New study warning over deficiencies after taking Wegovy, Liraglutide

New study warning over deficiencies after taking Wegovy, Liraglutide 'Nutritional support needs to play a critical role once treatment with a GLP-1 medication is initiated' A new study has found that children taking GLP-1 medications such as Wegovy, Mounjaro, Saxenda, Ozempic for weight loss, prediabetes, or type 2 diabetes faced an increased risk of deficiencies. Science Daily reported that research showed nearly 1 in 6 young patients developed a diagnosed deficiency within a year of starting treatment. One of the biggest deficiencies found was in Vitamin D, with 12% suffering from it. The study published in Childhood Obesity found that nearly one in six young patients (16.8%) were diagnosed with a nutritional deficiency during the first year after starting treatment. Senior author Justin Ryder, PhD, Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Surgery at Ann & Robert H Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and Associate Professor of Surgery and Paediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said: “As appropriate paediatric use of GLP-1s becomes more widespread, we need to understand the risks during periods of rapid growth and pubertal development. “Nutrients such as vitamin D, iron and calcium are of particular concern during adolescence, when deficiencies may have lasting implications for skeletal health and overall development.” The researchers said the issue could be because adolescence is a period when the body requires substantial nutritional support for bone growth, physical development, and other major biological changes. It said: “Because GLP-1 medications can affect appetite and food intake, researchers say attention to nutrition may be especially important for younger patients receiving these drugs.” Prof Ryder said: “Nutritional support needs to play a critical role once treatment with a GLP-1 medication is initiated. In our study, however, we found that only 5% of patients received nutritional counselling within 30 days of GLP-1 treatment and less than 25% received nutritional counselling within 6 months.” To investigate the issue, Dr Ryder and his colleagues analysed national administrative claims data collected from 2017 through 2022. The broader database covered more than 100 million patients. Among these children, liraglutide (Victoza and Saxenda) was by far the most commonly prescribed GLP-1 medication, accounting for 78.6% of prescriptions. Dulaglutide (Trulicity) accounted for 10.4%, while semaglutide (Ozempic and Wegovy) accounted for 9.1%. The findings suggest that nutritional care may need to begin alongside GLP-1 treatment rather than only after a deficiency has already been detected. “We hope that our study findings bring much-needed recognition to the importance of proactive nutritional management when GLP-1s are prescribed to children, as opposed to waiting until a nutritional deficiency is diagnosed,” said Dr Ryder. “Knowing the risks, we are in a much better position to prevent harm to children treated with GLP-1s during a pivotal period in their lives.”