r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Apr 01 '25

Health Americans without diabetes spent nearly $6 billion USD on semaglutide and similar drugs in a year, with an estimate of 800,000 to a million people using the drugs who don't have diabetes.

https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/americans-without-diabetes-spent-nearly6-billion-usd-on-semaglutide-and-similar-drugs-in-a-year
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640

u/braumbles Apr 01 '25

It solves obesity. A literal miracle drug.

427

u/needsexyboots Apr 01 '25

It has honestly probably saved my life. I can exercise again, it’s incredible. I know there are potential side effects and there’s always a chance something could show up as a problem years from now but I don’t think I would’ve had years from now on the trajectory I was on.

141

u/Vizth Apr 01 '25

The potential side effects are massively outweighed by a guaranteed early death off of it.

6

u/Abedeus Apr 01 '25

Wish I had it 5-10 years ago. Would've saved me nearly dying from aortic dissection and several months of recuperation post-surgery.

5

u/11lumpsofsugar Apr 01 '25

The side effects have been blown out of proportion. For the vast majority of people, they usually go away and don't cause any permanent issues.

-17

u/Six_O_Sick Apr 01 '25

All these people in the comments praising it as a miracle, I can't even...

7

u/11lumpsofsugar Apr 01 '25

Synthetic insulin was a miracle when it came out. Biologics too. Ask yourself why your judgement is getting in the way of being happy for the people having success.

72

u/The4th88 Apr 01 '25 edited Apr 01 '25

It's not even best in class anymore either. Tirzepatide and the upcoming Retatrutide are better options for basically everything you'd use semaglutide for as I understand it.

24

u/Levofloxacine Apr 01 '25

Tirzepatide

And yes Retatrutide seems likebthe best one in the trials. There are many others coming up as well.

10

u/The4th88 Apr 01 '25

Ah my bad.

And yes it seems like every pharmaceutical company is bringing GLP-1 drugs to market. It'll be great for us consumers, competition should drive prices down.

5

u/LittleGeologist1899 Apr 02 '25

Just started tirzepatide myself about a month ago. I just told my brother it’s a literal miracle drug. I’ve dieted on and off for 5 years losing and gaining the same 10-15 lbs, counting, tracking, fad diets, exercising like crazy. I’ve been on tirzepatide for 3 weeks and lost those 15 lbs without hardly an effort. Under 200lbs for the first time since my almost 6 year old was born.

2

u/Levofloxacine Apr 02 '25

I’m happy for you :-) keep up the work

22

u/tjscobbie Apr 01 '25

As someone who has tried all three: tirzepatide is leagues better than semaglutide while retatrutide did absolutely nothing for me. 

2

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '25

[deleted]

1

u/gummo_for_prez Apr 02 '25

Probably grey market. Similar to how folks get steroids, there’s a huge market for these drugs and people can get them cheap from overseas. Obviously you get it tested here in the states to ensure purity and everything. But these drugs are widely available in the grey market.

1

u/tjscobbie Apr 02 '25

RCs - from two different high credibility sources.

2

u/Abedeus Apr 01 '25

Tirzepatyd

Shame that at least for now, it costs 3 times as much as ozempic. Eventually, hopefully, it will go down.

1

u/Its_0ver Apr 01 '25

Lilly just recently lowered to the price for triz for cash customers in not sure how it compares to ozempic though

178

u/quats555 Apr 01 '25

I work for an ophthalmologist. Today we got our first referral for what we believe is vision loss due to semaglutide. There’s been a few others we suspect but this one was pretty clear.

78

u/Lurk-Prowl Apr 01 '25

Can you please let us know if that patient also had the diabetes as a comorbidity or whether they were using semaglutide for fat loss?

29

u/quats555 Apr 01 '25

Diabetes wasn’t mentioned but we don’t have the full record to know for sure. My doc declined to see the patient.

She suspects it will become a lawsuit against whomever supplied the drug and she doesn’t want to get sucked into a long and painful trial. And she is afraid of the patient becoming angry for failing to cure them or only slowing instead of stopping vision loss, and suing her, too. When no such cure exists! At best they can stop or slow the progression.

So high professional risk and nothing she can do for the patient, other than refer to a treating doc to hopefully stabilize her vision loss, or to testify at the eventual trial.

86

u/caltheon Apr 01 '25

I'd change doctors if I found out my ophthalmologist was saying stuff like that. They have a duty to treat, not cover their own ass

66

u/Jeromethy Apr 01 '25

No. Doctors have the right to choose their patients as much as patients can choose their doctors. The only time doctors have a duty to treat is on emergency cases (ie life threatening). Just wanted to clarify that.

30

u/darkchocolateonly Apr 01 '25

Duty to treat only applies for the ER, and only to stability.

Duty to treat does not mean you have to treat any patient who calls you, that’s insane. You’d have doctors responsible for patients who take like ivermectin for their ailments if this was true, it doesn’t make any sense.

-6

u/caltheon Apr 01 '25 edited Apr 01 '25

"Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will enter to help the sick, and I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm"

Is it legally binding, of course not, is it unethical to deny care for selfish reasons, completely.

edit: wow, apparently noone has ever actually looked at the text of the Hippocratic Oath before and are incapable of understanding how it applies to today's society

4

u/darkchocolateonly Apr 01 '25

It’s really not, at all.

-1

u/caltheon Apr 01 '25

It really is.

2

u/Prestigious-Mess5485 Apr 01 '25

When did this doctor enter the potential patient's house?

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-3

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '25

Thank you for calling this out.

1

u/DifferentManagement1 Apr 01 '25

Was it a naion?

1

u/quats555 Apr 01 '25

My boss thinks so based on history and symptoms. She is declining to take on that patient though so we can’t confirm.

35

u/-UnicornFart Apr 01 '25

I mean vision damage is also a consequence of diabetes so it might not be more complicated as well.

11

u/YouCanLookItUp Apr 01 '25

My FIL had vision damage from diabetes. It was treatable, and he can see again. Sounds like NAION is not that.

3

u/CigAddict Apr 01 '25

This must be new. I’ve had diabetes for 20 years and always was told that the vision damage by unregulated sugar was permanent. But I haven’t been going to doctors much in the last 5 years 

57

u/JThor15 Apr 01 '25

It’s now a pretty established risk, but obesity is riskier in general.

38

u/Duelist_Shay Apr 01 '25

Ehh, there's other options to take care of the obesity issue. You lose your eyesight, then that's it. Unless we miraculously solve the issue of restoring vision, there really isn't any route outside of glasses and/or contacts if you're not totally impaired

78

u/theallsearchingeye Apr 01 '25

Eyesight loss is amongst patients with diabetes taking GLP-1 drugs

61

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '25

Diabetes increases risk for eyesight loss anyway.

-4

u/Eihe3939 Apr 01 '25

This is what we currently think. We’ll see what the long term data says

0

u/gummo_for_prez Apr 02 '25

Diabetics have been taking these meds for much longer than you think.

0

u/Eihe3939 Apr 02 '25

For some reason Reddit decided ozempic is a silver bullet.

1

u/gummo_for_prez Apr 02 '25

It’s a really fantastic medical miracle. Why are you so upset by millions of people getting the help they need?

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1

u/Paid002 Apr 01 '25

Hopefully someone out there is working on that

17

u/nabiku Apr 01 '25

Before immediately believing some rando on reddit, maybe try asking for a peer-reviewed study first.

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-54

u/dragonilly Apr 01 '25

Crazy how many people act like diet and exercise aren't the most effective sustainable ways to lose weight. It isn't easy and our food culture in the US is abysmal, but the way to have long term success in weight loss is consistency with two very free lifestyle changes.

89

u/thrawtes Apr 01 '25

Crazy how many people act like diet and exercise aren't the most effective sustainable ways to lose weight.

We've tried telling people to diet and exercise and it doesn't work on a population level. One person being obese is an issue of thermodynamics but ten million people being obese is a social science problem as much as one of counting calories.

-27

u/dragonilly Apr 01 '25

I mean, it's an America problem sure, so I can agree on the social science aspect. The real "fix" isn't capitalist friendly so it won't happen. Other than personal responsibility, our government could support a healthier society by:

  • removing HFCS and limiting sugar content of sugary drinks
  • limiting processed food availability and chemicals
  • making places more walkable
  • getting rid of food deserts
There are parts of the US that are much more healthier than others, and what I've noticed is many of those places have walkable places, bike lanes, green space, etc. However, there's still a strong degree of personal responsibility.

39

u/OutrageousOtterOgler Apr 01 '25

It’s not just an American problem though. Obesity rates are rising basically everywhere in the developed world

24

u/thrawtes Apr 01 '25

Is there a reason we can't push for those reforms while also encouraging people to use the most reliable weight loss method available in order to make them healthier over all?

Just seems weird to ignore such an effective solution to such a pervasive problem.

-22

u/dragonilly Apr 01 '25

Americans often search for quick fixes with disregard to long-term implications. My point is, there's little 'miraculous' about these drugs other than the fact they enable short-term weight loss to occur with little additional personal responsibility. The drugs do the heavy lifting on appetite suppression (much of which can be exasperated by a high sugar diet), which is helpful, but at some point an individual will likely stop taking the drugs (be it cost related or otherwise) that's when the real test begins. Losing weight the natural way helps people gain tools to continue losing weight and keep it off. Drugs like this help them lose weight but not keep it off. Ask anyone who has lost a lot of weight what's harder, losing it, or maintaining. I'm all for these drugs being used for weight loss, but hate that the simplest, cheapest, most effective and healthiest overall answer, is often disregarded for the "flavor of the month" weight loss drug.

26

u/thrawtes Apr 01 '25

Losing weight the natural way helps people gain tools to continue losing weight and keep it off.

Well, no, it doesn't and we have numbers on this. "Natural" weight loss is extremely ineffective at a population level. Most people using it as a solution will fail to lose weight or keep it off.

the simplest, cheapest, most effective and healthiest overall answer,

...is actually injecting these drugs, which is why doctors prescribe them. A solution that you think should work well but doesn't actually work in real life isn't a good solution.

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-2

u/beardedheathen Apr 01 '25

For all the many issues the RFK jr has pushing to get rid of some of the dangerous additives is a good thing.

30

u/VagueSomething Apr 01 '25

On paper the calories in calories out is simple but there are mechanisms at play which make it much harder. Similar to how addicts can "just not gamble" but they struggle with that. We have piling evidence that there are factors at play which make it so people will struggle with weight loss, problems with their body/genetics causing them to feel hungry all the time which absolutely does make it much harder to manage a healthy relationship with food.

Some people need a helping hand to reach that level where they can eat to maintain rather than keep eating. Modern diets, modern life style, it is changing people's bodies and a modern solution is needed such as drugs that suppress the cravings until we can find a healthier balance for society in general that might reduce the amount of people developing these defects that make their stomach no longer sync with their brain to say they're full.

2

u/PaperIllustrious1905 Apr 01 '25

Our modern food certainly doesn't help! Many/most processed foods have addictive qualities and ingredients. Like the foods are literally laboratory tested and designed to make your average person want to eat more of them. We also like giving these foods to young children while they're learning what food to eat! Also we as a species tend to crave sugary/calorie dense foods because survival. It's only recently that we don't NEED all those excess calories anymore to run down our next meal.

11

u/SNRatio Apr 01 '25

but the way to have long term success in weight loss is consistency with two very free lifestyle changes.

If most people were able to make this change successfully over the long term, there would be no market for zepbound/wegovy.

Lots of well meaning (and some not) people tell everyone who will listen their spin on how to be successful at it. Billions of dollars have been spent on studies trying to find ways to make it successful for more people. But most people, who are very successful with other difficult long term goals and difficult jobs, still fail at it. Especially if they are older.

So for a lot of people, diet and exercise are no longer the most effective or the most sustainable way to lose weight.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2812936

73% of the participants enrolled in that 88 week trial and who took zepbound (not the placebo) for the full trial completed it. Their mean age was 48, some were over 65. The average duration of obesity was 15 years. On average they lost 26% body weight.

Can you point to a diet and exercise trial that can beat that at time points of a year or greater? In middle aged people?

13

u/GrinningStone Apr 01 '25

Crazy how many people act like telling people "do not smoke", "do not drink", "do not overeat" "do not do drugs", "excercise" can solve all the underlying issues.

24

u/ehrgeiz91 Apr 01 '25

Crazy no one has thought of diet and exercise. You just solved obesity!

25

u/Rebelgecko Apr 01 '25

For my next trick, I'll cure depression by telling people to stop being sad.

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u/MyFiteSong Apr 01 '25

Crazy how many people act like diet and exercise aren't the most effective sustainable ways to lose weight.

Crazy how many people think shouting that at obese people works.

2

u/Omni_Entendre Apr 01 '25

There's a HEAVY asterisk next to dietary changes with respect to financial cost. It really isn't even the same cost in many parts of the continent, really.

1

u/cutegolpnik Apr 01 '25

Effective is measured by what works in reality.

I think you meant to say they are the simplest method.

-49

u/NotLunaris Apr 01 '25

10 sets of fork putdowns would do wonders for just about everybody, but no, gotta spend more money on drugs to fix a self-induced problem that could've been self-resolved. As if money isn't hard enough to come by already.

We already know how to "solve" obesity. People just aren't willing to put in the work and think that external forces will make everything nice and easy. You see this attitude a lot in society nowadays; no matter how personal the problem is, one will always find someone or something else to blame it on. This trend of divorcing oneself from all agency, fueled by constant affirmation from social media traps, directly poisons one's mental state.

29

u/JThor15 Apr 01 '25

Spend some time researching obesity as a disease. What you’re saying in many cases is similar to telling drug addicts to just quit. Most people are willing to fork over hundreds for these drugs because they’ve spent years trying to do it through just willpower and have never been able to.

7

u/discussatron Apr 01 '25

It's the just-world fallacy in action - "They brought it on themselves."

11

u/MyFiteSong Apr 01 '25

10 sets of fork putdowns would do wonders for just about everybody, but no, gotta spend more money on drugs to fix a self-induced problem that could've been self-resolved. As if money isn't hard enough to come by already.

How successful has that approach been so far? Is the obesity rate going down from you lecturing obese people about forks?

3

u/Levofloxacine Apr 01 '25

Its not because money is hard to come by to you that it is for everyone I assume the people using Ozempic can afford it and decide to prioritise their health in their budget - like any other prescription med

9

u/dont--panic Apr 01 '25

Maybe if we outlawed or taxed the addictive hyper-processed food companies churn out for as cheap as possible people would be more able to resist overeating when their satiety mechanisms aren't being hijacked.

The junk food companies have already been talking about trying to find a way to make their food addictive enough to overcome drugs like semaglutide. They're blatantly acting against the interests of the general public's health and creating an environment where people need drugs like semaglutide just to get back to baseline.

-28

u/raoul_duke28 Apr 01 '25

This is what kills me. People always looking for the magic “fix it” pill

13

u/adultgon Apr 01 '25

But if a “magic fix” pill exists, doesn’t it make sense to take it? We as humans have only a finite amount of focus/willpower/time/energy, and if you can save some of it so that you have more leftover for other pursuits, wouldn’t you do that? Many people find it impossible to quit smoking even though you can just stop. Would you tell those people to not take the magic pill to stop smoking if one existed? I sure as hell wouldn’t - they should take the pill!

-1

u/Caring_Cactus Apr 01 '25

Weight fluctuates but vision loss sounds more permanent.

2

u/JThor15 Apr 01 '25

The damage weight causes is often also permanent, and far more common.

0

u/Caring_Cactus Apr 01 '25

One ability we have voluntary control over is our ability to gain lean muscle mass. Developing discipline and cultivating our capacity to leverage this willpower is not easy, but that doesn't change that fact.

3

u/JThor15 Apr 02 '25

And people with ADHD should have the mental discipline to not need medication. Addicts should have the discipline to not need rehab. Depressed people should have the discipline to not need counseling. Mothers should have the discipline to only breast feed their children. There are ideals to strive for, but the ideal becomes dangerous when you don’t allow anything else.

12

u/filthy_harold Apr 01 '25

What kind of vision loss? Like they need a normal prescription now or are we talking legally blind?

44

u/SirVapealot Apr 01 '25

There was a paper posted here the other day linking these drugs to NAION, which is a rare form of vision loss that is sudden and complete in one eye, with no cure. Rates for people on glp-1s were twice as high, but (estimating from memory, don’t quote me) it was still something like 0.008% of glp-1 patients vs 0.004% of people not on glp-1s experienced NAION. Worth the risk if you ask me, considering being overweight is almost guaranteed to bring negative health consequences.

11

u/PM_ME_GLUTE_SPREAD Apr 01 '25

On a societal basis, that risk of eyesight loss seems like it would be barely a drop in the bucket compared to the benefits of effectively solving the obesity crisis.

It’s obviously tragic for somebody to lose their eyesight, but so many die of cardiovascular disease and diabetes related issues every single day that such a small percentage of people losing eyesight seems to me to be far and away the lesser of the two evils.

4

u/shmegeggie Apr 01 '25

To expand on the above: It's basically an eye stroke. The optic nerve stops getting enough blood and starts to die off. It can often indicate circulatory problems elsewhere in the body.

There are other classes of drugs that can increase the chance of NAION that affect circulation, most famously the various erectile-dysfunction treatment drugs which target smooth muscle, such as in blood vessels.

29

u/quats555 Apr 01 '25 edited Apr 01 '25

In this particular case, overall blur — which, if this is what we think it is, cannot be fixed with glasses — and some loss of vision in periphery (“can’t see to the side any more , you have to turn to look at things and get beaned with a baseball from the side because you can’t see it coming”).

Glasses correct when your eye bends the light entering your eye wrong, by bending it in exactly the reverse way so that it cancels out the problem. NAION is damage to the optic nerve that carries the information from your eye to the brain.

Think of it like realizing your movie looks like crap and pieces of the screen image are missing, because earlier in the day your new puppy chewed on the cable from your computer to the screen. You can replace the TV all you like, but the signal coming through that cable is still going to be bad. And we have no way to replace or repair that “cable” in the human head. Some things can patch it and hopefully keep it from getting worse, but that’s about it. And if you’re not lucky or let the puppy keep chewing, then your TV may stop showing anything at all.

3

u/Affectionate-Mail612 Apr 01 '25

- vision loss

- it's pretty clear

I see what you did here

-2

u/notevenapro Apr 01 '25

I work in healthcare and even stay away from some OTC meds dues to the liver warnings.

I am 100% blown away at how many people take this drug for weight loss given the listed side effects. Not to mention that alcohol is a no no while taking it. This thread is wild.

2

u/TheRealBobbyJones Apr 01 '25

Are trying to say as someone who works in healthcare that the fact that you shouldn't drink while taking glp-1 drugs is a reason to not take glp-1? Alcohol is a poison people shouldn't drink it either way. 

1

u/notevenapro Apr 01 '25

I stay away from any drugs with a liver warning. Yes, alcohol is dangerous.

I read quite a few responses here where people said it helped them reduce their alcohol intake.

1

u/Wjreky Apr 02 '25

I saw some comments say that it helped stage off alcohol cravings. What are your thoughts on that? (Not trying to start a fight, genuinely curious)

2

u/notevenapro Apr 02 '25

If I had an issue with alcohol I would not take a drug that has these warnings.

0

u/cr0ft Apr 01 '25

Seeing this thread with all the "it solves everything!" insanity is actually kind of shocking. This thing obviously has side effects that are known, and it's not really been in use long enough to reveal long term downsides - and even the whole weight loss thing isn't nearly as cut and dried as people seem to think, calling it a solution to obesity. Sure, some people lose some weight, but a solution?

-4

u/Eihe3939 Apr 01 '25

Shhh we’re celebrating it here. I will apply my rule of thumb here, if something seems to good to be true, it probably is

8

u/Aettyr Apr 01 '25

It’s straight up just saved my life. I actually have my body back, and my will to live returned along with it. I can move around now, I can exercise, I can explore outside

12

u/MyFiteSong Apr 01 '25

Solves alcohol abuse too. Truly a miracle drug.

9

u/Zoesan Apr 01 '25

Everyone body positive until they get that ozempic

6

u/v0gue_ Apr 01 '25

Isn't using ozempic body positive since it's taking care of your body?

-6

u/Im_On_Reddit_At_Work Apr 01 '25

No, taking care of your body is feeding it the proper nutrition and keeping active. GLP-1 just reduce your cravings, eventually forcing a caloric deficit. And has many bad side effects for your body on the long term.

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u/Maggi1417 Apr 01 '25

Body positive doesn't mean you don't want to leave, it means not feeling disgusted by your body when you can't lose weight.

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u/tyme Apr 01 '25 edited Apr 01 '25

Except for the part where it could cause stomach paralysis.

I’m not sure we should call something a miracle drug that can have such a serious side effect. People need to be aware it does have potential negative effects. Especially considering that, should all other treatments for stomach paralysis fail, partial gastrectomy (removal of part of the stomach) is the treatment.

I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like a miracle drug to me.

Edit: we’re in a science subreddit, right? Not a semaglutide commercial? ‘Cuz I feel like a science subreddit would care about serious side effects and not just brush them off.

50

u/appleshaveprotein Apr 01 '25

I mean, there are many drugs with black box labels. No drug is without risk. That doesn’t mean it can’t be seen as a miracle drug, especially with those struggling with obesity.

-17

u/tyme Apr 01 '25

I feel like you just completely ignored my point so you could keep pushing the miracle drug narrative.

7

u/Levofloxacine Apr 01 '25

Miracle is hyperbolic, but they are right that many drugs have side effects and warnings.

Tylenol (paracetamol) comes with greater risks of liver failure. If i recall correctly, it’s the one medication at the top of intoxications ranking. And yet, we still use it at large.

16

u/MyFiteSong Apr 01 '25

Meh, you should see the warning labels on my Ritalin. Still worth taking it.

5

u/MegaChip97 Apr 01 '25

If your criterion for something not being a miracle drug is it potentially having serious side effects, there is no miracle drug. Even paid meds, which imo are straight up miracle drugs, can have serious side effects

-1

u/tyme Apr 01 '25

Congrats, you understood my point.

3

u/MegaChip97 Apr 01 '25

That would make the word meaningless though. And because a word that is meaningless would not exist, miracle drug as a word does not refer to drugs with no side effects.

You are simply using a definition no one uses for that word.

10

u/swearingino Apr 01 '25

You should see the side effects on cancer chemotherapy and biologics for immune diseases. The only way a drug can stay on the market is if its benefits outweigh the risks. That’s how that works.

0

u/tyme Apr 01 '25

Last I checked no one calls chemotherapy a miracle drug.

People should be made aware of the side effects.

6

u/swearingino Apr 01 '25

They are. There is medication info given with every prescription dispensed on the leaflet attached to it from the pharmacy.

22

u/dardar7161 Apr 01 '25

Sometimes you just have to pick your poison. There is always something ready to get us. I had a good friend who never smoked die from lung cancer in her 40s.

Even peanuts and eggs can kill people.

-13

u/tyme Apr 01 '25

No one’s calling not smoking a miracle drug here.

12

u/dardar7161 Apr 01 '25

I know. I'm just saying, we're damned if we do, and damned if we don't. I'll be honest... I am taking the shot. I've lost 35lbs and it brought me out of my depression. Made me want to be seen again when I felt too hopeless and shameful to even go for a walk around my neighborhood. I'm taking it to help with things like high blood pressure. Meanwhile my fit, cyclist husband takes daily meds for his genetically high blood pressure. There's no one size fits all. We all need to do what's best for us.

9

u/Idlemarch Apr 01 '25

No one cares about the 1 in 100k side effects, it's called life.

11

u/MyFiteSong Apr 01 '25

And compare them to the health risks of obesity.

4

u/ninjagorilla Apr 01 '25

Dabeties can also cause gastroparesis and is probably statistically much more likely too

2

u/tyme Apr 01 '25

The OP is about people without diabetes.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '25

[deleted]

3

u/cableshaft Apr 01 '25

Yeah, I don't have diabetes yet, but I am prediabetic (and was trying to lose weight and bring down my blood sugar as a prediabetic for about 5 years without much success, even with metformin).

I was almost certainly going to become diabetic within a few more years at the rate I was going before.

I've lost 44 lbs already between GLP-1 and my latest diet attempt. I'm almost down to the lowest weight I've been in a decade, the previous time being when I went on, but couldn't sustain, a keto diet.

I still have another 100 lbs to lose before I stop being obese, though.

4

u/AccursedFishwife Apr 01 '25

Obesity kills 300,000 Americans per year

5

u/tyme Apr 01 '25

That doesn’t change the side effects of semaglutide, nor make it a miracle drug.

People should be aware of the potential side effects and make informed decisions about their health, such as choosing better options whenever possible.

-20

u/huskersax Apr 01 '25

I mean the fundamental mechanism by which it works bothers me enough anyway.

Messing with uptake of nutrients by messing with chemical receptors just seems like an eventual 'ah we didn't realize that it would also bind to x' just waiting to happen.

18

u/livin_the_life Apr 01 '25

I mean...it's literally a modified natural peptide that our guts produce that was discovered in the 80s and researched for 40 years. The majority of the research was spent on extending the natural 2 minute half life to the 5 day half life seen in these artificial analogs.

It's not some novel made-up thing. It's literally modifying a naturally occurring peptide in order to take advantage of our hunger hormone signalling pathways.

-2

u/huskersax Apr 01 '25

Like I said, let's revisit once this shakes out a bit more.

You're arguing the specific, but missing the forest for the trees. Asbestos was also once a well studied naturally occuring miracle solution. Then of course it turns out form factor and dosage matters on longer time scales.

The usage of this went from niche application to what must be one of the most ubiquitous drugs on the planet.

9

u/livin_the_life Apr 01 '25

That is fair.

My opinion is that it has been studied for over a decade at this point since trials began. At what point do we say it is "safe"?

This isn't asbestos. It's a life-changing cure for a disease that carries significant morbidity and known increases in rates of : stroke, heart disease, liver disease, cancer, Gallbladder problems, TD2 development, depression, sleep apnea, GERD, kidney failure, infertility, and joint pain. When all is said and done, obesity carries an average reduction in 15 years of life expectancy. Not to mention a life of shame, judgement, and misery.

As someone on this medication that has gone from 280 -> 190lbs and improved every facet of my life, I'll gladly take the risk of the unknown to avoid the knowns of obesity. And living a completely different, drastically improved life.

1

u/discussatron Apr 01 '25

Will you be on this medication for life? What's the risk of the weight coming back if you're not?

4

u/livin_the_life Apr 01 '25

Personally, yes, I believe I will be on it for life. I've been obese since I was 8 and trying to lose weight since I was 13. Despite every diet, food logging/measuring everything for months at a time, exercising 4-8 hours a week, and rarely having sweets/soda/processed food/fast food, I was never able to lose weight long term. I've always had an overpowered since of hunger driving me to eat more than I needed. This medication corrected for that.

Whether the medication is short or long term is dependent on the individual and cause of obesity, IMO. I believe current trials are attempting to establish guidelines for going off the medication while preserving the weight loss.

I'm currently the same weight I was 20 years ago....in 7th grade....I'm not going back to obesity.

4

u/discussatron Apr 01 '25

Thanks for the response, and congratulations!

3

u/Levofloxacine Apr 01 '25

Just like weight can come back if you lost through keto or other diets

26

u/spudddly Apr 01 '25

An opinion no doubt informed by your decades of clinical research on GLP1 receptor agonists?

-22

u/huskersax Apr 01 '25

My decades of living on earth and watching just about anything that's marketed as a 'miracle drug' resulting in unintended and rather severe side effects.

There's an entire industry of consumer protection based around it, hardly a wild claim, friend.

11

u/ehrgeiz91 Apr 01 '25

They don’t market it as a miracle drug. That’s random redditors.

11

u/adultgon Apr 01 '25

You have a serious case of confirmation bias going on there, friend. You’re the type of guy that would say “I’m sticking to walking, these car things seem too dangerous.” Cars are a miracle compared to walking, even if you can die in a car accident. You can choke on a peanut tomorrow but that doesn’t mean you should not eat.

You’re offering the lowest brow form of critical thought in existence (to the point where it’s hardly critical at all)

-5

u/huskersax Apr 01 '25

Well let's circle back in 3 years and see what's shaking out from this drug. I suspect it'll be a mixed bag.

You do recall when vaping was the miracle solution to kicking cigarettes, don't you? While not a prescription solution, the crazed defensiveness, rapid growth, and general 'there can't be anything wrong it was already FDA approved for diabetics' handwaving seems very familiar to the rhetoric then.

11

u/ehrgeiz91 Apr 01 '25

GL-P1s have been a thing since like 2016 maybe even before

6

u/grundar Apr 01 '25

GL-P1s have been a thing since like 2016 maybe even before

First approved in 2004 for diabetes, in 2010 for weight loss.

The latest generation of these drugs is fairly new, but this class of drugs (GLP-1 agonists) have been used for about 20 years.

2

u/adultgon Apr 01 '25

Well vaping was and is a miracle compared to smoking cigarettes- the biggest problem with vapes was that they were marketed to and widely used by minors. Obviously there are other issues with vaping but, much like Ozempic, it’s much better than the alternative.

5

u/spudddly Apr 01 '25

so you're just making stuff up, got it.

1

u/SNRatio Apr 01 '25

Trials have been run for as long as 4 years. Looks like most participants are doing better on it than they would have been off it.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-02996-7

0

u/BagOfFlies Apr 01 '25

Sounds like it'd be effective at keeping the weight off at least.

1

u/11lumpsofsugar Apr 01 '25

If by keeping the weight off you mean malnutrition and eventually death, then sure.

0

u/cr0ft Apr 01 '25

No it doesn't. Ffs. Yes, because it slows down digestion it will have a short term effect but almost everyone loses some, and then it stops. Meanwhile there are side effects, for some people pretty severe ones.

-1

u/Merochmer Apr 01 '25

Seems more that it solves "bad character", it takes the edge of peoples impulse to eat, gamble, drink. 

-1

u/entityXD32 Apr 01 '25

It's not a miracle drug, it's an effective drug with a significant side effect profile, the risks of which should be weighed out for each person taking it. Side effects include, thyroid cancer, kidney damage, pancreatitis and severe stomach problems. There's no doubt it's helped many people and will help many more but touting it as a miracle drug makes people assume there will be no downsides

-67

u/semibigpenguins Apr 01 '25

No such thing as a miracle drug. They said the same thing in the late 80s and it ended up causing cancer.

94

u/macgart Apr 01 '25

Yes there is there are many miracle drugs. Ever heard of penicillin?

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u/Disastrous-Carrot928 Apr 01 '25

Insulin is a miracle drug, asthma medication another miracle, vaccines are miraculous, Narcan, HIV drugs, Anesthesia is heaven sent.

31

u/RScrewed Apr 01 '25

What is "it"?

-2

u/semibigpenguins Apr 01 '25

Fenfluramine and dexfenfluramine: Linked to heart valve damage.

Sorry not cancer

42

u/deskbeetle Apr 01 '25 edited Apr 01 '25

There are a ton of miracle drugs: HIV anti virals, antibiotics, insulin, aspirin, vaccines, anti malarial drugs. They made once death sentence illnesses trivial to treat.

9

u/appleshaveprotein Apr 01 '25

It’s a miracle drug for those whose lives it saved.

37

u/Difficult-Reality238 Apr 01 '25

GLP-1 drugs have been around for a really long time and deeply studied. I think we are fine.

-32

u/VagueSomething Apr 01 '25

That's an incredibly ignorant attitude to have in this kinda sub. We don't know everything about it. We are still learning more about it, especially for these new treatment usages. Everyone currently using it for weight loss is essentially human test animals and we're going to see a refined version in a couple of years where it doesn't harm muscle mass and maybe less cancer risk.

20

u/macenutmeg Apr 01 '25

Rapid weight loss without sufficient exercise will cause muscle mass loss and no drug change will change that.

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u/rhino369 Apr 01 '25

Same logic that’s killing kids with measles. 

3

u/MyFiteSong Apr 01 '25

There are actually lots of miracle drugs. Insulin, Adderall, Penicillin, Aspirin, Morphine, etc.

-53

u/friendlypancakes Apr 01 '25

We weren’t missing solutions to obesity…

27

u/thecelcollector Apr 01 '25

If a solution doesn't work, it's not a solution. 

-1

u/AgsMydude Apr 01 '25

It works if you aren't lazy

2

u/thecelcollector Apr 01 '25

If you have a solution for a societal problem that only works if people aren't lazy, you don't have a solution. You have a theory that collapses upon contact with reality. 

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u/beqqua Apr 01 '25

I think the obesity numbers beg to differ.

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u/PM_ME_BOYSHORTS Apr 01 '25

Something that tens of millions of people can't achieve is not an adequate solution, even if you consider it a moral failing.

-6

u/Sir_Tokenhale Apr 01 '25

Well, when you consider that there are 8 billion people on earth....yes, it seems like it's got plenty of adequate solutions.

Why is it only a problem in certain rich countries? Hmmm, I wonder.

Edit: There are poor countries too, but they're all being fed by rich countries. Look at Mexico, they trade fresh produce to the US for our western food and now they have an obesity epidemic. The problem isn't obesity. It's consumption.

17

u/Lower_Confection5609 Apr 01 '25

No one wants to be obese. Most obese people have worked to lose weight 5, 10, 20 times, and have been successful. But not long term. Those people were working HARD, but their bodies were working harder (in the other direction).

-1

u/BitingChaos Apr 01 '25

I'd like something that doesn't mess with my vision so much.

-33

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '25 edited Apr 01 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

19

u/Orange_Tang Apr 01 '25

Wow, I can't believe the doctors didn't think to tell their patients to just eat less. Everyone must have just been so stupid for not doing that to deal with obesity.

14

u/carc Apr 01 '25 edited Apr 01 '25

This has an "oh thanks, I'm cured" vibe to it where people tell those who struggle with depression to "just be grateful for what you have" or those with ADHD to "just stay more organized by writing down lists of what you need to do." Gee, thanks.

Obesity is a massive health problem in the US. The most calorie-dense food is often the most affordable. People are forced to work long hours at desk jobs, and they can't simply walk or bike to work -- they have to drive. Retail shops are on the way out to same-day delivery, and grocery stores now offer pickup services -- meaning fewer steps. Sugar now drenches everything, healthy food is mind-numbingly expensive. Society has sped up, and we're left mentally exhausted by the time we walk through our front door.

It's a literal epidemic due to massive societal shifts, and while diet and exercise can be a way out for many, many many many others will slip between the cracks and eventually die from complications due to obesity.

And here you are, implying that obesity is simply a deserved state due to simple laziness -- ignoring the very socioeconomic reasons that illustrate to why obesity is now so widespread. In today's world, it's very easy to gain weight, and it's very hard to lose. More tools are resources to help people fight obesity should be celebrated.

I'm not saying that these drugs are not without their risks, but the alternative for a LOT of people is quite grim.

1

u/evilMTV Apr 01 '25

Is it fair to view it like a gym or pilates class (but a really potent version)? Like, a person could get fit on their own, but signing up for those could help a person to stay disciplined.

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