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Mayim Bialik has opened up about her "nightmare" of an experience with GLP-1 drugs in a detailed essay.
On Friday, June 5, The Big Bang Theory star published the essay, which read, "I grew up in the limelight, with my appearance scrutinized weekly from the time I starred in my own NBC show at 14."
Bialik penned in a Free Press essay titled "My GLP-1 Nightmare", adding, "I was blissfully unaware of my weight back then," describing her younger self as "naturally lanky and athletic".
However, she revealed that as a teen she was "put on medication to manage my moods, and weight gain followed me from there".
The 50-year-old said that she had developed a "sense of shame" about her body by her 40s. "By the time social media arrived — with its fixation on being thinner, more toned, more surgically perfected — that pressure tipped into a disordered relationship with food that I have spent years trying to untangle."
She confessed that she went on the weight-lose drugs on a doctor prescription who informed her "it might help ease symptoms I've struggled with for basically my entire adult life".
Bialik wrote that she was diagnosed with Graves' disease, an autoimmune disorder affecting the thyroid, at age 23.
The neuroscientist was also diagnosed with Sjögren's syndrome, dysautonomia, connective tissue disease, and mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) in later years and suffered from extreme symptoms of the conditions, including "crippling depression" and "full-body rashes".
Bialik shared that three doctors suggested she go on a GLP-1 drug "not because of the 20 postmenopausal pounds but because the drugs have shown promise in reducing the systemic inflammation that drives autoimmune conditions".
"Maybe this could be the magic cure," she recalled of her mindset at the time.
She said that after taking one shot of the lowest dose of GLP-1, she suffered from a severe reaction.
Detailing her side-effects, she highlighted "explosive, uncontrollable diarrhea," as well as "sulfur burps so violent they left me afraid to open my mouth in public".
"Sneezing attacks every time I tried to eat or drink — which apparently has a name, snatiation," she continued.
"Cramping. Bloating. Full-body aching, as though I had the flu" Bialik added. "And an inability to keep down even small sips of water without sprinting to the bathroom with yet more explosive diarrhea. More than three times, I didn't make it."
She shared, "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."
Bialik said after experiencing the dramatic side effects, she ultimately decided to stop taking the GLP-1 and "finally went to see a gastroenterologist".
During the hospital visit, she learnt that the weight-loss drugs are "extremely disruptive to the body" and should not be taken except for in serious cases, including life-compromising obesity.
She concluded the essay with an ironic memory of her appointment, penning, "On my way out, I caught a glimpse of my reflection, and I did not recoil."
"I did not see under my first chin that second chin on which I had been fixating for months — because it wasn't there. My cheekbones were visible. 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."
