Question
The holidays got me fascinated about my family, my faith… and the brand new weight reduction pills. Do they really improve your health?
Oh Boy, do they! The GLP-1 receptor agonist drugs you're referring to lower blood sugar in individuals with type 2 diabetes and powerfully reduce weight in individuals with obesity. FDA-approved formulations for weight reduction are semaglutide (Vigovi), liraglutide (Sexanda), and terceptide (Zipbound). They are given by injection.
Medicines lower blood sugar and weight in several ways: They make your pancreas release insulin, which lowers sugar levels. They block the motion of a hormone that raises your blood sugar. They decelerate the digestion of sugars out of your food. And they work on the brain to cut back your appetite. Not only that, GLP-1 drugs also calm inflammation, stimulate the production of antioxidants, help prevent DNA damage, and decelerate the aging of the body's cells.
But do these drugs protect you from disease? Among people taking medications for diabetes and obesity, evidence suggests that the medications increase the danger of developing kidney disease, heart attack, death from heart disease, death from COVID-19, and death from all causes by 15%. Save as much as 35%! They can also slow brain inflammation that has been present in Alzheimer's disease (see “Are some cases of Alzheimer's disease caused by infection?”), reduce the variety of flare-ups of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. can, and even reduce, addictive behavior.
As with any medication, some people experience unwanted side effects. The commonest are nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Currently, medications are very expensive and are usually not yet covered by some insurance firms for weight reduction. Finally, we don’t yet know the advantages or risks of long-term use of those drugs.
To make my point clear, Dr. Hebner was not attempting to cure any disease. He was just curious. Those of us whose tax dollars supported his curiosity are the beneficiaries. His seek for a known gene led him to the invention of one other unknown gene and—completely unexpectedly—to the invention of medicine that dramatically reduce the danger of several major diseases.
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