By now most people are familiar with the popular weight loss injection Ozempic—the so-called miracle shot for weight loss that's got everyone talking, from celebs to your next-door neighbor. But while the number on the scale might be dropping, something else is happening too… and it’s a little bizarre.

Ever scrolled through TikTok and stumbled on people talking about “Ozempic hands”? Or read wild claims about sudden growth in places you didn’t expect? Yep, that’s all part of it. And just when you thought it couldn’t get weirder—there are whispers about vision loss, creepy-looking fingers, and even “walking dead” hands. Sure, Ozempic helps you shed pounds fast. But at what cost?

Also Read: Ozempic Stomach: Why Ozempic Consumers Are Suing This Popular Weigh-loss Drug For 2 Billion Over Stomach Paralysis

If you’ve been curious, concerned, or just downright confused about what this drug is really doing behind the scenes, buckle up—we’re diving into the strangest, scariest, and most surprising side effects people are reporting. Let’s talk about what no one told you before you got the jab.

Once hailed as a miracle for weight loss and diabetes management, Ozempic (semaglutide) is now under scrutiny for a growing list of bizarre and disturbing side effects. While the drug continues to dominate the market for its ability to help people shed up to 20% of their body weight in a year, disturbing new reports have surfaced. From surprising anatomical changes to eye strokes and skeletal hands, the downsides of this blockbuster injection are no longer whispered rumors—they're headlining forums, social media, and even regulatory reports.

Also Read: Ozempic Vulva To Ozempic Smell – Unexpected Ways Of Weight Loss Jabs Change Your Body

Penis Enlargement or Illusion?

One of the most viral and eyebrow-raising claims is the supposed enlargement of the penis in men taking Ozempic. Reddit threads have buzzed with firsthand accounts of users noticing visible growth. One user wrote, "I recently measured myself down there and noticed I gained about one inch."

While there is no solid scientific study directly linking semaglutide to penile growth, experts suspect the phenomenon may be tied more to fat loss than actual tissue increase. As men lose significant weight—especially in the pubic region—the buried portion of the penis becomes more visible, creating the illusion of increased size. Still, the global trend is puzzling: the UK saw average sizes increase from 5.17 to 5.63 inches between 2022 and 2024, with Venezuelan men reporting an even more staggering jump from 1.42 to 6.67 inches.

While these figures are alarming, the truth may be buried in overlapping factors like obesity reduction, changes in prostate health, and increased sexual function—rather than Ozempic alone.

Eye Strokes and Irreversible Eye Damage

What may be even more serious than Reddit threads is what regulators are now confirming: Ozempic may cause a rare yet dangerous eye condition known as non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION). The European Medicines Agency (EMA) recently asked Novo Nordisk, Ozempic’s manufacturer, to list NAION as a rare side effect in their drug information.

The condition is the second most common cause of vision loss due to optic nerve damage, trailing only glaucoma. It is believed to affect as many as 1 in 10,000 users of semaglutide after a year of use. Alarmingly, a 2023 study involving nearly 350,000 diabetic patients found that those using semaglutide had more than double the risk of developing NAION.

While Novo Nordisk maintains that its drug's benefit-risk profile remains favorable, doctors and analysts warn that continued monitoring and patient awareness are critical.

Ozempic Hands, Feet, Face

Beyond internal risks, Ozempic is transforming bodies in eerie, visible ways. Welcome to the world of "Ozempic hands," "Ozempic feet," and "Ozempic face."

Ozempic hands refer to the skeletal, aged appearance some users develop due to rapid subcutaneous fat loss in the fingers and palms. This phenomenon gained traction after several viral TikTok videos and celebrity photos pointed out the dramatically thinned hands of public figures rumored to be on weight-loss jabs.

People report needing to resize wedding rings, and in some cases, cosmetic procedures like hand fillers are being considered to combat the bony transformation. The same process is evident in the feet, with sagging skin and even discomfort in walking being reported.

Experts explain that these injections don’t just target fat in one part of your body. When you lose weight this quickly, your face, your hands, your feet—everything shows it.

The "melting candle" look is another post-weight loss dilemma facing Ozempic users. With such dramatic fat loss, many people are left with drooping excess skin that doesn’t snap back. Surgeons report a boom in body contouring surgeries such as tummy tucks, thigh lifts, and arm lifts.

"It’s not just vanity," says one bariatric surgeon. "Excess skin can lead to hygiene issues, infections, and mobility challenges."

In many cases, the only solution is surgery—an expensive, invasive, and sometimes risky route. Procedures can cost thousands of dollars and carry their own set of complications, including blood clots and infection.

Ozempic and its sister drugs like Wegovy and Mounjaro are rapidly becoming household names. In the UK alone, over 350,000 people are now prescribed GLP-1 receptor agonists, with another half a million believed to be using them privately. In the US, about 13% of the population—around 33 million people—have tried the injections.

With newer policies allowing GPs in the UK to prescribe these drugs without requiring specialist consultations, usage is expected to soar. But so too are concerns about long-term side effects.

There’s no denying that Ozempic and related medications have transformed lives by aiding weight loss and managing type 2 diabetes. Many users experience improved cardiovascular outcomes, better blood sugar control, and renewed energy but as the side effects multiply—ranging from the bizarre (penis changes) to the debilitating (eye strokes and excess skin)—patients and healthcare providers must weigh these drugs' promises against their perils.

Flu activity is increasing all thanks to the holiday season. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows that due to a surge in holiday travel and gathering, the flu cases have gone up. The CDC estimates that there have been at least 4.6 million illnesses, 49,000 hospitalizations and 1,900 deaths from flu this season so far.

Public health experts have also revealed that many of this season's cases are linked with the new flu strain, called the subclade K. This is a variant of the H3N2 virus, which is a subtype of influenza A.

According to the CDC, 89% of the 163 H3N2 virus samples collected and genetically analyzed since September 28 belonged to subclade K.

So far this season, three pediatric flu deaths have been reported, based on an ABC News tally. Last season, 288 children died from the flu in the U.S., matching the toll seen during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. A CDC study published earlier this year found that about 90% of those children were unvaccinated.

Read: New Aggressive Flu Strain Is Now A Health Threat In US

Will The Old Flu Vaccine Protect You Against The New Subclade K?

The real reason why concerns are prompted about the effectiveness of the seasonal vaccine is because the virus underwent more mutation than scientists expected over summers. This mutant is called the 'subclade K' or 'super flu'. While it is true that most cases this season are of the 'super flu' strain, experts say that the flu jab is still offering a strong protection.

"The vaccine remains the most effective means to prevent disease. We still want to encourage people to get the vaccine," said Professor Antonia Ho, Professor and Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases at the University of Glasgow. Experts have stressed enough on the immunity that one can receive from the vaccine that that these flu jab remain the best defense against the flu, even though the current strain circulated may have drifted away from the strain included in this year's jab.

Data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) also show that vaccines is performing as expect, despite the emergence of subclade K.

Every year, experts from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other global health agencies closely track flu trends around the world. They study which strains are spreading and use that data to predict which ones are most likely to dominate the upcoming flu season. The annual flu vaccine is then designed to protect against three or four of those strains.

It’s also worth understanding that more than one influenza A strain usually circulates at the same time. So even if the vaccine is not an exact match for a newer H3N2 strain, it still protects against other common flu viruses, which matters, notes Stony Brook Medicine.

When a new variant emerges, the flu shot can still offer what doctors call cross-protection. In simple terms, the antibodies your body makes after vaccination can recognize similar flu viruses and respond to them. You might still get sick, but the vaccine greatly lowers the chances of severe illness, hospitalization, or worse.

The vaccine offers protection against both types of influenza, including A and B.

Claire Brosseau, 48, an actress, who lives in Toronto was hopeful when a new change to Canadian law allowed people who were living with incurable medical condition, but not near death to ask a doctor to end their lives. This happened in 2021. This gave her relief. But now, almost five years later, she is still alive, mostly surrounded with headlines and debates on who in Canada has the right to avail medically assisted death.

She suffers from a debilitating mental illness, which has no treatment. The sadness has succumbed her that sometimes she has tried to eat peanuts to trigger her severe allergy, in a hope that she would die. Other times she has overdosed on drugs or cut her wrists. A New York Times report notes that her sadness is so severe that sometimes she sobs until her bones ache.

What Happened To Claire Brosseau?

When she was just a 14-years-old honors student in Montreal, who enjoyed her life as wildly as any student of her own age would, she sometimes would turn rather cruel. Her parents took her to a psychotherapist who diagnosed her with manic depression. It came with diagnoses like eating disorder, anxiety disorder, personality disorder, substance abuse disorder, chronic suicidal ideation, and many more mental health issues.

It is not that she has not tried to get better. She has tried at least 25 medications, two dozen different talk, art behavioral therapies, even electroconvulsive therapy and guided psychedelics. She did feel better for sometime, only to return to the feeling of monsters stalking her when she is awake and in her dreams.

Read: Can Right To Die Be Practiced By Non-Terminally Ill Patients?

A shift in Canadian law briefly offered her another option. In 2019, three years after assisted death was legalized for people whose natural death was reasonably foreseeable, two people with chronic conditions challenged the law. They argued that excluding those suffering unbearably from incurable illnesses, simply because they were not dying, violated their right to equality. The courts agreed, and in 2021 the law was expanded to include people who were not at the end of life.

One group, however, remained excluded: people whose sole underlying condition was mental illness. The government said it needed time to draft special safeguards. Of the nine countries that allow assisted death for people not nearing death, only Canada made this distinction. The exclusion was set to end on March 17, 2023, and Ms. Brosseau planned to apply that day. But the deadline was delayed again, and then postponed once more the following year.

Childhood filled With Trauma

In hindsight, her family believes her illness began in early childhood. As a young girl, she cycled through rage and despair, sometimes sitting on train tracks, convinced everyone would be better off without her. At eight, she wrote in her diary that she wanted to die.

At home, her behavior created constant tension. Her older sister, Melissa Morris, recalls being perpetually anxious around her. At just 12, Ms. Morris used money from her first job to install a lock on her bedroom door to shield herself from the chaos.

Also Read: Australia Social Media Ban Explained: Why Government Plans to Restrict Accounts of Under-16s

At school, Ms. Brosseau appeared to flourish. She was popular, academically strong, and deeply involved in theater, even as she skipped classes and experimented with drugs. She was recruited into elite programs, studied theater in New York, and began acting professionally. But she struggled with eating disorders, periods of deep depression, and substance use.

In her early twenties, she returned to Montreal and experienced a severe manic depressive episode that led to months of hospitalization. She recovered enough to restart her career, performing comedy in two languages, acting in commercials, writing, and earning well. Manic episodes, however, continued, sometimes requiring friends to send her home for treatment. At 34, she underwent electroconvulsive therapy and returned to work soon after.

By 2021, she believed she was in remission. Then, during a downturn, her mother called police out of fear she might harm herself. Ms. Brosseau was involuntarily hospitalized, restrained twice despite no recorded threats, and left deeply traumatized. Complaints against the hospital were dismissed. For her, that decision marked the end of trust in the mental health system and any remaining desire to try to get better.

Amber cold health alerts have been announced for parts of northern England after forecasts warned that falling temperatures could lead to more deaths, particularly among older and vulnerable people. The UK Health Security Agency has issued two amber-level alerts for north-east and north-west England, which will be in effect from 8pm on Sunday until midday on Monday 5 January.

UK Under Amber Cold Health Alert: Elderly And Vulnerable People At Highest Risk

The agency said the expected cold spell is likely to increase pressure on healthcare services, with more vulnerable people needing medical attention. Officials warned this could lead to a rise in deaths, especially among those aged 65 and above and people with existing conditions such as heart disease, respiratory illnesses, and other long-term health problems.

UK Under Amber Cold Health Alert: UKHSA Gives Alert

UK Under Amber Cold Health Alert: Concerns Over Indoor Temperatures

The agency warned that indoor temperatures in buildings such as hospitals, care homes, and clinics are expected to drop. Maintaining the recommended indoor temperature of 18C may be difficult, increasing health risks for patients and residents. While all other regions in England will be under a lower-level yellow alert, officials said there is still potential for added pressure on health services. Staffing shortages linked to travel disruption were also flagged, along with possible impacts on essential services such as transport and energy.

How Does Cold Weather Affect People In The UK

Cold weather in the UK can worsen existing health problems and create new risks, particularly during prolonged spells of low temperatures. It places extra strain on the heart and lungs, increases the likelihood of infections, and can make daily life harder for people who struggle to keep warm. Those living in poorly insulated homes or facing high heating costs are often hit the hardest.

The Met Office said much of England will remain cloudy overnight, with patches of frost and fog likely to develop. These conditions could lead to difficult and potentially hazardous travel on Monday morning.

Sub-zero Temperatures Forecast In Parts Of The UK

Overnight temperatures are expected to fall to around minus 1C in Penrith and hover close to freezing in parts of the Lake District where the amber alert is in place. In northern areas of Scotland, temperatures are forecast to drop further, reaching between minus 6C and minus 7C, as per Sky News.

A brisk northerly breeze is also expected along the north-east coast of England, making conditions feel colder and more uncomfortable. Dr Agostinho Sousa, head of extreme events and health protection at UKHSA, as per Sky News, urged people to look out for friends, family, and neighbours as the cold weather sets in.

“The temperatures we are expecting can have a serious impact on health,” he said. “They increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and chest infections, particularly among people over 65 and those with existing health conditions.”