Sure, I’m taking Ozempic. Aren’t you? Isn’t everybody?
OK, that’s an exaggeration. There’s also Zepbound and Wegovy and all those other drugs that belong to the GLP-1 class of weight-blasting tonics. Some folks take those instead (though really, just among us Ozempic users — we view those as cheap knockoffs, right? Like a restaurant serving Red Gold ketchup instead of Heinz. We’ve got the good stuff).
Thirty million American adults — 1 in 8 — take GLP-1 drugs, which not only curb your appetite so you can be a svelter, happier, more successful you, but seem to offer a wide and expanding range of positive results, from quieting the howl of addiction to healing brain trauma. According to the rapidly building data, taking such drugs can cut your risk of heart attack or stroke by 20%. I mentioned to a young person of my acquaintance that I was taking Ozempic, and he expressed an emotion not often heard when old people are cataloging their medicines: envy. Ozempic is supposed to keep you young, he said, wishing he could get some.
I believe that ship has already sailed for me, though freezing the decline process at this point would be welcome.
All of this is relatively new. Ozempic received FDA approval in December 2017. Researchers are dancing as fast as they can, but if after 10 full years of use, Ozempic causes your head to tumble off your shoulders, then the joke will be on humanity, again. Remember another hugely popular drug that helps keep you thin, nicotine. People didn’t figure out tobacco’s lethality for 400 years after Europeans first embraced it. Millions still haven’t.
Though given Ozempic’s fat-busting abilities, we’ll accept the occasional head bouncing down the sidewalk, giving it a quick soccer flick as we pass.
Despite dieting continually for the past half-century — I’ve counted more calories than stars in the known universe — I would have never sought out Ozempic had Type I diabetes not fried my pancreas and a doctor suggested I might try it. Technically, Ozempic is used for Type II diabetes, to help your not-dead pancreas produce insulin, which doesn’t mean much if the organ is merely decorative (There’s a fun online shop for Type I diabetes T-shirts and various gadgets called “The Useless Pancreas.”) But apparently mine is still quivering, kind of — I seem to have what some call Type 1.5; doctors tend to shrug and mumble when pressed for details — so a GLP-1 drug might do some good.
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I've been on it for several years now. Lost 35 pounds, brought my A1C down to 7 & have plateaued at the same weight now for a couple of years.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm also on metformin & that's supposed to make you live longer, so who knows?
And something is wrong today, no matter what, it made me comment as "Anonymous", not what I usually use?
The duality of man.
ReplyDeleteGLP1s can be a god send for many. From weight loss to liver stability and repair all the way to lower A1C. It has saved many from a seemingly doomed war against obesity and saved others from an unhealthy relationship with food. There is a lot to be thankful for.
But for some reason, I keep going back to the idea that there is something inherently wrong with both our society and our food. There will undoubtedly be a place for GLPs, it does too much good for too many people. But I feel like we should also be really rethinking our food.
We consume too much ultra processed foods. Quality "natural" food is way too expensive and too hard to find. Fast food, cheap food, and addictive snacks have ruined the palate and pocketbooks of Americans. When I look at family photos from the 40s and 50s there are a few fat grandparents, but overall there aren't many overweight people. The same goes for historic pictures. I don't think there is much disagreement that our world has gotten fatter over the last forty years. Something (or somethings) have caused that, and i worry that like everything else, we solve that with a pill instead of actually rooting out the problem.
Besides, if you can take a pill to stay skinny, how will we know if we are healthy? How will we know if the food we eat is actually Nourishing? Will it matter?
Those words could have been said by Bobby jr
Deleteglp's affect memory too
DeleteA complete blood work up will let a person if they are healthy
DeleteThe self-reported cases are probably statistically meaningless, but there's been talk about anhedonia, the "meh" effect of Ozempic. Even if that is true at all for the rare person, it is balanced out by what the Lancet describes as the positive effect on the depression and low self esteem that sometimes is associated with obesity. And the salutary effect on addictive behavior in general is amazing. I remember that before I stopped smoking, I thought that waking up in the morning and contemplating a day without tobacco would be unbearably dismal. I learned that was just my addiction talking. But for this old hedonist, the prospect of a life without the occasional days of self destructive indulgence is sad.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the insightful column.
ReplyDeleteChanging the subject, slightly, for the third time in a row, when I followed your link to the SunTimes, I was greeted by a hysterical, highly animated, advertisement from McAfee that claimed my phone was riddled with viruses, and that I had to renew my subscription with them instantly. I haven’t had a McAfee subscription for about 40 years. McAfee used to be a respectable antivirus company. Now, it seems mostly to be a marketing scam. Is there anyway to persuade the SunTimes that they would be a more effective and responsible organization if they found their ad revenue elsewhere?
If you send an email explaining the above to me at nsteinberg@suntimes.com I will forward it to the powers that be.
DeleteDone. Thanks.
DeleteMcAfee is garbage...and it has been garbage for a long, long time. About fifteen years ago they got desperate and hooked up with Dell and gave you three free years of McAfee if you bought a new computer straight from the factory in Texas. Caused a lot of problems, and I had to uninstall it and replace it with Norton, which wasn't all that great, either.
DeleteFor about seven years, I've had something called Webroot, because Best Buy sold me my current system. But I still get scam e-mails that tell me my McAfee subscription is expiring, or that I have viruses that need fixing, or that my credit card was declined. Blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda. All kinds of bullshit. My replies are two or three or four words. Use your imagination.
Hi Neil Leslie Carlson again. Regarding this person's Mcafee issue and mine with Norton, something that might be relevant? It takes a couple clicks to get out of the red alert but before it brings me back to the blog I am landed on a Walmart ecomm site. Related? Thanks.
DeleteActually, there's many longterm side effects esp. on the gastro intest. track and how it works on the brain that would give me pause. I undersand mounjaro is worse. 2 of them work differently than the typical glp's. True, I can only get a few samples from the doc on the Ozem. Can't use it steadily and can't afford it otherwise since I'm not a type2 or any type of diabetic, just borderline, so even trad. Medicare, let alone private insur. won't pay. It looks like Gov. Pritzker may be using that.
ReplyDeletethat's on old fashioned sink faucet fixture you have there
ReplyDeleteI like Red Gold better than Heinz.
ReplyDeleteI love the Red Gold cocktail sauce. No high fruct. added either. Simple sugar is better.
ReplyDeleteyes, McAff. sends spam and sometimes stops the puter- We like ESET ourselves for security.
ReplyDelete