Actress Mayim Bialik said she had a “nightmare” experience on a GLP-1 medication she was prescribed for weight loss, and management of her Graves’ disease symptoms.
The “Big Bang Theory” star described her experience with Graves’ disease in an essay June 5 for The Free Press.
“I was exhausted from being sick, from the endless parade of specialists, from the diets, the protocols, and the promises,” she said, noting she thought this could be the “magic cure.”
Instead, she said she suffered from intense gastrointestinal issues that made her “too sick to stand, drink water, or think straight.”
VENICE, ITALY – AUGUST 31: Mayim Bialik attends the “Father Mother Sister Brother” red carpet during the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2025 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Elisabetta A. Villa/Getty Images)
“To say I had an adverse reaction would be somewhat of an understatement,” she said. “Explosive, uncontrollable diarrhea. Sulfur burps so violent they left me afraid to open my mouth in public.”
Bialik continued to describe how her body reacted to the drug.
“Sneezing attacks every time I tried to eat or drink — which apparently has a name, snatiation. Cramping. Bloating. Full-body aching, as though I had the flu.”
She said she was unable to even keep down “small sips of water without sprinting to the bathroom with yet more explosive diarrhea.”
The star admitted, “More than three times, I didn’t make it.” (RELATED: Hulk Hogan’s Caregiver Reveals Legendary Wrestler’s Final Moments Amid Investigation)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 15: Mayim Bialik attends Hilarity For Charity’s annual fundraiser to support Alzheimer’s at Rolling Greens DTLA on November 15, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Hilarity for Charity)
She explained that she became so weak that a nurse attended her residence to administer IV fluids.
“What shocked me was how unsurprised my doctor and this nurse seemed,” Bialik said in The Free Press interview.
“How could a reaction even half as severe as mine be considered normal?”
Bialik did not disclose the specific GLP-1 medication she was prescribed.