Semaglutide linked to lower predicted dementia risk • Hacker News Board

Re: Semaglutide linked to lower predicted dementia risk

#361

Post by inglor_cz » Sun, Aug 16, 2026, 1:58 PM UTC

preg_match wrote: post #293

basilgohar wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are other significant factors beyond the ones you mentioned, such as inflammation due to processed foods, certain oils, and more that are common in industrialized medicine. Plenty of anecdata of people who stopped eating certain categories of food and certain conditions they had for a long time went away. In my son's case, a severe case of eczema that persisted for years went away in a matter of weeks after we…

A lot of this largely is not true. People think that paleothic humans ate a lot of meat - they did not. They ate very little meat, we eat the most meat we’ve ever eaten now. And the meat they did eat was lean game meat. It was high in unsaturated fats - like our modern day oils. Not like a steak. A steak is a product of farming. It’s a new invention, Yes oils are “refined”, but humans have been eating unsaturated oil…

People in certain regions always ate a lot of meat. For example, the Inuit don't really have anything else to eat. Nothing edible grows that far North. And they are neither obese nor suffer from classical diseases of civilization, until they start eating highly processed modern food.

The Maasai are also known to eat a lot of meat and dairy.

Re: Semaglutide linked to lower predicted dementia risk

#362

Post by derektank » Sun, Aug 16, 2026, 1:59 PM UTC

jsjohnst wrote: post #357

wildrice wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was paying $1400 a month of my GLP-1 (on top of the $2400 monthly health insurance premium). I eventually just bought a batch from a reputable online compounding pharmacy for a very small fraction of that (about 12 months of meds at a time), and send one of the vials in for testing at a mass spectrometer for about $500.

Amazon Pharmacy sells name brand GLP-1s (Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound, etc) for $250-400/month without insurance.

Yeah, Eli Lilly is selling Zepbound direct to consumer for roughly the same price too (with a prescription, obviously). People should generally avoid compounding pharmacies unless they have a specific need, many are not based in the US and not subject to the same regulatory standards as manufacturers (either generic or brand name).

Re: Semaglutide linked to lower predicted dementia risk

#363

Post by majkinetor » Sun, Aug 16, 2026, 2:12 PM UTC

phil21 wrote: post #277

to11mtm wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, There's at least this as a start... https://nutrition.org/sugars-created-equal-lets-talk-fructos... Not saying Sugar itself is much better, however, yes, there is research indicating that the two are metabolized differently, so that difference in composition should be considered.

I am entirely unconvinced that a 5% difference in fructose vs. glucose is a meaningful difference. They carry the same health risks if eaten in the same amounts. The only thing that corn syrup could be blamed for here is being too cheap so it shows up in greater quantity and in more products than cane sugar might otherwise. HFCS is just one of those fashionable things to be "concerned" about so we can all miss the fo…

The difference is in the chemical bond.

Re: Semaglutide linked to lower predicted dementia risk

#364

Post by majkinetor » Sun, Aug 16, 2026, 2:14 PM UTC

llm_nerd wrote: post #108

to11mtm wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And have a real conversation around Corn syrup. Even today, a Soda with 'real sugar', at least for me, is far more satiating for thirst or a 'quick sweet treat' than the same brand/'flavor' using corn syrup, that includes both the big chains as well as the local names. If I drink a soda with sugar in it, I usually wind up wanting water after. If I drink something with corn syrup, I usually just want more of whatever…

Real sugar in your soda pop? What are you, a health nut? Must be a real my body is a temple sort. Seriously though, it's a dogshit thing to consume whether it is sweetened with HFCS or sucrose. "Even today, a Soda with 'real sugar', at least for me, is far more satiating" Did you know that in the acidic environment of a cola, sucrose quickly degrades into fructose and glucose (and if it didn't, your enzymes literally…

Degradation depends on how many amylase SNP you have - you might be very bad at digesting sugars which is nowdays a good thing.

Re: Semaglutide linked to lower predicted dementia risk

#365

Post by Jesus_piece » Sun, Aug 16, 2026, 2:16 PM UTC

cthalupa wrote: post #151

londons_explore wrote: post #23

So has anyone managed to separate the effects of semaglutide from the effects of weight loss? If this is caused by the weight loss, it is a little disappointing that public health didn't act quicker - lots of people have been overweight for a century now, so literally 10's of millions of people could have been saved from dementia had action been taken 100 years ago.

> So has anyone managed to separate the effects of semaglutide from the effects of weight loss? In general? Yes. For this specific thing? We haven't even really shown the effects matter for humans. > If this is caused by the weight loss, it is a little disappointing that public health didn't act quicker - lots of people have been overweight for a century now, so literally 10's of millions of people could have been sa…

Capitalist systems and dysfunctional healthcare in the US thrive on people with chronic unhealthy issues and habits

Re: Semaglutide linked to lower predicted dementia risk

#366

Post by jaggederest » Sun, Aug 16, 2026, 2:42 PM UTC

seydor wrote: post #316

jaggederest wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who has experienced so many different sides of this, you have zero clue the degree to which your appetite and ability to suppress it is hormonal until you get hormonally compromised (and then fix it, in my case, happily) Blaming individuals for a public health crisis affecting 40% of the population is absolutely silly. There are a lot of individuals like me, who overeat behaviorally, but that doesn't expla…

40% in a specific country

Don't worry, everyone else is getting there:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-adults-defined-a...

Re: Semaglutide linked to lower predicted dementia risk

#367

Post by jnovek » Sun, Aug 16, 2026, 2:48 PM UTC

owebmaster wrote: post #338

jnovek wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are several studies now showing that symptoms reported by overweight patients are taken less seriously by medical professionals, it’s not just a matter of people “being nice”. It’s actually providing a lower standard of care.

There are several studies now showing that recommendations like "losing weight" are taken less seriously by overweight patients.

Whether patients make good choices is completely independent from whether doctors provide everyone with equal quality of care.

Specifically, doctors are less likely to investigate issues that can be explained by obesity than they are in non-fat people.

For example, if you have high blood pressure and you are a normal weight your doctor will probably look into underlying conditions that can cause high blood pressure. Being overweight is an independent risk factor for high blood pressure but it doesn’t reduce the likelihood of the other risk factors. Doctors are less likely to look into an underlying cause for high blood pressure if you are overweight.

Re: Semaglutide linked to lower predicted dementia risk

#368

Post by sgerenser » Sun, Aug 16, 2026, 2:53 PM UTC

derektank wrote: post #362

jsjohnst wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon Pharmacy sells name brand GLP-1s (Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound, etc) for $250-400/month without insurance.

Yeah, Eli Lilly is selling Zepbound direct to consumer for roughly the same price too (with a prescription, obviously). People should generally avoid compounding pharmacies unless they have a specific need, many are not based in the US and not subject to the same regulatory standards as manufacturers (either generic or brand name).

Yep, check out lillydirect. Relative of mine barely missed the cutoff for insurance coverage (in terms of starting BMI) but lillydirect will sell you actual zepbound for something like $399/month. The cost is also reimbursable with an HSA if you have one.

You do need a prescription, but generally most physicians will write you one if you are overweight even if you don't meet the high bar for insurance coverage.

Re: Semaglutide linked to lower predicted dementia risk

#369

Post by londons_explore » Sun, Aug 16, 2026, 3:02 PM UTC

cthalupa wrote: post #151

londons_explore wrote: post #23

So has anyone managed to separate the effects of semaglutide from the effects of weight loss? If this is caused by the weight loss, it is a little disappointing that public health didn't act quicker - lots of people have been overweight for a century now, so literally 10's of millions of people could have been saved from dementia had action been taken 100 years ago.

> So has anyone managed to separate the effects of semaglutide from the effects of weight loss? In general? Yes. For this specific thing? We haven't even really shown the effects matter for humans. > If this is caused by the weight loss, it is a little disappointing that public health didn't act quicker - lots of people have been overweight for a century now, so literally 10's of millions of people could have been sa…

Perhaps they need a bigger drum. Maybe they make a set of health guidelines, and for those who choose to follow them you get a $1000 tax rebate.

If the benefits are as big as some estimate, the added longevity and productivity will lead to more than that much economic benefit to the nation.

Re: Semaglutide linked to lower predicted dementia risk

#370

Post by somenameforme » Sun, Aug 16, 2026, 3:05 PM UTC

adjejmxbdjdn wrote: post #359

somenameforme wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No idea where you're getting this from. The paleolithic was during an ice age full of big fatty game like sloths, mammoths, and so on. Some believe we hunted these animals to the point of extinction with a tiny population, which would imply a very high level, arguably unbelievably high, of consumption of meat. Even if we didn't hunt them to extinction we certainly did engage in relatively large scale hunting and cons…

This is just not true. In reality we have little to no idea what the proportion of meat to non meat humans ate at the time. More realistically, different groups of humans ate different ratios of such foods. There were almost certainly a pretty large group of humans, for example, who were basically frugivores. You can simply look up Wikipedia and find all the references about our limited knowledge and the high likelih…

On topics like this that have any chance of being politicized, don't just read Wiki - but actually look at what those numbers link to, go to them, and decide if you find them compelling. Because there will be entire sections of Wiki that are based on extremely fringe views. In other cases what is said on Wiki misrepresents what it links to.

The idea that paleolithic humans, in any significant number, may have been 'frugivores' - living off fruit, is based on a fringe book for which I was able to dig up very little other than a somewhat scathing review here, [1] concluding: "If there is any science that is influenced by our cultural background, expectations, and desires it is anthropology, and we must take care to make sure that what we want to be true doesn't obscure our vision."

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As for just 'sciencing' food, it doesn't really work because health is more holistic than basic measurables. Your example hits on one aspect of this. The motivation for 'real water' is because we've relatively recently learned that the human gut biome has a dramatic influence on our health and psychology. It even has a potential link to autism. I'm not ready to start going for 'real water' to address that but there are related issues.

For instance glyphosate was believed to be safe because it having no apparent reaction on the human body, but it turns out that (amongst other issues) it completely wrecks the human gut biome with effects that are not well understood. Yet if you look at the nutritional content or other measurables of e.g. glyphosate desiccated wheat, there's not going to be any red flags outside high levels of glyphosate. It's even a viable explanation for the odd rise of seemingly inconsistent 'gluten sensitivity'.

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Anyhow, point of that all being that we know what worked in the past, worked and worked extremely well. The dramatic rise of various issues in the present ranging from declining IQs, increasing obesity, falling testosterone levels, sharp increases in many forms of mental illness - autism not least of all, and so on - suggests that we're doing something, or more likely - some things, that are quite harmful to ourselves, but that we probably believe to be safe.

[1] - https://www.wired.com/2009/06/book-review-man-the-hunted/