Dr. Westin Childs Podcast: Thyroid | Weight Loss | Hormones

GLP-1 agonists are a class of medications that everyone is talking about right now because of their beneficial effects on weight loss. And while they are effective at helping with weight loss, there have been multiple studies that suggest that there is a link between their use and the new onset of thyroid cancer. Let’s talk about this connection in more detail to see if it is something you should actually worry about. First off, where does this information come from? Studies like this one (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36356111/) suggest that there is indeed a real risk of thyroid cancer with long term use of GLP-1 agonists in diabetes. This study showed that there were about 2,500 new cases of thyroid cancer in a sample size of over 3.7 million. The incidence of thyroid cancer in these patients was small but still real. It’s important to note here that correlation does not equal causation but this is just adding to the pile of studies that suggest a link between these medications and thyroid cancer s