Ongoing study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39780249/
Usual rant to news outlets: Cite your damn sources! (if they are public, which is the case here). This is a web page, not printed paper, web pages support links, links are not just for ads!
That's why when you click on a link you see 1/10th of the article, and then a video, and 3 other irrelevant inlays for other links.
Oh and the video auto plays with sound.
And every word in the article that is remotely a 'tag' links to other parts of the website.
Without sound in Firefox, I assume?
For details, see: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38921025
This diagram shows how Ozempic can produce these results, the various pathways from the GLP-1 receptor to reduce inflammation, protect neurons, and affect mitochondria: https://cdn.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/blobs/87c0/11202139/72234dd...
Edit: I mean in the theoretical “this targets the x receptor” kind of way, not in “we tested this and found no causal link” way.
This could just be false though, I can't recall where I heard this information. So do some searching before quoting me.
Another problem it seems to help with is addictive/impulsive behavior. This might lead to wrong choices in diet or activity.
I suspect that many many functions of the body are degraded or disabled by too much weight or wrong choices, and fixing those problems might let the body cure and maintain itself properly.
- [1] https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/why-does-ozempic-cure-all-d...
But you could speculate that obesity -> cardiovascular issues -> neurological damage, and that could explain things.
You could think of it similar to a study that shows something like "People who don't watch network TV have fewer strokes", which could be an interesting correlation, but the causal effect might be something more like "people who are more health conscious tend to avoid sitting down for extended waking periods" which ultimately has nothing to do with TV.
Glp-1 drugs inhibit drinking and compulsive behaviors and I'm not sure the mechanism of action is known
This is not true.
Ozempic appears to affect the brain's rewards system and its known to decreased cravings and urges for a range of unhealthy behaviors, from alcohol consumption and smoking to gambling and shopping to nail biting and skin picking.
Beyond that, Ozempic appears to lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes in overweight people well beyond what weight loss alone would explain. Maybe due to the above (less drinking and smoking) or another unknown mechanism of action.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/weight-loss-drug-...
There is definitely massive variance in the individual psychology/biology that leads to habitual alcohol overuse so I'm sure others might not have the same experience. But for me I'm pretty confident that breaking that deeply engrained habit of starting the first of 6-10 drinks at 6-7pm every day was what did it (without feeling like I was being forced to do something I didn't want). Which was pretty much impossible for me to even envision back when it was such a normal part of my day-to-day coping strategy for stress/depression/etc.
Although I always knew my drinking was excessive and terrible for my health, past my early 20s I was super high functioning and wasn't interfering with my job or life (other than holding me back and probably slowly killing me), and so being an "alcoholic" was never part of my identity (rightly or wrongly), which I kinda think ironically made it easier to just take the win and move on with my life without nagging self-doubt or fixation on whether my "addiction is cured".
But it's been about 2 years now and I hardly ever think about alcohol even when super stressed so something, somewhere in my brain changed thanks to tirzepatide and whatever the mechanism I'm grateful for that happy accident of a positive side effect!
But yes, it's very probable (in fact we already know) the drug is doing several things in the body.
Nothing about justice was implied, so lets say desirable and undesirable instead of good and bad.
