6 ms·

Personally, I’ve found that the best use case for GLP-1 drugs is reducing alcohol consumption. Just wanted to share that observation.

by tlogan 1y ago

trollied 1y ago
Interesting. I’ve not seen that mentioned before.
- teej 1y ago
  glp-1 inhibitors turn out to be better for alcohol and smoking cessation than any other drug we have. Truly a miracle drug.
  - sanderjd 1y ago
    But they aren't actually prescribed for these things (yet?), right?
    - bb88 1y ago
      Some people say it's an "off-label" use -- but that's up to the doctor and patient ultimately. But I think that's okay -- because the main purpose is weight loss and reduction of caloric cravings. Alcohol is a caloric craving. So it should be fine.
      - wkat4242 1y ago
        That wasn't their main purpose as they were brought to market. Even the anti obesity is an off label use. I don't think it would get me off alcohol though. I only drink to relax and be more social. Not because I enjoy it or the taste. But it means I drink rarely anyway.
        bb88 1y ago
        I can tell you that being on it, food to me just tastes different. So even if you didn't enjoy it, what typically happens to me anyway, is the off flavors get magnified. Like the easiest one is Costco Chili. It tasted vastly different when I was off of it than on it. I taste more of the bitter notes. The complexity is more off putting to me. I inject on say Sunday nights, and on Monday an IPA tastes terrible. But on Friday it tastes tolerable again. And this is a pretty consistent pattern I've noticed.
        kgwgk 1y ago
        > Even the anti obesity is an off label use. Off-label for Ozempic - the whole point of Wegovy is the “weight management” indication.
    - cjbgkagh 1y ago
      Reports from friends in the EU is that doctors are prescribing it for all sorts of things off label. Autoimmune, ADHD, OCD etc. I take it for ME/CFS and it works well for me, but I get grey market supply. I’ve been on a low dose of it for a few years now, I was already researching it when it became a craze, the mass adoption really helped dial in dose safety. A small percentage of people like myself are super sensitive to it and need much lower doses
      - nwienert 1y ago
        Very similar here - have autoimmune issue that it basically fixes, but am also super sensitive - never went above 2.5 which feels strong, often do half or less that.
- benbayard 1y ago
  I took Semaglutide for 6 months. Before Semaglutide I'd want to have a beer just about every day, but I'd only drink a few times a week. Once I started Semaglutide I completely lost the desire to drink alcohol. The same was true for food. I thought about food all the time. But once Semaglutide started I just didn't think of food. I had to remember to eat. Semaglutide in my experience really helps to eliminate addictive behavior in general, I believe. At least oral addictions (I'm not sure if it would help with e.g. gambling addiction). I never understood why skinny people believed that fat people have no impulse control until I took the medication. Once I had that impulse control it was so much easier to make long-term decisions.
  - pjc50 1y ago
    Yes. It turns out that food is addictive, like breathing. (More practical note: alcohol contains a surprising amount of calories, especially in beers and sweet wines and ciders. Cutting alcohol consumption also helps weight loss.)
    - serf 1y ago
      it's interesting to think though that a significant portion of alcoholics are just over-eaters in disguise.
  - codr7 1y ago
    I have a hunch that what it's really doing is regulating impulse control.
    - benbayard 1y ago
      I'm not sure if that's what's really going on, but in my experience it's definitely one of the things going on.
      - codr7 1y ago
        It would explain all the effects people are getting out of it. Basically suddenly being able to drop every problematic impulsive behavior on the list. I would be very interested in what happens with all their other impulsive behaviors, the ones that they might want to keep, that make them human.
CivBase 1y ago
This is definitely true. I was on some for a little bit and it absolutely killed my taste for beer. Luckily I'm not dependent on alcohol so that wasn't a problem. But now that you mention it I wonder how effective it would be at helping an alcoholic wean themself off it. That said, I didn't have as much problem with spirits and cocktails since they don't have as much volume and generally aren't as filling. There might be a danger of turning a beer drinker into a hard liquor drinker.
apwell23 1y ago
does it take away all the things you need to enjoy life ? 1. food 2. alcohol 3. gambling 4. smoking last three are extreme cases but general principle should still apply.
- aziaziazi 1y ago
  Assuming good faith of your question: Your body has other mechanisms to make you remember you need 1, like for water intake or breathing. Those mechanisms starts as soon as anyone birth and doesn’t need your intervention to become a need. 2, 3 and 4 however become needs as you decide (consciously or not) it is. Same with heroin, social media or basically any other think we call "addiction". Food obviously is a bit confusing as our omnivorous and resilient condition let us satisfy it in many ways : you don’t really need green vegetables, meat, sugar, beans, fish, nuts, muschroom, roots etc… to survive but stopping them all together will kill you. Some subset (of quality/quantity) keeps you in a better condition than others. Appart that condition effects, the way you that specific subset as a need has more to do with habits.
- ndriscoll 1y ago
  If the general principle were "things to enjoy life", you'd probably want to look at examples like 1. Finding love 2. Raising children 3. Helping others 4. Strengthening your body 5. Learning about the world 6. Participating in sports 7. Music (playing and listening) 8. Art (creating and appreciating) Does it make people less inclined to seek those things or mute their enjoyment? Things like recreational drugs (alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco included), gambling, and (excess or poor) food sound to me like "self-destructive behaviors" for many people, which generally are things that make life less enjoyable, and the people participating in them know that (but nonetheless struggle to stop).

Personally, I’ve found that the best use case for GLP-1 drugs is reducing alcohol consumption. Just wanted to share that observation.

by tlogan 1y ago

Personally, I’ve found that the best use case for GLP-1 drugs is reducing alcohol consumption. Just wanted to share that observation.

trollied 1y ago

Interesting. I’ve not seen that mentioned before.

teej 1y ago
glp-1 inhibitors turn out to be better for alcohol and smoking cessation than any other drug we have. Truly a miracle drug.
- sanderjd 1y ago
  But they aren't actually prescribed for these things (yet?), right?
  - bb88 1y ago
    Some people say it's an "off-label" use -- but that's up to the doctor and patient ultimately. But I think that's okay -- because the main purpose is weight loss and reduction of caloric cravings. Alcohol is a caloric craving. So it should be fine.
    - wkat4242 1y ago
      That wasn't their main purpose as they were brought to market. Even the anti obesity is an off label use. I don't think it would get me off alcohol though. I only drink to relax and be more social. Not because I enjoy it or the taste. But it means I drink rarely anyway.
      - bb88 1y ago
        I can tell you that being on it, food to me just tastes different. So even if you didn't enjoy it, what typically happens to me anyway, is the off flavors get magnified. Like the easiest one is Costco Chili. It tasted vastly different when I was off of it than on it. I taste more of the bitter notes. The complexity is more off putting to me. I inject on say Sunday nights, and on Monday an IPA tastes terrible. But on Friday it tastes tolerable again. And this is a pretty consistent pattern I've noticed.
      - kgwgk 1y ago
        > Even the anti obesity is an off label use. Off-label for Ozempic - the whole point of Wegovy is the “weight management” indication.
  - cjbgkagh 1y ago
    Reports from friends in the EU is that doctors are prescribing it for all sorts of things off label. Autoimmune, ADHD, OCD etc. I take it for ME/CFS and it works well for me, but I get grey market supply. I’ve been on a low dose of it for a few years now, I was already researching it when it became a craze, the mass adoption really helped dial in dose safety. A small percentage of people like myself are super sensitive to it and need much lower doses
    - nwienert 1y ago
      Very similar here - have autoimmune issue that it basically fixes, but am also super sensitive - never went above 2.5 which feels strong, often do half or less that.
benbayard 1y ago
I took Semaglutide for 6 months. Before Semaglutide I'd want to have a beer just about every day, but I'd only drink a few times a week. Once I started Semaglutide I completely lost the desire to drink alcohol. The same was true for food. I thought about food all the time. But once Semaglutide started I just didn't think of food. I had to remember to eat. Semaglutide in my experience really helps to eliminate addictive behavior in general, I believe. At least oral addictions (I'm not sure if it would help with e.g. gambling addiction). I never understood why skinny people believed that fat people have no impulse control until I took the medication. Once I had that impulse control it was so much easier to make long-term decisions.
- pjc50 1y ago
  Yes. It turns out that food is addictive, like breathing. (More practical note: alcohol contains a surprising amount of calories, especially in beers and sweet wines and ciders. Cutting alcohol consumption also helps weight loss.)
  - serf 1y ago
    it's interesting to think though that a significant portion of alcoholics are just over-eaters in disguise.
- codr7 1y ago
  I have a hunch that what it's really doing is regulating impulse control.
  - benbayard 1y ago
    I'm not sure if that's what's really going on, but in my experience it's definitely one of the things going on.
    - codr7 1y ago
      It would explain all the effects people are getting out of it. Basically suddenly being able to drop every problematic impulsive behavior on the list. I would be very interested in what happens with all their other impulsive behaviors, the ones that they might want to keep, that make them human.

CivBase 1y ago

This is definitely true. I was on some for a little bit and it absolutely killed my taste for beer. Luckily I'm not dependent on alcohol so that wasn't a problem. But now that you mention it I wonder how effective it would be at helping an alcoholic wean themself off it. That said, I didn't have as much problem with spirits and cocktails since they don't have as much volume and generally aren't as filling. There might be a danger of turning a beer drinker into a hard liquor drinker.

apwell23 1y ago

does it take away all the things you need to enjoy life ? 1. food 2. alcohol 3. gambling 4. smoking last three are extreme cases but general principle should still apply.

aziaziazi 1y ago
Assuming good faith of your question: Your body has other mechanisms to make you remember you need 1, like for water intake or breathing. Those mechanisms starts as soon as anyone birth and doesn’t need your intervention to become a need. 2, 3 and 4 however become needs as you decide (consciously or not) it is. Same with heroin, social media or basically any other think we call "addiction". Food obviously is a bit confusing as our omnivorous and resilient condition let us satisfy it in many ways : you don’t really need green vegetables, meat, sugar, beans, fish, nuts, muschroom, roots etc… to survive but stopping them all together will kill you. Some subset (of quality/quantity) keeps you in a better condition than others. Appart that condition effects, the way you that specific subset as a need has more to do with habits.
ndriscoll 1y ago
If the general principle were "things to enjoy life", you'd probably want to look at examples like 1. Finding love 2. Raising children 3. Helping others 4. Strengthening your body 5. Learning about the world 6. Participating in sports 7. Music (playing and listening) 8. Art (creating and appreciating) Does it make people less inclined to seek those things or mute their enjoyment? Things like recreational drugs (alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco included), gambling, and (excess or poor) food sound to me like "self-destructive behaviors" for many people, which generally are things that make life less enjoyable, and the people participating in them know that (but nonetheless struggle to stop).