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‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

nature.com

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Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#211

Post by ceejayoz »

swalsh wrote: post #193
0xB31B1B wrote: post #21

I’m currently taking one of these drugs and it has been no less than a miracle in my life. I became obese when I was around 5, topping out around a 34 BMI. When I was 20 I lost a substantial amount of weight the old fashioned way (diet and exercise), and within 8 months I was BMI 23. Losing weight was extremely challenging and socially isolating. 7 years later, I had a bad ankle injury and regained weight to about 29…

I think the main problem aside from the side effects you listed is the fact that frequent injections sounds really inconvienent, and the cost is pretty prehibitive unless insurance is covering it.

> frequent injections sounds really inconvienent

So's obesity.

> the cost is pretty prehibitive unless insurance is covering it

Given the costs of treating the various obesity side-effects, they're pretty likely to. (They'll probably require a few hurdles prior, though.)

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#212

Post by psychphysic »

tptacek wrote: post #175
psychphysic wrote: post #141

You really need to suppress appetite rather than avoid hunger. How many have of us have eaten despite not being hungry?

That's what these drugs do.

You're probably right the common side effects are all reason to not eat (nausea, GI upset).

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#213

Post by dcolkitt »

asdff wrote: post #199
dcolkitt wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern nutrition science has found that each person, at any given time, has a "metabolic setpoint". This is basically a target weight that their endocrine system is trying to keep them at. There's a feedback loop, where below this weight hunger hormones will nudge them to eat more and metabolic hormones will lower caloric expenditure (lowering body temperature, sleeping longer, fidgeting more). And vice versa above t…

People have trouble dealing with hunger because we frame it all wrong in the western convention. I'm hungry, I should eat a little something, is what most people think. An ascetic from the east who fasts is not immune to the pain of hunger, they just understand that hunger is a sensation that is neither good nor bad, and what they choose to do with that sensation is up to them, and they are not bound to it and do not…

It really is not a frame of mine. We know this because GWAR genome studies find that the SNPs most correlated with obesity are expressed in the hypothalamus, which has nothing to do with higher thought.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#214

Post by yamtaddle »

0xB31B1B wrote: post #86
sfusato wrote: post #79

> I believe that everyone, even the skinny folks, should be on GLP1 drugs for the longevity effects. Are you for real? Serious question.

I mean, if you have perfect bloodwork and a marvel movie body probably not necessary but otherwise yes. Heart disease, hypertension, high cholesterol, colon cancer rates are rising amongst everyone, even thin people. These drugs positively impact indicators of these things in everyone. Longevity makers have been betting on metformin for a long time and these drugs are like a supercharged metformin

> these drugs are like a supercharged metformin

No drinking alcohol, like metformin?

If so, I suspect you could get a large fraction of the improvement gained from a population-wide deployment of these drugs, at zero cost, if everyone just stopped drinking alcohol. "But that's unreasonable!" Right, so if that's also required for taking this drug, then....

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#216

Post by spaginal »

dcolkitt wrote: post #152
rajin444 wrote: post #56

This drug is a net good for society, but we have to fix the root problem. Much of the food we eat is filled with addictive ingredients (sugar, excess fats/oils, etc) that provide little nutritional value but are highly addictive. We’re subsidizing companies that create unhealthy addictive food and subsidizing companies to create drugs to counter the unhealthy addictive food. This is an enormous waste of resources.

Disagree. People genuinely enjoy those foods, because they're tasty and flavorful. And there's zero reason to believe that they're substantially unhealthy unless consumed to the point of sustained caloric surplus. We know this because we have hunter-gatherer populations who consume 50% of their diets in sugar (e.g. the Hadza) or fats (e.g. Intuit), and they have none of the diseases of abundance found in modern popul…

I disagree. Low quality processed foods, typically found in western diets, glysophates, high in industrial seed oils, processed sugars, and salts, are likely one of the biggest reasons for all the negative health effects we are seeing in the western diet, calorie numbers be damned.

Any quantity of this food, long term, is likely the reason for the explosive amount of health issues in the population, including many cancers we now commonly deal with.

One of the biggest changes to my health I ever noticed was a switch not in how I ate, but in WHAT I ate.

When I switched my diet over to high quality foods, organic and garden grown, meat I purchased from a local hunter, it made a substantial impact on my health, helped to fix a lot of my cholesterol and blood sugar numbers, and my overall health shot through the roof. No pills required, just decent ingredients, garden grown food, high quality meat.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#217

Post by sschueller »

dcolkitt wrote: post #152
rajin444 wrote: post #56

This drug is a net good for society, but we have to fix the root problem. Much of the food we eat is filled with addictive ingredients (sugar, excess fats/oils, etc) that provide little nutritional value but are highly addictive. We’re subsidizing companies that create unhealthy addictive food and subsidizing companies to create drugs to counter the unhealthy addictive food. This is an enormous waste of resources.

Disagree. People genuinely enjoy those foods, because they're tasty and flavorful. And there's zero reason to believe that they're substantially unhealthy unless consumed to the point of sustained caloric surplus. We know this because we have hunter-gatherer populations who consume 50% of their diets in sugar (e.g. the Hadza) or fats (e.g. Intuit), and they have none of the diseases of abundance found in modern popul…

You know that if you cut all sugar for just 2 days things with very little sugar will taste very sweet?

We do not need the excessive amount of sugar in our food to fully enjoy it. The general public is just totally numb to it because of over consumption and companies are literally competing on having the sweater product.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#218

Post by WalterBright »

drjasonharrison wrote: post #73
rajin444 wrote: post #56

This drug is a net good for society, but we have to fix the root problem. Much of the food we eat is filled with addictive ingredients (sugar, excess fats/oils, etc) that provide little nutritional value but are highly addictive. We’re subsidizing companies that create unhealthy addictive food and subsidizing companies to create drugs to counter the unhealthy addictive food. This is an enormous waste of resources.

While we are drowning in quick to consume, non-nutritious, calories, we also have higher levels of anxiety, stress and more distractions. To your comment, maybe more countries should attempt to implement programs similar to the UK's success in lowering sodium intake by slowly adjusting the sodium content of all manufacturered foods. https://www.nature.com/articles/jhh2013105

> we also have higher levels of anxiety, stress

Why should that be true? Your kids aren't going off to WW2 to die. You aren't going to starve if bugs ate your crops. You aren't going to get clubbed and robbed if you follow a forest path.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#219

Post by jrockway »

hansonkd13 wrote: post #145
EamonnMR wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we're going to treat calories as addictive and addiction as a disease rather than a personal failing it should follow that we treat the disease with a drug.

They didn’t say calories are addictive. They clearly said certain foods are addictive. Those foods should be more regulated like cigarettes and companies take more responsibility as a first or at least concurrent step to everyone taking more drugs.

As far as I can tell, our social policies don't really work for managing addiction. We just hook up a vacuum cleaner to people's pockets and suck the money out of them if they smoke. Call it a "sin tax". But the problem is that people prioritize their next fix above other things; would you rather get some cigarettes or pay your rent, many people choose the cigarettes. I'm not sure how that helps anyone, and I'm not sure how expanding it to sodas or doughnuts would help anyone.

Regressive taxes also don't work well. I don't always eat super healthy. Making unhealthy food cost more wouldn't have any measurable impact, except maybe tanking my 401k because half the Fortune 500 goes out of business.

Re: ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers

#220

Post by tptacek »

psychphysic wrote: post #212
tptacek wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what these drugs do.

You're probably right the common side effects are all reason to not eat (nausea, GI upset).

The other effects (they're not a side effects, since they're the intended effects) are satiety and cessation of cravings. In the "appetite vs. hunger" dichotomy you set up, the drugs seem to be addressing mostly the former; in fact, it sounds like, from reports on this thread, pts on these meds very much still experience true hunger symptoms (weakness, headache, brain fog).
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