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Ozempic drug supresses desire to smoke, drink and more?

theatlantic.com

271–280 of 504 posts

Re: Ozempic drug supresses desire to smoke, drink and more?

#271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My story / anecdata. About 6 months ago there was a posting about Ozempic and I had said something to the effect that it wasn't worth it watching some of the side effects my wife had from it. And then I went to the doctor for a check-up and lo and behold I had diabetes. Asymptomatic, but an A1C of 11. My doctor re-ran the test because he didn't believe it and it doesn't run in my family. My cholesterol had also jumpe…

Out of curiosity, do you drink much water each day? I'm kind of wondering if the people having a bad result don't drink enough water each day to clear out their systems? Yeah, that's a simplistic take... but still, curiosity. :)

Has nothing to do with it. A1c measures the percentage of hemoglobin A1 in red blood cells bound to sugars (glycated hemoglobin). Since red blood cells normally circulate for months this gives a surrogate marker for average blood glucose levels over 3-6 months.

Dehydration is not a confounder for an A1c test since the percentage is relative to the hemoglobin present. The primary confounder to A1c are blood disorders such as hemolytic anemias that lower the normal lifetime of RBCs or proportion of HbA. And this tends to falsely lower the A1c.

A person with an 11% A1c is also likely drinking quite a bit (whether they notice it or not) because at that point the chronically elevated glucose is elevating serum osmolality to increase urination.

Re: Ozempic drug supresses desire to smoke, drink and more?

#272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is likely incorrect because people are confusing lean body weight loss for muscle loss. lean body weight loss does not mean only muscle loss. lean weight includes non muscle like skin, organs, etc.

Drugs that target the GLP-1 and GIP pathways can suppress appetite, potentially leading to a significant caloric deficit. This can lead to the body to break down muscle tissue to obtain protein for energy which could lead to a loss of lean muscle mass However, maintaining regular exercise and consuming sufficient protein can help to minimize the impact of lean muscle mass loss

Protein is not what the body reaches for first in the absence of glucose/glycogen.

Re: Ozempic drug supresses desire to smoke, drink and more?

#273

Exercise is free and the side effects are you get stronger, more energetic, and better looking. Ozempic costs money and its side effects include cancer, kidney failure, and ruining your eyes. https://www.ozempic.com/faqs.html edit: many point out calorie intake is the real problem, it's true: buy a kitchen scale, weigh your food, count your calories, and you will lose weight. Exercise is optional compared to that. St…

Exercise does nothing for weight loss if you're eating too much. Exercise has health benefits, but weight loss is not one of them for the vast majority of people. People wildly overestimate how many calories they're burning.

Exercise can help control hunger and insulin levels so it's a good idea to pair moderate exercise with diet. I find it harder to resist snacking when I'm not regularly exercising.

Re: Ozempic drug supresses desire to smoke, drink and more?

#274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd hazard a guess that nicotine is one of the two or three most addictive substances known to humanity. Opiates/heroin is probably worse, world of warcraft is probably third :-) The drug probably helped.

Society makes it hard as well. It’s unacceptable to be falling asleep high on opiates. Hitting a vape on a video call with coworkers is considerably more acceptable.

As a fully remote employee for years who now lives in zoom I have never seen a coworker hit a vape on a call and it would be very off putting if they did, in the same way smoking a cig while on a call would be.

Context: work at a big tech co.

Re: Ozempic drug supresses desire to smoke, drink and more?

#275

Is this mostly a US drug? I never heard about it in France. I can't believe people love it so much without thinking about the actual source of their problem.

The source of the problem is that animals are wired to eat as much food as possible as quickly as possible. You can't blame half of the population for something that is deeply wired into our brain and bodies.

I think you can ultimately blame them, but you can also accept that for many it's a very difficult problem to overcome and that finding other ways to tackle it has value to the individual and community.

Re: Ozempic drug supresses desire to smoke, drink and more?

#276
post #151

I’ve been on Mounjaro since August. Down almost 60lbs, and it’s been a life changer. Have I had some gastrointestinal issues, sure, but expected. I feel great and my brain seems to be functioning as well as when I was in my 20’s. Now, when I go to the bar with friends, I end up having maybe 2 beers and although enjoyable, I don’t feel that light switch turning on which encourages me to drink more. Can I force myself…

If you're interested - not pushing an agenda. Here's what worked for this weird dude to not drink and stay fit. I used to lift and be real fit till about 40. Like bulky-lean looking, bench 400 10x with a 6pack. Had a lot to do with being on the road for work all over the world, and you sit at the gym at the hotel for an hour every night because of nothing else to do, and there are girls there also on business who you…

This is such a "one weird trick your doctor doesn't want you to know!" anecdote. Mounjaro and Ozempic are generally prescribed in instances where dietary interventions are insufficient and perhaps one of the last resorts before bariatric surgery. If your dietary interventions worked for you -- great! But there is only a certain class of people for which they work for, and it is rude to assume the OP hasn't tried these methods already (it would be surprising if they hadn't, since so many people can't help themselves from offering this kind of advice unsolicited).

With regards to cutting out fat, if you are advocating for a weight management plan for the general person, it is really too prescriptive and doesn't take into account that someone following your diet should not be accidentally increasing your carbohydrate intake (fruit sugars are still sugars!), resulting in the diet being a total wash. The gold standard for diet-based weight management is food journaling, and not cutting out an entire group of macronutrients without holistic consideration of your diet.

Re: Ozempic drug supresses desire to smoke, drink and more?

#277

Yes. On a compounded semaglutide. I can finally control my hunger and a nice unexpected effect has been losing a desire to drink large quantities of alcohol. I don’t drink during the week anyway, but it seems to be the volume that turns me off to drinking. Thus a few cocktails are all I can tolerate. For context, Im 30, male, would be defined as a binge drinker on weekends. Oh, and I’ve given up nicotine entirely. I…

I'd hazard a guess that nicotine is one of the two or three most addictive substances known to humanity. Opiates/heroin is probably worse, world of warcraft is probably third :-) The drug probably helped.

18 years later I still freebase WoW on occasion, but I can stop any time I want.

Re: Ozempic drug supresses desire to smoke, drink and more?

#278
Just a heads up “weight loss” is a poor metric if it comes at the cost of lean muscle mass. It seems that 39% of weight loss associated with Ozempic comes from lean muscle mass which isn’t great.

https://peterattiamd.com/the-downside-of-glp-1-receptor-agon...

Re: Ozempic drug supresses desire to smoke, drink and more?

#279
post #151

I’ve been on Mounjaro since August. Down almost 60lbs, and it’s been a life changer. Have I had some gastrointestinal issues, sure, but expected. I feel great and my brain seems to be functioning as well as when I was in my 20’s. Now, when I go to the bar with friends, I end up having maybe 2 beers and although enjoyable, I don’t feel that light switch turning on which encourages me to drink more. Can I force myself…

If you're interested - not pushing an agenda. Here's what worked for this weird dude to not drink and stay fit. I used to lift and be real fit till about 40. Like bulky-lean looking, bench 400 10x with a 6pack. Had a lot to do with being on the road for work all over the world, and you sit at the gym at the hotel for an hour every night because of nothing else to do, and there are girls there also on business who you…

What's your bloodwork and cardio like now and what does your doctor say? No fat + high carbs flies in the face of everything I've read that was published in the last 20 years. Maybe you've found another path to health?

Re: Ozempic drug supresses desire to smoke, drink and more?

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard that 2/3 of the weight loss is muscle, do you find that to be the case?

Obese people do not have enough muscle mass for 2/3 of their weight loss to be muscle

Obese people can actually be pretty muscular in my experience, due to their need to heft around their size. It's their endurance that isn't there since their hearts are quite weak.
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