GLP-1 In The News… Again.

Each week more stories are published about the new weight loss drugs Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Zepbound and others (GLP1 receptor agonists). The momentum to prescribe these drugs is continuing to grow. These four articles give varying perspectives on the impacts of these drugs.

Sharon Osbourne on her Experience using Ozempic

The message here is important. Her experience of becoming addicted to losing weight, highlights what can never be tested in a clinical trial. These drugs work by suppressing appetite and slowing digestion. The mental toll that takes has not been discussed until now.

Weight-Loss Drug Wegovy Slashes Risk of Death in Some People with Heart Disease and Wegovy's heart benefits due to more than weight loss, Novo says

Both of these articles highlight the recent findings that these drugs have health benefits outside of weight loss, specifically related to heart disease.

Do GLP-1 Receptor Agonists Improve Cardiovascular Health Independently of Weight Loss?

While this article from Dr. Peter Attia throws doubt on their claims by asking the question whether the cardiac benefits were because of or separate from the weight loss experienced. As he explains, the research thus far does not indicate that the drug (GLP-1) alone, absent excessive weight loss, has any positive effects on cardiovascular health.

Sharon Osbourne on Ozempic

In a lot of ways this article highlights what can never be tested in a clinical trial. The mental impact of these drugs. As she points out, it became addicting to lose weight, and I fear that will be the case for many people, especially children.

Children are so impressionable. What they experience in their youth sticks with them. If the message they’re getting is to be skinny by not eating, then that sets them up for a lifetime of battling food disorders. It’s not hard for it to happen. I know because it happened to me.

When I was getting into triathlon racing I had an image of what someone who wins races looks like. Long and lean (skinny), with minimal muscle. I by contrast was 5’7” and 165 lbs of mostly muscle (my girlfriend calls me “dense”). I knew if I wanted to compete I had to be lighter (skinny). And so I focused on shedding the weight.

I mostly did it through exercise bulimia (attempting to burn more calories through exercise than I consumed). I didn’t see anything wrong with it. I was working out really hard to achieve a goal (to be competitive). It seemed positive. Until it didn’t.

Over time I became tormented with every food decision. What to eat. How much to eat. When to eat. I’d have to convince myself that what I just ate was okay, or that I could always make it up later with more exercise. There wasn’t a meal or snack that didn’t get questioned in my mind.

I eventually got down to 140 lbs. The weight I thought I needed to be at.

By the time I got down to that weight I was in the deepest of my weight loss addiction throws, and I was realizing that it was no longer (never was) healthy. The only way to end it was give up racing. So around this time that’s what I decided to do, and I stopped racing and training so intensely. It had been over 2 years of torture, and unraveling my self-imposed conditioning was not easy.

It’s been over 2 years since I stopped racing, and I’m only now getting back to having a healthy relationship with my food. From the outside in no one would’ve ever thought I had a problem. I hid it well.

I went through this in my 30s. I came into it with 15+ years of healthy, balanced exercise and diet routines and experience. And it still got me. What chance will a child have who grows up thinking not eating to be skinny is healthy? The answer, is not much.

If Obesity Is Treated Through Appetite Suppression, Then There's A Better Solution

I’ve been blown away with the amount of coverage that drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic, and more recently Mounjaro and Zepbound have been receiving. This coordinated promotion by the media was preceded by years of “experts” telling people that excessive weight gain, resulting in obesity and other chronic conditions, was genetic and out of their control. But now with insight into how this new class of drugs works, it’s clear that they were lying all along.

Wegovy and Ozempic work by mimicking the hormone glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1), while Mounjaro and Zepbound mimic GLP1 and another hormone called glucose dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP). Research discovered that these two hormones help to reduce appetite, slow digestion (making you feel fuller longer), and help regulate blood sugar by increasing insulin. The combination of these three things is the reason people are experiencing a reduction in body-weight of 15 - 20% while on these drugs.

To which I say, obviously.

It’s been taboo for so long to say that over eating and consuming excessive amounts of sugar will lead to weight gain. But it’s been made taboo not because it’s insensitive to the people who are struggling (42% of adults and 20% of children are obese) but because it would require our leaders to face a harsh reality. That too many Americans lack access to healthy food, and the food that is available to them is laden with sugar, sweeteners, dyes, and a whole host of ingredients I couldn’t even pronounce.

50 million Americans (15% of the population) experienced food insecurity in 2022, defined as a lack of access to adequate healthy food that allows you to live an active life. By that definition then the real number must be 2 - 3x what was reported.

It’s not a problem they want to admit nor solve.

The government isn’t interested in a healthy population, they’re interested in one that they and their donors can profit off of (this was exemplified during the pandemic when vaccines were promoted as the only way out, despite evidence to the contrary).

Which is why these weight-loss drugs have been embraced so emphatically. They present the appearance of “doing good” while making billions in the process.

Morgan Stanley predicts that this new class of drugs will be a $77 billion industry by 2030, drawing comparisons to drugs developed in the 80s to treat hypertension (high blood pressure), that rose to a $30 billion industry in the 90s (of note, the prevalence of high blood pressure has only increased since that time).

Ozempic and Wegovy are manufactured and sold by Novo Nordisk. From January to September 2023 Novo Nordik saw operating profits grow 37%, and 48% in the third quarter. They’re projecting sales growth for their next fiscal year of 32-38%, mostly fueled by the large demand for these drugs. The market cap (the value of a company) of Novo Nordisk now trumps the total GDP of Denmark, the country it’s based out of.

Others are looking to cash in as well. WeightWatchers recently spent $106 million to acquire a telemedicine company, Sequence, so they could have the ability to prescribe these drugs.

If it feels like a feeding frenzy, that’s because it is.

But like all drugs, these don’t come without side effects. The most mild of which are nausea, hair loss, gastric distress and reflux. In some animal studies the growth of thyroid tumors was present. More concerning is the prevalence of gastric obstruction reported by type II diabetes patients who have been taking the drug for more than one year. Gastric obstruction requires surgery and can be fatal.

Most patients who take these drugs report a 15 - 20% reduction in bodyweight for as long as they’re on it. Patients who stop using the drug regain most, if not all, of the weight, thereby creating a lifelong patient (music to drug maker’s ears). Meanwhile studies have shown that 40% of the weight loss experienced is lean mass (bone and muscle).

I shudder to picture a future world in which a whole generation of children grow up taking any one of these drugs (as is now being pushed on them). The health of a whole generation is being traded for profit. What will become of children whose lean mass is compromised and are never given access to healthy foods, or to learn healthy habits and why it’s important to be active?

These drugs provide cover for our leaders, and allow them to escape accountability and sweep the real issue under the rug: Lack of access to healthy whole foods has caused a majority of the population to turn to ultra processed foods (UPFs) and sugar for their calories, and these two things are slowly killing us.

It’s no wonder that the largest federal food program in the country, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), includes companies such as Kraft, Pepsico and Walmart amongst its biggest advocates (source: Why Snap Works, Christopher Bosso). These manufacturers and retailers prey on the less fortunate, making billions of dollars each year by selling UPFs and sweetened beverages to SNAP recipients (three person households making $32,000 or less per year), and they are not about to give that up.

The connection is undeniable. UPFs and sugar are making us sick. 67% of calories consumed by children now come from UPFs. Children as young as 2 are being diagnosed with chronic diseases once believed to be age related. Diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, heart disease, and diabetes. It’s reasons like this that the government, try as they might, can no longer ignore the issue.

A week ago the Agriculture and Health and Human Services announced they are going to look into the connection between disease and UPFs for the first time. The results of their research can impact national guidelines, including school lunches where Dominos pizza and lunchables are currently served (look for their lobbying campaigns to impact the results). 

This past year congress announced the Food Label Modernization Act. Its aim is to update food labels for the first time in 30+ years by making changes such as putting the label on the front of the package and restricting the use of the word “healthy” to describe a food. It’s not enough and we can’t get complacent in allowing them to think they’re solving the problem, because they’re not.

At best they are trying to appease us.

There needs to be a cap on the amount of sugar that retailers are allowed to put into their drinks (one account of a child with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease recalled her drinking a large Slurpee from 7-Eleven which contains 134 grams of sugar. 6x the daily recommended amount!). There needs to be tight regulations on the ingredients that go into these foods and how they’re formulated.

Attention also needs to be paid not just to what is in these UPFs, but what’s being stripped out of them. Vital nutrients, fiber, minerals and vitamins are all absent, and it is these deficiencies in part that are causing the problem.

We’re living in a time when they want you to believe it is more complicated than it is. It’s not. It’s exactly what it looks like. It’s a sickening display of greed, corruption, and incompetence at the highest levels. The only thing sicker than the greed in this country is our population, all of whom our politicians are willing to let suffer in exchange for profits.