In 20 years, what will we really think about the Ozempic revolution?

Not only that but these have already been on the market for 20 years. They’ve just recently gotten more effective and affordable.

Yeah I don't get the hate for it either. There's an obesity epidemic and this drug helps with that. And this is bad?

I lost 60lbs before going on it and I'll say coming from a very obese family I thought it was mostly emotional eating and self control issues...nope, suddenly on it I'm just not hungry and no longer have the desire to emotionally eat for the most part. I'm sure those were a factor but there is something different in how my body felt hunger and felt full than many others.

People are just fat bigots. They think obese people need to *suffer* and have no idea what it's really like to be fat. To them it's 100% a moral failing, and anything other than sheer laziness and disgusting gluttony is just making excuses. They don't understand how metabolic derangement and insulin resistance work. Fat people are bad people. They view GLP drugs as "cheat codes" and therefore let fat people "of the hook" without enough punishment. It's really fucked up.

I am inclined to agree here. I am super skeptical about pharmaceuticals but as far as I can tell it is looking like the GLP-1s and Ozempic have huge upsides with very little downside.

Absolutely, these are fantastic drugs for improving the average persons health. I think a lot of it is from former overweight people who see it as “cheating” (I know at least one person for whom this is 100% true).

Isn’t the main thing people complain about is the people that actually need these drugs for medical use don’t get them because of the obese people using up the supply? Like if this is the best drug for people with medical use, they should get them over the people using them solely for weight loss. You can lose weight without ozempic.

I don't disagree but this is quite different to things like penicillin, antibiotics etc. that it's a solution to a problem created out of greed. We've got an obesity problem because 1. People just aren't active anymore either due to work, laziness or other issues but mostly because 2. Almost everything we eat now is shit. The amount of sugar and other c*** in our food is mental. We gave up control over our food production to corporate entities and they fed us garbage and people really struggle to eat better because they're either so used to it or real food is now a luxury item.

They already exist. Tirzepatide is widely available. And in the body building community the non FDA approved newer version retratrutide is widely abused because it is at effective. The more interesting stuff that I think is mostly just a pipe dream are the myostatin inhibitors and exercise analogue type drugs that basically create a physiological hit to the muscles in place of actual exercise. You might get to a place where a mix of drugs just gets you a perfect body.

I'm starting my treatment next month, and I'm just happy there is some sort of aid to get. It's EXTREMELY expensive though, especially as most countries don't see obesity as a sickness so any forms of reductions on the price is basically out the window (it's a "luxury" drug). So my hope is that the future brings more science around it and better products that are cheaper to manufacture. Were already seeing competitors doing their own off brand ozempics so it's hopefully not too far away.

80% chance it's just part of life. 10% chance conspiracy theories will claim it causes (insert nonsense here). 10% chance it turns out to be thalidomide for the 21st century. 30 years ago oxycontin was just a miracle for pain relief. What downside could it possibly have?

It's funny how people get all suspicious about new drugs, like, have we forgotten aspirin used to be "that new strange wonder drug" I feel like in 20 years we'll be casually talking about this era like it's ancient history. "Mark, remember when we thought Ozempic was peak technology Pass me my nano-chip-taco meal replacement."

Don't these drugs have a habit of causing blindness ? Idk about others but I'd rather run on the treadmill every day, or do like anything else than be blind.

In that case, the question should be how do you think people will view the “body positivity” movement that glorified unhealthy habits and behavior in 20 years.

IMO I think the GLP meds will turn into the Purdue “scandal” of this generation of medicine. They are wildly overprescribed the side effects are poorly reported and counseled, and has a clinically underreported incidence of sarcopenia. Don’t get me wrong they are game changer medications for metabolic syndrome, weight loss, etc. but it absence of true lifestyle change in association with pharmacotherapy the risks outweigh the benefits.

We'll see. Fen-Phen was the big miracle weight loss drug of the 90's, and after seven years it got pulled for the lethal damage it was doing to people's hearts and lungs. Even if you really need it it's probably worth waiting a few years for the studies to come in before getting on Ozempic in my non-expert opinion.

I wrote this a couple days ago for someone asking me about why I started Tirzepatide but it may be relevant here. >This is something that I just chose to do after reading success stories online. You can check out r/tirzepatidecompound to read some more and ask questions if you want. > >I have always struggled with my weight. My father was emotionally abusive, pinching my sides, telling me what I should and shouldn’t eat and how much of it, and yelling at my mom when she would serve me what he decided was too much food. As you would expect I developed a very unhealthy relationship with food. > >I would binge eat my emotions and boy I had a lot of emotions. Ive also struggled with depression all my life and the two together left me completely unable to function. I’d eat because I was sad, I was sad because I ate. Along with that feedback loop I never really felt full until I felt sick. I could eat an entire Costco pizza in one sitting, I would just power through despite abhorrent acid reflux and gurgling burps. I was miserable. > >This drug has completely killed all the food noise in my life and for once I’m starting to feel happy and healthy. I never really realized how beholden to my impulses and shitty brain chemistry I was until they were gone. I feel liberated. I’m no longer constantly thinking about when or what I’ll eat. When I have a bad day I don’t stop at McDonald’s and order multiple hamburgers. And I actually like the way I look and clothes fit me. > >I have tried anti depressants, a lot of them but nothing seemed to stick. I will never stop taking this drug. It has done more for my mental health than multiple therapists and doctors have. I cannot recommend it to people enough. > >If you ever need a friendly ear, feel free to shoot me a message and I’ll be happy to listen. I hope you have a wonderful evening.

This is such a great answer.

I have a more pessimistic view. As it makes weight loss easier, people start to care less about WHAT they eat. It takes away pressure from companies to reduce sugar (esp. in the US) in their stuff and processed food will get even worse. So on the bottom line, what we eat becomes more and more artificial as does the way we try to keep weight in control, leading to declining overall health. Hope I'm wrong tho.

I don't know. As long as you can buy pumpable cheese in the US I am not convinced about the discipline thing. Regulating food ingredients like in the EU would be much more sustainable. 

Well said

“Started treating it like biology” What a cop out. If you never acknowledge the problem you’ll never fix it. How American it is to give up on diet and exercise and just cheat with a pill that’ll completely reverse itself once you stop taking it, thereby requiring you to continue using it indefinitely.

Thanks for weighing in ChatGPT. Now go away.

I still don't know about antidepressants.

It’s another debt trap.

Accurate. We'll look back on these days in wonder. We lived like kings before the mega wealthy locked us all into the new feudalism.

I hear the Musk blood farm has a juice bar!

Similarly, I developed insulin resistance from high dose corticosteroids that I had taken throughout my early life to control life threatening asthma. Better drugs came out about twenty years ago and I have since been taking those and my asthma is controlled, but the damage was done, I am now and possibly always will be insulin resistant. As a result I've always had difficulty keeping my weight down, hovering around the obesity threshold despite being active, and in middle age I am starting to feel the pain in my joints from the extra pounds. For the past three months i have been taking one of these "miracle injectables" and it's working. It isn't c****, since my BMI was not high enough for insurance to cover it, but I have lost 20lbs despite eating more than I was before, when I was scrupulously calorie counting. It feels like my body finally has a normal response to food intake, instead of instantly storing it as fat.  Those lucky enough to have been born with a fully functioning body should perhaps just be grateful for it and hold their thoughts to themselves about glp-1 meds.

The issue is metabolic dysfunction and you can be thin and have it. In fact obesity is protective initially.  Metabolic dysfunction comea from poor food choices, pollution and probably also epigenetics (mitochondria from mother already damaged)

Likely different people…

My only complaint is that my insurance won't cover it

It's pretty iffy, because sure you can pump yourself with some GLP and lose weight, but you could also experience a wide range of side effects. But the reality is, Some of the unhealthy people will think Skinny=Healthy, and still avoid doing the Actually helpful stuff most people should be doing like exercise and a proper diet.

I think it’s the difference of what it should be used for and what it’s being used for. Instead of seeing lifestyle changes, people take miracle pill.

Illegal drugs will make you lose weight too. But I think in both cases "is the juice worth the squeeze" is a valid question

Long term pancreas issues, people going blind, people rebounding to the exact same weight or more after dropping, osteoporosis.. it’s not unfounded hate

meh…hollywood has been using far more dangerous drugs to stay thin/in shape for the camera for a hundred years…ozempic prob has fewer side effects than - oh damn…what is the one that was popular for a minute most recently…some drug for horses…can’t remember the name now…but it’s not the drug that’s the problem, it’s the hollywood mirror held up to society’s sick standards, esp for women.

These kinds of drugs have been around for ages for diabetics and as of now there don't seem to be any serious long term effects caused by them

What kind of bot AI comment is this? You bounce from one end to another to another. It saves lives, but it’s abused, it’ll probably be viewed as both good and bad, I wonder what the long term effects are. What is your point? That it’s good, or maybe bad, but maybe we don’t know? “But it damages the culture when abused…” What are you even talking about? What is “the culture”?

To compare this to penicillin is downright insane.

Yeah, that's what remains to be seen. Of course I hope that doesn't happen and it proves to be safe and effective for the vast majority who use it, but nature has a way of balancing things in unfortunate ways. Time will tell!

I got to miss a day of school and come with my mom to UCLA medical center where she was interviewed by Channel 4 News about being in a group of people starting this exciting new drug. It was a ton of waiting and but my mom got to be on TV. Kind of a big deal being 6 in ‘94 or whatever it was. She never got any cardiovascular stuff thankfully. She also never lost the weight

One my college friend’s moms was on that for a long time before it got pulled. Disturbingly, she’s already passed away and we aren’t really at the age of losing parents yet.

It will likely fall much more toward the first of those. Thinking that GLPs will be like cigarettes is a false equivalence that doesn't have a scientific basis, fortunately.

Isn't needing to lose weight a medical reason for those people who are obese? 

The acceptance was to try to tell people that because someone is fat doesn't mean they are a lesser person. All studies show that overweight people are treated worse in pretty much all ways in society. Which is obviously bullshit, since your weight doesn't dictate your value. Very few were arguing that being fat is safe and everyone should eat shitty and gain weight. It was just to remind people like you that you aren't better than fat people just because your aren't fat. But I guess there is no pleasing people like you. You hate it when they want to be accepted for being over weight, and then you hate when they decide to use assistance to loose weight. Just admit you think fat people are morally inferior.

Insulin, antibiotics, meds for high blood pressure… those all are extremely beneficial with almost no negatives.

"There is a biological element to obesity". Yeah dude of course, because you take in mor calories than you use. Nobody says it's easy to lose weight, but you can turn it as you want, but it boils down to a discipline issue for 90% and not an unpreventable given circumstance. It's in NO WAY comparable to the prejudice towards gay or black people. They cant change who they are. You can change your weight yourself however.

And no one does

Those ones you've listed are generally manageable side effects and nothing worse than people regularly get on antibiotics or birth control. I'm not saying there's not some bad side effects because there absolutely are but those are minor.  Every couple of doses I'll have a day or two where I need to be very close to a toilet but I just make sure that I keep my electrolytes up and keep as hydrated as possible and then go on with my life with my knees that don't crunch when I walk anymore. 

There will be new drugs.