Billed by many as miracle drugs for its instant results in weight loss, the ‘silver bullet’ Ozempic and its cousins have now been linked to vision impairment and blindness, in a growing number of cases.
Weight loss drugs like Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Zepbound have changed millions of lives by helping people shed extra pounds and reach a healthy weight bracket, thus reversing many chronic diseases. While this seems almost magical and holds a great promise for reducing alarming levels of obesity worldwide, some of the scary and irreversible side effects of the drugs have come under the scanner. One of them is sudden and permanent vision loss, which can have a life-altering consequence for people.
A two months back published in JAMA Ophthalmology talks about nine patients who developed serious optic nerve-related conditions after taking semaglutide or tirzepatide, which is the active ingredient in most weight loss drugs available today.
A recent report in the New York Post talks about the devastating vision loss of James Norris, a 56-year-old mechanic from Roxbury, New Jersey. Always struggling with weight loss, Norris decided to try obesity drug Mounjaro in March 2023, inspired by his wife’s remarkable 60-pound transformation on the same medication. His earlier attempts at losing weight through diet and exercise didn’t translate in results, and weighing 289 pounds, Norris really thought that the drug was an easy alternative to shed some quick pounds. Within a year, Norris lost 89 pounds and was able to stop taking medication for high blood pressure and cholesterol, which seemed to be an encouraging progress.
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While initially he was on 1.5 milligrams dose – a relatively low dose – things changed rapidly for him when the dose was increased to 2.5 milligrams. To his surprise, he woke up with a clouded vision in his left eye one morning. Two weeks later, his right eye became blurry too. At first, he dismissed it as a possible sinus infection, but after a series of medical tests, a neuro-ophthalmologist diagnosed him with non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) — a condition in which a sudden loss of blood flow to the optic nerve causes irreversible vision damage.
“I was devastated,” he said. “It’s extremely rare to get NAION in both eyes.” While Norris discontinued Mounjaro, he now struggles with daily tasks. Not able to do hands-on-work, he is now forced to do administrative work. He believes the risks associated with these medications, particularly at higher doses, are not worth the potential benefits.
What studies say about Ozempic blindness
A study published in JAMA Ophthalmology on January 30, 2025, by physician-scientists from the University of Utah’s John A. Moran Eye Center reviewed nine patients who developed serious optic nerve-related conditions after taking semaglutide (the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy) or tirzepatide (used in Mounjaro and Zepbound).
Seven of the patients reported symptoms consistent with NAION, while others experienced optic nerve inflammation (papillitis) or a condition known as paracentral acute middle maculopathy, which can cause blind spots.
This research follows a July 2024 study from Harvard’s Mass Eye and Ear hospital, which found that diabetics taking these drugs had a fourfold increased risk of developing NAION, while overweight or obese individuals taking them solely for weight loss faced a sevenfold risk increase.
In another study, diabetes patients using Ozempic were found to be over twice as likely to develop a rare eye condition known as NAION compared to those taking other diabetes medications, according to researchers who analyzed years of patient data from Denmark and Norway. If the risk remains consistent over time, a type 2 diabetes patient taking Ozempic for 20 years would face a 0.3% to 0.5% likelihood of developing NAION, according to a non-peer reviewed study published Thursday on medRxiv.
More horror storiesThe New York Post report mentions more cases of weight loss drugs causing vision loss in people. Michael Sabellico, 1 60-year-old took Ozempic in March 2024 to manage his Type 2 diabetes and lose weight. Weighing 185 pounds at the time, he initially lost weight successfully. But after eight weeks on a 1.5 mg dose, he woke up one morning unable to see clearly. He was diagnosed with NAION. At that time, there was no proper research around the link between NAION and Ozempic, so doctors actually increased his Ozempic dose to better manage his blood sugar. He finally stopped taking Ozempic in May 2024, but by then, the damage was done. He now has 20/70 vision in his left eye and 20/30 in his right.
Cheryl Bovee, a 56-year-old from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has already filed a lawsuit against Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of Ozempic, for what she calls “deceptive and misleading” marketing that downplayed the risks of the drug.
Bovee, who used Ozempic as prescribed for diabetes management, is now legally blind after developing NAION. “I can no longer work. I can no longer drive. I have to be careful just walking around my block. I can’t see at night,” she said.