{"id":696197,"date":"2026-06-10T19:16:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T19:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/696197\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T19:16:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T19:16:19","slug":"heat-wave-warning-glp-1-drugs-may-increase-heat-illness-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/696197\/","title":{"rendered":"Heat wave warning: GLP-1 drugs may increase heat illness risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are weight-loss drugs raising your heat wave risks?<\/p>\n

As a heat wave sweeps over much of the country, with triple-digits possible <\/a>in some places, the high temperatures carry an extra risk for millions of people taking GLP-1 medications like Ozempic or Wegovy.<\/p>\n

The big worry doctors are warning their patients about? Dehydration that could lead to heat illness, heat exhaustion or worse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(MORE: Record heat for Plains, East, Northwest<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Why GLP-1 users are more vulnerable<\/p>\n

The most obvious reason GLP-1 users are more prone to dehydration is that while the drugs suppress hunger, they also suppress thirst. \u201cSo they\u2019re just taking in less water than everybody else,” explains Dr. Zaid Fadul, founder and CEO of Bespoke Concierge MD.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A woman drinks a glass of water during extreme heat.<\/p>\n

(Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Then there are the side-effects that many users experience: nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, \u201cYou\u2019re losing fluid much, much more than you realize from that mechanism. So you\u2019re taking in less, you’re putting out more,\u201d Dr. Fadul says.<\/p>\n

For a small fraction of GLP-1 users the medications may also lower the production of vasopressin, says Dr. Fadul, a hormone that helps your body retain water.\u00a0 The research on this is still emerging and not fully understood, he explained, \u201cSo you’ve got all these different things that are kind of piling up\u00a0 to set you back.\u201d<\/p>\n

(MORE: Warning Signs Of Heat Illness)<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Don\u2019t trust your senses\u2019<\/p>\n

Dr. Fadul says he has some simple rules that he gives to all of his GLP-1 patients, his first is:<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t trust your senses\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDon’t assume that your body is telling you when you\u2019re thirsty. When you’re on a GLP-1, you may not realize that you’re thirsty because everything is being suppressed.\u00a0 So that’s why I try and get patients to just automatically drink.\u201d<\/p>\n

(MORE: 5 Things To Stay During A Heat Wave<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Trust your countermeasures<\/p>\n

Dr. Fadul suggests setting an alarm on your watch or your phone to remind you to drink a glass of water every 90 minutes, \u201cOr at the max every 120 (minutes), just pick a number and stick to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want you to plan small meals frequently so that you don\u2019t get dehydrated or hypoglycemic.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Choose foods that are hydrating and won\u2019t cause your body to work harder to digest them \u2013 \u201cWatermelon is one of our best things, and then cucumbers, super high and dense in water.\u201d<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s heat wave is only the beginning of the hot temperatures most of us will have to endure this summer, so Dr. Fadul says these steps are great for all of us to prevent and avoid heat illness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Are weight-loss drugs raising your heat wave risks? As a heat wave sweeps over much of the country,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[97,243],"class_list":["post-696197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-health","tag-medication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}