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What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

psychologytoday.com

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Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#51

Post by flextheruler »

joshuamcginnis wrote: post #16

Studies show almost all subjects regained the weight and reversed gains within 2 years. This means underlying issues (e.g., food addiction) aren't being addressed. Short of changing habits, the only maintenance solution is lifelong drug use and that doesn't sit well with me.

Unfortunately for a lot of people with weight issues it stems from becoming overweight during puberty which is uniquely bad. Your body's appetite signals are permanently impaired if you become overweight during puberty because during this window your fat cells don't just increase in size, but also in number and this increased quantity does not go away once created. Fat cell shrink as weight is loss, but they are not destroyed and they are responsible for appetite signaling. It's one of the reasons that childhood obesity is actually leagues worse than it first appears and I think should be considered child abuse in extreme circumstances.

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#52

Post by kolinko »

joshuamcginnis wrote: post #28
crooked-v wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of people have lifelong drug use of, say, caffeine, or aspirin as a blood thinner, or various antihistamines. Why is this somehow worse? Particularly keeping in mind that it's very easy to make, so once the patents expire, it's going to be dirt cheap as generics everywhere.

I'm just sharing my personal preference and not trying to tell people how to live their lives. I don't like personally like the idea that I'll only be healthy if I take this drug for the rest of my life when I could (again - speaking for me), be more disciplined about the food I put into my body.

“be more disciplined” - did you read any studies about the sources of obesity? Or do you struggle with weight since childhood yourself?

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#53

Post by cjbgkagh »

npunt wrote: post #42
barake wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Semaglutide does an incredible job of keeping my autoimmune issues in check. The only side effect I've had is needing to drink more water or else I feel like I've got the flu. Minimal tradeoff IMO

oh say more?

This is why I took it, auto immune related ME/CFS. Works great. I still get PEM but outside of that I get to live a normal life.

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#55

Post by 9x39 »

wpm wrote: post #21
joshuamcginnis wrote: post #16

Studies show almost all subjects regained the weight and reversed gains within 2 years. This means underlying issues (e.g., food addiction) aren't being addressed. Short of changing habits, the only maintenance solution is lifelong drug use and that doesn't sit well with me.

Why not? People take depression meds, blood pressure meds, all kinds of meds for their whole life. I'll be on omeprazole for reflux my whole life. It doesn't solve the underlying problem of my gut being prone to overpumping acid into my stomach. So omeprazole is problematic? The underlying issue is being treated, it's treated by taking the drug. It works. It's doing its job. I'd be curious as to how you came to this…

If they were a normal weight they would not have been prescribed the drug. The underlying issue is they're overweight because they eat too much. Anything more is speculation.

There is usually no free lunch when it comes to pharma, and extrapolating long term or lifetime dependence as being equivalent to short term interventions is an unsupported leap.

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#57

Post by [deleted] »

kolinko wrote: post #52
joshuamcginnis wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just sharing my personal preference and not trying to tell people how to live their lives. I don't like personally like the idea that I'll only be healthy if I take this drug for the rest of my life when I could (again - speaking for me), be more disciplined about the food I put into my body.

“be more disciplined” - did you read any studies about the sources of obesity? Or do you struggle with weight since childhood yourself?

[deleted]

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#58

Post by topgrain2 »

brazukadev wrote: post #43
vidarh wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that we know that diets and changing habits doesn't have lasting effects, what doesn't sit well with me is to risk my health to avoid taking a drug that helps.

changing habits do have lasting effects, I'm not part of this "we" that doesn't know that.

People talk past each other on this because for an individual it technically can work, and sometimes does, but on a population level, as extensively studied by people whose job it is to study that, it definitely does not work. Even with tons of regular attention from professionals and a cohort selected to have above-average motivation, it’s surprisingly poorly-performing (and that’s a crazy expensive level of intervention)

Think about how we describe contraceptives, medically speaking: a failure rate is tracked and promoted that’s the in the wild rate of failure, not the ideal-use rate of failure (which can be effectively zero!). The diet and exercise equivalent of a contraceptive couldn’t be sold, because its failure rate would be way higher than its success rate.

So “we” (people who’ve paid attention to the science on it) know it doesn’t work (on a population level), like for-sure definitely does not work, but a person reads this assertion of fact and goes “but wait it worked for me, this person must be dumb or something” but that’s not it. It’s two different perspectives on what it means for it to “work”.

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#59

Post by crooked-v »

joshuamcginnis wrote: post #26
wpm wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? People take depression meds, blood pressure meds, all kinds of meds for their whole life. I'll be on omeprazole for reflux my whole life. It doesn't solve the underlying problem of my gut being prone to overpumping acid into my stomach. So omeprazole is problematic? The underlying issue is being treated, it's treated by taking the drug. It works. It's doing its job. I'd be curious as to how you came to this…

I think there's a distinct difference between taking medicine for things you can fix on your own (diet + exercise) vs things you cannot (excess acid production).

I'm not on GLP-1s, but I've been looking at very seriously because something I can't "fix on my own" is just... always feeling hungry. That's just how my body works. Exercise doesn't help; there's no reasonable amount of exercise that will help with my office-worker stomach wanting 3000 calories a day. So far through my life I've just lived with it and managed my diet as best I can and it just absolutely sucks.

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#60

Post by 9x39 »

ceejayoz wrote: post #50
dyauspitr wrote: post #47

What’s the downside to this magical drug. There has to be a downside…

Why does there have to be a downside? What was the downside of washing hands before surgery?

Because our bodies are delicate systems of networks, and inputs in one area can have complex/unpredictable outputs elsewhere, it seems.

Typically, if something "works", there often appear to be side effects. A free lunch is rare.

https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/understanding-medica...

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