Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Rare genital defects seen in sons of men taking major diabetes drug

science.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 234 posts

Re: Rare genital defects seen in sons of men taking major diabetes drug

#81

Post by dayvid »

idorosen wrote: post #40
ceeplusplus wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prescriptions of diet and exercise are ineffective because many obese / type 2 diabetic people can't exercise self-control. That's why they're obese in the first place. It's way easier to take a pill than cut to 1500 calories a day for 2 years.

It is a harmful stereotype to label obese people as lacking willpower as you have done. Many obese people don’t have the resources (time, money) or tools (nutrition understanding) to improve their situation. Many have metabolic or familial history of obesity which has both physical and psychological (normalization) impact on their ability to control their weight. The former can be helped with diet and/or medication,…

I agree. After living and traveling abroad, it's easy to see America has an obese-default culture.

Most cities and towns have little walking or public transportation. Cheap, high-calorie, nutrient-poor food is easily available anywhere 24 hours a day. Restaurants have an abundance of large amounts of meat and carbohydrates drenched in low-quality oils and sugary seasonings.

You have to be consciously active to stay fit or cook the majority of your own food. People in a lot of other countries stay lean and aren't as obsessed with fitness as we are.

Re: Rare genital defects seen in sons of men taking major diabetes drug

#82

Post by bencollier49 »

ars wrote: post #72

"The researchers analyzed records from more than 1.1 million babies born in Denmark between 1997 and 2016, using the country’s comprehensive medical registries to connect data on births, paternal metformin prescriptions, and birth defects." Did they look for any defect correlated with any drug? Because if they did, random chance alone would find something. Anyone read the actual study?

Hopefully if they didn't apply Bonferroni correction, the study wouldn't pass peer review.

Re: Rare genital defects seen in sons of men taking major diabetes drug

#83

Post by pdpi »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #6

> "...because tens of millions of people worldwide take metformin, chiefly for type 2 diabetes." In nearly all cases, T2 is preventable. That is, unlike T1, there are things an individual can do to not reach T2.

Your point being…?

Re: Rare genital defects seen in sons of men taking major diabetes drug

#84

Post by bencollier49 »

willcipriano wrote: post #36

Any clues on the mechanism? Wouldn't this require altering the DNA of the sperm?

It's possible that the mechanism is epigenetic, albeit unlikely. The sad truth is that this is probably now present in lots of genomes, and in the absence of eugenics or genome modification to correct the fault, will add to the slow and burgeoning medicalisation of the whole population, as the end of natural selection for baseline health multiplies disorders over time.

Re: Rare genital defects seen in sons of men taking major diabetes drug

#85

Post by alwillis »

ako wrote: post #68
akomtu wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe this is intentional. If the ruling class wanted workers to live long, they'd force them to switch to oatmeals, fruits and water, while sugar would be a substance competing in price with cocaine.

So the ruling class is forcing you to eat sugar, and you don't have the option to choose for healthier food?

From a big picture, socio-economic point of view, yes, the ruling class (Fortune 500 CEOs and elected officials they donate to and lobby) are essentially forcing the poor, the unaware, the average Joe to eat a diet full of high-fructose corn syrup and other carbohydrates, which happens to be produced by giant agricultural companies.

Corn is a subsidized crop by the US Department of Agriculture—we pay farmers to grow it. See the documentary "King Corn" about two guys who didn't know the first thing about growing corn but still made a profit on 1 acre of corn [1].

It's often said your zip code is a huge indicator of many demographic stats and what food you have access to is one of them.

I've lived in food deserts and I can tell you getting healthy food can be quite an arduous task, especially if you rely on public transportation.

Recent data shows that 80%(!) of black women in the United States are obese [2].

This isn't an organic phenomenon; this level of obesity is the result of a system—some intentional and some not—at work.

[1]: https://www.kingcorn.net

[2]: https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=4&lvlid=2...

Re: Rare genital defects seen in sons of men taking major diabetes drug

#87

Post by RachelF »

bsder wrote: post #86

Wait ... 86 million scrips for Metformin? Roughly 1 IN 3 people in the US? That can't possibly be right. What am I missing?

Patients will normally get multiple scripts per year. A typical script might only provide one month's worth of medication, perhaps with 3 to 6 "repeats" before needing a new script.

Re: Rare genital defects seen in sons of men taking major diabetes drug

#88

Post by bsder »

ceeplusplus wrote: post #29
giantg2 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, if they aren't suggesting dietary and exercise based solutions first, that's a huge red flag. Find a new doctor.

Prescriptions of diet and exercise are ineffective because many obese / type 2 diabetic people can't exercise self-control. That's why they're obese in the first place. It's way easier to take a pill than cut to 1500 calories a day for 2 years.

> Prescriptions of diet and exercise are ineffective because many obese / type 2 diabetic people can't exercise self-control. That's why they're obese in the first place.

Research continues its trend against this statement.

1) One problem is the fact that the number of fat cells in the body is conserved after some point. So, if you grew lots of fat cells as a child, sucks to be you, you're now stuck with them as an adult.

2) Caloric consumption has been tracked and cross referenced between countries, and obesity doesn't always correlate with it. Apparently, there are other things going on. Some of these seem to be environmental.

3) Fat cells "remember" your weight when they were formed. Once you become obese, your body fights your attempts to lose weight all the way down until those cells die off and are replaced (about 10% per year or so). It takes MASSIVE amounts of willpower to fight your own body over years.

4) Exercise is practically useless for weight loss. The body demands a fixed number of calories (up until you're doing something at the level of extreme training) and shunts the available calories between systems. Exercise has lots of benefits. Weight loss just isn't one of them.

5) I do agree that nothing in the US helps you avoid gaining weight. Portion sizes are gigantic (a "personal" pizza in the US is a full pizza in Naples). Walking or bicycling is rarely useful for most people. Sugar gets added to everything (For example: Austin, TX has been a particular victim of this--gigantic glasses of unsweetened iced tea used to be the default a decade or so ago but has been replaced by sweetened or double-sweetened iced tea (which used to be limited to the Southeastern states)).

Re: Rare genital defects seen in sons of men taking major diabetes drug

#89

Post by sacred_numbers »

bsder wrote: post #86

Wait ... 86 million scrips for Metformin? Roughly 1 IN 3 people in the US? That can't possibly be right. What am I missing?

A single patient may receive multiple prescriptions per year, so the number of patients will be lower than the number of prescriptions. According to this source the number of patients taking metformin is 17 million.

https://clincalc.com/DrugStats/Drugs/Metformin

Re: Rare genital defects seen in sons of men taking major diabetes drug

#90

Post by idontwantthis »

dayvid wrote: post #81
idorosen wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a harmful stereotype to label obese people as lacking willpower as you have done. Many obese people don’t have the resources (time, money) or tools (nutrition understanding) to improve their situation. Many have metabolic or familial history of obesity which has both physical and psychological (normalization) impact on their ability to control their weight. The former can be helped with diet and/or medication,…

I agree. After living and traveling abroad, it's easy to see America has an obese-default culture. Most cities and towns have little walking or public transportation. Cheap, high-calorie, nutrient-poor food is easily available anywhere 24 hours a day. Restaurants have an abundance of large amounts of meat and carbohydrates drenched in low-quality oils and sugary seasonings. You have to be consciously active to stay f…

I lost 20 pounds, got off antidepressants and found love all within 6 months of leaving America at age 24.

I don’t really have a point, but there is a lot of poison for body and mind in that country.

Post reply on HN