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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

#501

Post by omniglottal »

tyleo wrote: post #479
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…

> Losing weight was extremely challenging and socially isolating. How was it socially isolating? I’m curious because I exercise and diet and this is not my experience. I understand it being challenging though.

OP commented on a weight-loss scheme of eating every other day. Given the social attitudes around eating (which I suspect to be the #1 most common social activity), this alone has the obvious potential to eliminate ~%50 of the most likely socializing opportunities.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#502

Post by paulpauper »

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.

Even healthy, nutritious food is packed with calories. Anything that is not a fruit or vegetable can easily cause weight gain. Before civilization, humans had to expend a lot of energy just to get food, what little they could obtain.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#503

Post by rootusrootus »

Scalene2 wrote: post #382
rootusrootus wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh man, the first result for him on Google is a link to a YouTube video. That makes my BS meter instantly peg.

What kind of crap do you watch on YouTube that manages to taint the entire platform?

Every time some rando on the 'net claims "do your own research" they'll send a link to a YouTube video of some charming BS artist with no qualifications peddling ideological garbage to whomever is credulous enough to watch it uncritically.

Are there good YT channels? Yeah. But 9 times out of 10 (or more) when I search for some rando's recommended expert and the first result is a YT video, it's crap. Utter crap.

I nearly choked when my sister-in-law told me a couple years ago about some really convincing anti-vaccine information she had read which made her very nervous. I asked her what she'd heard, and she gave me a link to a YT video by Dr. Shiva. Yes, THAT Dr. Shiva. Ha! I tried to break it to her gently, but I'm pretty sure she still decided he was a credible source of information.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#504

Post by sidewndr46 »

nerdawson wrote: post #444
1024core wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that injections cost ~ $1000/month, you're saying basically that it'll be a great recurring revenue stream for the companies. A CFO's wet dream.

I did a little bit of research and for people in the UK it appears to be substantially less. I found a few health companies offering it for <$250/mo. I’ll probably wait until it’s readily available on the NHS but it is tempting.

I thought the UK had government healthcare?

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#505

Post by hutzlibu »

kiba wrote: post #499
anigbrowl wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the same reaction. I minimize oxidative stress on my body by being selective about what I eat: having a bit less of some delicious things and eating a bit more of some boring foods that I know are good for me. Also, fuck 'longevity.' The population of the world has doubled during my lifetime and this is a Bad Thing which is wiping out vast numbers of other species. Call me misanthropic if you like but humans ar…

Also, fuck 'longevity.' The population of the world has doubled during my lifetime and this is a Bad Thing which is wiping out vast numbers of other species. More about our socioeconomic and political structure than raw population numbers. Every piece of meat, for example, require the conversion of plant matter into meat. There's going to be energy loss. If we eat more plants and less meat, we would pollute less, and…

"Unless you die in an accident, you're going to live longer due to being healthier."

You are making assumptions, about his lifestyle choices.

Also, medicine might have improved, but so have subjectivly stress and fear and terror (economic outlook, climate change, etc..) A good reminder to turn that smartphone off now.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#506

Post by luckylion »

partiallypro wrote: post #418
luckylion wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Is that actually true? From what I understand, obesity will cost you dearly in life expectancy, and most of the cost comes in the last few years of normal life expectancy. Someone who dies of heart attack at 63 isn't going to run up huge bills…

Yes, smoking isn't the same at all. People that are extremely obese require bigger hospital beds, more equipment, more drugs, more operations, etc. That's not even remotely comparable to smoking in terms of costs on the system. There also aren't a lot of smokers anymore, at least not in the US, obesity is a revolving door that is constantly taxing the system. Even during COVID obese people were the ones taxing the sy…

My point was that these people tend to live a full decade less, and they're missing out the decade when health care cost rise to $11k/yr (65+, also when Medicaid kicks in as far as I understand).

Only looking at the obesity-related health-care cost without looking at the earlier-death-related savings doesn't get you a clear picture. All obese people becoming healthier might actually cost the health-care system more. I understand that's not a comfortable way to think about it for some people, but I do believe it's useful to consider.

Here's a study on lifetime costs for smokers vs nonsmokers: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejm199710093371506

In Germany, healthcare spending for women is about 20% larger per person which is primarily explained by the 5 years additional life expectancy. You'll see that it's not obvious that an obese person dying 10 years earlier will necessarily have the same life time cost because their life is much shorter, and cost rises rapidly when you're past retirement age.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#507

Post by rootusrootus »

bioemerl wrote: post #424
8note wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That two people eating the same thing in the same amounts will retain different amounts as weight is something you can experiment on, without assigning a cause.

I think we need to really stress here just how bad our situation is. We have an obesity rate of 40 plus percent. Peoples weight just cannot be said to be a "natural number" in this environment. Something is causing this and your average person is obese because of it, not because of their "natural weight"

We won't solve it so long as we think of it as a moral issue.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#508

Post by ceejayoz »

onionisafruit wrote: post #482
nerdawson wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did a little bit of research and for people in the UK it appears to be substantially less. I found a few health companies offering it for <$250/mo. I’ll probably wait until it’s readily available on the NHS but it is tempting.

My US doctor recommended it to me last week and said there was a way for it to cost about $200/mo if I want to do that. I thought it was strange that he said it that way instead of just saying the price, but I didn't follow up because we were 45 minutes into the appointment and I was ready to get out of there. I'm supposed to book a follow up appointment after I've read about it, so I guess I'll find out what he mean…

Pretty much every expensive medication has a copay assistance program in the US.

For trirzepatide: https://www.mounjaro.com/hcp/savings-resources

They typically are income blind and make your out-of-pocket price negligible. I'm on a med (Skyrizi) that's $18k per shot, one every three months; their assistance program ensures I don't pay more than $5.

They chip in on the deductible/coinsurance/copay, you don't skip the medication due to cost, and they still get significant money out of your insurer. Everybody wins, until everyone's premiums go up next year.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#510

Post by paulpauper »

kevinpet wrote: post #343
yodsanklai wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem is not the food. The problem is obesity. Junk food corporations make profit by selling food, and they are extremely good at this. They rely on intense advertising, making the food addictive, targeting children. As a side effect, people get obese since they consume more calories that what they need. I don't know about GLP-1, but my intuition tells me that no drug is going to make eating Mac Donald's and…

I rarely eat junk food, and I'm fat. Your attitude is the same as a religious person telling depressed people they need jesus rather than prozac.

The big myth is that healthy food cannot make you fat. Basic thermodynamics shows otherwise.
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