Posted on 01/06/2025 8:18:51 AM PST by bitt
The GLP-1 saga epitomizes the unsustainable corruption within our medical system
Story at a Glance:
•In early 2023, a private conference with pharmaceutical industry leaders and investors highlighted anti-obesity and Alzheimer’s drugs as the next big money-makers and had the FDA head as its keynote speaker.
•Since then, the FDA has taken questionable steps to promote these drugs, particularly Ozempic, an anti-obesity medication. There's been a massive push to get everyone, including children, on Ozempic, using shockingly aggressive marketing tactics.
•This rush is eerily similar to the fen-phen craze, a temporary weight loss drug later pulled from the market for causing severe heart and lung issues.
•Worse, Ozempic comes with serious side effects, including paralyzing the digestive tract. This article will address the above controversy and explore the common causes of obesity, including those rarely discussed.
Note: recently Comedian Jimmy Dore and Food Activist Calley Means discussed The Great Ozempic Scam, an article recently published here. Their interview added a few critical points to this story, so I am publishing an abridged version of the article beginning with their interview.
6 min video
Most of the food in America comes from just a few crops like corn, wheat, soy, and canola, largely due to farming subsidies that force farmers to mass-produce these crops and sell them below cost. These cheap crops are then turned into the processed foods we eat every day. This is problematic because:
Health Issues: These foods are unhealthy and contribute to major health problems like diabetes and obesity.
Natural Aversion: Our bodies naturally resist these foods, making them hard to sell.
Addictive Additives: To make them more appealing, addictive substances are added. In the 1980s, Big Tobacco bought the processed food industry and, much like they did with cigarettes, focused on making these foods as addictive as possible.
Chronic Illness: The resulting health issues create lifelong customers for industries like Big Pharma.
...more
I notice all of the GLP types are about the same price. Mounjaro being a dual hormone agonist is more effective for weight loss, don't see data for A1c. All of these types of drugs are about the same price per dose. Ozempic is much less effective for weight loss than Mounjaro so why does it get all the hype? Marketing.
For all the arm chair experts who blame all Type 2 on obesity, BS to you. It isn't true. There are Type 2 people who are not obese and who work at hard labor, are active and exercise every day. The Type 2 epidemic is in multiple parts, our diet of carb filled boxes with supplemental sugars out the wazoo followed by HFCS shit approved by the FDA because it makes lots of money, a sedentary lifestyle and concurrent obesity supplemented by lousy diet. Secondly, it is an epidemic of diagnosis just as popular as any of the other previous money making campaigns by medicine. Remember when just about every middle aged woman that could pay for it had a hysterectomy? I don't see much of that now. The number of people now diagnosed with Pre-diabetes as if it is a death sentence that launch into some medication for an A1c of 6 complete with diet and lifestyle coaches is nuts.
Type 2 is the money maker of the day and it isn't going away. Curiously, it was at first explained as an insulin uptake problem, insulin resistance at the cellular level, now it is explained, with no mention of the previous cause, as a lazy pancreas that is failing?
Just wait, in a few years there will many TV ads starting out with the words, "If you or a loved one was injured by ......"
I’m sure it’s very hard for many people to lose weight.
I lost 23% of my lung function (per the VA), so gaining weight has been a gradual thing over the past 30 years... however, losing it has been dang near impossible. I intermittent fast, I try to walk, can’t run at all now, stairs are iffy if it’s more than 2-3 flights... I’m thinking of getting a used stationary bike and using that for just leg exercise and/or burning calories while watching TV.
Have you talked to a doctor about trying a ketogenic diet? A lot of people say it not only helps them lose weight, but improves other problems as well.
The side effects are well known. This stuff has been in constant use for a long time.
There are a lot of people commenting on this stuff who have very little idea of what it does; and the impact on peoples’ health. They think it’s a “lazy” way to achieve what they think is “simple.” For some reason, they feel compelled to say that to patient’s faces.
As someone on a GLP-1, i can tell you that losing 50 pounds prior, had little impact on my blood sugar. But a few months into my “ GLP-1 journey” my A1C is at its lowest level in decades. That wasn’t happening with other meds—which I have stopped now. That is a huge win for me.
I am often amazed at the “confidence” that lots of people have in commenting on someone’s medical conditions and treatments. These are the same people who think that chemotherapy is a scam as well.
One thing I’ve learned in the past 60 years or so is to not judge another person’s medical treatment. I’ve also learned that what is simple for me, might be a struggle for someone else. Finally…I realized that when I am 100% certain of something…I will likely be shown otherwise before too long.
A lot of people on these drugs don’t tell others about them because they are treated life shit from judgey idiots. We should be encouraging everyone to get their weight and health under control-for society’s sake. If you need help, thats fine. And honestly, none of anyone else’s business.
These drugs work wonders. They are not “miracle” cures as the patient MUST make significant changes to their habits or they will fail as soon as the meds are stopped. I agree that many people on these are either not coached by their doctors on how to “work the program” or they don’t have the sense to do their own research.
The long term financial benefits to having a population that is not morbidly obese will more than make up for the minor side effects people have. And if a patient has significant side effects…they should stop taking it. But it doesn’t mean they are not right for other people.
Hopefully RFK jr can head up an agency that will really look into how our food has changed in the past several decades, both in the growing and the processing. Obviously something is different. There were virtually no obese children in the 50s even the 60s and 70s.
I would like to see a graph comparing the rise in type2 diabetes with the rise in the promotion of the non-fat way of eating in the 1990s. I have a feeling that they went hand-in-hand.
My understanding is that if you cut calories too much, your metabolism slows down to conserve them and makes it all the harder to lose.
That said, high carbs play a role.
I went on a wheat free diet many years back and ate lower carb, had a regular dinner and allowed myself a small snack at night. The weight fell off. I still ate rice, oats, and corn, too.
For me, it’s the wheat that does it.
And that is HARD to cut out. I found acceptable substitutes, like rice noodles for soups, etc. The toughest part wasn’t even giving up desserts and pastries etc. It was something like a loaf of fresh Italian bread still warm from right out of the oven.
And pizza.
Ozempic is NOT an anti obesity drug. It is NOT a weight loss drug.
It is an effective treatment for type 2 diabetes. I know it works, it has worked for me with no ill effects.
I have been using it since shortly after it was approved ands it has helped lower my A1C appreciably. Anything that keeps me from needing insulin is a good thing.
The price, here in the USA, is an outrage, though.
You turned down GLP-1? U have to be kidding me.
The high price is to pay for future lawsuits.
My guess is you don’t have a weight “problem”.
What about the push for viagra?...meanwhile,children die of dysrntery.
I know a woman who ballooned up to 170 lbs. Until she had a diabetes scare. She went strict low-carb, and took off 70lbs in 8 months. She ate lots of salads, and her main animal food was canned tuna. 3 cans daily.
How tall is she???
170 is not too bad although it certainly could put you borderline diabetes.
100 is awful light unless you’re really short.
I got some numbers wrong. She is now 110lbs and 5ft6inches.
She read a book that inspired her anti-pre-diabetes diet. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316182699/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I lost 110 pounds in 2024. Keto and fasting. I’ve still got a little to go to get to my goal.
Way to go! Good that you have had the discipline.
She’s taller than I am but still, 110 is light for that height.
Yes, 110 is too light. But she likes/loves it this way. Due to being too hefty for years. Plus the lo-carb diet can do this. She has lo-carb gurus that she follows. It helps that her husband is into this too. Her current favorite foods are venison burgers, which are very lean. Venison from NZ I believe. Octopus too.
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