Mayim Bialik, the beloved child actress who brought “Blossom” to life from 1990 to 1995 and grew up to become a neuroscientist, is speaking out about her harrowing experience with GLP-1 weight loss meds that left her “too sick to stand, drink water, or think straight.”
The star is helpfully speaking out to raise awareness about the potential side effects. She says although the medications have potential to help people, “nobody talks much about what happens when it goes wrong.” She said she hopes the piece “helps add some nuance to a series of complicated conversations we are often forced to have as women.”
In a June 5 feature by The Free Press titled “My GLP-1 Nightmare,” the “Big Bang Theory” star courageously stared her story of becoming violently ill almost immediately after her first dose.
She explained to the outlet, “I took one shot of the lowest dose of a synthetic GLP-1, and to say I had an adverse reaction would be somewhat of an understatement. Explosive, uncontrollable diarrhea. Sulfur burps so violent they left me afraid to open my mouth in public.”
The 50-year-old listed sneezing attacks every time she attempted to eat or drink, cramping, bloating, and flu-like fully body aches were among her other painful symptoms. She also recalls “inability to keep down even small sips of water” without sprinting to the bathroom.
The mom of two says as the days passed, she only got sicker, experiencing a vicious three days of intestinal distress that mimicked a severe allergic reaction she once had.
She says in the early days after taking the shot, she was able to eat around a cup of rice and half a banana, but had to resort to IV fluids after finding she couldn’t even keep down a sip of water.
Mayim says she was finally able to eat toast and applesauce after starting antidiarrheal medication, but her symptoms roared back as soon as she stopped. Afterwards, she says she spent days taking more medication and “trying to coax my body back to homeostasis.”
Speaking to the allure of weight loss drugs, she admits that even in the thick of her most miserable side effects, she thought to herself, “at least you might lose some weight.”
Mayim Bialik Speaks Out in Instagram Video About Her GLP-1 Side Effects
Mayim spoke out in an Instagram video about her essay, revealing she was unable to leave her home “for the better part of four days.” She emphasized, “This all happened because of one single low dose of a synthetic GLP-1.”
The Mayo Clinic explains the medications work to “boost the amount of insulin our bodies make to keep our blood sugar within a normal range, as well as provide the sensation of fullness after a meal.”
Mayim says she’s been plagued by a variety of autoimmune conditions since age 23, and she was recommended by several doctors to try a GLP-1 to address the associated weight gain.
She says she became “violently ill” within 24 hours of the first dose, and couldn’t go back to eating normally until two weeks later, despite immediately giving up on the mediations and gifting her hundreds of dollars worth of unused shots to a friend who seemed determined to see them through.
Mayim Bialik Says She’s Still Fighting to Fix Her Health After GLP-1 Struggle
Mayim wrote in a portion of her essay, “I wish I could say I’m in the clear, but I’m not. This drug has a very long half-life; my prescribing doctor had told me to expect at least a week of this, if not more.”
“I wanted to write about this for The Free Press because after experiencing what I experienced and being so sick for the better part of a month, I really found it impossible to keep this kind of not only information, but reflection about what it brought up for me, especially as someone with disordered eating. I finally felt like it was time to share it,” she explained in the the Instagram clip.
In the article, Mayim poignantly describes leaving a doctor’s appointment and noticing her newly visible cheekbones on the way out. ” I gazed for a moment, flashed a Mona Lisa smile, and headed to the parking lot, stopping briefly to hike up my skirt, which had started to sag at my hips ever so slightly,” she finished the piece.
