Ozempic/Wegovy May Be Causing Increase in Rate of Stomach Paralysis

I was going to post a new thread on this but you already posted this

Yes, there are side effects, that may be serious for few, but over 5 years it reduced major heart events 20%. That’s pretty remarkable. Cardiovascular disease tends to build up over many years. The fact that you can get a 20% reduction in just five years is pretty amazing. One would expect that number to get larger over longer periods of time.

Given our nation has an obesity rate of over 40%, and the massive health care costs and productivity costs it causes, why not have the government help pay for it over several years until they go off patent?

The next drug Monjouro is supposed to be even better.

 

So combine it with the Covid vaccine and you break out even

 

How do you lose 20 pounds of ugly fat?

 

Well depends on what you amputate

 

Well the 45 year old joke (when I heard it was answered with “cut off your head”)

 

Small steps. Find a way to exercise you enjoy. Of all things for me it became running. But recently I have gotten back into tennis. The usta has a great system for beginners to learn the game and enjoy competition against those who are their level. From beginner to pro. If you are in a small town could be tough. The hardest thing is time though. The thing I like about tennis is you can crush a workout in an hour or two if you want to go longer.

You nailed one of the biggest things already. Portion control!

Keep it up!

 

Agree with the point here.

I think the Mediterranean is easiest the way to go. But there is no magic pill and everyone is different.

Portion control. Healthy foods. Exercise. That is the ticket.

 

I found counting calories to be the easiest method for me. I can eat whatever I want but just need to stay within a certain calorie threshold. So I look for foods with high protein and high fiber. As of exercise, goal is 10k steps per day. I've hit that mark in 150 consecutive days and counting. I get a boost in calorie burning by running 3 days a week. Lost 24 pounds since January and have maintained for about a month now

 

this can work, you just have to stick with it, forever. I’ve lost about 30 pounds in a year, with the primary way logging everything I eat into my fitness pal and keeping calories somewhere between 2200-2400 with some moderate exercise.

I eat less junk and somewhat better diet than before but I’m not counting carbs or anything else and still eat some junk, but not a lot.

I went on a 3 week trip out of town and stopped counting and gained 5 pounds. The only way this is successful is if I keep doing it.

 

Denmark making so much money from these drugs that the flood of foreign currency is driving down interest rates there

How soaring demand for Ozempic and Wegovy is altering Denmark's economy | CNN Business

Denmark’s central bank has responded by keeping interest rates below those set by the [COLOR=var(--theme-paragraph__link-color)]European Central Bank[/COLOR], Pedersen said. That has discouraged foreigners from buying more krone and reduced the currency’s value, he told CNN. The Danish central bank has done so because it aims to [COLOR=var(--theme-paragraph__link-color)]keep the krone stable against the euro[/COLOR] in order to achieve the same level of inflation as in the 20 countries that use the euro.

 

Glad you are taking care of yourself. I wish you success in your weight goals!

 

Thank's murph!

Trying. Will be awhile until I reach my weight goal. A bit stagnated in that dept (somewhat by choice), but other than my malfunctioning thyroid, my health has vastly improved.

 

Did your GP tell you why they won't write it for you? Presumably your doctor friend is aware of that reason??

I have had a good experience with it, but if you're still making progress and have been able to establish better habits without it, maybe it's best to see how that plays out. I think my A1C got up to 11 or 12 at one point several years back. Metformin helped, but it was still in a bad range and had stagnated. Now with Ozempic and one metformin a day, it was down to 6.3 at last visit. I still have a lot of weight to lose but already concerned about what may happen if and when I go off the Ozempic.

 

Congrats, mrhansduck! Great to hear!!!

I understand that concern. When there are positive effects, we're afraid to lose them!

Can I ask your age and are you exercising regularly?

Yup, doc denied ozempic for me mainly due to my success in turning things around (lost 120lbs w/my latest A1C returning to <5.7/fasting blood glucose was 83). Did it through eating healthier, intermittent fasting, and cycling & weights 5x-6x a week. I'll be staying on metformin for the foreseeable future despite my improved numbers, but I have also been dealing with an autoimmune disorder for the past 3 years that is still causing me problems (including some new ones).

 

Wow. 120! Congrats! Yeah, I understand your GP's position given that information. If you hit an extended plateau, I suppose you can reconsider.

I'm in my mid forties and not doing any exercise at all right now. I am going back and forth between blaming ADHD for my procrastination - and then blaming myself for being lazy and just using ADHD as an excuse. I was an exercise nut and gym rat at points in my life. Never imagined myself being so unmotivated at this point.

 

Oh man, don't I get it! But please, don't beat yourself up. It's not about laziness. Procrastination is a human trait. Plus, it's just flat out hard to get going again--life so to speak gets in the way-- especially for those who gain a boatload of weight, ntm in a society that now seems almost designed to create metabolic disorders and obesity (I don't mean it literally, but then again...).

Sounds like we have some similarities....but let me provide a little of my recent experience. Might help you. Maybe some others. I don't know

I was in my mid forties when things went south (54yo now), going from 220 to 340 in nine years. Was a pack a day smoker too but quit in Jan 2020. As much as I wanted to reverse my bad health, my morbid obesity actually made it much harder for me--in my mind I wanted to lose the weight but even going for even a 1mi walk around my hilly neighborhood was a physical struggle that I didn't want to do. Add to it work demands/time bind/stress/bad sleeping habits etc...and I was fighting against a stew of unhealthy factors.

Thing is, I was also a gym rat, even worked in the fitness industry for nearly a decade, including running a health club, and I suffered from ADHD as a child that I know has had lifelong effects. Lost count of how many times I tried to get going again, constantly promising my wife and also my mother that I'd do it. Yet I was one of those folks that I used to laugh about when I worked in a gym--i.e. those who maintained a gym membership for years but never used it.

What finally knocked me and ultimately led to where I'm at now was the T2D diagnoses last March. Quite literally flipped a switch in my head when I got that phone call. Not kidding, right after the call, I committed to getting healthy above all else, which is to say, I made the decision to put my health above my career and to reorganize my life around this *journey*

Thing for me was to start slowly and to commit to some short term and long term goals. I set a goal of walking 1mi a day for the first month & cutting severely back on sugar & cheap carbs. Nothing more than that. But then progressively doing a little more in month 2, 3...e.g. getting back into the gym 2x a week, intermittent fasting, and then ultimately getting back on a bike.

It was the conscious commitment from the outset, setting short & longterm goals (and writing them down!) that got me here. But above it all, I took things slow and didn't push for or expect instant success, and I also committed to not beating myself up over *failures*

FWIW, there are enough naysayers and those who want to judge & belittle others for their obesity or sickness but don't undestand a thing about the human mind.

My only thought about those posers is to kindly **** off(!).

 

Great story and inspirational! That all sounds very familiar to me. Maybe our stories will resonate with others, too, so I'll share.

I was obsessed with working out as a kid and teen, putting myself through difficult workouts without anyone asking me to. Maybe that was a subconscious way of coping with mental health issues I didn't appreciate. I started drinking in college and law school, eating pizza, and not working out, but I always had friends and a great social network so it all seemed normal. Of course I put on weight (maybe 230 to 240 or something), but I didn't really care. I still saw myself as an athletic guy who was just out of shape. Being fat or lazy was never part of my identity at that point at least.

By the end of law school, I was so amped up for/nervous about the Bar Exam and what might happen after law school, that I started eating better, drinking less, and going to the gym several hours a day with my study group. I was taking creatine and the ephedrine drinks at the gym and caught the workout addiction again after a week or two of making myself nauseous during workouts and trying to remember why I liked it before. I got down to 188 over a few months, was benching more than ever and remember running six miles on the treadmill at a time that was so low it surprised me. I never liked running even when I was younger, but I finally experienced the runners' high everyone had talked about. I would get excited when the veins started re-appearing. During that period, I would get very upset if I had to miss a workout, and I was reminded me how addicted I used to be to intense workouts.

In the years following, I suppose the daily grind of the real world probably got to me as much as anything. I kept drinking way too much and eating poorly and got up to 274 as I recall. It one day hit me - ("who the hell is this in the mirror"?) - so I started taking an appetite suppressant through Medi Weight Loss and drastically cutting back on carbs. I got down to 225 fairly quickly- without working out then or at least not seriously. After that weight loss and stopping the appetite suppressant, I gradually ballooned up to my highest weight ever, which was about 354.

After I thought I was having a heart attack (I actually wasn't), I was kept in the hospital overnight and was diagnosed as diabetic. The cardiologist put me on the treadmill and told me my heart was fine, that I was lucky, and that my life had to change. Seems like that would have been a huge wake up call but no. I sorta half-heartedly started eating only slightly better and started losing very little weight, very slowly. But the hospital stay wasn't enough for me to get serious about it. Neither was my family's obvious fear, concern, and love. It's not that I didn't care, but I kinda didn't either. Something that was and remains very difficult to articulate to people who haven't experienced that mindset.

Lately, I feel like I'm trying to strike the right balance between being too hard on myself and not being hard enough on myself. It's all a very confusing and exhausting head game. Just last week, I started reading a book about ADHD, probably because my Vyvanse prescription couldn't be filled for a week and a half and I started feeling particularly bad emotionally and cognitively. I started thinking, "man I really am actually crazy!!" I was very surprised when I started a deep dive about it and started connecting some dots. I think I'm realizing that my ADHD is far more severe than I had realized, but that actually makes me feel better in a perhaps counter-intuitive way.

Anyway, probably TMI, but there we go!

 

Luckily my weight handn’t gotten that far but at 225 I was approaching an obese BMI. Now back at 195, which is the border of regular and overweight BMI. I’d like to get to 185 but I’m being patient about it.

Logging everything I eat is the way I keep control.

The motivation to get me to take it more seriously this time is not only did my cholesterol get too high, and my blood sugar get well into the pre diabetic range, but I got a coronary calcium test score of 159, which is moderate, but is worse than average for my age. Motivated me to lose weight eat better and start taking a statin. Also taking metformin.

 

Keep it up! We need your story told!

 

Everyone is different. And it is hard to fight the food industry. If I told you my diet in college I would be on deaths door at 43 years old. Especially with family history.

My personal trigger was 197 at 28 years old. I had already changed the diet but was not committed. And the exercise of basketball was leaving based on circumstances. Now I am 155-160…

I have never followed a specific diet. But the Mediterranean is the one I gravitate to as a guide with portion control. I absolutely cheat. I absolutely enjoy adult beverages. But I feel like I am in my 20s compared to those my age. It is not easy. Food tastes so good. And the food industry knows how to take advantage. When it comes to exercise…there is no better feeling than the cool down after a solid 6-7 mile run for me (shorter these days in the summer and it has been tough as the heat index has been crazy/worst summer I have ever run in). The accomplishment felt resonates with me. It may not for someone else. And that is what Mutz is getting at. But I am confident if you can find the exercise that resonates with you…it will be a game changer as part of the puzzle (and trust me it can be any sport at any time…I see many people that are technically overweight out playing tennis regularly and could beat me all day long).