3 ms·

> After decades of work, researchers are finally seeing signs of success: a new generation of anti-obesity medications that drastically diminish weight without

> After decades of work, researchers are finally seeing signs of success: a new generation of anti-obesity medications that drastically diminish weight without the serious side effects that have plagued previous efforts. … > Nutter is concerned that people might start these treatments — whose side effects, such as nausea and vomiting, can be severe — to escape weight stigma, rather than to serve a true health need So the side effects aren’t “serious” — they’re just potentially “severe”? I’m confused.

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ceejayoz 4y ago
They're substantially less severe (and reversible, and more controllable) than the "your heart might stop" ones of the past generation of weight loss meds. (For example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenfluramine/phentermine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenfluramine/phentermine)
Izkata 4y ago
Leaking medical jargon and mixing it with regular usage: "serious" means needing medical attention, "severe" means hospitalization/long-term disability or worse. They seem to be using medical "serious" and colloquial "severe", which gives the the appearance of reversing their meanings.
derefr 4y ago
Subtly different subjects to those two sentences: the former is talking about the new generation of medications (i.e. the general concept of medications targeting this new receptor); while the latter is talking about one specific treatment (i.e. one specific medication, at one specific dosage, via one specific route of administration, at one specific interval.) The side-effects of this particular treatment "can be severe", but that doesn't imply anything about the side-effects of any other treatment (combination of medication, dose, RoA, and interval) for drugs in this class. Heck, they could probably fix the nausea/vomiting just by making a pill that contains an adjunct anti-emetic like ondansetron, like they do for cancer drugs.
gumby 4y ago
> to escape weight stigma, rather than to serve a true health need This is an unfair framing by the researchers For a while I worked in pharma on a drug program for a harmless* "ailment", nail fungus. What I learned is that some people suffer serious psychological consequences, such as marital issues or avoiding situations where they might be barefoot, like the beach. People who have it in their hands may avoid social situations all together, which is even worse and reduces life expectancy. We have a natural cultural bias in this regard. It's not just the phantom of the opera: in films the hero usually has a clear complexion and the villain often does not (not always to the extent of Darth Vader of course). Now we understand more about disease etiology this bias is no longer helpful, and is in fact destructive. Losing weight addresses true health needs (increased rates of cancer, cardiac issues etc) but weight stigma has important side effects as well. * The various fungi that attack skin, scalp, nails etc eat a particular shape of squalene which some people make (referred to unfairly in the medical literature as a "squalene defect"). You're not going to catch it from another person -- there's a good chance you're breathing the spores right now. Either you're genetically predisposed or you're not. And all it does is munch on a tiny amount of your body and causes no other problem.

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ceejayoz 4y ago

They're substantially less severe (and reversible, and more controllable) than the "your heart might stop" ones of the past generation of weight loss meds. (For example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenfluramine/phentermine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenfluramine/phentermine)

Izkata 4y ago

Leaking medical jargon and mixing it with regular usage: "serious" means needing medical attention, "severe" means hospitalization/long-term disability or worse. They seem to be using medical "serious" and colloquial "severe", which gives the the appearance of reversing their meanings.

derefr 4y ago

Subtly different subjects to those two sentences: the former is talking about the new generation of medications (i.e. the general concept of medications targeting this new receptor); while the latter is talking about one specific treatment (i.e. one specific medication, at one specific dosage, via one specific route of administration, at one specific interval.) The side-effects of this particular treatment "can be severe", but that doesn't imply anything about the side-effects of any other treatment (combination of medication, dose, RoA, and interval) for drugs in this class. Heck, they could probably fix the nausea/vomiting just by making a pill that contains an adjunct anti-emetic like ondansetron, like they do for cancer drugs.

gumby 4y ago

> to escape weight stigma, rather than to serve a true health need This is an unfair framing by the researchers For a while I worked in pharma on a drug program for a harmless* "ailment", nail fungus. What I learned is that some people suffer serious psychological consequences, such as marital issues or avoiding situations where they might be barefoot, like the beach. People who have it in their hands may avoid social situations all together, which is even worse and reduces life expectancy. We have a natural cultural bias in this regard. It's not just the phantom of the opera: in films the hero usually has a clear complexion and the villain often does not (not always to the extent of Darth Vader of course). Now we understand more about disease etiology this bias is no longer helpful, and is in fact destructive. Losing weight addresses true health needs (increased rates of cancer, cardiac issues etc) but weight stigma has important side effects as well. * The various fungi that attack skin, scalp, nails etc eat a particular shape of squalene which some people make (referred to unfairly in the medical literature as a "squalene defect"). You're not going to catch it from another person -- there's a good chance you're breathing the spores right now. Either you're genetically predisposed or you're not. And all it does is munch on a tiny amount of your body and causes no other problem.