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GLP-1 drugs affect more than appetite for food: They can make you feel tired, sleepy, or exhausted.

Fatigue is the second most common complaint after gastrointestinal symptoms (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea).

A social media platform analysis revealed that 14% to 16% of people on GLP-1 medications report fatigue.

People who are taking GLP-1 drugs should be monitored for correctable causes of fatigue.

If you’re taking a glucagon-like peptide receptor agonist (GLP-1 or GLP-1 RA) for weight loss, obesity, diabetes, or sleep apnea, you may have noticed that you feel sleepy, even exhausted, for the first couple of days after your injection as you’re ramping up the dose.

I’ve been taking GLP-1 RA injections for several months, gradually increasing the dose, and lost 23 pounds. I felt great and energized, and had no side effects until I reached the highest dose. Then it hit me.

On the day after my injection and through the following day, I could barely get off the couch. I slept 12 hours, managed to go out for a short time, and then promptly fell asleep in my recliner for over an hour. It was all I could do to stay awake until 8:30 p.m. and then head back to bed for more sleep. Then, as suddenly as it had started, I perked up 48 hours after my dose, with my usual level of energy. I swam for 30 minutes before breakfast after seven hours of sleep.

In the depths of exhaustion, I began to wonder if I had chronic fatigue syndrome, and for the first time truly understood what patients with that debilitating disorder experience. But it turns out that fatigue is a known side effect of GLP-1 RAs. The problem is that fatigue has multiple definitions, and many clinical trials don’t specifically call out the different ways that people define fatigue: sleepiness, “weak and dizzy,” exhaustion.

It is fascinating that a drug that targets the brain’s dopamine reward pathways to reduce appetite can have such massive effects on fatigue and sleepiness.

In my case, there was the additional complicating factor of my thyroid gland, that butterfly-shaped gland in your neck that........

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