IMO, it just shows that this medicine is needed and there’s a huge demand for it. Again IMO, not a good reason to stop covering it!!
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Oprah special starting now on weight loss drugs.
Just an fyi if you’re interested
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Watching!
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For those missing this Oprah Special on Shame, Blame and Weight Loss Revolution tonight on ABC, it will be streamed tomorrow, 3/19, on Hulu.
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The interviews were really interesting.
Some takeaways:
No one should go into taking the drugs thinking that’s all they need to do. It’s a multi prong process if meds, healthy eating, exercise. Lifestyle change.
17% of people who take it have side effects that make them quit. Often gastro issues.
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I also liked the analogy of holding your breath underwater, eventually you have to spring to the surface as your body tries to fight a calorie deficit.
I also liked that not everyone who drinks Alcohol becomes an Alcoholic.
Not everyone who is overweight has the ‘disease of obesity’ that’s why diet and exercise may work for some people but not for others.
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I think that is very true. But I also think that SOME of the people (including me once upon a time) who feel it is not working…. they could be successful with more knowledge, coaching. So it’s good to hear there is a broad approach.
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I agree, these meds shouldn’t just be blindly prescribed, people still need to diet and exercise but they are a very useful tool.
I have taken Mounjaro now Zepbound for 18 months, I see a nutritionist and go to the gym 3-4 times a week. MyPCP required monthly weigh ins and labs every 6 months and more often if any lab result was questionable. The drug comes in 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5 and 15 mg doses I never went above 7.5 mg and have taken a dose every 2-3 weeks for the past year to maintain. I have lost 107 pounds.
I feel I have done it safely with just the right amount of support and medical supervision. I’m one of the lucky ones that had no side effects other than feeling cold and slight indigestion for 1 day after each injection.
I no longer have joint pain, feel better and no longer need a knee replacement. I’m very thankful.
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I do intermittent fasting and on my fasting days, I’m freezing cold. Interesting.
Fascinating. I am always cold. I have done intermittent fasting too, and have lost my desired weight, but I am tired of always being so cold! (Note I have always been cold, grabbing sweaters and blankets when others are comfortable, but it seems worse now).
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Yikes. This is disconcerting! How healthy is intermittent fasting for your heart? | Fortune Well
It’s only recently that humans have had constant access to food, really the blink of an eye in terms of human existence. We would not have survived as a species if that abstract were true. I first got into intermittent fasting by reading Jason Fung, MD’s book on it. He has tons of scientific research included in his book and runs a clinic where his patients practice intermittent fasting. I’m not worried about that one study above. After losing 31 lbs and seeing my blood work return to normal, I’m fine with what I’m doing.
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Thats great to hear. I have been too, but that article popped up on my feed b/c we were talking about intermittent fasting!
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I don’t think we can say the article is false because we are surviving as a species. Life expectancy used to be 30-40’s
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Maybe, but that was almost entirely because of infant mortality, accidents, infectious diseases, and infections themselves.
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The study referenced in the abstract has not been published yet and it’s not clear if it has been peer reviewed. Additionally, the entire premise is based on the subjects’ self reports of only two days of eating. Two days, and simply described the hours that they ate, not what they ate or how much they ate. They are describing time restricted eating, not extended fasts that many people practice in order to address insulin resistance and diabetes. That doesn’t even approach the definition of an indication of causal effect. The fact that it has received this kind of media traction is somewhat interesting, quite frankly.
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Just wanted to second reading Jason Fung’s book. Really excellent if you are interested in IF.
The study was presented at the American Heart Association annual conference, and typically these presentations are prescreened before being accepted to be presented at the conference. A quick read says it had over 20,000 participants. That is no small number. They were followed for a median of 8 years (maximum 17 years). Self reported data has its challenges, but this is a large study group.
8-hour time-restricted eating linked to a 91% higher risk of cardiovascular death | American Heart Association.
That initial link says the participants were asked to recall what they ate over 2 days, but I don’t take that to mean they only ate that way for 2 days.
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I was talking to an Anesthesiologist over the weekend. She was saying that these drugs are the bane of her existence.
What she said is that how they work is delaying emptying your stomach. So that she is finding that stomachs aren’t emptying even with the normal prescribed fast.
And because these medications are so new, there isn’t good protocol on when to stop taking the drug before surgery. She said she’s had to cancel surgeries because the stomach is not empty.
It’s definitely something to consider and think about if there is an elective surgery or if you would need emergency surgery.
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I watched the program. I may be in the minority, but the whole thing felt like an infomercial to me. The segment on side effects was minimal- I would have liked to hear more. I agree with Oprah - obesity is an illness. Different approaches are needed. I wish this was a mini-series- too many individuals on for too short of a period.
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