It has been hailed as a “miracle” fat-busting drug and a breakthrough in the war against obesity, but Mounjaro users have revealed another unpleasant side effect.
Despite their undeniable slimming effects, injections of GLP-1 drugs, such as Ozempic and Wegovy, have been linked to a catalog of side effects including muscle loss, hair loss and the “Ozempic face.”
Now users of weight-loss tirzepatide, sold as Mounjaro and coined the ‘King Kong’ of slimming injections, complain that the drug leaves them feeling permanently ‘freezing’ cold.
Dozens of TikTok users have shared clips demonstrating their drug-induced chills, tagging the videos with the hashtag ‘jaro nerves’ and ‘Mounjaro side effects’.
A recent TikTok video posted by @katie.k1986who has been taking the medication for just over a month, sees the social media user wrapped in a fleece as she tells her followers she is “so cold I could be in Greenland.”
Several TikTok users commented on the video, echoing Katie’s experience.
‘I’m watching this video under an electric blanket,’ said one, while another wished that menopause would start to increase her body temperature.
Another video posted by @vida.conleannewho has been injecting Mounjaro for almost six months, sees on social networks that the Eskimos are warmer than her.
Social media user @nicinackinoo (pictured left) complained about the side effect. She said: “I’m wearing a granny nightgown, a robe, a blanket and another blanket and socks and I’m still shivering.” In a video posted by @life.withleanne (pictured right), she is seen confessing that there are ‘warmer Eskimos’ than her.
Meanwhile user @nicinackinoo She said, “I’m wearing a granny nightgown, a robe, a blanket and another blanket and socks and I’m still shivering.”
Now Professor Alex Miras, a leading obesity expert at the University of Ulster, has offered a simple explanation for the phenomenon.
He explained that when we lose weight, our energy expenditure is reduced in an attempt to conserve fat, which means we burn fewer calories.
But the process of burning energy generates heat, meaning we feel colder when our body does it less often.
Professor Miras told MailOnline: “When people reach their stable weight, which is usually a year after starting the medication, they begin to burn more energy and are less likely to complain of feeling cold.”
Professor John Wilding, an expert in cardiovascular and metabolic medicine at the University of Liverpool, said feeling cold is simply the result of losing fat.
He told MailOnline: ‘People who lose weight will have less fat and, as this acts as an insulator, it might make sense that they feel the cold more; There is also a slight slowdown in energy expenditure.
‘Cold intolerance is known to occur with weight loss, whether through diet, medications, or weight loss surgery.
“Therefore, if people experience this, it is likely due to weight loss, rather than a specific effect of the medication used.”
Experts say that the side effect of feeling cold while taking Mounjaro is simply the result of fat loss and therefore insulation of the body.
Like many drugs, the side effects of Mounjaro can be serious and more than 100 deaths have been recorded since 2023.
Clinical trials have reported a number of side effects when taking Mounjaro.
One, involving 900 participants, found that a fifth suffered from nausea and diarrhea, and about one in 10 reported vomiting or constipation.
US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, which makes the drug, said Mounjaro’s side effects were reported more frequently when the dose was increased.
Only about 4 percent and 7.5 percent of participants, in the 10 mg and 15 mg dose cohorts respectively, dropped out of the study due to side effects.
Other people who took the drug outside of clinical trials reported experiencing hair loss while taking Mounjaro.
The EU’s medicines watchdog, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), said earlier this year that research in rodents has suggested that artificial hormones packaged in tirzepatide could increase the risk of medullary thyroid cancer.
The EMA has ruled that a follow-up study of patients taking the drug is necessary to explore the potential for an increased risk of cancer in humans.
Some users have also commented that GLP-1 drugs cause premature aging.
This is because weight loss injections do not specifically target fat, but instead trigger weight loss by affecting appetite.
The result is that patients may also lose muscle mass by not eating as much protein, the building block of muscle, as they did before taking the drug.
Fat also disappears from the face, not just the belly, causing many people to look gaunt, known as the “Ozempic face.”
Since the fat in our face helps give us smooth, plump cheeks and wrinkle-free foreheads, losing it quickly can make people look much older.
However, as with many medications, the side effects of Mounjaro can be serious.
Susan McGowan, a 58-year-old nurse from Lanarkshire, died from multiple organ failure, septic shock and pancreatitis after receiving two low-dose injections of tirzepatide.
He received the injections over a two-week period before his death on September 4. It is believed to be the first time the drug has been listed as a contributing factor on a death certificate.
In another case, Meredith Hotchkiss, a nurse from Meridian, Idaho, US, said she will now likely be tube-fed for the rest of her life, after receiving the shot for only a few weeks.
The 56-year-old woman who said the vaccine had “devastated” her life is one of hundreds of patients who have joined a multi-state lawsuit against the drug makers of Mounjaro and another weight-loss vaccine. , Ozempic.
Thousands more patients who also suffered extreme side effects are expected to join the legal action as it progresses, lawyers say.