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GLP-1s are breaking life insurance

glp1digest.com

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Re: GLP-1s are breaking life insurance

#581

Post by dlcarrier »

arn3n wrote: post #4

Obesity is highly correlated with other medical conditions, from cancer to diabetes to heart disease. I wonder if there is a point at which it is cheaper for health insurance companies to offer subsidized or even free GLP-1s to patients than pay out for other specialized medications. For example, my insurance covers flu shots in my community every year because it's presumably less expensive to pay for the shots compa…

It's never cheaper for insurance to buy something for everyone. There's extra administrative costs to them being the middle man, so it makes much more sense for insurance to incentivize you to buy it yourself, through premium pricing.

For example, fire extinguishers and security cameras will reduce crime by more than their costs, but instead of charging you for them, plus administrative costs, and shipping them to you, your insurance provider will offer you a discount if you have them. (Really it's a price increase if you don't have them, but regulators don't like it when they call it that.)

Not everyone will benefit from GLP-1, so in this case, the most beneficial solution would be to charge higher premiums for anyone that could benefit from GLP-1 but doesn't use it.

Re: GLP-1s are breaking life insurance

#582

Post by nwienert »

make3 wrote: post #577
nwienert wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GLP-1 - Mild nausea, always temporary and in the beginning, easy to avoid by tapering dose. Extremely effective. SSRI - about 10% chance of major sexual disfunction, often permanent, significant likelihood of sleep disturbance, majority get blunted emotions. Debatably effective. Not really comparable.

I've never heard of the sleep disturbance thing, and I think you just made up the permanence of the sexual disfunction thing

It’s trivial to look this up which is funny - I double checked everything i said, so I know it’s true, and never claimed you’re making things up. But you are claiming I’m making things up while obviously not even doing basic research.

Re: GLP-1s are breaking life insurance

#583

Post by Auracle »

mattmanser wrote: post #557
Auracle wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m sorry, but as one of the rare (decently) fit & nondiabetic people that have taken these drugs I’m going to call out your comment a bit. While I have no doubt that obese people have gradually made appetite control harder for themselves, the full feeling you get on GLP meds is in no way the way us normal-weight people feel. I too, could easy eat a whole bag of doritos after some pizza and then decide I want ice cre…

What's with the body shaming mate? I literally have no feeling of 'full'. I used to. I have no idea when it stopped working, but it definitely stopped working. You can't know what I feel. I can't know what you feel. I'm fit, I have zero appetite control. If I stop doing tons of exercise, boom, problems. I got old, I stopped moving as much, boom, problems. People like you are part of the problem, not the solution. Hon…

I apologize for ruining your day, that wasn't my intention. As I stated in my post I don't doubt that obese people have screwed up that signaling over time. Are your cravings off medication worse than mine? Probably. We'd pretty quickly get in to a "Is your green my green?" type discussion talking about that, which obviously has no conclusion. However, I've seen many, many people repeat something along the lines of "Wow, I guess this is what skinny people feel like all the time!" in reference to these medications. I was just pointing out that it absolutely is not how we feel, and I'm one of the fairly rare people out there that can confirm that.

Re: GLP-1s are breaking life insurance

#584

Post by Auracle »

stavros wrote: post #404
Auracle wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m sorry, but as one of the rare (decently) fit & nondiabetic people that have taken these drugs I’m going to call out your comment a bit. While I have no doubt that obese people have gradually made appetite control harder for themselves, the full feeling you get on GLP meds is in no way the way us normal-weight people feel. I too, could easy eat a whole bag of doritos after some pizza and then decide I want ice cre…

Yeah but right now we're just arguing about how strong each person's feeling of "I could eat more" is. Personally, I really like how, on the medication, it's easy to say "nah, I'd better not". Off the medication, it's impossible, as I have to eat whatever is in front of me, or I won't stop thinking about it.

Sure, obviously there's no real way to compare that. I was just pointing out that the way it makes people feel isn't natural - as in, that's not how most skinny people feel either.

Re: GLP-1s are breaking life insurance

#585

Post by Auracle »

pugz wrote: post #394
Auracle wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh. I’m at a healthy weight but I’m taking retatrutide for IBS and it’s working wonders. Very low dose, though. I originally tried it with semaglutide before the weight loss craze kicked off and the first few days of the week were worse and the latter half of the week was better, so that didn’t make sense for me to stay on.

Can you say more about retatrutide for IBS? My IBS is debilitating to the point where I usually refuse to eat food on week-long work trips, because the unplanned emergency toilet trips wreak havoc with my schedule and ability to sit in meetings all day. I'd never heard there was a solution to it.

Sure, and I totally get your issues. I was a damned wedding photographer and I'd only eat towards the very end of the night, and still had a few iffy days.

As I stated, I originally tried semaglutide with no luck. I didn't try tirzepatide. I've been taking a very low dose of retatrutide - about .5mg twice a week. It seemed to be waning in effectiveness a bit so I upped the dose to 2mg/week for now. It's a night and day difference. Most days I go to the bathroom maybe two times, as opposed to the maybe 5-10 times I would need to unmedicated.

To be clear, this isn't an approved use of the medications (and retatrutide isn't approved at all yet, though it pretty clearly will be). However, they slow down gut motility - and as a bonus for your refusing to eat during week-long work trips, they'd probably at least help with that too, in terms of hunger.

Re: GLP-1s are breaking life insurance

#586

Post by Auracle »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #364
Auracle wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, yeah. You could always just lose weight and probably get out of being prediabetic.

> just lose weight This might be the left-wing analog of climate denialism.

It's not like it's impossible unmedicated. Plenty of people have and will do it. Obviously most people are unable to. I was always surprised just how few prediabetics did though.

Re: GLP-1s are breaking life insurance

#587

Post by brap »

potamic wrote: post #440
brap wrote: post #243

Just want to share my own experience since were doing it: Took Wegovy (Semaglutide) for about 6 months. Barely lost any weight, would occasionally get nauseous. Then the doc switched me to Mounjaro (Tirzepatide) + Phentermine, and holy shit, I just don’t feel like eating, almost ever. Lost 20kg in 6 months, which is all I needed to lose, never had any side effects. None. I did feel a little weird/buzzed the first tim…

Did you lose any muscle mass?

Most likely.

But I had a lot of muscle mass to begin with, due to years of bodybuilding. And I still have significant muscle after the diet, despite of not touching a weight during all this time (I know I should have). People still ask me about my lifting routine even though I didn't lift in like 2+ years.

Knowing myself, it'll come back within a couple of months of lifting weights and getting proper protein, once I get back to it. And I plan on doing exactly that. Being fat kind of made me lose motivation to go to the gym. It's a vicious cycle I imagine many fat people struggle with. So I prioritized losing fat first and foremost.

Re: GLP-1s are breaking life insurance

#588

Post by brap »

snarf21 wrote: post #468
brap wrote: post #243

Just want to share my own experience since were doing it: Took Wegovy (Semaglutide) for about 6 months. Barely lost any weight, would occasionally get nauseous. Then the doc switched me to Mounjaro (Tirzepatide) + Phentermine, and holy shit, I just don’t feel like eating, almost ever. Lost 20kg in 6 months, which is all I needed to lose, never had any side effects. None. I did feel a little weird/buzzed the first tim…

Dieting is hard and we still under emphasize the mental and emotional aspects of it. I've found that the easier to "be good" at dieting during the 30 minutes of weekly grocery shopping then during every hour of every day at the house. I try hard to just never buy things that I'm likely to overeat or are super calorie dense because I know I can't eat potato chips responsibly.

It's very true, but it's more difficult when you live right by the grocery store, the office has free food and snacks, and DoorDash is right there when you "need" it.

Re: GLP-1s are breaking life insurance

#589

Post by brap »

HDThoreaun wrote: post #512
brap wrote: post #243

Just want to share my own experience since were doing it: Took Wegovy (Semaglutide) for about 6 months. Barely lost any weight, would occasionally get nauseous. Then the doc switched me to Mounjaro (Tirzepatide) + Phentermine, and holy shit, I just don’t feel like eating, almost ever. Lost 20kg in 6 months, which is all I needed to lose, never had any side effects. None. I did feel a little weird/buzzed the first tim…

You need to be careful with phentermine. Unlike the GLPs it very much is physically addictive, basically just adderall.

I'm aware, and I was hesitant to use it when the doc first prescribed it. Personally I'm not so worried about this anymore, there are days when I don't take it (either forget or wake up too late in the day) and I don't feel any different. I never felt like I craved it or had any sort of rewarding feeling upon taking it. I never took Adderall so I can't compare, but from what I know the mental effects of Phentermine are much weaker.

Usually it's prescribed for no more than 3 months, but the doc recommended taking it for longer. He mentioned that addiction risk is negligible for most people. Very solid doctor who specializes in those thing, so I took his word for it after a bit of Googling.

Re: GLP-1s are breaking life insurance

#590

Post by brap »

staringback wrote: post #469
potamic wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you lose any muscle mass?

They most certainly did, these drugs stop you from eating, not magically burn fat and leave muscle mass alone. It has the same effect as starving yourself. Go look up pictures of "ozempic face"

I wouldn't say "starving yourself", there's no reason to believe it's different from any other diet (except it's easier to stick to). If you get enough calories, prioritize protein, do some resistance training and get proper sleep, you can minimize muscle loss and in some cases even gain muscle while losing fat.
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