The Medicines You Need To Avoid While Taking Mounjaro

Summary Overview

Here are some of the medicines that you need to avoid while taking Mounjaro:

• Insulin / Sulfonylureas / Glinides: This is very risky for hypoglycaemia
• Other GLP-1 drugs: This may overlap with Mounjaro for side effects
• DPP-4 inhibitors: This may cause overlapping pathways.
• Oral contraceptives: This may cause reduced absorption
• Warfarin, digoxin: This could affect the absorption of the medication
• Supplements: There is a possibility of hypoglycaemia risk
• Contra-indications: This could possibly lead to serious cases like pancreatitis, thyroid cancer, gastroparesis, and type 1 diabetes.

 

What You Will Learn

By the end of this article, you will be able to learn the following :

• You will learn about the different medications and substances that may affect your Mounjaro medication.
• You will learn to understand why these reactions occur and its impact.
• You will learn about the different steps in managing your safety like adjusting the contraceptive methods or monitoring your glucose level.

 

What Do You Need To Know About Mounjaro

Mounjaro is a prescription-only medication that can only be accessed by people dealing with chronic weight and type 2 diabetes. It works by copying two natural hormones in the body which are the GLP-1 and GIP. These are the responsible hormones that send signals to the brain when you crave food and when you feel full after a few food intake. It helps in reducing food noise and constant cravings that make weight loss difficult for you. It works by physically slowing down the food inside your stomach leading to longer time of storage in your body, and making you feel full and not hungry for most of the time.

In order to understand why drug interactions are vital with Mounjaro, you need to look at how it moves through your body. Since we now know that Mounjaro works by mimicking two different hormones and it helps in how your brain sees food and affects your digestive system. According to Pharmacy UK and SingleCare, one of the primary benefits of Mounjaro is that it slows down gastric emptying. In other words, food and any oral medications that you take and will take, This means food and any oral medications you take, stay in your stomach much longer than usual.

 

How Drug Interactions Work with Mounjaro

Medicines That May Increase The Possibility of Hypoglycemia Risk:

Insulin

Typically, when you combine Mounjaro with insulin, you are doubling up on medication that helps in lowering blood sugar level which may lead to significant increased risk of hypoglycemia. As noted by SemaPen and the Cheshire Formulary, Mounjaro affects your body by being more sensitive to insulin while simultaneously prompting your pancreas to release more naturally. Because of this impact, your healthcare provider might consider adjusting the dose which may lead to reducing your insulin intake. Failing to adjust these two medications could possibly lead to sudden reactions like shakiness, dizziness, or confusion if your blood sugar crashes unexpectedly.

 

Sulfonylureas (e.g., Gliclazide, Glipizide)

These medications work by stimulating your pancreas in producing more insulin all throughout the day. When it is paired with Mounjaro, it triggers insulin production. The combination of the two might be too strong. According to SemaPen and the Cheshire Formulary, this combination could actually create a high risk for a crash blood sugar level. Because these two medications have the same goal for the pancreas, patients may often require a lower dose of their Sulfonylurea in order to prevent severe hypoglycemia.

 

Verified Before & After

Verified Before & After

 

Other Medication for Diabetes

DPP-4 Inhibitors

Generally, it is not recommended to take Mounjaro along with any DPP-4 inhibitors like sitagliptin or linagliptin. The reason is because these two work through overlapping biological pathways. Because Mounjaro works through dual-action hormones that are already performing the tasks of DPP-4 inhibitor, when you take bothat the same time, it offers no additional clinical benefit. Instead, it could lead to unnecessary increase of the complexity of your medication without seeing any improvement of your blood sugar control.

 

Other GLP-1 Medication

Taking Mounjaro along with other GLP-1 agonists like Ozempic, Trulicity. It should be strictly avoided and should not be a practice. According to Tirzepatide Medics, SemaPen, and GoodRx, these medications are from the same drug family. So taking them together does not lead to faster results of weight loss or better diabetes management. Instead, it will only increase the risk of severe side effects such as nausea, vomiting, and dehydration. By taking multiple GLP-1 medications at once may compromise your safety and it hasn’t been medically studied for long-term efficacy.

 

Oral Contraceptives

Since Mounjaro’s primary job is to slow down gastric emptying, it has a significant impact on how contraceptive pill are typically processed by your system. When you start treatment, your stomach will take much longer in order to pass the pill into the small intestine, where it is commonly absorbed. According to SemaPen and NHS guidelines, this delay can actually reduce the concentration of the contraceptive in your body. It may potentially lead to making it less effective. In order to stay protected, there are recommendations from medical experts to use a barrier method like condoms or might consider switching to a non-oral form of contraception such as IUD, implant, or injection. It should be done for at least four weeks after you’ve started taking Mounjaro and for four weeks after dose increase.

There is also a high risk when there is unintended pregnancy while undertaking Mounjaro. It is a serious health concern that you women should be mindful of. It has been reported that there are over 40 unintended pregnancies among women undertaking Mounjaro while also taking oral contraceptives. If you are planning or considering having a pregnancy in the future, it is highly recommended not to take Mounjaro for at least 2 months before your planning. This is to ensure that medication is fully out of your system so you can have a healthy pregnancy.

 

How These Medications Affected by Absorption Changes

Warfarin and Digoxin

Medications such as Warfarin and Digoxin, that are anticoagulant and used for heart rhythm both have a narrow therapeutic index, it is dangerous when these are absorbed along with Mounjaro even with small changes The ability of the Mounjaro’s in slowing down the food in the stomach can change actually affect how quickly these drugs enter your system. It could potentially make these less effective or cause unpredictable fluctuation. If in any case you are taking these treatments, your doctor will frequently require you to take blood tests to ensure that your dosage is still safe and the effect of Mounjaro is still present.

 

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)

Mounjaro can also have an impact when combined with Hormone Replacement Therapy, especially for people who are taking oral progesterone. If your stomach typically takes too long to process the pill, you might experience a hormone level drop in your body. This could result in reducing the benefits of the actual therapy and could potentially increase significant health risks. Good thing that there are steps on how you can avoid this. The majority of healthcare providers would often advise switching to non-oral forms of HRT like patches, gels, or sprays.

 

When Mounjaro Should Strictly Be Avoided Altogether

While Mounjaro is generally effective for some, it is not safe to use with other medications and could potentially harm your body. f According to SingleCare, Bens Natural Health, and Juniper, people with a family of Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma (MTC) or Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia syndrome type 2 (MEN2) are the most critical factor when Mounjaro is taken along with the other medication. According to some clinic studies about this, it significantly showed an increased risk of having thyroid tumors in animal subjects. Therefore, Mounjaro is strictly contraindicated for people who have the mentioned medical history or someone from their family members.

 

How To Manage Adverse Reactions & When to Seek Help

The most common side effects of Mounjaro are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and slowed digestion, which most of the time, are the most intense when you are just starting your Mounjaro treatment. Don’t worry because these are typically manageable but might require help in keeping food in your stomach longer, its normal or common side effects can sometimes feel more severe or could last longer. To prevent any of these, it is very essential to stay hydrated and regularly monitor how your body reacts.

While rare side effects are usually rare, it could sometimes happen. If the side effects last for more than a week and it is no longer tolerable, make sure to seek the help of your clinic. It is best to have regular communication with them before and during your medication so you are still guided especially when there are severe adverse side effects.

Related read: Mounjaro Side Effects: What Every Patient Should Know

Most Frequently Asked Questions

• I am planning to take Mounjaro with insulin, is it safe?

Yes, but it should be under medical supervision of your provider. They will most likely reduce your insulin dose in order to prevent sudden drop of your blood sugar.

• I am taking contraceptive pills. Does Mounjaro make it less effective?

Yes, it could potentially make the pill less effective through slowing down its absorption. It is why using a backup barrier method is required. It should be done for at least four weeks after starting or increasing your dose.

• What supplements should I avoid while taking Mounjaro?

Generally, most supplements are safe, however, you should still be cautious with fiber supplements. Because these types of supplements could worsen slowed digestion, and high-dose.