As a wellness company, we believe that there are many approaches to health. Diet, exercise, lifestyle, supplements and medication can all play a large role. While we sell a supplement, we never disparage medication. Only you and your doctor can decide what is right for you; medication is a wonderful tool.

In the past, we have written about studies that have found many potential health benefits of semaglutide. Semaglutide is marketed as Ozempic for weight loss and Wegovy for blood sugar concerns. We have covered how it might improve the outcome of hip replacement surgery. We shared how it aids the quality of life for heart failure patients. We covered how it can help kidney health. We have given it high praise. And we have written about the fact that shaming others for using it as a weight loss drug is inappropriate.

We always urge caution when adding a new medication to your routine because side effects impact everyone differently. Medications can interact with drugs you are already taking, and nothing is suitable for everyone. Newer medications should also be treated cautiously, as we don’t know as much about them. So, you should research and make choices that fit your medical needs.

New research has found that semaglutide may increase the risk of developing a rare form of blindness. Sight loss happens when the optic nerve loses blood flow. The condition is called nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION).

The study has 16,800 people in it. It followed them over six years. At the start, none of them had NAION. The researchers looked at the people in the study who were overweight or had blood sugar concerns, that was 1,700 people, to learn if taking semaglutide increased the risk of developing NAION.

For people with blood sugar concerns taking semaglutide, the diagnosis rate was four times higher than those not taking it. For people with obesity taking the medication, the diagnosis rate was eight times higher than those not taking semaglutide.

The study was observational. It cannot prove cause and effect; it can only show that there may be a link.

“This study shows an association that we didn’t know about before, and what it should do is give people added information to make a good, well-informed decision about them taking the medicine,” said Joseph Rizzo, senior author on the study and a neuro-ophthalmologist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear. “It doesn’t mean they shouldn’t take it. People are going to have a different sense of risk about whether they want to take it or not.”

Dr. Rizzo said a much larger group of patients would be needed to show cause and effect. The study only used people from around the Boston area. Research is needed with more patients, over a longer time, with people from more diverse backgrounds to get more precise results.

Until then, Dr. Rizzo said, “I would take it as a serious, cautionary bit of information - the kind of information that should be used by physicians in discussion with their patients.”