• peoplebeproblems@midwest.social
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    23 hours ago

    Wegovy/Saxenda whatever others are (GLP-1) inhibitors aren’t a scam, they work.

    They are absurdly expensive for the benefit they bring. Of course, fat lot of good it does if you don’t use it to the full extent so you can actually get off of it.

    • nibbler@discuss.tchncs.de
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      11 hours ago

      The pricing is absurd. In Denmark it’s like $80 for four weeks. in USA it starts at $1000. But medicine in USA is a whole other can of worms.

      In Germany it starts at $300 (2.5mg/week) and goes up to $540 (15mg/week). But then if you get a 15mg/week prescription and happen to only need 5mg/week (possibly supported by taking it more often than once a week), and also make use of the 1.3 (my guesstimate) extra doses that are in the syringe (but a bit difficult to extract) you pay like $120/month. This is what a proper gym costs in my area. And honestly, you safe on food, too. And on your weight watchers subscription!

    • futatorius@lemm.ee
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      12 hours ago

      The work in the sense that they cause weight loss. They do nothing to keep the weight off once it’s lost. And they have side-effects, some quite nasty.

      • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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        31 minutes ago

        These new Semaglutide medications work by mucking with one’s appetite and slowing digestion. It’s actually mimicking a natural process that occurs in a species of desert lizard if I remember correctly.

        So they work, and in trials they found people. lost at most about 30% of body fat, which is significantly more than any previous weight loss drug, but for folks who need to lose more than 30% they won’t reach their goal body weight. (But it does certainly make the Hollywood approach of taking semiglutides to rapidly lose a fairly small amount of weight make more sense)

    • Trimatrix@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      Or get caught up in the crossfire where Metformin makes you shit your pants and a new drug for managing your A1C comes out (ozempic) which doesn’t make you shit your pants. Only for a few years later get denied insurance coverage for it because you obviously are using it to lose weight.

      • Guidy@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        I got denied coverage because I don’t have type 2 diabetes. My main doctor confirmed I’m pre-pre-diabetic.

        Or I was.

        I pay for the medication myself and the diet they have me on is literally called the Insulin Resistance Diet.

        Not only have I lost just over 30 pounds in 90 days but I’m also clearly healthier just because of this diet. (At my height and weight 30 pounds isn’t shit, but I’m only just getting started.)

        • SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net
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          6 hours ago

          Proud of you random internet stranger! Keep up the good work! It’s going to be super duper worth it!

      • grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org
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        18 hours ago

        In theory once you stay at a dosage of metformin for long enough the unfortunate side effects go away. In practice it’s been a year and I still can’t trust a fart.

    • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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      19 hours ago

      I dunno anything about these drugs but I remember the diet drug fad in the '90s and the disastrous consequences and side effects that came from it. I’m sure these aren’t going to give heart attacks to a bunch of people, but I have a hard time believing there isn’t some sort of cost to pay for a magic pill that makes you skinny. I’m willing to admit that my view is tainted by the past and will once again state that I know nothing about these pills specifically so I could be completely off base here.

      • Merva@sh.itjust.works
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        13 hours ago

        but I have a hard time believing there isn’t some sort of cost to pay for a magic pill that makes you skinny

        There is a cost. It is called money, it is incredibly expensive, and they need to take it for life.

      • lennybird@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        I’ll just say that my wife works in medicine and you have to stop Oz3mpic 24 hours before surgery because of the added risk of aspiration due to the stomach retaining food contents for longer. Seems to possibly put strain on the pancreas (pancreatitis a side effect).

        That doesn’t sit well with me. Neither does it fix the core problem of what caused the vast majority of weight gain cases: poor dietary habits. Then again, our society has short-circuited evolutionary dopamine-driven behavior so it may necessitate intervention to re-wire it back.

        • nibbler@discuss.tchncs.de
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          11 hours ago

          Ozempic is typically taken once a week. The half-life of Ozempic is about a week. Stopping Ozempic “24 hours before surgery” does not make any sense.

          • lennybird@lemmy.world
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            10 hours ago

            I might have that wrong and it may be a full week. I’ll ask them when I get a chance and update.

        • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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          10 hours ago

          Bingo, those medications are as effective as any other diet or change of habits, if you have a problematic relationship with food you need to fix the reason behind it otherwise the moment you stop you’ll gain your weight back.

      • Cryan24@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        When you get to a certain size, food is the same as booze to an alcoholic… these drugs turn off the food noise telling you to eat… they let your bodies ability to decide when full reset to normal and give you a chance to form good habits without an imaginary food devil in your ear telling you to binge junk food… with good habits formed managing your now healthy weight at the end of a program of use is easier.

        • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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          12 hours ago

          “a chance to form good habits”

          And that’s the issue right there, without professional support the majority of people who have an unhealthy relationship with their food just fall down the same hole whenever they manage to get out of it, may it be through diet or medications or even surgery.

          Dietician training now puts a lot of focus on psychology because of that, giving someone a pill to make them lose weight won’t fix the childhood trauma of being abused that causes them to find comfort in food, if they stop the medication that is still there, that’s why the long term failure rate of diets is so high, they don’t address the why, just the what.

          • Cryan24@lemmy.world
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            9 hours ago

            Not everyone overeats due to trauma… I stress eat and have eat often out of boredom/habit. I’ve personally tried dieticians and found them to be snake oil salesman( not saying all are but the ones I have tried) who are trying to sell their weight management group programs or are indoctrinated in the ancel keyes food pyramid bullshit. Two things work for me, these drugs and a low carb diet.

            If I need services similar to those of a dietician, I’ll use an A.I agent.

            • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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              7 hours ago

              The dieticians you talked to aren’t medical dieticians then, they’re people who call themselves dieticians without any university degree. AI will just spew whatever bullshit it was trained on so you’ll probably be reassured that what you’re doing is ok because it was trained on/r/fitness or whatever instead of scientific papers.

              Eating out of boredom is an unhealthy relationship to food, I’m not saying all cases are out of trauma (holy shit lemmings have a hard time when things aren’t spelled out for them), I’m saying the underlying issue needs to be fixed to have a permanent solution, you said so yourself, you need the drugs and low carbs diet in order to fix the problem, stop both and the problem comes back.

              You didn’t fix your leaking roof, you applied a patch and it will start leaking again if you remove it.

    • mat dave@lemmy.ml
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      22 hours ago

      They also banned the knock off versions a little while ago since the name brands were no longer in shortage. WW had HEAVILY pivoted into trying to sell subscriptions to those and lost big.

    • Monstrosity@lemm.ee
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      19 hours ago

      There are other, cheaper options as well but they require consistent diet/exercise on top of the Rx, so I think they are less popular for that.