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What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

psychologytoday.com

131–140 of 555 posts

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#131

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

Even if there are zero effects other than the advertised weight reduction, one downside is obvious from the comments here - some people will stop exercising.

While exercise has many positive effects, which I'd argue are more important than the weight loss, the latter is the primary reason many people exercise and likely to stop when given the weight loss by other means.

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#133

I got severely downvoted in the past for badmouthing GLP1s here. Then I did my research, got on them and I take it all back. These things are on par with statins in terms of potential societal impacts.

GLP1s are one of today's real, true, modern miracles. It deserves a Nobel, but not to one person, but the teams upon teams upon teams that made it possible to get here.

A central flaw in the Nobel is that it rewards one or two people for what is often the work of teams.

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm on GLP-1 and it's completely stopped my urge to online shop. I used to browse/shop for fun and out of habit or when I was stressed out or wanted a treat etc. Entirely resolved! I've also lost 40lbs on it.

Do you honestly believe in the so called “free lunch”? I mean there are MANY substances you can presently take that make you feel way better, but always come with a cost or a downside. Why should we believe GLP-1 class drugs are any different?

Why is this a hard rule?

I know people who have had miraculous benefits from psych meds. No downside. Using them for years. Or if there is a downside it’s massively outweighed by the upside.

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#135
post #55
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…

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.

Oh hi, I'm a heart attack survivor who had GLP-1 prescribed by my cardiologist for its heart-protecting benefits. I told my cardiologist that I wasn't losing weight as fast as I thought I would, and he said, quote, "I don't care about you losing weight. That's not why I prescribed you this."

So I'm not sure your first sentence is universally accurate.

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#136
post #39

I'd take them even if they didn't make me lose weight - and I'm the type of person that doesn't like takeing Tylenol unless absolutely necessary. The best way I can describe it: my body and mind are no longer is in starvation mode. I plan, do, act and sleep well.

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

Thirst affects me in a different way too. My throat doesn't feel dry and uncomfortable because before it reaches that point I almost get naseous.

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#137
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That’s the problem with these new weight loss drugs. Ultimately they work by reducing food intake. For many people food is one of the few things in life that gives them some form of joy. I won’t ever take any drug that will take that away from me. Life is depressing enough as is. What we need is a weight loss drug that lets you eat unlimited amounts of food, preferably even suppressing the feeling of fullness, withou…

It doesn't take away joy. It does cause me to be slapped in the face with the "full" feeling while I am in the middle of eating, which is like 15 minutes earlier than I used to get it. I don't overeat anymore because I would be literally miserable if I did. It would be like force-feeding myself. But before I get that full feeling, food is excellent.

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#138

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.

Statins are a well understood mechanism of action for controlling cholesterol. We generally understand that people with cholesterol problems leverage statin therapy to address those, and there is a well audited corpus of placebo controlled double blind trials that demonstrate the efficacy of the solution for statin therapy. If you discontinue the statins, you lose the benefit to some extent. How is this situation fundamentally different?

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#139

I'd take them even if they didn't make me lose weight - and I'm the type of person that doesn't like takeing Tylenol unless absolutely necessary. The best way I can describe it: my body and mind are no longer is in starvation mode. I plan, do, act and sleep well.

>my body and mind are no longer is in starvation mode

What does it mean? If a drug reduces your desire to eat food, wouldn't it also decrease your desire to eat food beneficial for your body?

I think the effect most people want is to stop craving junk food but still eat nutritious food required for muscle growth and health.

Re: What Ozempic does to the gut-brain axis

#140
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it'd be more accurate to say that informing people that they should change their behavior doesn't work. A person changing their behavior can escape obesity. The reality is that most people won't be able to change their behavior without some other kind of assistance.

Even with extensive assistance (which is way too expensive to widely deploy) outcomes are weak. Last I checked, researchers in the specific area of high-touch weight interventions were excited that they finally had a tool that might more-than-barely work… in glp-1 agonists.

I didn’t mean to suggest that GLP-1s don’t count as assistance.

Informing people that they can avoid pregnancy and STDs if they’d just stop fucking each other doesn’t work at scale either.

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