Till Death Us Do Part

Here is more about the same weight-loss drugs, the ones based on synthetic GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1), that have been referenced in several recent posts.

Mention was made of the weight rebound factor, an alternative way to say “When they quit, they regained all the weight they had lost.” To some interested parties, it comes as a big surprise that the weekly injection regimen will last forever.

Seemingly, every celebrity on the planet has been interviewed about Ozempic or Wegovy — which brand they use and what their experience has been. Or maybe, why they don’t want to go near the stuff. For RealClearScience, John Mac Ghlionn wrote about Ozempic that it “must be taken for the entirety of one’s life.”

Podcaster (“Not Skinny But Not Fat”) and model Remi Bader took Ozempic for a while, then stopped, and her binge eating came right back. Even worse, she regained all the weight she had lost, plus an additional, equal amount

Fellow podcaster Jackie Goldschneider calls the drug “an eating disorder in a needle” and says,

It’s just going to be a massive number of people who gain a huge amount of weight… There’s going to be a lot of people with eating disorders. You start dropping massive amounts of weight. That’s so addicting. That’s how I spiraled into anorexia. You get addicted to this new body and to the attention that comes with it.

In other words, now we’ve got people who don’t mind being stuck with (drug of choice) for life, along with enduring nausea and vomiting, or taking more meds to control those symptoms — all to avoid the possibility of developing a deadly eating disorder if they quit.

Training doesn’t help

In a prominent publication, an article about one brand of weight-loss medication made it clear that a person has to stay on it indefinitely — unless the were only using it to “jumpstart” healthier habits. But apparently, that is a big fallacy. Unfortunately, that is not how this works. It isn’t a jumpstart, or a kickstart, or a pair of training wheels; that’s baloney. Contributing health writer Lisa Rapaport wrote,

And even if people manage to maintain the eating habits they developed while on Ozempic, their blood sugar might still rise when they stop treatment because the drug boosts the production of insulin, a hormone involved in blood sugar control.

Still, the manufacturers of weight-loss pharmaceuticals have an answer for every criticism. The drug was not meant to be training wheels, or a life jacket to keep sick people afloat until they learn to swim. Comparisons are made with depression and diabetes — both conditions where the patient must expect to stay on the meds in perpetuity.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Ozempic Rebound Is Real,” People.com, 01/30/23
Source: “Ozempic, The Atlantic, and the Dangers of Anti-Exercise Rhetoric,” RealClearScience.com, 03/29/23
Source: “Stars Who’ve Spoken About Ozempic — and What They’ve Said,” People.com, 05/01/23
Source: “5 Things That Can Happen After You Stop Taking Ozempic,” EverydayHealth.com, 03/07/23
Image by agressti vanessa/CC BY 2.0

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

FAQs and Media Requests: Click here…

Profiles: Kids Struggling with Weight

Profiles: Kids Struggling with Obesity top bottom

The Book

OVERWEIGHT: What Kids Say explores the obesity problem from the often-overlooked perspective of children struggling with being overweight.

About Dr. Robert A. Pretlow

Dr. Robert A. Pretlow is a pediatrician and childhood obesity specialist. He has been researching and spreading awareness on the childhood obesity epidemic in the US for more than a decade.
You can contact Dr. Pretlow at:

Presentations

Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation at the American Society of Animal Science 2020 Conference
What’s Causing Obesity in Companion Animals and What Can We Do About It

Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation at the World Obesity Federation 2019 Conference:
Food/Eating Addiction and the Displacement Mechanism

Dr. Pretlow’s Multi-Center Clinical Trial Kick-off Speech 2018:
Obesity: Tackling the Root Cause

Dr. Pretlow’s 2017 Workshop on
Treatment of Obesity Using the Addiction Model

Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation for
TEC and UNC 2016

Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation at the 2015 Obesity Summit in London, UK.

Dr. Pretlow’s invited keynote at the 2014 European Childhood Obesity Group Congress in Salzburg, Austria.

Dr. Pretlow’s presentation at the 2013 European Congress on Obesity in Liverpool, UK.

Dr. Pretlow’s presentation at the 2011 International Conference on Childhood Obesity in Lisbon, Portugal.

Dr. Pretlow’s presentation at the 2010 Uniting Against Childhood Obesity Conference in Houston, TX.

Food & Health Resources