In this podcast episode, we dive deep into one of the most talked-about medications of our time — GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro — and uncover the serious side effects that nobody is warning you about. From hair loss and nutrient depletion to hormonal disruption and autoimmune triggers, we break down exactly how these medications could be silently working against your body, your hair, and your long-term health — and what you can do instead to heal naturally and protect your future.
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HELP IS WITHIN YOUR REACH!
Alopecia Angel is dedicated to those seeking a holistic, natural, and safe approach to healing Alopecia from the inside out! The main force behind Alopecia Angel is a deep desire to help individuals achieve what I achieved with a natural treatment option, a well-rounded approach to health, wellness, and reversing Alopecia naturally without antibiotics, pharmaceuticals, cortisone shots to the head, or embarrassing creams.
After seeing results with my multi-tiered natural Alopecia treatment, targeting mind, body, nutrition, environment, and other elements, I decided I wanted to share my findings and let others know that a natural, safe, and holistic method does in fact exist to regrow hair from alopecia.
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Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Alopecia Angel podcast. I am your host, Johanna Dahlman. Today, we’re gonna be talking about GLP-1s and, yes, how they create havoc on your health, but then also how they create hair loss and many other things. And as I see more and more medications come to the foreground, creating such fanfare where so many people have just adopted it immediately without really thinking about the repercussions, without really thinking about the side effects, without really thinking about next steps and what happens and what does that look like for the future, we’re seeing an uptick because of this massive adoption of GLP-1s and their side effects.
And so this is what I wanted to talk about today because thousands of lawsuits claim that GLP-1 weight loss drugs cause severe injuries, including but not limited to hair loss, digestive shutdown, organ damage, vision loss, and neurological complications tied to nutrient depletion. The rapid adoption, with more than 31 million U.S. adults using these medications, exposes safety patterns that were less visible when fewer people used them.
And so the thing is, it’s like we have an experiment that we essentially just did with millions of people, primarily Americans, but not to say that maybe abroad as well, where all these things are happening. And so the case study is quite significant, and this is where rapid lawsuits are happening. New regulatory warnings highlight risks beyond digestion, including psychiatric symptoms, reduced effectiveness of oral contraceptives due to altered drug absorption, but then on top of it, we’ve also mentioned massive hair loss.
It was at one point I read an article where it was a third of people on GLP-1s were experiencing hair loss, and then I saw another one saying 70% of people having hair loss due to GLP-1s. So again, when we are taking medications, this is the low-hanging fruit. This is where I want you to start looking and scrutinizing your medications because medications are a cause of hair loss, whether you know it or not.
I have a free PDF on my website where you can see exactly all the medications and how their side effects are actually correlated directly towards hair loss. So you can find this. There’s all different types of medications there, including GLP-1s. The underlying mechanism behind both weight loss and harm centers on appetite suppression and slow digestion, which disrupt nutrient intake, metabolic signaling, and cellular energy.
Sustainable fat loss depends on restoring natural appetite regulation through gut repair, removal of metabolic stressors, and adequate protein and carb intake, rather than suppressing hunger signals altogether. With more than 4,400 patients who have filed lawsuits that claim serious harm from popular GLP-1 weight loss drugs, according to a report in USA Today, that figure represents only a small number of the estimated 12% of American adults—more than 31 million people—who use these medications on a regular weekly or monthly basis.
The thing is that GLP, short for glucagon-like peptide-1, is a hormone your gut naturally releases after eating to signal fullness and regulate blood sugar. These drugs flood your system with a synthetic version of that signal, keeping it turned on far longer than your body would want it on. They slow digestion, reduce appetite, and alter blood sugar signaling—mechanisms that explain both why the drugs suppress hunger so effectively and why the injuries showing up in court filings tend to cluster around the same biological symptoms.
And that’s just it. If there’s anything I’ve learned through my own alopecia hair loss situation, it’s that everything should be tailored to each person. It shouldn’t be a free-for-all. And this is where more harm comes, and the actual goal of, let’s say, losing weight or getting your hair back, comes at a huge cost.
Look at the JAK inhibitors. Look at all the medications out there for hair loss. They also cost a lot, not just in terms of finances, but they also have a lot of harmful side effects that could also be causing fertility issues, erectile dysfunction, organ failure, and so much more. I also have another PDF of alopecia meds and what that looks like, the ramifications and their side effects. And that’s also for free on the homepage at hello@alopeciaangel.com.
The thing is, there’s a lot of conflicting research, and whether it’s for GLP-1s or even for alopecia, the conflicting research on some of these signals leaves people in a difficult position when trying to weigh the evidence for themselves. The legal findings, clinical reports, and regulatory warnings all point in the same direction. The conversation around these drugs needs to move past weight loss alone. And the evidence shows that, again, if you have all these side effects and what it means for your own personal health moving forward.
So for example, in my case with alopecia and going that route of medications, I knew that wasn’t my route or my prerogative or even a choice that I wanted to make because having healthy kids, getting pregnant, having the next stage of my life was much more important than the stage right then and there. And not to say that alopecia wasn’t important—it was. But more important was my fertility. More important was being a mom and having a baby, and that to me is priceless.
And so after that though, not only did I have my baby, but I also had my hair. And so the thing is, we can do things naturally. We can do things so naturally. And I’ve heard so many people talk about their experience on GLP-1s and how life-changing it is, and how they’ve just lost and shed hundreds of pounds in a couple months, six months or so, or less. And in one way, that’s very great because this way we don’t have an obesity epidemic, but at the same time, why are we there in the first place?
We’re still not getting to the root cause of why we even have an obesity epidemic to begin with. And so this is part of the chicken-and-the-egg conversation—what came first? And so in my point of view, there’s a lot of things that came first which expose people to autoimmune diseases, which increase and have increased the exposure to autoimmune diseases in children, in adults, and in people worldwide.
There’s an uptick in cancers. There’s an uptick in heart disease. There’s an uptick in chronic disease, and it’s not for nothing. But the same thing happens with healing these and trying to find a way out. The easy, quick fix is to get on medication, but it always comes at a cost. I would never want anyone to, for example, as this article reveals, have organ failure or damage or lose their eyesight just for the want and desire of losing weight.
That’s not the route that we need to really be focusing on, and I think most of you can really understand this. And many times we think, “Okay, this is just gonna kickstart things for me.” And so I think, even in listening to a conversation that Oprah had here recently, she was talking about how she was on Ozempic and she was on another GLP-1. She lost a lot of weight, and then she’s like, “Okay, now I’m gonna get off it, and let’s see what happens.”
But the thing is that what had happened was she started gaining the weight back—three pounds, five pounds, 15, 20. She talks about this in an interview. And so then what happened? So she gained 20 pounds. She’s like, “Uh-oh, I gotta do something,” and she did. And yet she was dieting and exercising, and she was trying to eat healthier foods and trying to do things. Now she’s found a way to really help her situation, keep those pounds off, and really get off that cycle of losing weight, gaining weight, losing weight, gaining weight that she’s had for over 40–50 years of her life, and now she’s able to just maintain with going the natural route.
And so I understand that too. I understand when people want to look at medications. I understand when people want to do things a different way, and I respect that, and I acknowledge that as an option. It is an option, and you can choose not to have that as an option, or you can choose to have it as an option. There’s no judgment or shame from my side. What this is really about is really trying to educate, really trying to forewarn.
And I think that’s the biggest takeaway here—to forewarn what you’re getting into before you actually do it. And I say this because no one has warned you, if you’re already on medications of any sort, what those side effects could be. And potentially, you’re on a medication right now that’s causing hair loss or that’s causing other side effects. And so that’s the thing. Our doctors don’t have more than 7–10 minutes to go over a prescription, and this is why it’s up to us to advocate for ourselves, to do our due diligence, and to really seek out other options instead of just a quick fix.
And understand that these quick fixes don’t fix anything. They just maybe help a situation to a certain point, but then after that, it muddies the water, and things can get worse. So I know that this is not gonna be the end-all be-all. I know there’s going to be more backlash with these medications, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Apparently, a couple stories have already illustrated life-altering consequences. One case study showed how symptoms escalated from discomfort to permanent change. One patient described hearing her colon rupture, a blockage caused by the bowel to tear, which required a removal of a large portion of the colon and months of recovery.
Another patient experienced severe vomiting that led to Wernicke’s encephalopathy, a neurological condition caused by vitamin B1 deficiency, characterized by confusion, vision problems, and poor coordination. These examples show how nutrient depletion becomes a significant risk when appetite suppression persists.
Vision injury adds a different category of risk. At least 110 plaintiffs alleged sudden blindness or severe vision change after GLP-1 drugs. One patient developed non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, often called “eye stroke,” meaning reduced blood flow damages the optic nerve and leads to permanent vision loss. Research found an increased risk of this condition among people prescribed GLP-1s compared with those using other types of medications.
I will tell you, as someone who’s in her mid-40s who has to now forcefully use reading glasses—because I’ve always had amazing 20/20 eyesight—it’s a pain in the butt. And I wish there would be an easier way, but readers are for me for now and I guess for the rest of my life. But at the same time, I could never imagine having to deal with blindness or eye strokes or any of these things. And so again, let’s put on the balance: what if you’re part of that percentage of people who will in fact go through a disheartening situation because of side effects of medications? Something to think about.
Mechanism centers on slow digestion and nutrient disruption. Legal debate centers on warnings and informed choice. And I think that’s the biggest thing. GLP-1 warnings expand beyond physical side effects. The research signals measurable increase in suicidal behavior.
A 2024 study found a 106% increase in suicidal behavior associated with GLP-1 medicines. Not to say that some JAK inhibitors cause suicide or some alopecia meds cause suicide, because they do—just go take a look at that PDF.
Contraception effectiveness emerges as another safety issue because researchers highlighted concerns that GLP-1 medicines alter how oral contraceptive hormones are absorbed in the body, which affects whether hormone levels reach the threshold required to prevent pregnancy.
Brain-related effects connect to appetite and signaling changes. GLP-1 medicines influence brain pathways involved in appetite, reward, and mood regulation, which provides a biological explanation for why psychiatric symptoms appear in safety databases. Changes in blood sugar signaling and appetite control circuits interact with emotional regulation systems.
So the thing is, health authorities advise patients to report new or worsening depression, mood changes, or unusual behavior while using these meds, reflecting a shift from passive awareness to active tracking. So the thing is, there’s a lot of things you can do to support metabolic health, and this is what we talk about inside diet and lifestyle. This is what we talk about inside really the Hair N’ Heal program. We avoid those quick fixes. We avoid these traps.
They’re not even quick fixes because they’re not fixing a situation—they’re making it worse. We avoid these traps, these gimmicks, because the thing is, we can keep spending and trying, but the end result will be a devastated person with more to lose than just the hair or just the weight. And so this is where you need to go back to your foundation. You need to go back to those building blocks of diet and lifestyle, which is what I teach inside the Hair N’ Heal program, so that your personalized custom approach can be looking at all the factors that are contributing to your specific hair loss.
But really, for those of you who have tried—which I gotta tell you, the numerous amount of health coaches who have come to me recently saying, “I was on a GLP-1 for three, four months because I just wanted to lose that extra 20 pounds,” or “I’m a weight loss coach and now I’m losing my hair”—they’re coming to me in droves. And it’s not just one or two people. It’s a lot of health coaches coming to me just because they’re losing their hair because they’ve been on these GLP-1 meds.
And that’s the thing. It’s not the end-all be-all. There’s so much more to our health that we can be doing, and even with baby steps, you still see progress. I even have clients who don’t follow directions, don’t do things correctly, and they still see progress. They still see the hair growth. They still see clear skin. It’s a no-fail route towards getting your hair and your health back. It really is. Even baby steps can get you there. They really can.
And so the thing is that there’s a lot of factors for each person, and this goes beyond the weight loss topic. But really, I wanted to showcase how GLP-1s affect more than just hair loss. They affect more, and they have more side effects. And because so many people are on them, and because they’re widespread, there’s more research now being done about it, and we’re now quickly able to see exactly what’s happening in less time.
So be on the lookout. If you are taking GLP-1s, I would highly recommend that you rethink this approach, consult with your doctor, see what you could be doing alternatively, naturally, holistically to lose the weight that you’d like. In regards to your hair loss, if you are having hair loss and you’re on a GLP-1, let’s talk. Grab a consultation. Visit my website, alopeciaangel.com. I have a free training. I also have those free PDFs that I wanted to touch base quickly on in regards to the medications that cause hair loss and then also the alopecia meds and their side effects because having awareness, having an understanding of what’s going on is the first thing we need to be doing in order to safeguard our health and our lives from now and for the future. I look forward to speaking to you next time. Take care.
