Being prescribed semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, increases a person’s chance of developing a blinding condition, a Harvard study published on Wednesday found. Non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, also known as NAION, occurs when the optic nerves in the eyes are damaged by insufficient blood flow, causing permanent blindness. NAION is the second most common optic neuropathy condition with the first being glaucoma.
“You can reasonably consider it as a stroke of the optimal nerve. And like a stroke, you lose function, and there’s relatively little potential for recovery,” the study’s senior author, Dr. Joseph Rizzo III, professor of ophthalmology and director of neuro-ophthalmology service at the Harvard teaching hospital Massachusetts Eye and Ear, told The Epoch Times.
He said that his study makes “a strong case for an association between” the development of NAION and semaglutide prescription. Semaglutide is a GLP-1 receptor agonist. The drug mimics the effects of GLP-1 hormones naturally present in the body and binds to the GLP-1 receptor to reduce blood sugar and appetite, and causes a host of reactions to cause weight loss and improve diabetes.
The mechanisms of GLP-1 receptor agonists are still not well understood. While the study found that semaglutide prescription is linked to an over four-fold chance of NAION development in diabetic patients, in people who took semaglutide to treat obesity, prescription of the drug was.
