Free Republic

Americans may love to eat junk, but we’re nearly as passionate about doing penance, with more than half of us scarfing down dietary supplements on a regular basis. From herbal remedies to energy boosters, vitamins and weight-loss pills, supplements form a massive global industry — one that’s expected to reach $200 billion in value by 2025, according to the AMA Journal of Ethics. Trouble is, it’s a largely “Wild West” scene — and that’s by design, believe it or not. The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 limits the ability of the Food and Drug Administration to regulate...

Treating newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes patients with semaglutide (trade names Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus) may drastically reduce or even eliminate their need for injected insulin. Those are the remarkable findings of a small study. "Our findings from this admittedly small study are, nevertheless, so promising for newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes patients that we are now absolutely focused on pursuing a larger study for a longer period of time," says Paresh Dandona, MD, Ph.D. A total of 10 patients were studied, all of whom had been diagnosed in the past three to six months with type 1 diabetes. The...

Amelia had been intent on losing weight most of her life — but this concern had never caused the 35-year-old to consider ending her life. Last summer, the Canadian woman was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and prescribed the wildly popular “miracle” drug Ozempic (semaglutide) by her doctor, who presented the drug as an easy way for Amelia to shed a few pounds and manage her blood sugar. Amelia, who asked that her last name be withheld for privacy reasons, avoided filling the prescription for three months since she “didn’t want to focus on the number on the scale.” However,...

The medication semaglutide, which is currently used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity, might also be an effective medication for alcohol dependence. In a study, the drug reduced alcohol relapse drinking and alcohol intake in rats by more than half. Semaglutide is sold under brand names such as Ozempic. There is anecdotal evidence of patients with obesity or diabetes saying that their craving for alcohol has lessened since they started taking the drug. Today, individuals with alcohol dependence are treated with a combination of various psychosocial methods and medications. Four approved medications are available. Semaglutide is a...

People taking Ozempic for weight loss say they have also stopped drinking, smoking, shopping, and even nail biting. All her life, Victoria Rutledge thought of herself as someone with an addictive personality. Her first addiction was alcohol. After she got sober in her early 30s, she replaced drinking with food and shopping, which she thought about constantly. She would spend $500 on organic groceries, only to have them go bad in her fridge. “I couldn’t stop from going to that extreme,” she told me. When she ran errands at Target, she would impulsively throw extra things—candles, makeup, skin-care products—into her...

Popular celebrity weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Ozempic could have serious side effects, according to researchers in China. In a study set to appear in the monthly journal Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, researchers believe that there is an “increased risk” of intestinal obstruction when taking those medications. The drugs are made up of the peptide semaglutide, a derivative of GLP-1, a hormone derived from the small intestine.

This article was featured in One Great Story, New York’s reading recommendation newsletter. Sign up here to get it nightly. Allison is an actress. When we meet up for coffee — she has an almond-milk cortado — in midtown, something’s different about her, but I’m not sure what. She looks like an Instagram version of herself but in real life. It turns out she’s down about ten pounds and happy about it. “Somebody once told me I had a size-zero personality, and they assumed that I was thinner than I was,” she tells me. “We don’t talk about it, but...

Nicole Saphier, MD is a physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, an assistant professor at Weill Cornell Medical College and bestselling author of, 'Panic Attack.' Her opinions are her own and not reflective of her employers.Not every problem can be fixed with a pill. Not every problem should be fixed with a pill. But in an increasingly dangerous trend, America's medical industry is presenting drugs as a quick and easy solution for nearly everything that ails us – be it major, minor, or even non-existent. Now, America is running out of the prescription medications that sick people need, because...

Tammie Rachell Largent-Phillips, 52, has Type 2 diabetes. For the past two years, she's managed the condition using a drug called Ozempic, which helps people with diabetes keep blood sugar levels in check. But in November, she was forced to switch to another medication, insulin. The Ozempic she needed was no longer available at her pharmacy. In recent months, demand for the drug has soared, colliding with global supply issues. Together, it's led to a shortage of Ozempic. But the popularity of Ozempic, or semaglutide, isn't because of rising rates of diabetes. Instead, it's because of its weight loss benefits,...

The popular weight loss drug Wegovy is now available to children as young as 12. Danish manufacturer Novo Nordisk announced that the Food and Drug Administration had extended the drug's approval to include children. It had previously received regulatory approval for use in adults last year. In clinical trials, teens aged 12 to 17 who took the weekly injection lost 14 percent of their body weight over 64 weeks. This nearly matches the trials for adults, where recipients lost 15 percent of their weight after 68 weeks. Wegovy, and its sister drug Ozempic, have rocketed to popularity in 2022 because...

A weight-loss drug described as a 'game-changer' by obesity researchers has just been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), representing the first time the agency has endorsed such a treatment in several years. Wegovy, a weight-management therapy to be manufactured by Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, is the the first FDA-approved weight-loss drug since 2014, but it's not entirely a new medication. The same drug, called semaglutide, has been used in the US and other countries as an anti-diabetic medication for years. More recently, however, evidence has shown that semaglutide at a different dosage also functions as...

In the simplest terms, obesity is the product of a body's energy output being less than its energy input. But in reality, there's nothing simple about this complex and mysterious disease. Obesity, which has skyrocketed in recent decades – now defining the body mass of over 40 percent of adult Americans – isn't just difficult for people to endure and scientists to understand. It's also incredibly hard to treat. Beyond commitment to sustained lifestyle changes – healthy eating and exercise, effectively – there are really only two potential options that may help: bariatric surgery and weight-loss medications. The former is...