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‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

nature.com

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Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#31

Post by nscalf »

PuppyTailWags wrote: post #16

Have we actually studied if the weight loss is resulting in better health outcomes for the people in question? Outside of diabetics (there is evidence that significant weight loss can relieve the effects of type 2 diabetes), I would like to know if just weight loss benefits the cardiovascular system, blood pressure, etc. These aren't as intuitive as we'd like, for example, it turns out that low fat diets didn't make…

Yeah, there are a lot of published studies showing this is very impactful. Within certain thresholds, losing weight has been shown to be the biggest change to all cause mortality rates. If you are obese, the most impactful thing on health is losing weight. This obviously isn't true for people with very low BMIs, but there have been a lot of population level studies looking at all cause mortality.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#32

Post by starkd »

ceejayoz wrote: post #17
jobs_throwaway wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Helping obese people lose weight is unidimensionally a good thing

Very little in health is unidimensional. Suppose, for example, the presence of an effective weight loss treatment caused an increase in suicide rate in those who fail to benefit from the drug or can't access it for some reason?

That's an important consequence to consider. One that often gets omitted. Many drugs - like blood pressure drugs - often have depression as a side effect but it gets overlooked.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#33

Post by gadders »

PuppyTailWags wrote: post #16

Have we actually studied if the weight loss is resulting in better health outcomes for the people in question? Outside of diabetics (there is evidence that significant weight loss can relieve the effects of type 2 diabetes), I would like to know if just weight loss benefits the cardiovascular system, blood pressure, etc. These aren't as intuitive as we'd like, for example, it turns out that low fat diets didn't make…

>>it turns out that low fat diets didn't make people less fat

Yeah, but low calorie diets (lower than your daily calories expenditure) always do.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#34

Post by jasonmp85 »

the_only_law wrote: post #23
jobs_throwaway wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Helping obese people lose weight is unidimensionally a good thing

Let’s give them all meth. That should help with weight loss.

Amphetamines are great, I fail to see your point.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#35

Post by smith7018 »

Izkata wrote: post #8

> They described the details of an investigation of a promising anti-obesity medication in teenagers, a group that is notoriously resistant to such treatment. The results astonished researchers: a weekly injection for almost 16 months, along with some lifestyle changes, reduced body weight by at least 20% in more than one-third of the participants1. Previous studies2,3 had shown that the drug, semaglutide, was just a…

Cocaine does the same thing but it only lasts ~20 minutes. Ozempic is a once a week injection that curbs appetite and makes the user feel fuller faster. It also comes in a pen (like an epipen) and is injected into fat stores so the user probably won't have "track marks."

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#36

Post by gadders »

"The WHO recommends healthier diets and physical activity to reduce obesity, but medication might help when lifestyle changes aren’t enough. The new drugs mimic hormones known as incretins, which lower blood sugar and curb appetite."

Isn't eating less food (whether your appetite is curbed or not) a lifestyle change? It's not that lifestyle changes aren't enough. It's that the size of your change wasn't big enough.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#37

Post by iammjm »

ceejayoz wrote: post #25
iammjm wrote: post #20

At a risk of being ignorant: Isn’t obesity a function of calories intake and calories burn rate? If so, why do we even need a drug for that? What should a possible drug target here? Assuming no changes in behaviour and thus a continued steady daily caloric surplus, would it even work?

> Isn’t obesity a function of calories intake and calories burn rate? If so, why do we even need a drug for that? Because calorie intake is substantially impacted by things like satiety. As the article's subtitle heavily hints at, "A class of drugs that quash hunger" is beneficial in moving that bit of the equation.

I understand, but appetite/hunger seems to be just a part of the issue. The second part being people (myself included) using food to comfort ourselves. I feel bad -> I seek tasty food to comfort myself, even if I am not hungry. The whole candy-market is built around. How are drugs to address this?

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#38

Post by Izkata »

ceejayoz wrote: post #10
Izkata wrote: post #8

> They described the details of an investigation of a promising anti-obesity medication in teenagers, a group that is notoriously resistant to such treatment. The results astonished researchers: a weekly injection for almost 16 months, along with some lifestyle changes, reduced body weight by at least 20% in more than one-third of the participants1. Previous studies2,3 had shown that the drug, semaglutide, was just a…

> How much of it was actually the lifestyle changes? That's why the placebo group in the trial also gets the same lifestyle changes. > This apparently works by suppressing appetite, but doesn't cocaine do the same thing? Sure. If they were otherwise identical, that'd be a good point, but they're not. > Constant needle marks from weekly injections might result in more social complications than anything else... My daug…

> You don't get needle marks from these sorts of small dosage subcutaneous injection.

Ah, my only experience is with things like vaccines and drawing blood; those marks last around a week on me.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#39

Post by ceejayoz »

gadders wrote: post #36

"The WHO recommends healthier diets and physical activity to reduce obesity, but medication might help when lifestyle changes aren’t enough. The new drugs mimic hormones known as incretins, which lower blood sugar and curb appetite." Isn't eating less food (whether your appetite is curbed or not) a lifestyle change? It's not that lifestyle changes aren't enough. It's that the size of your change wasn't big enough.

> It's not that lifestyle changes aren't enough. It's that the size of your change wasn't big enough.

Sure, and one of the things we conclusively know about obesity is that people struggle enormously to sustain that sort of lifestyle change in the long term.

Hence, medications that help with that. In this case, by reducing hunger.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#40

Post by megiddo »

iammjm wrote: post #20

At a risk of being ignorant: Isn’t obesity a function of calories intake and calories burn rate? If so, why do we even need a drug for that? What should a possible drug target here? Assuming no changes in behaviour and thus a continued steady daily caloric surplus, would it even work?

It's like treating an addiction by telling the addict "it's ok to have some, just pinkie swear you won't overdo it."

People who are obese or grossly obese often aren't just eating a "little extra" here and there. Imagine more like "extra pizza a day" or "eat a cake once a week because that seems like a good idea".

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