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Ozempic drug supresses desire to smoke, drink and more?

theatlantic.com

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Re: Ozempic drug supresses desire to smoke, drink and more?

#31

Post by standardUser »

mym1990 wrote: post #5

A drug that promotes weight loss, lessens the desire to smoke, drink, etc...sounds too good to be true? From what I have heard, all of these issues come back as soon as someone comes off the drug. So either a person is committing to a lifetime of being dependent on this drug, or a person is committing to some period of time of ideal living, followed by a possible time of depression after reverting to the status quo.

The first days, weeks and months are often the hardest time when quitting a substance. If this drug helps a smoker not smoke for 3 months, by that time the nicotine addiction has weakened considerably. They've gotten past the hardest part. I see no downside to that.

Similarly, if a person loses 30 pounds on this drug, then stops using the drug and reverts to normal habits, it will take a while to regain those 30 pounds. And the long term shift of maintaining the new body weight doesn't require any radical changes (unlike losing 30 pounds, which does require sustained radical changes).

Re: Ozempic drug supresses desire to smoke, drink and more?

#32

Post by justinbaker84 »

mym1990 wrote: post #5

A drug that promotes weight loss, lessens the desire to smoke, drink, etc...sounds too good to be true? From what I have heard, all of these issues come back as soon as someone comes off the drug. So either a person is committing to a lifetime of being dependent on this drug, or a person is committing to some period of time of ideal living, followed by a possible time of depression after reverting to the status quo.

This is exactly what happened to me. The clinic I went to recommended starting out with 1/10 the normal dose for the first month to make sure I would tolerate it. Then we would move up each month.

It worked so well I didn't want to move up so for month 2 I stuck with 1/10th the amount. During that month the effects wore off so I had to take more to get the same impact. I chose to just quit.

2 months after quiting I am 7 pounds fatter than I was when I started with the drug. I suspect that most people will need to keep taking more and more of it to get the same benefits they got from the recommended dose. I am really concerned this is going to lead to a bigger health crises than the one it purported to solve.

Re: Ozempic drug supresses desire to smoke, drink and more?

#33

Post by justinbaker84 »

standardUser wrote: post #31
mym1990 wrote: post #5

A drug that promotes weight loss, lessens the desire to smoke, drink, etc...sounds too good to be true? From what I have heard, all of these issues come back as soon as someone comes off the drug. So either a person is committing to a lifetime of being dependent on this drug, or a person is committing to some period of time of ideal living, followed by a possible time of depression after reverting to the status quo.

The first days, weeks and months are often the hardest time when quitting a substance. If this drug helps a smoker not smoke for 3 months, by that time the nicotine addiction has weakened considerably. They've gotten past the hardest part. I see no downside to that. Similarly, if a person loses 30 pounds on this drug, then stops using the drug and reverts to normal habits, it will take a while to regain those 30 poun…

That is not what happened to me. I took it for 2 months and then I wanted to get off. I did not go back to normal. Mentally I felt like I needed more food and more junk food than I ever did before using the drug.

My hypothesis is that it supressed my body's natural production of whatever chemical in my brain helps me not go overboard with food. With that supressed by the drug I had an uncontrollable desire for food and currently I am fatter than I was before taking the drug in the first place.

Re: Ozempic drug supresses desire to smoke, drink and more?

#34

Post by ikekkdcjkfke »

lumb63 wrote: post #23

I’m glad people are enjoying Ozempic. My experience from seeing a family member on it, is I would not touch it if I were a 500-pound alcoholic smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. That’s an exaggeration since it probably outweighs the health issues there, but only slightly. The person I know taking Ozempic has only lost weight (35 lbs) due to the fact that eating now makes her sick. She has been sapped of all energ…

Same experience here, gallstone attacks

Re: Ozempic drug supresses desire to smoke, drink and more?

#35

Post by justinbaker84 »

karaterobot wrote: post #7
mym1990 wrote: post #5

A drug that promotes weight loss, lessens the desire to smoke, drink, etc...sounds too good to be true? From what I have heard, all of these issues come back as soon as someone comes off the drug. So either a person is committing to a lifetime of being dependent on this drug, or a person is committing to some period of time of ideal living, followed by a possible time of depression after reverting to the status quo.

For a lot of people, it's kind of a choice of which substance you are going to be dependent on. It's all expensive and sad, but between Ozempic and cigarettes, alcohol, or overeating, Ozempic has got to be healthier, and quite possibly cheaper in the long run.

I took it and started out with a small dose. The impact of that dose wore off eventually and the plan at my clinic was to raise it over time.

I am concerned that maybe there isn't a dose where you can stop taking more and keep the results. I am worried that everybody will need to keep taking more as they build up more tolerance to it. The study that showed how effective the drug is was 60 weeks long.

That is a long time, but it doesn't show what happens if somebody plans on staying on the drug for years.

Re: Ozempic drug supresses desire to smoke, drink and more?

#37

Post by coffeebeqn »

mym1990 wrote: post #5

A drug that promotes weight loss, lessens the desire to smoke, drink, etc...sounds too good to be true? From what I have heard, all of these issues come back as soon as someone comes off the drug. So either a person is committing to a lifetime of being dependent on this drug, or a person is committing to some period of time of ideal living, followed by a possible time of depression after reverting to the status quo.

If something affects so many basic functions of the body, the side effects must be intense as well

Re: Ozempic drug supresses desire to smoke, drink and more?

#38

Post by justinbaker84 »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #8
crakenzak wrote: post #2

Now if only it didn’t cost so damn much every month even under insurance =(

Going to be huge when it goes off patent off exclusivity. I'd also expect you'll be able to get it when it's made in jurisdictions that will ignore the patent. Up to you to get it from those places, either via mail or travel runs.

A lot of clinics are administering the generic form and it is still very expensive.

Re: Ozempic drug supresses desire to smoke, drink and more?

#39

Post by kristofferR »

rektide wrote: post #9

I'm surprised Ozempic gets all the press. Supposedly Mounjaro is all that and more. The wonderful Paul Ford has the best writeup I've seen that discusses these more meta levels, the post-human implications of a drug we can genuinely widescalely reprogram ourselves with. Paul's so great. https://www.wired.com/story/new-drug-switched-off-appetite-m... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34660232

Massive text: "People taking Mounjaro lost up to 25 LBS"

Small text underneath: "Mounjaro is not a weight loss drug."

Man, the US pharma industry/marketing is so weird.

https://www.mounjaro.com/#:~:text=mounjaro%20is%20not%20a%20....

Re: Ozempic drug supresses desire to smoke, drink and more?

#40

Post by pseudo0 »

trasz4 wrote: post #24
HDThoreaun wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not possible to stop people from getting mail order pills from China. Especially with the abortion restrictions the market already is pretty large and it will be easy for them to throw these drugs in too.

We used to believe it was not possible to stop people from getting their funny movie clips from China.

The solution to that was a $10 per month subscription via Netflix and clips for free on YouTube. Meanwhile Ozempic is around $1,000 for a month's supply. That is a margin on par with illegal hard drugs, which already have a smuggling supply chain from China to North America (eg. Fentanyl and variants).
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