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Goodbye, Ozempic

theatlantic.com

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Re: Goodbye, Ozempic

#11

Post by JimtheCoder »

eggy wrote: post #5

We need to push lifestyle change to treat obesity - diet, exercise, sleep - vs. pharmaceuticals. Big pharma just keeps rolling out v2.0, 3.0, etc. for the customers they've built through advertising and having doctor's marketed to push them on their patients along with government lobbying. He'll, how many COVID boosters did Big Pharma try to push at $30bn a round going into their purses?

While I do agree with lifestyle changes, it is very clear at this point it doesn't work for the majority of people.

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity, or something like that...

Re: Goodbye, Ozempic

#12

Post by gumby »

eggy wrote: post #5

We need to push lifestyle change to treat obesity - diet, exercise, sleep - vs. pharmaceuticals. Big pharma just keeps rolling out v2.0, 3.0, etc. for the customers they've built through advertising and having doctor's marketed to push them on their patients along with government lobbying. He'll, how many COVID boosters did Big Pharma try to push at $30bn a round going into their purses?

Not everyone can make this change — the causes of obesity are not well understood. For the morbidly obese, exercise carries risk too — to joints and the heart, for instance. A large weight reduction (whether via GLP-1 antagonists, gastric band, or exogenous trauma) can both motivate and make easier other changes like the ones you advocate.

Re: Goodbye, Ozempic

#14

Post by ribosometronome »

gumby wrote: post #9

I’m delighted that there are all these new alternatives. Not only because I believe they will help people. But selfishly because I take .75 mg a week to help manage my glucose level and the weight loss users have made the drug hard to get (even though a dose as small as mine doesn’t help weight loss — in fact I’ve been gaining weight, something I have struggled to do). A couple of months go the drug stopped being bac…

Presumably switching to de-prioritizing off-label prescriptions?

Re: Goodbye, Ozempic

#15

Post by JimtheCoder »

gumby wrote: post #12
eggy wrote: post #5

We need to push lifestyle change to treat obesity - diet, exercise, sleep - vs. pharmaceuticals. Big pharma just keeps rolling out v2.0, 3.0, etc. for the customers they've built through advertising and having doctor's marketed to push them on their patients along with government lobbying. He'll, how many COVID boosters did Big Pharma try to push at $30bn a round going into their purses?

Not everyone can make this change — the causes of obesity are not well understood. For the morbidly obese, exercise carries risk too — to joints and the heart, for instance. A large weight reduction (whether via GLP-1 antagonists, gastric band, or exogenous trauma) can both motivate and make easier other changes like the ones you advocate.

"For the morbidly obese, exercise carries risk too — to joints and the heart, for instance"

Would any doctor actually tell a morbidly obese person not to exercise, because it would be too risky for their heart?

Maybe in the 1900's, but in modern times?

Re: Goodbye, Ozempic

#16

Post by gataca »

eggy wrote: post #5

We need to push lifestyle change to treat obesity - diet, exercise, sleep - vs. pharmaceuticals. Big pharma just keeps rolling out v2.0, 3.0, etc. for the customers they've built through advertising and having doctor's marketed to push them on their patients along with government lobbying. He'll, how many COVID boosters did Big Pharma try to push at $30bn a round going into their purses?

A better push would be to prevent the food industry from poisoning us with ultra-processed food and corn syrup. Having food regulation would go a long way in preventing obesity and many other negative health outcomes.

Re: Goodbye, Ozempic

#17

Post by ribosometronome »

eggy wrote: post #5

We need to push lifestyle change to treat obesity - diet, exercise, sleep - vs. pharmaceuticals. Big pharma just keeps rolling out v2.0, 3.0, etc. for the customers they've built through advertising and having doctor's marketed to push them on their patients along with government lobbying. He'll, how many COVID boosters did Big Pharma try to push at $30bn a round going into their purses?

Are you similarly against treating type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc as we should instead be having lifestyle changes, avoiding the risks that lead to those diseases, reducing environmental risks?

Re: Goodbye, Ozempic

#18

Post by mrweasel »

eggy wrote: post #5

We need to push lifestyle change to treat obesity - diet, exercise, sleep - vs. pharmaceuticals. Big pharma just keeps rolling out v2.0, 3.0, etc. for the customers they've built through advertising and having doctor's marketed to push them on their patients along with government lobbying. He'll, how many COVID boosters did Big Pharma try to push at $30bn a round going into their purses?

These new drugs are not a replacement for a health diet and exercise. Drugs like Ozempic, or Wegovy, aren't a permanent solutions, once you stop taking them the effect stops and you can't take them forever. They are only meant to get you motivated and help start up a lower calorie diet.

We are also now seeing people where diet and exercise simply isn't working as expect. There was a study that indicated that PFAS pollution affects the metabolism in some people during the night. Normally you still burn calories while you sleep, but for some elevated PFAS levels causes their bodies to basically stop burning calories during the night.

You're not wrong the pushing lifestyle changes should be the primary goal, but the world isn't that black and white. Peoples circumstances are different and ignoring pharmaceuticals on principle isn't particularly productive. Just like ignoring lifestyle coaching is foolish.

Re: Goodbye, Ozempic

#19

Post by JediWing »

eggy wrote: post #5

We need to push lifestyle change to treat obesity - diet, exercise, sleep - vs. pharmaceuticals. Big pharma just keeps rolling out v2.0, 3.0, etc. for the customers they've built through advertising and having doctor's marketed to push them on their patients along with government lobbying. He'll, how many COVID boosters did Big Pharma try to push at $30bn a round going into their purses?

Suggesting lifestyle change as a cure for obesity presupposes that obese people simply lack the knowledge of what must be done.

The real struggle is in the doing.

Many tout "listen to your body" as a solution, or "think about how junk food makes you feel" as one of the go-to solutions in "lifestyle change".

For the first time in my life I was able to adhere to this advice, because I'm on semaglutide.

My body now actually is telling me that too much junk food feels bad.

Before now, it actually felt VERY VERY GOOD to eat nearly unlimited junk food.

There is something going on in my body that prevents the proper signaling of "too much food feels bad", and this medicine corrects that for me and countless others.

Re: Goodbye, Ozempic

#20

Post by mindcrime »

jdorfman wrote: post #7
mindcrime wrote: post #2

An alternative / replacement without the side-effects would be huge. Since I started 1mg / week of Ozempic, the phrase "power vomiting" has become part of my vernacular where it never was before. Just last night I was overcome by a round of puking that rivals stuff you'd see in a horror movie. :-( It doesn't happen often (2 times this year so far) but when it's bad, it's BAD.

I’ve been debating whether to ask my doctor about trying it. My whole adult life I’ve been struggling with my weight and tried nutritionist, apps, you name it and can’t keep the weight off for more than a year. I hate vomiting so this is making me rethink. Thanks for sharing very helpful.

I don't want to overstate the case. Again, the cases of intense vomiting have been very infrequent and - perhaps more to the point - it's possible that I could avoid those with corresponding changes to my diet, whether it's content, timing, etc.

That said, even on days when there's no outright vomiting, I do experience moderately frequent nausea, which is rather annoying. Since I am diabetic, I've chosen to simply accept the side effects as being acceptable in service of the "greater good". But yeah, consider talking to you doctor and just see what he/she has to say. Maybe a smaller dose could help you with your weight, while not leading to the nausea / vomiting / etc. I'll note that I didn't start getting that stuff until my doc upped my dose from .25mg / week to 1mg / week. YMMV.

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