MOUNJARO (Tirzepatide) | Diabetes, Weight loss, Side Effects, Precautions & How To Use
Hi, my name is quick. Why I’m a pharmacist in today’s video we’re going to be talking about Tirzebatide, which, as of the time I’ve recorded in this video, is the newest kid on the block in terms of diabetes management medications, we’re going to take a look at what it is? How to take it, how it works some things to consider if you are taking it, and as well as some side effects as well. So what is Mounjaro? Well Mounjaro or is chemical name test Tirzepatide, is an injectable prescription medication that is approved for the management of type 2 diabetes. It comes in peripheral syringes, ranging from
2.5 milligrams to 15 milligrams in 2.5. Milligram increments Mounjaro is injected subcutaneously. That is under the skin once every seven days or once a week, the starting dose is typically 2.5 milligrams and then, depending on how you respond to your doctor, may decide to increase it to the next available strength in increments of 2.5 milligrams
How Long Does Treatment Take (Last)
Typically, you will stay on one strength for about four weeks before you move on to the higher strength. Now, if you miss a dose, if you forget a dose, the recommendation is that you can take it as soon as you remember, but if it has been more than 96 hours or four days, then you just have to skip that dose and resume your normal dosing Schedule now you can also change the day of administration of your dose.
So, for example, if you take it on a Sunday and you want to change it to a different day, maybe Wednesday, whatever the case may be, yes, you sure can do so. The only thing is that there has to be three days or seventy-two hours between the two doses, so you can take a dose on Sunday and then on Tuesday change it. It has to be at least 72 hours between the two doses.
Incretin Effect
Now, let’s look at some incretins stuff: how Mounjaro works. Manjaro works like hormones called incretins which are secreted naturally in your body and responds to food. Now there are two non-encouraging hormone glucose-dependent, insulinotropic polypeptide, or we call it gip for short, and then glucagon-like peptide 1. We call glp1 for short now, together, these two hormones are responsible for what is called the incretin effect now.
This incretin effect at the very basic level refers to a two to threefold increase in insulin, security response to oral glucose compared to intravenous glucose. So, in very simple terms, when somebody eats food, there is a natural response to the food which causes the body to produce these increasing hormones, and the incretin hormones in turn also stimulate the body to produce insulin. Unfortunately, when people with type 2 diabetes, this incretin response is either impaired or is totally non-existent at all. Now that is where mount Mounjaro comes in. Mounjaro acts just like these hormones, so when you inject Mounjaro, it stimulates this gip and glp-1 receptors, and the result is that your body naturally produces more insulin, which in turn also helps you to break down the glucose and other effects.
Apart from enhancing insulin, secretion that’ll cause when Mounjaro is injected include the reduction in the production of glucagon. Now glucagon is a hormone that makes the body convert stored glucose in the form of glycogen in the liver into glucose and releasing it back into the blood. So when you kind of block glucagon, you prevent that process from happening. So you limit the amount of glucose that the body is also producing and releasing into the bloodstream. There is also improved insulin sensitivity.
There is what we call delayed. Gastric emptying and delayed gastric. Emptying means that the food actually stays a little bit longer in your system before it comes out, and that is what accounts for people feeling full and satisfied and serves us an appetite suppressant. Hence its use in weight loss and talking about weight loss. I’m going to have a separate video addressing that completely, but I just want to mention here that Mounjaro is currently not approved in the management of weight loss, but there is strong data to suggest that Mounjaro is actually a very effective medication for weight loss.
Tirzepatide Considerations B4 You Start
Now here are a few considerations that you need to take into account if you are taking Mounjaro or even if you are not even initially considering it. The first thing is that you want to discuss with your doctor if you have any kind of digestive problems, if you have something, for example like gastroparesis, where there is difficulty already having food to leave, your system boundary may aggravate that effect. So you want to make your doctor know if you have any kind of digestive problems before you even start on Mounjaro. The other thing that you need to consider is other medications that you are taking particularly insulin and class of medications. We call sulfonylureas, which include glyphoside, glyburide and etcetera.
What happens is that when Mounjaro is combined with these medications, there’s an increase in the risk of you developing hypoglycemia, where your blood sugar dips, too low. So those are some of the things that you need to be considered. Usually, they may be a dose change in some of the other medications that you’re taking once your doctor decides to add on Mounjaro. Also, if you have a history of diabetic retinopathy, where there is issues with your retina because of diabetes, you may need to be a little bit more conscious. The irony is that rapidly improving blood sugar levels is actually associated with deteriorating retinopathy, so that is something that you need to be conscious about when your doctor decides to put you on Mounjaro, also, if you’re pregnant or planning on getting pregnant.
This is something that you actually need to discuss with your doctor, because Mounjaro may harm the fetus. On the other hand, if you are not planning to become pregnant and you are taking birth control pills, that is something that you need to watch out. Your doctor may recommend a different form of contraception for you, because Mounjaro was shown to affect birth control pills, making them not as effective as they are expected to be. There’s also a precaution where a warning for people who either themselves or close family members have a history of thyroid cancer. These people are generally not good candidates to be taking Mounjaro, because Mounjaro and the medications in that class were found in rodents to increase the risk of those cancers developing.
So if there’s already a history, we need to be careful and proceed cautiously. Now some side effects with this class of medications usually tend to be gastrointestinal, and these include nausea diarrhea decreased appetite which, for some people is a good thing, because they’re trying to lose weight, vomiting constipation indigestion, and stomach pain. Now they realize that most of these gastrointestinal side effects are dose-related or dose-dependent, in other words, the higher your dose, the more likely you will develop some of these side effects the people typically get used to them. After taking the doses or after taking a couple of doses, so that is something that usually goes away. Of course, if it doesn’t go away and it remains bothersome, then you and your doctor will have to find alternatives.
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