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Why are you writing off eliminating obesity as something purely cosmetic? Obesity itself is the most costly affliction by far in the west. It increases all caus

Why are you writing off eliminating obesity as something purely cosmetic? Obesity itself is the most costly affliction by far in the west. It increases all cause mortality, increases healthcare cost, and reduces outcomes for surgeries and rehabilitation after accidents. It reduces work efficiency, reduces lifespan, increases public infrastructure cost by requiring design for things like seatbelt extenders, large corridors for parking mobility scooters etc etc. It promotes food waste, increases energy usage... I could go on and on, but the general idea is that bigger people = bigger costs for everything. Im not sure why theres such a diataste for just letting fat people take a pill/injection to lose weight. The current advice of telling them "lose weight fatty" is clearly not working on a societal level. When GLPs and naltrexone therapies become ubiquitous we are looking at vastly reduced healthcare costs. There is also a good possibility that GLPs will kill the fast food industry, which means less fat kids, which means less fat adults.

thefz 9mo ago
The West =/= America
- wryoak 9mo ago
  The west = the western hemisphere, the new world, the Americas, from the Northwest Territories to Patagonia But why trouble yourself to distinguish anyway? 30% of the Irish are obese, 28% of the UK, nearly a quarter of Belgians and Germans. If over a fifth of your population is sick, does it really bolster your national ego so much that some other place is sicker?
  - thefz 9mo ago
    > does it really bolster your national ego so much that some other place is sicker? Does it really bolster your national ego so much that some other place is as sick as you?
    - wryoak 9mo ago
      I don’t want anyone to be sick, and I think that’s the point of these drugs, but there seems to be a lot of finger pointing rather than celebration
- volkercraig 9mo ago
  Its faster to type "the west" than "the developed world except france, bennelux, and nordics" everywhere else has obesity rates approaching or above 20%, which is a systemic catastrophe
  - thefz 9mo ago
    Italy, France, Denmark, and pretty sure about Croatia, Romania, er cetera are nowhere near 20%
    - volkercraig 9mo ago
      Youre right about croatia and romania, they are not near 20%, because they are at 35% and 38% respectively. Italy is 21%
  - mikkupikku 9mo ago
    You forgot that Asia exists. (Common mistake when making generalization about "the developed world".)
ycdeebs 9mo ago
I wouldn’t say people are writing off “eliminating obesity as something purely cosmetic”. Being obese is way worse than just a cosmetic issue. But a world where literally millions of people are on a “lifetime drug” to reduce their bodyweight seems to be exactly what the big pharmaceutical companies are hoping for. They will make tens of billions of dollars every year if this is the case. Hell, there are endless commercials where middlemen (e.g., Ro) are hyping these drugs, telling you they can get you prescriptions, etc. If there wasn’t HUGE money in it, this wouldn’t be the case. Yes, there are some people who have medical conditions that make weight loss very difficult. And these drugs can be a literal lifesaver for them. But for every one of them, there are dozens and dozens (or more) who simply make bad choices about food and exercise. Things that, if changed, would lead to a lifetime of improved health without any of the concerns or side effects of taking a drug forever. Our culture seems to be evolving to where it’s perfectly acceptable to translate “this is not easy” to “I can’t possibly be expected to do this, no matter how good it would be for me." I’ve been accused of “hating fat people” for this take, but it’s the furthest thing from the truth. I encourage people to actually change their lives in a sustainable, healthy way, because I care about them. It’s not about shaming them. Can you be “healthi-ER” taking these drugs than if you don’t exercise and eat too much and too many awful foods? Sure. But I’d prefer to see them EVEN healthier by treating their bodies better in every single case where that’s possible.
- ceejayoz 9mo ago
  > But a world where literally millions of people are on a “lifetime drug” to reduce their bodyweight seems to be exactly what the big pharmaceutical companies are hoping for. They will make tens of billions of dollars every year if this is the case. They (and other elements of our healthcare industry) already make a lot more than that on treating the side effects of widespread obesity.
  - xoa 9mo ago
    >They (and other elements of our healthcare industry) already make a lot more than that on treating the side effects of widespread obesity. This raises a thought I hadn't considered before: given how much money gets made off of obese people, it wouldn't be surprising if there would be significant commercial interests that would want to try to actively hamper anything that'd systematically reduce the overall population percentage of obesity. We've seen plenty of examples in the past (and ongoing) of perverse incentives. In turn, I wonder if it's actually a small silver lining that the drugs are so wildly profitable for the short term, in that the producers are incentivized to lobby against any efforts to legally hobble them. And then in the longer term it will all go off patent.
readthenotes1 9mo ago
"Obesity itself is the most costly affliction by far in the west" But if people stopped killing themselves in their 60s and 70s, we'd have gobs of people living until their 80s and the cost for dementia and Cancer Care would be ginormous.
LurkandComment 9mo ago
Where did I say it was cosmetic? At best you'll lose weight on it, but without forming good habits and lifting weights you're a candidate for muscle loss and related injuries (Example. Falling in tub and shattering hip). Once you're off ozempic, if you didn't form good habits, the weight gain is significant. You'll also put back on a lot of weight with a lower muscle mass. Again, I'm not sure where i said it was cosmetic.

thefz 9mo ago

The West =/= America

wryoak 9mo ago
The west = the western hemisphere, the new world, the Americas, from the Northwest Territories to Patagonia But why trouble yourself to distinguish anyway? 30% of the Irish are obese, 28% of the UK, nearly a quarter of Belgians and Germans. If over a fifth of your population is sick, does it really bolster your national ego so much that some other place is sicker?
- thefz 9mo ago
  > does it really bolster your national ego so much that some other place is sicker? Does it really bolster your national ego so much that some other place is as sick as you?
  - wryoak 9mo ago
    I don’t want anyone to be sick, and I think that’s the point of these drugs, but there seems to be a lot of finger pointing rather than celebration
volkercraig 9mo ago
Its faster to type "the west" than "the developed world except france, bennelux, and nordics" everywhere else has obesity rates approaching or above 20%, which is a systemic catastrophe
- thefz 9mo ago
  Italy, France, Denmark, and pretty sure about Croatia, Romania, er cetera are nowhere near 20%
  - volkercraig 9mo ago
    Youre right about croatia and romania, they are not near 20%, because they are at 35% and 38% respectively. Italy is 21%
- mikkupikku 9mo ago
  You forgot that Asia exists. (Common mistake when making generalization about "the developed world".)

ycdeebs 9mo ago

I wouldn’t say people are writing off “eliminating obesity as something purely cosmetic”. Being obese is way worse than just a cosmetic issue. But a world where literally millions of people are on a “lifetime drug” to reduce their bodyweight seems to be exactly what the big pharmaceutical companies are hoping for. They will make tens of billions of dollars every year if this is the case. Hell, there are endless commercials where middlemen (e.g., Ro) are hyping these drugs, telling you they can get you prescriptions, etc. If there wasn’t HUGE money in it, this wouldn’t be the case. Yes, there are some people who have medical conditions that make weight loss very difficult. And these drugs can be a literal lifesaver for them. But for every one of them, there are dozens and dozens (or more) who simply make bad choices about food and exercise. Things that, if changed, would lead to a lifetime of improved health without any of the concerns or side effects of taking a drug forever. Our culture seems to be evolving to where it’s perfectly acceptable to translate “this is not easy” to “I can’t possibly be expected to do this, no matter how good it would be for me." I’ve been accused of “hating fat people” for this take, but it’s the furthest thing from the truth. I encourage people to actually change their lives in a sustainable, healthy way, because I care about them. It’s not about shaming them. Can you be “healthi-ER” taking these drugs than if you don’t exercise and eat too much and too many awful foods? Sure. But I’d prefer to see them EVEN healthier by treating their bodies better in every single case where that’s possible.

ceejayoz 9mo ago
> But a world where literally millions of people are on a “lifetime drug” to reduce their bodyweight seems to be exactly what the big pharmaceutical companies are hoping for. They will make tens of billions of dollars every year if this is the case. They (and other elements of our healthcare industry) already make a lot more than that on treating the side effects of widespread obesity.
- xoa 9mo ago
  >They (and other elements of our healthcare industry) already make a lot more than that on treating the side effects of widespread obesity. This raises a thought I hadn't considered before: given how much money gets made off of obese people, it wouldn't be surprising if there would be significant commercial interests that would want to try to actively hamper anything that'd systematically reduce the overall population percentage of obesity. We've seen plenty of examples in the past (and ongoing) of perverse incentives. In turn, I wonder if it's actually a small silver lining that the drugs are so wildly profitable for the short term, in that the producers are incentivized to lobby against any efforts to legally hobble them. And then in the longer term it will all go off patent.

readthenotes1 9mo ago

"Obesity itself is the most costly affliction by far in the west" But if people stopped killing themselves in their 60s and 70s, we'd have gobs of people living until their 80s and the cost for dementia and Cancer Care would be ginormous.

LurkandComment 9mo ago

Where did I say it was cosmetic? At best you'll lose weight on it, but without forming good habits and lifting weights you're a candidate for muscle loss and related injuries (Example. Falling in tub and shattering hip). Once you're off ozempic, if you didn't form good habits, the weight gain is significant. You'll also put back on a lot of weight with a lower muscle mass. Again, I'm not sure where i said it was cosmetic.