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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

#261

Post by oneoff786 »

partiallypro wrote: post #234
Cupertino95014 wrote: post #222

> “I’m really hesitant to be excited about something that I think is potentially harmful from a weight stigma perspective,” says Sarah Nutter, a psychologist at the University of Victoria in Canada, who specializes in weight stigma and body image. Putting the word "stigma" on things is a sure sign of a grifter. Instead of helping solve it, they're trying to make it a social science problem. Being overweight is unheal…

The new idea (mostly in the West) that being obese is/can be a healthy lifestyle is absolutely maddening. People being obese (and I don't mean a few pounds overweight) raises everyone's healthcare cost, because it is incredibly unhealthy and obese people tend to have more complications which requires more treatment, workers and subsidizing. It's not just an individual problem, it's a societal problem. There's a new "…

Is the woman being shown as fit? Or as someone who would like the product with a goal to become more fit?

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#262

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

nathas wrote: post #201
viro wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it makes more logical sense to you that everyone is just weak-willed?

How many times do you check HN each day instead of doing work?

That's bizarre. Should I be bending my will to exclusively work? I work better with breaks, that's not weakness, that's realism.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#263

Post by luckylion »

glaucon wrote: post #259

(From a position of significant ignorance) It seems there is not a strong consensus on what has caused the great increase in obesity of the past fifty years, perhaps throwing greater effort in that direction would be a better long term solution ? To my mind it's strange that there seems to be a circular argument which starts with sedentary life style and "bad" foods cause obesity so exercise and diet control seems li…

> If my summary is reasonably correct it seems to me what's needed is more understanding of the outcome before using drugs to "fix it".

The likely reason is the changes in lifestyle thanks to the changes in technology. Is "let's just get rid of the past 70 years of technological advancement" something that we'll seriously consider?

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#264

Post by kenjackson »

mjmahone17 wrote: post #169
maxlamb wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You find broccoli addictive?

Not OP but I do. If I had a plate of steamed or roasted broccoli available on demand at any time, I would eat it like most people do chips. Broccoli tastes great, but requires a lot more prep than “junk food” to get there. I eat junk food mainly because it takes me no effort and still tastes good: for me the addiction is not having to put in any effort to be satiated, more than the taste itself.

I'm OP, and I agree wholeheartedly with you.

And when I do eat junk food I don't eat a crazy amount in volume. But the calorie density of them makes it such that I ate a crazy amount of calories. It's not that I eat a bag of chips per day. But a small bag of chips is 240 calories, while carrot chips of the same mass/volume are 20 calories.

Do I prefer junk food over some healthy food -- yes, probably so (but I love broccoli). But I don't know that my eating habits are drastically different between the two. To put it another way, if the junk food I ate suddenly became healthy for you, I think people say I was just eating a healthy diet.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#265

Post by Aaronstotle »

0xB31B1B wrote: post #21

I’m currently taking one of these drugs and it has been no less than a miracle in my life. I became obese when I was around 5, topping out around a 34 BMI. When I was 20 I lost a substantial amount of weight the old fashioned way (diet and exercise), and within 8 months I was BMI 23. Losing weight was extremely challenging and socially isolating. 7 years later, I had a bad ankle injury and regained weight to about 29…

[flagged]

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#266

Post by cglace »

hnuser123456 wrote: post #191
ceejayoz wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That article starts with: > Controlled drugs, with their potential for abuse and diversion, can pose public health risks that are different from—and more problematic than—those of uncontrolled drugs when they are overpromoted and highly prescribed. These drugs are not of that nature.

No, but the ADD/ADHD stims are. I also had nausea all day and could not eat more than approx 1. slice of pizza for lunch and dinner up til age 16 on days that I took the smallest dose of methylpenidate. In summer, when I was not on it, I actually resumed average eating and growth. My growth chart, before age 8 starting it, was right around 50th percentile in height/weight, and by age 16, was was around bottom 5th per…

Another anecdote, I was on ADD meds from 5th grade through college and I'm at 99th percentile height.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#267

Post by civilized »

dcolkitt wrote: post #152
rajin444 wrote: post #56

This drug is a net good for society, but we have to fix the root problem. Much of the food we eat is filled with addictive ingredients (sugar, excess fats/oils, etc) that provide little nutritional value but are highly addictive. We’re subsidizing companies that create unhealthy addictive food and subsidizing companies to create drugs to counter the unhealthy addictive food. This is an enormous waste of resources.

Disagree. People genuinely enjoy those foods, because they're tasty and flavorful. And there's zero reason to believe that they're substantially unhealthy unless consumed to the point of sustained caloric surplus. We know this because we have hunter-gatherer populations who consume 50% of their diets in sugar (e.g. the Hadza) or fats (e.g. Intuit), and they have none of the diseases of abundance found in modern popul…

I think "people value tasty food" is an oversimplification. It feels good but we regret it when we get fat, our health deteriorates, and with our health goes our participation in and contribution to everything and everyone we love. For many people, junk food starts to feel more like an addiction than a choice in line with highest values.

Sadly, this means it can be a problem when food tastes too good. The term of art is "hyperpalatable". Studies have shown that even lab animals gorge themselves and get fat and unhealthy when they get human junk food.

I think many people would be grateful to have hyperpalatable food restricted or limited or less visible to them, so the temptation is removed or moderated. How we implement that in society, in a liberal or authoritarian way or somewhere in between, is a separate question.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#268

Post by hackernewds »

0xB31B1B wrote: post #21

I’m currently taking one of these drugs and it has been no less than a miracle in my life. I became obese when I was around 5, topping out around a 34 BMI. When I was 20 I lost a substantial amount of weight the old fashioned way (diet and exercise), and within 8 months I was BMI 23. Losing weight was extremely challenging and socially isolating. 7 years later, I had a bad ankle injury and regained weight to about 29…

there's a difference between being full and feeling full. is it still known that the human body is healthy with this level of dieting and lack of nutrition?

clearly can't be the case for someone who is obese so I'm wondering if this is true then if it's limited to folks who are struggling with obesity that can endure this

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#269

Post by tootie »

Cupertino95014 wrote: post #222

> “I’m really hesitant to be excited about something that I think is potentially harmful from a weight stigma perspective,” says Sarah Nutter, a psychologist at the University of Victoria in Canada, who specializes in weight stigma and body image. Putting the word "stigma" on things is a sure sign of a grifter. Instead of helping solve it, they're trying to make it a social science problem. Being overweight is unheal…

That's awfully harsh. For one, the person making that statement is not the developer of the treatment, she's a psychologist expressing concern about the possible downsides. Namely that the drug is expensive, doesn't work on everyone and hasn't been proven to show long-term beneficial outcomes yet (ie lower morbidity). I'm guessing it's also got a high potential for abuse from people with dysphoria. Nobody is saying we should keep it off the market, just that we need to be prepared for potential negative repercussions.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#270

Post by m0llusk »

Cupertino95014 wrote: post #222

> “I’m really hesitant to be excited about something that I think is potentially harmful from a weight stigma perspective,” says Sarah Nutter, a psychologist at the University of Victoria in Canada, who specializes in weight stigma and body image. Putting the word "stigma" on things is a sure sign of a grifter. Instead of helping solve it, they're trying to make it a social science problem. Being overweight is unheal…

Down's Syndrome is also unhealthy. Should we stigmatize that also? The main issue is control. Many assume that weight is simple and under people's full control. Realistically, though, there are all kinds of reasons why weight gain happens and scientific measurement shows that wild animals are getting bigger too which suggests that pervasive presence of endocrine disrupting agents in the environment may be involved. It is not clear how we might stigmatize exposure to endocrine disruptors.
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