People on weight-loss drugs report fingernails falling off as researchers uncover surprising link

People taking GLP-1 medications for obesity or diabetes experience nail detachment and hair loss at significantly higher rates than people with similar overall health who do not take GLP-1s.

That's according to research presented Oct. 1 at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) Congress 2026 in Vienna, Austria.

Two studies evaluated 575 users of GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) drugs and a control group of 1,329 non-users, all of whom had type 2 diabetes, obesity or both.