What’s the downside to this magical drug. There has to be a downside…
What was the downside of washing hands before surgery?
Typically, if something "works", there often appear to be side effects. A free lunch is rare.
https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/understanding-medica...
Of course we already manipulate brain chemistry in other more direct ways with antidepressants so perhaps any unwanted second-order effects could be minor in comparison to the profile of existing antidepressants .
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7105351/
I've been watching developments on how GLP1s seem to go beyond just hunger/insulin response, even how they may affect symptoms of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), which is difficult on women who have it:
Unless it’s literally a deficit. There isn’t a downside to treating vitamin C deficiency with vitamin C.
I suppose the counterargument would be that modern life is different from the evolutionary environment, and so it's possible for a change to be beneficial now that wasn't beneficial then. But it would still be good to understand better the mechanism of the effect of Ozempic on things like addiction.
That’s not how evolution works.
We evolved in an environment where every bit of food took hours of effort and food preservation was impossible, so the only logical thing to do with extra food was feast and store up as much fat as possible for lean times. We're still many generations away from evolving to compensate for the discovery of fire, let alone everything that came after that.
This is the only way that happen - noticeable evolution is always driven by population bottlenecks or strong selective pressure. In the absence of those, mutation just keeps expanding the gene pool so more different candidates are available for the next bottleneck.
In case an event happens where only red-haired people survive, good thing some are available, otherwise there's no reason to think everyone will have red hair in the future.
While exercise has many positive effects, which I'd argue are more important than the weight loss, the latter is the primary reason many people exercise and likely to stop when given the weight loss by other means.
That said, exercise has a direct impact on metabolic health which is pretty necessary to maintain a healthy weight.
This depends on your VO2max/FTP. At very modest 150W FTP it would be ~550 kcal.
> Something you can easily overcome by eating a donut
Don't eat a donut then? It's not like donuts randomly fly into your mouth and you have no control.
>Exercise is absolutely useless for weight loss if it isn't coupled with a controlled diet.
That's obvious. It's not "absolutely" useless as it will take much more effort to gorge on food (e.g. I don't know anyone who would be able to eat a donut after an hour of a vigorous exercise, least crave one) and you also have less time to stuff your face and think of snacks. But it's entirely possible to still overeat while exercising.
Is there any source on this? The precise opposite has happened in my experience. I was an early evangelist for these drugs, and have many dozens of people who I talk to regularly who have since taken them over the years. I cannot think of a single person who went from regular exercise to reducing or eliminating it after taking the drug. Exactly zero.
I can think of well over a dozen folks who started regular exercise for the first time in their lives after losing 50 or more pounds.
Certainly many who did not change their habits either way. But overall this matches with what the trainers in my gym report. They were initially worried GLP-1s would reduce their client base, but the exact opposite has happened for them. It's brought an entirely new demographic into play and business is booming.
> which I'd argue are more important than the weight loss,
You would be making an argument contrary to most established science on the topic. Exercise is important and quite beneficial to health. Obesity is far worse. Not many obese people working out regularly to start with though, so I don't think this point holds much water to begin with. We are not a nation full of obese gym rats.
>Is there any source on this?
Other than the people saying they hate exercise and are glad they can take a drug instead in the comments here? This https://sciencesources.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1130958 for example.
>You would be making an argument contrary to most established science on the topic. Exercise is important and quite beneficial to health. Obesity is far worse.
Is there any source on this?
Mostly it's nausea and gastrointestinal distress side effects. These tend to cool down over time, but it'll put a ceiling on how big a dose you can tolerate. Some people can't tolerate a dose at any level.
I imagine though that on-balance they'll be net positive because being overweight is just so bad for you.
1. They make you stop eating, which for most of human history kills you.
2. They are a life-long treatment and kind of expensive unless you go gray market.
3. Gastrointestinal issues especially when titrating up.
2. Not necessary here either if dietary habits are permanently altered, which can happen more easily after several months on GLPs.
3. Perhaps!
ideologues will tell you this is that all mankind suddenly lost their ability to exert self-discipline a few decades ago
science points to a broad combination of things like corn syrup and seed oils simply making food too addictivly-rewarding and calorie rich for our nervous and endocrine systems to handle.
so, do we reform the farm bill and fast food industries, or do we take the antidote?
Some of that stuff they put in food is probably designed to antagonize your GLP-1 receptors, you know. They didn't know what those were, but they did know when they put it in food, you bought more! *cough* Pringles
I have given up helping others since my solution was to embrace a carnivore lifestyle. But then im just in a tribal cult with amazing health.
https://theconversation.com/how-childhood-infections-requiri...
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-single-course-o...
If you're tired and don't have energy you'll also feel depressed but that doesn't automatically mean you feel tired solely because of depression.