What does this even mean? The results of GLP-1 meds are well studied and widely understood to be game changing and likely revolutionary. The other claims might be hyperbolic but results of the medication on individuals is not really a question at this point.
People are weirdly resistant to acknowledging the obvious implications of things if those implications seem big. There’s a broad “nothing ever happens” heuristic that people tend to mistake for wisdom.
I think some skepticism is warranted. If this is a medication that most of us can be on and it comes with positive health benefits, that would mean that humans as a species have lower than optimal GLP-1 levels. I guess it’s possible that our bodies are wired for a world that is unlike today’s and that these drugs correct for that. But drugs that doesn’t come with side effects. It also wouldn’t be the first time that a drug company manages to convince the medical community to think a drug is healthier than it really is (OxyContin).
> I guess it’s possible that our bodies are wired for a world that is unlike today’s and that these drugs correct for that.
The constant access to unlimited tasty food we have now is completely unprecedented in human history.
Other animals will also overeat if you give them unlimited access to tasty high calorie food.
This is absolutely a situation we did not evolve to be able to handle unfortunately. Lack of sufficient food was the norm for most of our history, so it's not surprising that we evolved to want to eat a calorie surplus if possible.
Not remotely true. We have strong studies out to 10 years at this point. Given the overwhelmingly positive results at our current state, it would take a huge safety signal occurring at 12-20+ years of usage to provoke a change in recommendation, and this is exceedingly unlikely. Basically all such signals are revealed by 10 years if they exist.
My wife's taking GLP-1s for health reasons. The author's ideas about the effects of these things are not evidence based. It isn't a magic drug that makes people ascetics. She eats less, but she still impulse buys clothes and things. The idea that the drug numbs feelings is not at all what I see, while some appetites are diminished, we still both do art, enjoy going out doing all the same stuff as before. She's lost weight, her vitals are looking better, and we eat out less, that's it.
I'm taking GLP-1s and it's absolutely reduced my impulsiveness in ways besides food. Not completely, for sure, and being less interested in food actually means more time to spend on other hobbies.
But it's definitely done something to my non-food behaviour, albeit I'm not sure what exactly. It may well be that I was previously trying to satiate my constant desperate hunger for food with other forms of harmful addictive behaviour, and without the hunger, I just don't need that as much. The concept of satisfying one craving with another isn't new, after all.
Something like 70% of the US is overweight, so there actually aren't as many people who aren't experiencing negative health effects from being overweight or obese as you think
Most of them likely are obese. Obesity is so normal that what most people call “overweight” is actually obese and the people they think are obese are morbidly obese.
Nothing wrong about wanting to look hot if the danger level is not high. I haven't heard about people trying to use them to aid an eating disorder, like diabetics do with insulin.
Anecdotally, it isn’t really giving up impulses. It blunts the desire for a lot of the ones that are related to consumption.
I can still get a wild idea at 9 pm and lose myself in code. I still see flowers and buy them form my wife without planning. I still have a bowl of ice cream before bed sometimes.
The best way to describe it is that you still have the impulse, but you are able to rationally consider it.
I personally can't believe humanity is in such a state of decay that the two options allowed to be discussed are "50% of the population is morbidly obese, has 0 impulse control and will literally eat themselves to the grave" and "ozempic for life for 50% of the population"
Are we just a bunch of NPCs waiting for the orders? One day it's McDonald's selling you the disease the next it's Novo Nordisk selling you the cure, and you apparently have to clap at that "miracle"?
I'm not sure what you mean by "allowed". It's common and quite popular to discuss other strategies for controlling obesity. If someone invented a diet or exercise plan that works as well as Ozempic, it would be huge. But nobody's yet been able to do so, which I suspect is because diet and exercise are fundamentally not effective anti-obesity strategies.
Yeah but a forecast 10 years out is a lot more fun/enlightening if it's hyperbolic. It doesn't make much food for thought to say 'We predict by 2030 the average consumer will have purchased jeans 2 sizes smaller than in 2010'.
In any case, I hope they're directionally correct. A class of widely-available drugs that lets us switch off impulses that don't suit our environment and wellbeing any more would be incredible and world-changing. I'm very curious to try GLP-1 agonists myself.
