I have been eating very low carb & then LCHF for over 3 years. My weight, however, had been stalled a very long time. My Endocrinology NP said it was due to the insulin I still must take. She knew & believed in Dr Bernstein, Dr Fung, & LCHF. (I went to her because every single Dr at that clinic had refused to treat me according to Dr Bernstein's guidelines...so, I was so happy to have found her.) She told me she believed Victoza would get my weight moving down again. She did mention that certain people shouldn't take Victoza but that I didn't fit into that category. I was desperate! (I hadn't found the 'Reversing Diabetes' group on FB yet & was trying to eat very very low carb & work with Dr Bernstein's book by myself.) She was the 1st Endocrinology provider I'd ever seen. Because she believed in the people & the diet I was following, I trusted her. And Dr Bernstein, in his book, even says he uses Victoza to help people lose weight. But he only has patients use it on occasions when they might overeat because it greatly diminishes the appetite. He doesn't prescribe it as a daily dose. So, I decided I would 'try' Victoza to see how it would go. My first attempts weren't very successful because there are side effects you have to get past with time. They were difficult gastrointestinal distresses. So, I stopped for a while. Then, I read about people who decreased the starting side effects by starting at a very low dose & increasing the dose slowly in increments. That did work. And I have to say, the Victoza also did indeed work! I quickly lost 20#! BUT...big 'but'...it cost me almost $350/month as my cost share w/ Medicare! On top of that, I had researched it myself & discovered it had really bad possible side effects that were not only limited to certain people; it's just that certain people were more likely to get them. So, I began, thinking about those side effects & was worried that the longer I took Victoza, the greater my possibility of getting such side effects. Between that & the cost, Victoza no longer seemed like a good idea. So, I stopped the Victoza. And, it seemed like my Diabetes turned into a roaring , raging lion! I very quickly gained all the weight back plus some...without changing my diet at all! And my BS's went crazy! They were WAY higher than they had been before I started the Victoza. Before Victoza, it had been 5.5; with the Victoza, my A1c went down to 4.9. After the Victoza, it jumped to 5.9... I was extraordinarily frustrated! It has taken me since Jan. (7-1/2 mo.) to get my sugars to better levels but they are still not as good as they were before the Victoza. I am sharing this long story so that anyone thinking of trying Victoza will know, not only about the initial starting side effects which cause a lot of nausea & other gastro upsets & about the dire possible adverse reactions (Pancreatitis & Pancreatic cancer) that can affect anyone, but also about the blood sugar horrors that occur when you stop the Victoza. The thing is, NO ONE tells you what happens when you stop! I'm not even sure if the medical field knows. I know. And I would never ever advise any use of Victoza at all!!
Addendum: I recently heard Dr Bernstein say he has begun to very closely monitor his patients using Victoza, using regular blood testing for indications of any problem. (Apparently some of his patients began to develop some of those adverse reactions.) At the 1st small indication of a change...he takes them off it.
Last edited by Lynsi : Wed, Aug-10-16 at 03:34.
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