Live data from Hacker News

GLP-1 pills are coming, and they could revolutionize weight-loss treatment

cnn.com

41–50 of 137 posts

Re: GLP-1 pills are coming, and they could revolutionize weight-loss treatment

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It patches a reward center in your brain, reducing appetite, but also patching addiction reward center activity. https://recursiveadaptation.com/p/the-growing-scientific-cas... > The consistency that I'm hearing from all across patient groups is gain of control, whereas previously, there was a loss of control… All of a sudden they're able to step back and say, 'oh, well I had this shopping phenomenon that was going o…

Do we know what the long-term affects are? Is there any lasting benefit if someone stops taking these types of medication? If one does keep taking it indefinitely, does the addiction-suppression effect stay the same, or reduces over time?

[deleted]

Re: GLP-1 pills are coming, and they could revolutionize weight-loss treatment

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It patches a reward center in your brain, reducing appetite, but also patching addiction reward center activity. https://recursiveadaptation.com/p/the-growing-scientific-cas... > The consistency that I'm hearing from all across patient groups is gain of control, whereas previously, there was a loss of control… All of a sudden they're able to step back and say, 'oh, well I had this shopping phenomenon that was going o…

Do we know what the long-term affects are? Is there any lasting benefit if someone stops taking these types of medication? If one does keep taking it indefinitely, does the addiction-suppression effect stay the same, or reduces over time?

There are side effects, but the risk profile is known (is my understanding). It is (at this time) believed to be a forever drug, just like diet and exercise stop working if you stop them. A longer term fix is likely gene therapy (Fractyl Health has a clinical trial in progress, REMAIN-1) vs chronic maintenance.

GLP-1s allow us to poke at the human to see what happens. Gene therapy will, hopefully, allow us to implement a permanent fix vs a hotfix (once the risk profile of such a genetic modification is better understood).

https://www.remain1study.com/remain-1-study/

Re: GLP-1 pills are coming, and they could revolutionize weight-loss treatment

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It patches a reward center in your brain, reducing appetite, but also patching addiction reward center activity. https://recursiveadaptation.com/p/the-growing-scientific-cas... > The consistency that I'm hearing from all across patient groups is gain of control, whereas previously, there was a loss of control… All of a sudden they're able to step back and say, 'oh, well I had this shopping phenomenon that was going o…

Sidenote, my SO recently started a generic GLP-1 shot. It has far more side effects, at least during ramp up - than just reward center. Notably a wide array of food either make them sick to their stomach or have colon related issues (diarrhea or constipation). I suspect i do observe reward changes as well, but especially in the first few weeks it felt like i was observing weight loss strictly because they struggled t…

> many of the foods they still wanted would just make them sick immediately or hours later

Can you name some of the foods? Never been on GLP-1 drugs. But a good amount of fast food leaves me feeling lethargic and, if I eat it too quickly, nauseated afterwards.

Re: GLP-1 pills are coming, and they could revolutionize weight-loss treatment

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It patches a reward center in your brain, reducing appetite, but also patching addiction reward center activity. https://recursiveadaptation.com/p/the-growing-scientific-cas... > The consistency that I'm hearing from all across patient groups is gain of control, whereas previously, there was a loss of control… All of a sudden they're able to step back and say, 'oh, well I had this shopping phenomenon that was going o…

Do we know what the long-term affects are? Is there any lasting benefit if someone stops taking these types of medication? If one does keep taking it indefinitely, does the addiction-suppression effect stay the same, or reduces over time?

So long as an appropriate level of hormone exists in the body (they're injecting hormones doing this) the effect stays the same. This is like wondering if women need to supplement increasing amounts of estrogen over time (as opposed to supplementing only when needed i.e. birth control or menopause). You can take it indefinitely, but you must take it indefinitely in order for it to keep its effectiveness because the body isn't producing enough of the hormone.

Re: GLP-1 pills are coming, and they could revolutionize weight-loss treatment

#45

Curious if there's been any accounting on the long term impact in terms of cost on the healthcare system. On the one hand, obesity is associated with many other ailments such as heart disease, diabetes, etc. that cost the system a lot of money. On the other hand, well, longer life spans impacting Social Security, Medicare, etc.

I wrote a few paragraphs of response to this assuming that you are implying that there is a level of death/disease that is acceptable because treating it would not be cost-effective, but I deleted it because it would be uncharitable to assume you think that.

It would be interesting to see this information, but would not be useful to act on. If the answer was "it costs more to keep more people alive" (hint: it does, that is why we let so many die of preventable illness), should we keep less people alive and healthy? The pursuit of economic growth at all costs is a disease far more dangerous than anything you would treat in a hospital.

Re: GLP-1 pills are coming, and they could revolutionize weight-loss treatment

#46
post #6

How does it work? Does it reduce the calorie intake by decreasing the appetite? Your body burns more calories because the drug sets the thermostat higher?! Or something else? I don't know how to feel about the idea that we need treatment for being overweight in general.

It patches a reward center in your brain, reducing appetite, but also patching addiction reward center activity. https://recursiveadaptation.com/p/the-growing-scientific-cas... > The consistency that I'm hearing from all across patient groups is gain of control, whereas previously, there was a loss of control… All of a sudden they're able to step back and say, 'oh, well I had this shopping phenomenon that was going o…

Sounds worrying to me as it means this is essentially a lifetime drug. As soon as you stop taking it, your appetite returns and so does your old weight. The better option seems to be face the appetite head on rather than putting it on a temporal cage

Re: GLP-1 pills are coming, and they could revolutionize weight-loss treatment

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It patches a reward center in your brain, reducing appetite, but also patching addiction reward center activity. https://recursiveadaptation.com/p/the-growing-scientific-cas... > The consistency that I'm hearing from all across patient groups is gain of control, whereas previously, there was a loss of control… All of a sudden they're able to step back and say, 'oh, well I had this shopping phenomenon that was going o…

Do we know what the long-term affects are? Is there any lasting benefit if someone stops taking these types of medication? If one does keep taking it indefinitely, does the addiction-suppression effect stay the same, or reduces over time?

We do know that the benefits stop as soon as you stop taking it. You'll start gaining back weight.

No negative long term effects have been observed in humans yet, but some animals in trials were at a higher risk of cancer.

We haven't observed any evidence that the addiction-suppression effect reduces over time yet. However, we haven't been studying that effect for very long.

Re: GLP-1 pills are coming, and they could revolutionize weight-loss treatment

#49

Curious if there's been any accounting on the long term impact in terms of cost on the healthcare system. On the one hand, obesity is associated with many other ailments such as heart disease, diabetes, etc. that cost the system a lot of money. On the other hand, well, longer life spans impacting Social Security, Medicare, etc.

In my view, the sole focus of the healthcare system should be maximizing human wellbeing.

Humanity’s GDP is around $100 trillion per year. There is plenty of money for healthcare with many orders of magnitude to spare for other endeavors.

Bean counting here feels like Google in the early ‘00s proposing to make office supply expense reduction a business priority.

Post reply on HN