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Ozempic linked to lower Alzheimer's risk in people with Type 2 diabetes

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Re: Ozempic linked to lower Alzheimer's risk in people with Type 2 diabetes

#181
post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it's becoming more and more known because obesity is a growing problem for nearly the entirety of the developed world. If you're so convinced that obesity is a moral failing, then just put 'no fatties and no fake skinny glp-1 users' in your tinder profile, and all of the rest of us can move on with our days.

Speaking of obese - not overweight - I think I can name two people I actually met in person. Maybe one more if I really think about it? Don't know. Maybe it is but just in a certain part of the world.

I don't know where you live, but the places where obesity isn't on the rise are heavily outnumbered by the places where it is. It's a global problem.

Easy and cheap access to calorie dense food and food heavy in sugars seems to nearly universally be something that significant portions of the population have difficulty resisting overindulging in, regardless of culture.

Re: Ozempic linked to lower Alzheimer's risk in people with Type 2 diabetes

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obesity is on the rise in a huge percentage of developed nations, and not just western ones. Even South Korea has seen a huge spike over the past decade - the amount of obese men /doubled/ between 2009 and 2019. It went up 3x in China between 1993 and 2015, and is on track to be over 20% by the end of the decade. Japan is increasing at a much slower rate, but it's still going up. 25% of people in India are overweight…

There are places in the world you could point to that are not obese and in fact has decreased. So it's certainly possible to emulate that.

Where? In Japan, obesity among men has increased by 1.5x over the past several decades. It remains quite low, but the rate is still increasing year over year (slower with women). Vietnam, a country with one of the lowest obesity rates in the world is seeing an increase - the overweight and obesity rate has basically tripled since the early 2000s.

Re: Ozempic linked to lower Alzheimer's risk in people with Type 2 diabetes

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually I recently listened to a fascinating hour long interview with Lotte Bjerre Knudsen (ACQ2 podcast) from which I learned that the original research started in the early 90s. I'm not an authority but I'm pretty well aware of the history. However, I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop if you don't mind. And I don't care about votes up or down. But I appreciate your theory on how they're playing out!

Is there a law of nature that says a chemical compound has to have a side effects of medical concern for a significant portion of people that ingest it? One of the most commonly consumed drugs on the planet seems to indicate there is no such thing - caffeine in reasonable quantities is tolerated by the overwhelming majority of human beings and research indicates that even outside of the stimulant effects that humans…

Absolutely, I'm sure there's all kinds of drugs that are totally safe. And I have no reason to think that this one isn't. But it does seem to follow a classic pattern - people get unhealthy because modern life and technology have removed them, in a period of decades, from the environment, incentives, and activities that have shaped their bodies for millennia. And rather than looking at the simpler solutions - in this case just being more active and eating better - some new technological solution is created to fix the problem that the earlier technologies accidentally created. Then the cycle continues and other non-intended consequences ensue. So that's all I'm saying - it's interesting to watch humanity progress. Hope it works out for everyone and it's a smashing success!

Re: Ozempic linked to lower Alzheimer's risk in people with Type 2 diabetes

#184
post #151

Of all things my taxes go to, I would love it the United States Government would buy the patent for this drug and make it freely available to anybody who wants it. The number of things it apparently just cures is staggering.

God save us if a non US company is successful, or -gasp- profitable.

One could assume that the US purchasing the patent would be very profitable for the company selling it.

Re: Ozempic linked to lower Alzheimer's risk in people with Type 2 diabetes

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a law of nature that says a chemical compound has to have a side effects of medical concern for a significant portion of people that ingest it? One of the most commonly consumed drugs on the planet seems to indicate there is no such thing - caffeine in reasonable quantities is tolerated by the overwhelming majority of human beings and research indicates that even outside of the stimulant effects that humans…

Absolutely, I'm sure there's all kinds of drugs that are totally safe. And I have no reason to think that this one isn't. But it does seem to follow a classic pattern - people get unhealthy because modern life and technology have removed them, in a period of decades, from the environment, incentives, and activities that have shaped their bodies for millennia. And rather than looking at the simpler solutions - in this…

> And rather than looking at the simpler solutions - in this case just being more active and eating better

I think this is the part where the argument falls apart, though. My relationship with food is vastly different now than it was when I was a teenager or in the front half of my 20s. It was easy for me to eat a healthy amount of food and exercise. I never struggled with it. It didn't take any particular amount of willpower to avoid overeating. I even was able to fairly easily bulk and cut because I was focused fairly heavily on lifting weights - the bulking was harder for me than the cutting!

But as I got busier with other aspects of my life, it became easier and easier to just grab some fast food, or swap over to eating almost entirely uber eats during the pandemic. Before I realized it, it was suddenly very hard to eat less. It was still possible - I would lose weight, manage my eating, exercise, etc. - but something would always happen that caused me to lose track and backslide. A huge project at work, a bad breakup, tearing my meniscus while lifting. But all of these attempts took significant effort and willpower from me, something that I had never struggled with before. It wasn't my metabolism slowing down - I was always hungry in a way that I had never faced when I was a slimmer person, and fighting it caused significant impact to my mood, ability to focus, stress levels, etc. Tirzepatide has put my relationship with food and hunger back to being much closer to how it was when I was younger.

There are tons of feedback loops that are well documented that makes it more and more difficult to lose weight once you've put it on and kept it on for a while. It's certainly true that there's no magical situation where people can eat fewer calories than they use and not lose weight, but for a huge amount of people, these GLP-1 medications are a far simpler solution.

> Hope it works out for everyone and it's a smashing success!

Me too!

Re: Ozempic linked to lower Alzheimer's risk in people with Type 2 diabetes

#186

Get skinny and keep my brain? No thanks. At some point this roller coaster ride needs to end.

You might think that these two (get skinny and lower Alzheimer's risk) are the only two benefits, but don't forget that this drug is also pretty much the end of the road for the "More People Should Be Fat!/HAES movement". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_at_Every_Size And good riddance I say!

Man that "movement" is such a scam that's used to promote unhealthy eating habits.

Re: Ozempic linked to lower Alzheimer's risk in people with Type 2 diabetes

#187

Get skinny and keep my brain? No thanks. At some point this roller coaster ride needs to end.

You might think that these two (get skinny and lower Alzheimer's risk) are the only two benefits, but don't forget that this drug is also pretty much the end of the road for the "More People Should Be Fat!/HAES movement". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_at_Every_Size And good riddance I say!

Agreed. I'm down for being empathetic to fat people - as a fat person! - but I have never understood the movement to just deny reality and act like it's acceptable to be fat from a health perspective. Obviously fat people should still have access to healthcare, but putting our heads in the sand and pretending that it isn't a situation that has huge impact on our quality of life and lifespan has always struck me as absurd.

Re: Ozempic linked to lower Alzheimer's risk in people with Type 2 diabetes

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a law of nature that says a chemical compound has to have a side effects of medical concern for a significant portion of people that ingest it? One of the most commonly consumed drugs on the planet seems to indicate there is no such thing - caffeine in reasonable quantities is tolerated by the overwhelming majority of human beings and research indicates that even outside of the stimulant effects that humans…

Absolutely, I'm sure there's all kinds of drugs that are totally safe. And I have no reason to think that this one isn't. But it does seem to follow a classic pattern - people get unhealthy because modern life and technology have removed them, in a period of decades, from the environment, incentives, and activities that have shaped their bodies for millennia. And rather than looking at the simpler solutions - in this…

> just being more active and eating better

You're grossly underestimating the problem.

40+% of the population are obese.

This isn't just a few pounds to lose. This is 60, 70, 100lbs.

The task is to lose the weight forever.

For which long term weight loss success numbers are abysmal.

Re: Ozempic linked to lower Alzheimer's risk in people with Type 2 diabetes

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are places in the world you could point to that are not obese and in fact has decreased. So it's certainly possible to emulate that.

Where? In Japan, obesity among men has increased by 1.5x over the past several decades. It remains quite low, but the rate is still increasing year over year (slower with women). Vietnam, a country with one of the lowest obesity rates in the world is seeing an increase - the overweight and obesity rate has basically tripled since the early 2000s.

Huntington, West Virginia: https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2020/01/27/fattest-c...

The solution involved exercise and diet, surprise surprise. It's not magic or some law of nature that people will only get more fat and unhealthy.

If we think that way, then it will surely happen though.

Re: Ozempic linked to lower Alzheimer's risk in people with Type 2 diabetes

#190
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Novo Nordisk's market cap is $500 B, mostly on the basis of GLP-1 drug profits, and the US' entire discretionary budget is $1,700 B. Even if Denmark would allow the sale, and even if somehow the US did not need to pay a premium to shareholders (typical in acquisitions), that would still be a very substantial expenditure.

This ignores the fact that the patents expire in 5-7 years, GLP1 is (relatively) trivial to produce and will be a $100 generic by 2032.

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