Comment by loeg
9 hours ago
1. Yes, for many of the benefits of GLP-1s, it's plausible the mechanism is weight loss. But actually achieving significant weight loss with other therapies is incredibly hard, so I think GLP-1s get some credit here.
2. Hunger signalling isn't the only thing GLP-1s do, so no, we should not just assume every effect stems from weight loss alone. E.g. the blood sugar regulation that makes them very effective for diabetes is not purely about weight management.
Stress eating is also a thing, so if we’ve misunderstood a chemical pathway that we created an agonist for it can be a little of column A and a lot of column B.
We have failed blood pressure drugs that turned into boner pills. We have failed blood pressure drugs that reduce social anxiety. In the field of medicine we have a lot of people acting like we understand the body but we don’t know shit. It’s a bit like how physics was “nearly done” before relativistic and quantum physics were discovered. We still don’t know shit. And we are going to kill or fail a lot of people between now and when we can find our asses with both hands.
>But actually achieving significant weight loss with other therapies is incredibly hard, so I think GLP-1s get some credit here.
Citation needed! it's not actually difficult, all you need is calorie deficit and it has been routinely done by bodybuilders, athletes, MMA fighters and movie stars/models and thousands of ordinary members on r/caloriedeficit subreddit or other fitness subs!
> Hunger signalling isn't the only thing GLP-1s do, so no, we should not just assume every effect stems from weight loss alone
Ofc, they also result in an increased risk of gallbladder stones, bile issues, hair loss, and severe loss of lean mass, and we've got actual studies on this.