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Comment by layer8 | Hacker News Reader

A rebranding to a non-prescription drug will depend on how the prevalence × severity of side effects [0] turns out longer-term. I hope that you are right, but it seems too early to tell.

[0] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266736812...

https://www.gov.uk/drug-safety-update/glp-1-receptor-agonist...

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"Gastrointestinal side effects" I assume that is code for excessive and frequent evacuation of watery feces.

“common gastrointestinal side-effects of GLP-1RAs treatment (including nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and constipation) can persist for several days and may affect more than 1 in 10 patients”

For me, nausea only appears when I eat poorly - poor quality, or more than I should. Also increasing a dose can cause a bit of nausea for a few hours.

People seem to handle it very differently, according to my doc. I never had issues while taking Mounjaro or Synjardy (a prescription pill for diabetes management with similar side effects) alone, but the two together meant I could count on a couple of bad days a week.

Sidebar: Mounjaro changed my life. I'd been very diabetic (300 units of insulin a day) for years on end. Taking that much insulin, my normally large frame got very large indeed. A couple of months into the Mounjaro and I was off insulin; a year into it and I was down 75 lbs and healthier than I'd been in 20 years.

It’s actually the opposite. GLP-1s slow down the digestive tract, so my shits are far more well formed than before. This isn’t like olestra, where excess fat caused diarrhea.

Ok I'd been considering it already, but now I'm sold. I have the transit time of a canid.

It’s wild. I’ve never experienced burping food and tasting what I ate earlier, food just kinda rolls right through. Now, I get to really enjoy it a second time.

Who needs an appetite suppressant when they have comments like these?

Let me know when you need a little appetite adjustment. Free of charge!

fwiw tirzepatide (likely the GIP component) cleared up my lifelong IBS within days of my first dose.

I consider it a likely lifelong medication now simply due to that night and day difference to my life. It’s extremely rare I have a day where I need to be within 5 minutes of a restroom now.

My primary care doctor mentioned this might be a side effect when I first started, and she ended up being more correct than even she expected to be.

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