Severe hiccups / diaphragm spasms on Reta

[bluefootedboobie]

Tldr;

Has anyone else experienced hiccup problems on reta? Does anyone have any advice?


Long version:

Beginning September 1st, I've had off-and-on severe hiccup problems.

The first time it happened (9/1), I had moved from 5 mg to 7 mg of Reta weekly two weeks prior and was doing extremely well with both weight loss and digestion/stomach issues. For whatever reason I ate quite a bit more September 1st (including unhealthier foods) and that set off hiccups for exactly four hours straight. They went away... until I compounded the idiocy and had an entire large pizza the next night, which set them off again. Fortunately they weren't terrible, and they were gone by the middle of the next day.

Then on September 10, I'd been eating well again and decided to have yet another large pizza, almost as an experiment to see if it would cause the hiccups. And yes it sure did. This time they felt worse and lasted five hours straight. Lesson learned, I thought! No more big single-sitting servings, especially of fatty foods like pizza, and this won't be a problem.

And it wasn't for about the next week.

Here's where it gets quite strange.

On September 16, the hiccups returned. This time I'd been eating very well, my typical foods and in low, normal quantities. I'd been thinking it was overeating / stomach overfullness that was causing the issue and it wouldn't happen just on its own. Not only did it happen, it was far worse and painful. Since this is obviously related to retatrutide, I dialed back my 7 mg weekly dosage to 5 mg, which was the dosage I'd been taking before when I'd had zero issues whatsoever.

Unfortunately the problem has not gone away. Every day since September 16th I've had at least some problem with hiccups. Oftentimes it's painful and loud and violent. As I've typed this message, my diaphragm has been doing anything from mild spasms every few seconds to large, involuntary contractions that force VERY loud hiccup shrieks.

I can't manage them in public. Recently I was on a train with these hiccups and I absolutely couldn't stop. It was very embarrassing in addition to being a bit painful.

I've searched reddit's r/retatrutide and this forum ... I found this thread of someone with a similar experience, but on the whole it seems like this is very rare. My life has massively changed for the better due to losing 40 lbs since July 1, and I'm scared to death of the prospect of needing to come off reta because I have this rare side effect.

• Does anyone have thoughts on why it would have suddenly become so much worse as of two weeks ago, despite eating significantly better and having lowered the dosage?
• Does anyone have any ideas for treatment?
  • I've tried regular antacids (calcium carbonate) and a daily acid reducer (omeprazole 20mg), but they've done nothing.
  • All the home remedies such as cold water, sugar, and holding your breath also have done nothing at all.
  • What HAS helped occasionally, is
    • 1. physically messing with my throat and gag reflex... on a couple occasions I got the spasms to stop by sticking my finger down my throat (NOT puking). And,
    • 2. it's somehow tied to stress. The spasms often start back up when I'm frustrated with something, for example, last night my AC remote control wasn't working, I got upset about it, and that results in three more hours of hiccups.

Thank you for the reading my very long post. I'm pretty desperate and would really appreciate any help or thoughts.

 

[Superchicken1]

There is a post on the Meso forum where another person dealt with this. I didn’t read the whole thread, but I do remember they eventually stopped. It might be worth reading through.

 

[bluefootedboobie]

There is a post on the Meso forum where another person dealt with this. I didn’t read the whole thread, but I do remember they eventually stopped. It might be worth reading through.

Found a couple posts there, I can't believe I didn't think to check there as well as here and Reddit. Thank you.

Links to anyone who stumbles across this in the future:

• GLPs and Hiccups <-- OP says thorazine stopped his, I'll look into this
• Hiccup Hell
• User verylargeshoes said he posted a story about intolerable Reta hiccups but I couldn't find his

 

[Incognitodoberman]

I get them as well. Not as much as I used to. They are loud and they come from deep in my chest so they can hurt, like you said.
I notice it more if I eat too quickly. I chalk it up to digestion interference with the GLP.
The only thing I've done to stop them is holding my breath. Sometimes it'll take a couple attempts but if I can get a good deep breath and hold it as long as I can they disappear.

 

[Bflo_Bflo_Bflo_Bfl]

I have always had painful,uncontrollable,loud hiccups when I overeat. Now with Sema it takes very little to bring them on, so I just have to be careful not to overeat - even though that means sometimes making a single soft pretzel my entire meal. Like I’ll sit down with a pretzel, small salad, and some protein shake. Then I eat the pretzel and I can’t eat the more nutritious stuff.

Luckily I don’t experience hunger or cravings like I used to. I just need to be careful about getting enough protein and not just filling up on a little bit of junk food all the time.

For me at least, wretching makes it stop. I don’t actually need to vomit, just stick my finger down my throat until I gag a few times. I don’t make a regular habit of that and I know it’s generally bad for my health- but sometimes when I get them and they’re bad, I just need to do something.

 

[Bflo_Bflo_Bflo_Bfl]

Oh, and my wife got me that stupid hiccups straw. It doesn’t work.

 

[PAPoots]

Split your doses. I had hiccups so bad they lasted for over a day. I didn't sleep once night and when the hiccups subsided, I took PTO for the rest of the day to sleep. Even then, the smallest meal triggered then to come back. It took about 4 days to totally get rid of them. The best fix, although temporary was too take deep breaths and hold. Then keep taking micro breaths to make your lungs so full your diaphragm can't flex at all. You have to hold until it hurts and then do it immediately again. You gotta force your diaphragm to reset.

 

[lessthanhalf]

First suggestion is to get medical advice if you have not already, and maybe antinausea pills. It is not especially likely that there is something else wrong with your stomach but a basic medical history and examination is sensible. Hiccoughs are more or less a different manifestation of nausea, which is why antiemetic medications can help.
Second would be to stop reta until the hiccoughs are gone, not just reduce the dose, then carefully and very slowly restart on a lower dose than you were on before the hiccoughs started, and consider split dosing to minimise peaks in drug levels, so like a smaller dose 2 or 3 x a week that adds up to a bit less than you were on. If you do not already know this then maximum levels are reached around 24 hours after the last dose, and blood levels will continue to increase for up to 4 weeks after a dose increase, not knowing this makes working out doses versus side effects very difficult and it is not obvious and very different to almost all other medications. I just looked up https://glp1plotter.com/ and they have added reta to it so you can put your doses in there and look at what blood levels do.
You might be able to increase the dose after a while, but I would advise going very slowly, maximum side effects from glp meds in general are in the 2 to 4 months after starting range, and slowly get better after that, but it does vary a lot.
I had horrible nausea from ozempic at tiny doses of 0.2mg every 2 days that did not get better over a year, then switched to tirzepatide, with basically zero side effects at 15mg/week. I don't think any of the other options in your case are going to cause less nausea/hiccoughs than reta, going on their effect on the gp-1 receptor which is the one relating to nausea, but if you had to switch because they kept coming back tirzepatide would be a better choice than semaglutide.

 

[MsGizmo]

Tldr;

Has anyone else experienced hiccup problems on reta? Does anyone have any advice?


Long version:

Beginning September 1st, I've had off-and-on severe hiccup problems.

The first time it happened (9/1), I had moved from 5 mg to 7 mg of Reta weekly two weeks prior and was doing extremely well with both weight loss and digestion/stomach issues. For whatever reason I ate quite a bit more September 1st (including unhealthier foods) and that set off hiccups for exactly four hours straight. They went away... until I compounded the idiocy and had an entire large pizza the next night, which set them off again. Fortunately they weren't terrible, and they were gone by the middle of the next day.

Then on September 10, I'd been eating well again and decided to have yet another large pizza, almost as an experiment to see if it would cause the hiccups. And yes it sure did. This time they felt worse and lasted five hours straight. Lesson learned, I thought! No more big single-sitting servings, especially of fatty foods like pizza, and this won't be a problem.

And it wasn't for about the next week.

Here's where it gets quite strange.

On September 16, the hiccups returned. This time I'd been eating very well, my typical foods and in low, normal quantities. I'd been thinking it was overeating / stomach overfullness that was causing the issue and it wouldn't happen just on its own. Not only did it happen, it was far worse and painful. Since this is obviously related to retatrutide, I dialed back my 7 mg weekly dosage to 5 mg, which was the dosage I'd been taking before when I'd had zero issues whatsoever.

Unfortunately the problem has not gone away. Every day since September 16th I've had at least some problem with hiccups. Oftentimes it's painful and loud and violent. As I've typed this message, my diaphragm has been doing anything from mild spasms every few seconds to large, involuntary contractions that force VERY loud hiccup shrieks.

I can't manage them in public. Recently I was on a train with these hiccups and I absolutely couldn't stop. It was very embarrassing in addition to being a bit painful.

I've searched reddit's r/retatrutide and this forum ... I found this thread of someone with a similar experience, but on the whole it seems like this is very rare. My life has massively changed for the better due to losing 40 lbs since July 1, and I'm scared to death of the prospect of needing to come off reta because I have this rare side effect.

• Does anyone have thoughts on why it would have suddenly become so much worse as of two weeks ago, despite eating significantly better and having lowered the dosage?
• Does anyone have any ideas for treatment?
  • I've tried regular antacids (calcium carbonate) and a daily acid reducer (omeprazole 20mg), but they've done nothing.
  • All the home remedies such as cold water, sugar, and holding your breath also have done nothing at all.
  • What HAS helped occasionally, is
    • 1. physically messing with my throat and gag reflex... on a couple occasions I got the spasms to stop by sticking my finger down my throat (NOT puking). And,
    • 2. it's somehow tied to stress. The spasms often start back up when I'm frustrated with something, for example, last night my AC remote control wasn't working, I got upset about it, and that results in three more hours of hiccups.

Thank you for the reading my very long post. I'm pretty desperate and would really appreciate any help or thoughts.

Its a long shot .. but try drinking Pedialyte and taking a good quality multivitamin. Painful hiccups can be related to depleted nutrients or electrolytes. At the very least this remedy won't do any harm so is worth giving it a go.

 

[HoopFan]

I need to watch for this, when I do shift 100% to Reta. Oddly enough I only have crazy hiccups, if I’ve been drinking alcohol. Usually that’s a sure sign that I’m at the line of “one too many”.

Since being on GLPs I don’t hardly drink anymore.

Anyway hiccups…. I’ll be mindful.