Lifestyle
Mom, 58, Used a ‘Miracle’ GLP to ‘Be Thin’ for Her Son’s Wedding. She Claims It Made Her So Sick She Almost Missed the Big Day
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Ali Eastburn, a 58-year-old mom from Nashville, was struggling with losing weight after menopause
She turned to the GLP-1 medication Ozempic because she wanted “to be thin” for her son’s upcoming wedding, but when her weight loss stalled, she said she increased her Ozempic dose — after which her appendix burst
A rep for the manufacturer told PEOPLE, “Novo Nordisk remains confident in the benefit-risk profile of our GLP-1 medicines, when used consistent with their indications and product labeling”
A mom who started taking Ozempic to drop weight before her son’s wedding nearly missed the big day after her appendix burst. She claimed the medical emergency was caused by the medication, which she said “almost killed me.”
Ali Eastburn, 58, struggled with her “post-menopausal” weight for years.
“My whole metabolism just changed and I had tried everything to lose weight,” the Nashville mom said, according to the Daily Mail.
Eastburn, who was a size 16 before starting Ozempic, worried about how she might look in the photos for her son Chase’s upcoming wedding. In April, her doctor prescribed her the weight loss drug.
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Ali Eastburn, here a size 16, said she struggled with weight gain after menopause,
Ozempic and others in its class (the active agent, semaglutide, is marketed under the brand names Wegovy and Mounjaro) impact satiety. While Ozempic is approved by the FDA for people with type 2 diabetes and not formally approved for weight loss, it has become a trendy way to shed extra pounds.
A Novo Nordisk spokesperson told PEOPLE: “Semaglutide has been extensively examined in robust clinical development programs, large real-world-evidence studies and has cumulatively over 33 million patient years of exposure.”
They continued, “Semaglutide’s efficacy and safety have been extensively demonstrated in people with obesity/overweight with robust evidence for improving health outcomes. Semaglutide has demonstrated improvements in CV death, stroke and myocardial infarction. Novo Nordisk remains confident in the benefit-risk profile of our GLP-1 medicines, when used consistent with their indications and product labeling.”
Eastburn said, “At first, it seemed like a miracle. The weight was just coming off.”
By the start of July, Eastburn had lost 15 lbs. “I felt better and that there was hope,” she said.
But then, her weight loss stalled: “I knew I had to do something drastic as I was desperate to look better. I didn’t want to hate the wedding photos for the rest of my life,” Eastburn said. “I upped my dose so I could get to my goal of losing 20 lbs.”
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Eastburn did not clarify whether she consulted with a doctor before increasing her dosage of Ozempic. The FDA warned in 2024 that taking more than the recommended dose of compounded semaglutide could lead to “gastrointestinal effects (e.g., nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain),” as well as “fainting, headache, migraine, dehydration, acute pancreatitis and gallstones.”
After upping her dose, Eastburn said she felt an immediate impact.
“The first week the nausea was uncontrollable and I had no desire to eat or drink anything,” she said, explaining she felt an “all-new level” of “excruciatingly painful” heartburn.
Explaining she was “sick as a dog,” Eastburn said she was dry heaving and fighting the urge to vomit when she went shopping for a dress to wear to the wedding. She said she ended up in the emergency room twice, struggling with nausea and “violent diarrhea.”
Still, she flew from Nashville to Orange County, Calif., on July 15 for the wedding — only to get so ill on the flight that once they landed, “an ambulance took me to the hospital straight away and I was diagnosed with a burst appendix.”
A burst appendix is a medical emergency, according to the Cleveland Clinic, and happens when the appendix becomes inflamed; When it bursts, it sends bacteria throughout your body, risking life-threatening complications.
Eastburn spent four days in the hospital, missing Chase’s rehearsal dinner. ”I just cried as I felt like it was my fault as I did this to myself. I missed all of this as I wanted to be thin and it broke my heart,” said Eastburn, who nearly missed the wedding.
“We went at the very last minute as I was in so much pain. Sitting on a chair was so painful and I could barely walk. When my son saw me sitting in the front row, he came over and hugged me for the longest time and bawled like a baby,” she said.
“We didn’t think I was going to be at the wedding, much less live to tell anyone about it. I didn’t care about my size as I was just so proud to be there. It was hard to stand and do the mother-son dance, but I was so grateful,” she said, sharing that while “I was so swollen and my stomach was so puffy,” her weight “was the last thing on my mind.”
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Ali Eastburn (here, with her son Chase) took medication to lose weight for his wedding
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Eastburn claimed the medication caused her health struggle; There have been sporadic case studies that suggest appendicitis could be a potential risk, but there has been no direct link established between the medication and the condition.
“I will never jeopardize or endanger myself again with any drugs to lose weight as that was too close of a call,” Eastburn said.
“I would say think long and hard before taking a GLP-1 as it almost killed me,” she claimed. “If you care about your family or people that you love, think about them having to live life without you as it might kill you. Being thin is not worth losing your life.”
Read the original article on People