs in order. And it’s been seven years now,” he said. “I’ll take it.”
“For almost any type of cancer, a diagnosis is not a death sentence.”
Nitsche is now preparing for a 600-mile biking expedition in June to raise awareness for lung cancer. He credits his endurance training and high fitness level with helping to extend his survival.
“There are days that you feel strong and there are days that you’re a little weaker, but you just adjust accordingly,” he said.
Rybrevant has now been approved to treat certain types of non-small cell lung cancer in the U.S. and Canada. (iStock)
Embracing his role as an advocate, Nitsche now speaks openly about his experience and what others should know.
“If you have lungs, you can get lung cancer – but at this point, for almost any type of cancer, a diagnosis is not a death sentence,” he said. “They’re doing so much research on it, especially with lung cancer… I’ve known people who have lasted 12 to 18 years, so for me, seven years is great. So I’ll just keep going.”
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Farooqui echoed the importance of patients “advocating for themselves and getting the most up-to-date therapy there is.”
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