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

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

#51

Post by bossyTeacher »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #42
HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 impleme…

Diet and exercise don't have negative side effects and they are free. Exercise is social too and has lots of side effect benefits beyond the obvious fitness ones

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

#52

Post by mobilejdral »

swyx wrote: post #4

for those who are interested in a cheaper, partially generic, pill based option for weight loss, i was just referred by a friend to the naltrexone + bupropion + metformin solution offered by hims (not linking because their website is terrible for learning anything without giving all your health info). he lost 30lbs in 3 months on it. i've just started so i cant vouch but just sharing that non GLP1 appetite suppressio…

Naltrexone in high doses takes away all pleasure by blocking opioid receptors (low doses do too, but it is different when only a few hours). So there is no reward for drinking or eating if that is why you are eating. If this is not why you eat it will be less effective.

Bupropion acts as a norepinephrine–dopamine reuptake inhibitor. Importantly it doesn't directly raise your serotonin. If you are a night owl, have trouble falling asleep etc you might have low serotonin to start and this could be bad for you.

Both of these are associated with suicidal thoughts. There is a reason HIMS requires your health info before suggesting drugs. I would flag the parent as providing dangerous information.

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

#54

Post by toomuchtodo »

bossyTeacher wrote: post #51
toomuchtodo wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 impleme…

Diet and exercise don't have negative side effects and they are free. Exercise is social too and has lots of side effect benefits beyond the obvious fitness ones

If no one does them, their risk profile is immaterial. GLP-1s can be manufactured for $5/month. Cheaper than trying to coax the monkey brain into doing things you can't make it do. I cannot speak to the gene therapy cost; balance against lifetime cost of "Western disease" if not provided.

Engineer for the way the world is, not the way we wish it was. From your comments, you appear to operate under the belief that people can free will their way to success ("The better option seems to be face the appetite head on rather than putting it on a temporal cage"). That is not what the evidence shows, and I wouldn't ask anyone with a brain chemistry imbalance or dysfunction to attempt to will the condition away when proven interventions are readily and inexpensively available.

TLDR We are improving agency in humans using bioengineering, broadly speaking.

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and...

https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/php/data-research/adult-obesity-...

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

#55

Post by JumpCrisscross »

CharlieDigital wrote: post #2

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.

> Curious if there's been any accounting on the long term impact in terms of cost on the healthcare system

Savings on the order of $100bn per year [1].

> longer life spans impacting Social Security, Medicare, etc.

An obese person dying early may well wind up costing the system more than a healthy person dying old. (Most medical costs are incurred terminally. The obese have more-complicated terminal paths.)

[1] https://healthpolicy.usc.edu/research/benefits-of-medicare-c...

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

#56

Post by JumpCrisscross »

crmd wrote: post #49
CharlieDigital wrote: post #2

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.

> is plenty of money with many orders of magnitude to spare

Putting infinite value on anything is a great way to incentivise a system that delivers little to none of it.

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

#57

Post by globular-toast »

I find it crazy that they were able to do what they did to cigarettes, essentially marginalising them by banning all marketing etc., but rather than do anything about McDonalds, Kellogs and other junk food companies we have to resort to people injecting or taking pills for life.

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

#59

Post by rickbutton »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #32
swyx wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

??? how is cost on the healthcare system the thing to be worried about over longer lifespan and quality of life? strange thing to focus on lol but i think if you think it thru, 1 should dominate 2, and 2 should be reduced as well.

Health care costs is how individual people’s terrible lifestyle decisions end up impacting everybody else. If somebody wants to live some awful unhealthy lifestyle it really should be their own choice to do so. Except for the fact that it drives up everybody’s insurance premiums, and in countries where the government either partially or entirely subsidises healthcare costs, it gives the government an outright moral m…

Do you think addicts should receive treatment? Do you think that people who make bad decisions deserve to live? Do you extract the exact amount of value from society relative to the amount you put in, or do you take more than you give? Are you sure? Please explain.

Your perspective is frankly disgusting. I hope you don't have any vices. The point of a society is to pool resources together to improve the collective. Different people in different positions of power and ability have different needs. Hopefully you don't personally have any power to exclude people from that group. I hope that the powers that be don't decide that you deserve less for some reason.

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