Posted on 12/20/2024 8:28:47 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Research published in the last week revealed that for the first time in more than a decade, obesity rates among US adults fell slightly last year, decreasing from 46% in 2022 to 45.6% in 2023. While we might need a few more years of data to conclusively tie these results to the rise of semaglutide drugs like Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic, it feels impossible to ignore the timing, with Novo’s sales booming in recent years and hitting a record ~$10 billion in its latest quarter.
Sales of these GLP-1 treatments — drugs that mimic the effects of blood-sugar-regulating hormone GLP-1, a feature originally intended for diabetes care but which also happened to cause weight loss in test subjects — have increased by almost 6x since the start of 2018. To effectively market both of the major positive side effects of GLP-1 treatments, Novo Nordisk separated its semaglutide brands into Ozempic (for diabetes) and Wegovy (for weight loss). Sales of each have soared, helping the Danish company unseat luxury giant LVMH as Europe’s most valuable company.
Of course, success breeds competition. While Novo Nordisk endures as the first and last word in weight-loss drugs, rival remedies like Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide-based Mounjaro and Zepbound have also seen soaring sales as other pharmaceutical giants like Viking Therapeutics race to produce their own alternative treatments.
As GLP-1s have gone mainstream, supply has been a critical constraint — an unwelcome trend for diabetes patients who need the drugs for their intended purpose, with telehealth companies receiving thousands of reports of shortages.
Indeed, Ozempic is now so widespread that it has its own place in popular culture, as GLP-1 treatments have become synonymous with an evolved iteration of a modern consumer’s desire for thinness. This year alone, weight-loss drugs featured heavily in satirical cartoons, Halloween costumes, and celebrity endorsements — not to mention countless tabloid dissections of “Ozempic face,” a term used to describe the look of those who’ve rapidly lost weight using the drug.
For such a widely popular treatment that’s still so new, it follows that scientists everywhere are trying to grasp the effects that weight-loss drugs will have on users’ lives in years to come. One recent report linked Ozempic to sudden blindness while another suggested it might delay aging (see: The Substance), and weight-loss drugs have also received nods in the symptom categories of kidney disease (reduces!), cholesterol (reduces!), and, er, burps (increases, unfortunately).
Predicting when a world-changing discovery is going to be made is hard. Accurately predicting its impact is arguably even harder. The iPhone only launched in 2007, before which we barely used the word “app”; AI hype has hit fever pitch this year; and, though semaglutide products were first approved by the FDA in 2021 and some writers called last year “The Year of Ozempic,” knock-on effects of the weight-loss drug boom are still being felt moving into 2025.
it is unbelievable that people would rather pay for medication than simply stop cramming crap in their mouths!
go to walmart, about 90% are obese there unless your definition is skewed.
What about the black and red skin?
Thanks to Ozempic and I can go back to Little Debbies and Mountain Dew sodas. Big Pharma loves me and takes care of me.
You should look into the issue of having a disregulated autonomic nervous system. If that is not working, it affects many other things.
The good thing is, it’s mostly due to thiamine deficiency, so it’s easy to treat with diet and supplementation.
My wife had some intractable problems that are finally being addressed by treating for this issue.
Check out Elliot Overton Thiamine Protocol. If your practitioner is a standard allopath, he or she is probably clueless about all this.
Merry Christmas!
According to the CDC, nearly 40% of the U.S. adult population is obese.
This means more than 100 million American adults are obese, while 20 million adults have severe obesity. The new data also showed, severe obesity is higher among women compared to men.
This comes as the CDC released its state map of obesity rates. According to the data, in 2023, all U.S. states and territories had an obesity prevalence higher than 20% (one in five adults).
How about just eating right? The drugs are going to show as problems later on in life.
That’s great! Keep up the good work. Your body will thank you for it.
Then I think of my mom, who was a depression-era baby (and she lived every bit of it) who is pushing 96, had 5 kids, spent a lot of those years slight to moderately overweight...didn't see a doctor for 50 years until recently, she ate sugar like it was....candy.
Same with my grandma, who lived to 93...(she too had a bunch of kids...and loved her sweets).
Preservatives and other additives may have provided a longer shelf-life for food...but it'll continue to lower the shelf-life for those who consume(d) it...not to mention the other side-effect, the reduction in quality(taste/nutrition).
...half the flavor, half the nutrition, "enhancement" chemicals that create a toxic waste sludge in the digestive system affecting heart/brain function...all for double(triple)the price!
(that doesn't include the doctors, the pills....)
In my observation the problem is less “self-control” but a combination of marketing mania and corrupt government agencies acting in concert with corrupt mega-corporations.
Once upon a time supermarkets would actually run TV ads involving staple foods. Now it’s snacks and processed food ads run by the manufacturers.
Meanwhile the standards for something as simple as oatmeal or bread are hideous. (one example: https://foodbabe.com/quaker-oatmeal-ingredients-changed-because-of-you-food-babe-army-strikes-again/)
Thirdly, all this garbage food is available to the people with the track record of making the worst life decisions or otherwise in a bad spot (those on welfare). We pay to make people unhealthy. I noticed the tracking of obesity rates only went back to 2013. This puts it more in context: https://www.fns.usda.gov/yearly-trends — Obama doubled the rate of people on SNAP.
And so, without even suggesting that one hand is shaking the other, the pharma industry is right there to offer treatments (not cures) for all the things caused by the bad food we can hardly avoid. And yes, the exercise industry loves this too. Don’t just do stuff, go buy the latest thing to sit in the corner, or the membership at the place you never go.
Yeah, I didn’t get their “point” until later.
When LSD came in the college students of my age said they had been taught by parents, doctors and especially TV ads when something is wrong with you or something hurts pop a pill. An aspirin, Excedrin, antibiotics by the millions doled out by doctors and pharma (until antibiotic resistant became a deadly trend). So LSD, another pill, was not shocking to consider swallowing.🥼💊💊
Now a quick cure for obesity by a needle is not a shock after flu shots, pneumonia shots, shingles ones and Covid jabs are normalized. Just another shot.
💉💉
Deaths from obesity run in fits and starts.
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