When Roger Lewis was laid low in hospital with pancreatitis, he never realised how close he was to dying
Clearly, Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, the miracle weightloss jabs we keep hearing about, were invented with me in mind – a type-2 diabetic, with a body mass index like Oliver Hardy’s coupled with Hattie Jacques’s. In anticipation of an instant prescription, it was with some excitement I went along to see Dr Twelvetrees and the ‘health coaches’ (as nurses are now called), who’d quite markedly failed over many years to instil in me the virtues of brisk exercise and healthy nutrition. When the blood ‘work’ came back, my triglycerides proved to be up the spout, and I don’t even know what triglycerides are but it meant I was a pancreatitis risk. At the last count, 574 patients have succumbed to this nasty (usually fatal) side effect, because of these new drugs. There’s also been a 15-per-cent leap in people needing to have their gall bladder whipped out. Biliary colic is...
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