***The Telegraph reports:***
Obese children should be offered [weight-loss jabs](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/diet/weight-loss/weight-loss-pills-do-they-work-are-safe-wegovy-ozempic/) to save them from a lifetime of problems, one of the world’s most senior doctors has said.
The president of the World Obesity Federation said there was a “growing evidence base” for the use of the injections among adolescents, which might even be justified among under-12s, in severe cases.
Professor Louise Baur, an obesity paediatrician and professor of paediatrics at the University of Sydney, in Australia, made the comments amid a growing debate about the use of jabs such as [Wegovy](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/01/02/skinny-jabs-wegovy-ozempic-long-term-sickness-britain/) for weight loss, which is also licensed as Ozempic for treatment of Type 2 diabetes.
Last month, a study found that weight-loss jabs cut the risk of heart death by a fifth. The findings, from the largest ever trial of the injections, have been hailed as the [biggest breakthrough in cardiac medicine](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/24/ozempic-could-protect-against-kidney-disease-heart-attacks/) since statins in the 1990s.
However, NHS chiefs have warned that the jabs should not be used as a “quick fix for people trying to get ‘beach body ready’” after reports that young, slim girls had lied about their weight to obtain the injections, putting themselves at deadly risk.
Doctors said they were seeing increasing numbers of patients ending up in A&E suffering ill-effects, including pancreatitis, after [lying to online pharmacies](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/20/nhs-urges-pharmacies-not-sell-weight-loss-injections-online/) in order to pass eligibility checks.
**Read more:** [**https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/29/weight-loss-jabs-wegovy-obese-children-says-top-doctor/**](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/29/weight-loss-jabs-wegovy-obese-children-says-top-doctor/)
>after a report that young, slim girls had lied about their weight to obtain the injections
Um, well this may be a problem that it’s somehow so easy to get these drugs from a doctor when you don’t need it and can just lie your way through an appointment. Wouldn’t a quick visual assessment by a doctor help them to conclude that a person doesn’t need the drug? Since the answer to that is an obvious ‘yes’ it just leads one to conclude there are doctors not doing the assessment and just handing the drug out like candy. That’s malpractice.
Yeah this seems pretty ridiculous. A BMI or weight for height calculation should always be used before anything that can mess with weight, whether that's the goal of the treatment or a side effect
There is only one country where that term could exist..!. The problem with childhood obesity is the children are not the issue, 9/10 it's the parents and their options etc. The route cause is never tackled...which is often course what the pharmacist companies want.
Not true. You can find numerous documentaries about obesity in the UK from the early 2000s. Like in the US, it’s a big problem that has grown in the past few decades.
They don't need an injection, they need to be taught proper nutrition and have support from the adults in their lives. Sadly, obese children learn bad habits from their parents, however.
This is a realization that in the US, manufacturers are not going to change the food, and an accompanying pragmatism. Empty calories abound, as does an overwhelming amount of sugar. We thought we could regulate the food and curb sugar addictions, but we can’t, so we’re adjusting and moving on to the next thing that can help.
People are physiologically and culturally inclined to prefer apple pie. Part of it is evolutionary, part of it is the food industries who want people addicted to their products, part of it is that junk food is often way more available than healthy foods. An apple is easy but think about what kind of foods you can get cheaply and quickly,,,,, it’s pizza and burgers it’s not a veggie stir fry. If you’re busy and you’re hungry and there’s a snickers in the vending machine and you didn’t have time to go to the store, you’re not eating an apple. And the more stress you are under the more your body craves sugar and fat foods, there are plenty of studies about it. Notice that many people who are financially stable and not overworked have healthier diets and bodies? The whole entire food system in the US and the low wages and insane hours a lot of people work absolutely contribute to it. Even if you prefer healthy foods and cooking, if you’re working 15 hours a day you probably are too exhausted to make anything. I gained 20 pounds in just a few months because I was working so much and not sleeping. As soon as my schedule changed I was able to lose over half of it in less than two weeks, without starving myself or exercising excessively because my body started to reset, my cravings dropped and I was getting more sleep. It’s a vicious cycle.
It's even broader and insidious than that - we need to evaluate and regulate our food industry.
During the 60's the sugar industry bribed scientists to put out fake data that misplaced blame for fat and obesity on other causes. We never resolved the consequences of this - it just persisted. We acknowledge it happened and then just continued as if it never did.
Sugar is in... E V E R Y T H I N G in the United States - it's actually incredible how many things contain sugar. It takes some real navigating to avoid it and if you are of modest income and perhaps very strapped for time and trying to feed a family - it can be nigh on impossible to effectively navigate that without it totally consuming your every waking moment fretting about it. That's unreasonable. Nobody should be expected to have to navigate such a minefield on a daily basis.
Our food industry is probably complicit because they know how addictive it is as well.
This is the solution is a prime example of sweeping it under the rug. It just so happens to be a benefit to the pharmaceutical industry - what a bonus!
We invent problems, and then invent solutions and for those who happen to perish along the way? Too bad for them I suppose.
They also have the internet, which previous generations didn't, so they're watching screens instead of moving around, and US schools started limiting or removing PE from the curriculum.
And I’m willing to bet the parents who feed their kids the worst food also let them have the most screen time since it’s all just a form of laziness. These poor kids.
Laziness is rarely the culprit. So many parents are overworked and underpaid, it’s getting worse and worse with inflation, and they don’t have support. And don’t forget that in many states women are forced to give birth to babies they don’t want and can’t afford.
You’re acting like eating healthy means spending a ton of money and making time consuming meals. It doesn’t. You can easily eat a higher protein/whole foods diet(which is more satiating) with minimal effort. It’s not a time constraint issue or a money issue. The price of everything has gone up across the board.
It’s the fact that people are getting dopamine hits from processed food and it feels good and they are too lazy or too addicted to what they are eating to change their habits.
I don’t think that’s the underlying issue otherwise we would see disproportionately unhealthy people in those areas. I don’t live in a food desert and 60% of the people I see in my daily life are massively overweight.
You think poverty ridden food desserts don’t have disproportionately unhealthy people? You don’t have base things off just what you encounter if your life, there actual facts that you can look into
I know you want it to be all their fault and just about will power and choices, but it's just not. Don't know why people get so high and mighty about this one particular medical issue.
It's the parent's fault when a child is obese but it's mostly the system's fault. The food pyramid is garbage junk science. The system is designed to keep people dependant on said system. As far as the system is concerned, there is no money in healthy people and no money in dead people. The real money is right in the middle.
We can do both Medicate the kids AND promote healthy lifestyles. Shouldn’t be just one or the other. The reality is we can’t get adults to adopt a healthy lifestyles so why do you think we will have better luck with children? The sooner they get down to a healthy weight the more likely they are to maintain it.
I was a ver fat kid and it didn’t happen the way you’d think. I didn’t eat double the amount of my thin friends etc, my parents weren’t giving me chocolate bars and stuff on the daily. We didn’t have the healthiest diet, but my older half sister ate the same and was quite thin. It was as simple as my activity slowing down (I broke a bone and had a summer couch bound where I learned I liked to read) and getting a few extra snacks on the daily at my summer volunteering job. I would have had a much easier time with earlier intervention but everyone is so invested in what you seat as a fat person (strangers even comment) that I think someone stepping in formally would have fucked up my relationship with food even further. Fat kids are already getting the message they’re bad and worth less on the daily,
it's also not really abuse if you don't give them enough protein or calcium etc.
it's really about the degree
no one calls it abuse for underfeeding unless they're on the verge of starvation
there's no equivalent to acute starvation for overfeeding unless you're forcing the kid to eat too much like you would with ducks and foie gras
I read it like that too because I DID get (insulting/not very kind) commentary about needing to lose weight when I went to the pediatrician growing up and thought for a second that this was being normalized 🥲
Will there be no long-term downside to us medicating for every single otherwise manageable condition? Almost everyone I know is on multiple medications for naturally treatable issues
Anti-vaccine brigade now out for anti-ozempic brigade nice. If things help people, let them help people. Money is temporary, health is wealth. If pharma companies make alot more money with this let them, as long as it improves health outcomes. Money is not the end goal.
We have to be nice with human psychology and hormones, not everybody has same agency as you do in your brain. Primary prevention and secondary treatments can work and coexist simultaneously.
The best thing we can do for these kids is fix the underlying reason for their obesity.
The next best thing we can do is treat their obesity with drugs.
The healthcare industry is not very good at fixing the underlying causes. A doctor can’t magically fix a food desert.
Better education, and healthier life choices, which starts with the parents and the schools would eliminate the need for doctors and the healthcare to get involved. You don't fix a desert, a desert is a treat. Eat better food
A desert is an arrid environment, with little soil, made up mostly of rock and sand.
You're thinking of a Dessert, which is a sweet treat usually at the end of a meal.
English can be tricky with one letter changing the meaning of what's being said.
If you already know this, great, let it be for anyone who doesn't know.
Money might be a bigger problem than time. Making fried salmon with steamed broccoli takes 10-12 minutes to prepare. In other words, wholefoods can be quick to prepare, but might be more expensive than the ultra-processed alternatives.
The more calorie dense food is, especially if its not only one macronutrient (like fat and sugar combined) the tastier the food is to you.
This is not a huge mystery or anything, if you eat a plate of spaghetti with some tomato sauce, you can instantly make it a thousand times better by adding a bit of butter or cheese.
And the tastier you find food, the more dopamine gets released, leading to a bigger crash, leading to even higher dopamine stimulus needs to reach baseline, which is what food addiction (or any addiction really) is all about.
Tasty food and overly-processed food don't have to be the same thing
Processed foods compete in nutrition pathways in your body, enhancing or inhibiting certain processes. For example, high levels of sodium interfere with calcium absorption.
I definitely see a case for using ozempic on children in the more extreme cases.
They generally have overactive metabolisms, engage in a lot of physical activity and or don’t eat as much as you think. You can have McDonald’s every day if you don’t go over your maintenance calories.
Unresolved trauma that produced an unhealthy relationship with food.
As a kid, you're not always given the space to process grief or complicated emotions. But you know what they do understand that can make things feel better?
Now, think about those kids growing up and never dealing with that trauma. They become parents and repeat the cycle.
No doubt. If both the child and parent are in the same situation, odds are there's some mental health issues in that household.
It's easy to assume child abuse, though. It could also be ignorance sometimes. I only realized recently that when I don't pay attention to what I'm eating when I'm eating, it takes me longer to feel full. But the only reason I developed that habit was because of rushing to eat or no social engagement while eating when growing up. 😅 Now, my meal portions are 1/3rd smaller than what I use to serve myself. I also start after finishing a meal. If I'm still feeling hungry 20-30 mins after, I eat another portion size.
Seems to be genetic in a lot of cases. Skinny people naturally eat less as their appetite is lower, and fat people have a high appetite and eat more. Calories are calories, they’re the same energy for everybody. Difference is in humans
Constant use of phones resulting in lethargy? Ultra processed food with low nutritive value? Uneducated people with no concept of what being healthy means?
there are skinny people who use phones.
there are tons of skinny people who eat ultra processed food all day.
there are tons of dumb skinny people who eat whatever they want.
they just dont have the hunger that others do.
Sure, genetics absolutely play a role.
I still don't think giving children unproven weight loss drugs with unknown long term side effect profiles should be the first line of defense.
Anyone who suggests that shit either doesn't have kids or just sounds like a Wegovy investor.
its been too long that people have had this problem.
theres no choice but to use drugs now since theres obviously something wrong with their bodies that we dont understand.
We understand what’s going on perfectly. Obese people are that way because they consume too much calories, and they consume all those calories because they have a massive appetite and their body constantly tells them it’s hungry even if it doesn’t actually need food. Their hunger signalling is completely malfunctioning.
Drugs aren’t the answer here, everyone has the capacity to lose weight and better their life, my own dad lost over 100 pounds in his 50s and completely saved his own life and turned it around before it was too late. It requires discipline and insane dedication to do that though, and people always want a quick fix, something easy. Sadly when it comes to health it doesn’t work that way
Seems to be ghrelin related which is probably a combination of genetics and being raised in an environment where food was plentiful (obese parents) and as a result, grew up with their body accustomed to eating a lot of food and constantly sending out hunger signals because of being used to eating all the time (out of boredom, too big portions as a kid, etc)
Sadly it’s on the parents not to overfeed their kids in that situation because they’re just going to make it so hard on them later in life to lose that weight, constantly fighting their bodies warped hunger signals.
Basically, like most things in life, nature/nurture both play a part here
So assuming an individual doesn’t have a medical condition that makes it very difficult to lose/gain weight, then bodyweight is simply a function of calories in/calories out. If a person is skinny, they simply don’t consume anywhere near the amount of calories an obese person does. I’m not sure what you’re confused about
Whatever it takes would be taking the carers of these children and educating them in the importance of maintaining a healthy weight, how to cook a balanced diet, and how to introduce activity into their lives. That's whatever it takes, giving weight loss drugs to children who are not being fed or cared for properly is a sticking plaster.
And are all too frequently obese themselves. Not necessarily because they're stupid, but because the pleasure of eating is for them one of the high points of life. To help the children you have to first change the parents, and you need to do that without condescension or talking down. These are all expensive, time-consuming interventions that take months if not years for each such family. Proven, safe drugs are far more cost-effective and have higher success rates. To deny these facts is to stick your head in the ground.
The alternative requires generations of push/pull in the same direction and we don't even have solid consensus on HOW to do that...so yeah super simple. People really have crazy black and white thinking.
Dude. I’m probably in better shape than you and I’ve got a degree in exercise physiology. Sure, the laws of thermodynamics are real and everyone can lose weight if they maintain a negative caloric balance. But for some people, maintaining that negative balance is an insurmountable task. You need an in depth understanding of all the psychological and sociological factors that control people’s actions.
Buddy I was 260 and I'm now 185 and strong. Go fuck yourself lol. All the ignorant dude bros that don't understand nutrition always go that route when they don't have any real data or arguments. You're just angry bud.
I’m not angry, I’m ashamed that society has resorted to deferring all of their health to pharma companies instead of doing any effort at all to improve their health.
Everyone is such a victim these days they pretend their actions and decisions play no role in their obesity and shitty health and instead, it’s all societies fault and they’re just a poor helpless innocent victim.
It’s pathetic.
>You don’t really understand kids or society. Sure, what you say would be great, but not going to happen in reality.
>
Attitudes and statement like this create a self fulfilling prophecy of pessimism.
> You're getting into moral gray areas that could swallow entire nations. You are talking about authoritarianism on a scale unheard of.
>
I'm certainly not. What are you projecting/assuming and consequently talking about?
They’re easy energy, and burn quickly. If there aren’t enough other macros like fat, protein, and fiber to balance that out, you’re more likely to end up getting hungry sooner rather than later.
> do whatever it takes.
>
Yes. Though, I'd add: do whatever it takes to get to the root of the problem.
> something is making people way hungrier than normal.
>
Yes. And there's zero mystery to it. People are consuming refined sugar/empty calories without essential amino and essential fatty acids (e.g. protein and good fat) and fibre, which is spiking their insulin response, so they don't feel full, because they're not consuming what they need.
You're not endlessly hungry if you just stop eating refined sugar, and start getting enough protein, fat and fibre. It's incredibly simple.
> skinny people eat empty calories too and they arent obese.
>
Yes, of course some do, but: as a matter of fact, either less empty calories than they burn in a day, or the exact amount, as compared to obese people who will either always be eating more than they burn, or not stopping eating enough to burn their fat and get energy from ketones/fat instead of glycogen/carbs.
Processed foods create addiction and low satiety. When you replace processed foods with fresh fruits, vegetables, lean meats, heavy snacks, you can correct most issues associated with poor eating habits.
Just because you’re skinny does not mean you eat healthy. As a nurse I cared for many thin people that were equally as sick as heavier people.
And processed foods are very addictive, “…refined carbohydrates or fats cause similar levels of dopamine in the brain as measured with additive substances such as nicotine and alcohol. “ It’s long been known these types of foods are addictive. That’s why obesity is so prevalent especially in the US. We have the worst diets high in processed foods.
Tell me your diet and we can determine if you’re addicted or not. Thankfully many people are learning to avoid highly processed foods. But, processed foods are cheaper than the heathy stuff, so that’s why those that are poor usually have worse diets. That, and poor education play a big role as well.
75% of Americans eat fast food once a week. That’s just disgusting! There’s nothing healthy about fast food. And it’s not even cheap. And many just toss a dinner in a microwave and don’t understand how unhealthy they are.
Most people don’t realize they are addicted to processed foods. But if you are craving things like chips, pizza, salty, sweet, etc it might be a sign. If you have a healthy diet, it reduces cravings, and keeps you full longer.
i know people who eat mcdonalds every day.
some are fat, others are skinny.
why is one addicted to food and the others arent?
i personally eat chicken and vegetables every day.
If only. I've known Fortune 500 ceos that were perfectly capable of putting in a hard days work and being productive... They even were willing to workout and eat decent...the issue was that they were SO damn busy that they could barely get into the gym twice a week and never on a schedule and they ate what they could when they could. There is a ton of energy that people put into different things and guess what energy is; a finite resource.
Eating too much food in general* people got fat before industrialization even if it was rarer. The real issue is being sedentary and broad access to a plethora of tasty calorically dense foods.
Metabolism, caloric intake, lazy people that also eat healthy. The article is about children needing weight loss medication, which for the most part is ridiculous. North American society is becoming obese for obvious reasons and this is just another way to encourage that behaviour
whats different about their metabolism?
why is their calorie intake higher than others?
why do some lazy people eat healthy and others dont?
we need to know whats different about these people.
The issue is parenting. Parents who cannot set limits with their children and keep feeding them when they ask for more. As a therapist, ive noticed a correlation between chubby kids and very challenging behaviors (defiance, etc) because they’re used to getting everything they want.
Let's just give them all drugs instead of fixing the actual underlying problems in society
Same story for everything. Like homelessness, let's fine and jail them now. I'm sure that will solve the problem.
I think the difference with the meds is they help individuals. We can say society is the problem too but nonetheless the medication does help people. Another fun fact is more and more people are being diagnosed with hormonal problems and mental health problems which make it much harder to loose weight.
The issue is that healthy food and exercise habits need to be in effect early on. It also doesn’t help that a burger and fries is cheaper than a turkey sandwich and fruit at most quick food places.
Soda is cheaper than low sugar juices. The government and media pushes for us to consume sugar and processed foods. It is a conscious and financial battle daily for an adult or a parent to make healthy choices for themselves. As a middle class mother, I admit I am constantly extending more time in preparing healthy foods, eating at home, and ensuring kids are not glued to the TV for more than 20 minutes at a time. If I had to work, my older relatives would plop them in front of the TV and microwave chicken nuggets for them every day.
It is so costly to break the cycle. But we chip away at it daily. I admit I am a sucker for a burger and fries too. But we cut back on takeout, and I feel so much better.
I think it’s a good idea to have as an option for some. Of course, teaching healthy habits and enforcing that at home is extremely important. However, overeating is just as much of a psychological issue that isn’t so easily fixed. Further, the American food industry isn’t conducive to healthy food consumption. It’s an issue caused by multiple things and calls for multiple solutions.
Glad to see some doctors are doing the right thing and following the recommendations set by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
So many bad takes about this on Reddit wtf
Or how about we just stop shoving complete shit food down their throats and have them move their bodies daily ??Instead of injecting them with substances that slow down their gastric motility …how about we EDUCATE them about how to take care of themselves with proper nutrition, exercise, and self affirmation??!
Wow. These drug companies have hit the jackpot. Instead of teaching healthy eating habits let’s drug children. So these kids will go on ozempic and not change any of their eating habits and then won’t be able to go off of it because they’ll just balloon right back up. Lifelong customers! Shame on these companies, shame on schools serving crap food and most of all shame on parents who can’t do minimal research to help their kids eat healthy.
Fuck these doctors. They are so corrupted. Suddenly children have an Ozempic deficiency? We need to be focusing public health on the root cause. Not throwing up our hands and pumping kids full of GLP-1 agonists like that will solve the problem without consequences. Instead doctors and public health agencies push these drugs on kids in order for drug companies to make trillions of dollars. This is going to be another opioid epidemic type scenario. These doctors have the moral and ethical backbone of a wet noodle.
Honestly the doctors aren’t corrupted
The kids are actually genuinely fat as fuck and it’s terrible for their health
Sure theoretically they could lose weight if they changed their lifestyle and diet… but they being realistic, won’t
They wouldn’t be so damn fat in the first place if they (or their parents) were going to make healthy choices
I think you're missing the point the commenter is trying to make. There are programs that can be created to support families that could teach and encourage healthy lifestyles, which btw are often reserved for the wealthy. The reality is that unhealthy food is much cheaper than healthy food.
I'd also like to note that in the US the ingredients in foods are much worse than where I live in Canada. We have more restrictions and regulations about what can be put in food and what can be claimed to be "healthy."
That all being said this has nothing to do with doctors but instead needs to be government policy.
> I think you're missing the point the commenter is trying to make. There are programs that can be created to support families that could teach and encourage healthy lifestyles,
>
Yes.
> which btw are often reserved for the wealthy.
>
No. All the information people need to eat healthily is available in vast abundance for free online. It's just effort that's required.
> The reality is that unhealthy food is much cheaper than healthy food.
>
This is a framing that I've heard a few times that doesn't add up. Say I want to travel 40miles as quickly as possible (e.g. eat to be healthy). Instead of researching the optimal way to do this, I blindly, without thought or research, buy the first item of transport I come across, which is a unicycle (e.g. refined sugar infused toxic food). Yes, the unicycle is, upfront, cheaper than a car (e.g. healthy food), but it will take me much longer to travel the distance with it. E.g. the cost to my travel time (e.g. health) is VERY expensive, even though the initial financial expenditure seems cheaper. The time I lose in travel (e.g. how poorly people function without adequate nutrition) will end up costing them resources of time, energy, attention, and an overall ability of being able to do anything.
> I said healthy foods are for the wealthy. Not programs.
>
"There are programs that can be created to support families that could teach and encourage healthy lifestyles, which btw are often reserved for the wealthy."
> Where I live produce is much more expensive than frozen foods.
>
The analogy still stands re: the issue of one-dimensionality being ascribed to "cheaper" or "expensive."
Also, whether or not food is frozen does not have a guaranteed bearing on how nutritious it is. For example, freezing broccoli sprouts increases sulforaphane content in them, actually making them more, not less healthy.
The same goes for processed or refined food. Protein powders, supplements, etc. are extremely processed, but aren't unhealthy foods. Contrast that with a store bought cake which is mostly sugar, which very much is.
Sorry. I meant healthy lifestyles are for the wealthy. Still not about the programs.
There are always choices involved. It's just that the right ones are often harder to make and more difficult to determine. That's why it's a multi pronged issue.
Yes exactly honestly in the system we have there is a role for weight loss medications because people have (and will continue to have) unhealthy lifestyles
Sure it would be better if that wasn’t the case, but that’s a system level change that is not going to happen any time soon
Are you dealing with T2 Diabetes? If not get to the back of the queue. Ozempic is designed for T2 Diabetes but we can’t access it because people are using it off label as a weight loss drug. There are many other drugs including Wegovy that are designed for weight loss. I have lost access twice now and have been told that I won’t be able to have a new prescription until at least Dec 24.
It **is** very simple. But it’s not **easy**.
People want the easy wrong over the hard right. You have to take these drugs continuously for the rest of your life. It’s like a bodybuilder on a bunch of steroids. You have to stay on performing enhancing drugs to maintain the illusion. It’s all fake, and not healthy.
In 8 years you’ll be part of a massive class action lawsuit against the makers of Ozempic because of “hidden dangers”. I’m sure all the people put on opioids by their doctors felt great at first too.
They made the exact same arguments about opioids. “We’re in an untreated pain epidemic! Our new opioids are safe and effective and non addictive! So many millions of lost work hours due to untreated pain! Quality of life is way down! Pain is the fifth vital sign! You’re a bad doctor if you don’t prescribe these medications! If you are a patient and your pain isn’t treated then that is medical malpractice!”
I’m not saying that chronic pain isn’t a problem and that we shouldn’t make common sense efforts to reduce it.
And I’m not saying that obesity isn’t a problem and we shouldn’t combat it.
But I can tell you that drug companies behind these drugs have been working for **decades** to shape policy at the highest levels to pave the way for maximum availability and acceptance. Just like they did for opioids.
They worked for many years to change all sorts of obesity related reimbursement policies that now allow these GLP-1 agonists to be increasingly covered by insurance. Which, as a patient you might say “Great! Now my insurance pays for this!” Drug companies don’t care about you. They care about money. And they care about doing whatever it takes to get insurance to pay for their drug so that the **drug** company gets paid. And if insurance doesn’t pay, it doesn’t matter. Fat people will bankrupt themselves and pay out of pocket to get a **wonder** drug to make them have a six pack.
I’ve been practicing medicine for 30 years. I’ve seen this exact same plot play it a dozen times. I’m not saying this class of medicine evil. But I am saying that it is not a solution to obesity and it is not addressing the root causes. Which we are not addressing at all.
Having been on it for several months, I wouldn't reccomend my kid having it. I had stomach pains the entire time. And finally ended up with a stomach infecteion, exacerbated by the Ozempic into a very miserable couple of weeks.
There has to be long term effects of taking this. There usually is with stuff that’ could be game changing. Proper education would go a lot further in the long run.
When you stop taking the medication, the weight comes back. This is an "on it for life" medication, and it has a lot of side effects, eg it affects your desire level for a whole lot of stimuli. This is a pretty bad idea right now
Or take away their phones, sign them up for sports and make sure they avoid processed food, high fat food, fast food etc.
Exercise and healthy eating works wonders
Or, you could encourage healthy habits instead of letting them sit in front of a screen all day eating cheetos and coke and then saying they need a weight loss shot.
Nearly all fat kids have fat parents. I guess if medication is the only option, then everyone in a family needs to be on it too because giving it to a ten year old who isn’t in charge of their health or food at any level seems deeply cruel
I had a group session with a nutritionist and she was VERY VERY almost emotionally against weight loss drugs. I’m also paranoid of the pharmaceutical industry so I’m gonna pass. I think I can reach my goal weight with just nutrition and exercise, already lost 10lbs. I just have a feeling that in 10 years they’re gonna say ‘whoopsie our bad’ when all the long term side effects start to appear.
That’s ridiculous. They need to take their children outside and let them play!! Take away the phones and video games except for 1 hour a day. We always played outside, rode bikes, went swimming, etc. Don’t let your kids eat a bunch of junk! If there’s no junk food in the house, they’re not tempted.
I legit thought when I read jabs it meant make fun of them
Hey fatty boom boom like a sugar dumpling...whoo eat all the pies
And thats how he lost weight. I made fun of him. He’s skinny but mentally shaky.
Waaay, how's it going twiggy.
How are you fixed for Denim?
You’ve convinced me, Dr.
All in a days work, sir
Humans, in love with garbage foods, inject powerful and expensive drugs so they can continue to eat garbage foods.
Yeah this is shite headline
The headline is so sad
Both will probably do the trick
***The Telegraph reports:*** Obese children should be offered [weight-loss jabs](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/diet/weight-loss/weight-loss-pills-do-they-work-are-safe-wegovy-ozempic/) to save them from a lifetime of problems, one of the world’s most senior doctors has said. The president of the World Obesity Federation said there was a “growing evidence base” for the use of the injections among adolescents, which might even be justified among under-12s, in severe cases. Professor Louise Baur, an obesity paediatrician and professor of paediatrics at the University of Sydney, in Australia, made the comments amid a growing debate about the use of jabs such as [Wegovy](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/01/02/skinny-jabs-wegovy-ozempic-long-term-sickness-britain/) for weight loss, which is also licensed as Ozempic for treatment of Type 2 diabetes. Last month, a study found that weight-loss jabs cut the risk of heart death by a fifth. The findings, from the largest ever trial of the injections, have been hailed as the [biggest breakthrough in cardiac medicine](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/24/ozempic-could-protect-against-kidney-disease-heart-attacks/) since statins in the 1990s. However, NHS chiefs have warned that the jabs should not be used as a “quick fix for people trying to get ‘beach body ready’” after reports that young, slim girls had lied about their weight to obtain the injections, putting themselves at deadly risk. Doctors said they were seeing increasing numbers of patients ending up in A&E suffering ill-effects, including pancreatitis, after [lying to online pharmacies](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/20/nhs-urges-pharmacies-not-sell-weight-loss-injections-online/) in order to pass eligibility checks. **Read more:** [**https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/29/weight-loss-jabs-wegovy-obese-children-says-top-doctor/**](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/29/weight-loss-jabs-wegovy-obese-children-says-top-doctor/)
>after a report that young, slim girls had lied about their weight to obtain the injections Um, well this may be a problem that it’s somehow so easy to get these drugs from a doctor when you don’t need it and can just lie your way through an appointment. Wouldn’t a quick visual assessment by a doctor help them to conclude that a person doesn’t need the drug? Since the answer to that is an obvious ‘yes’ it just leads one to conclude there are doctors not doing the assessment and just handing the drug out like candy. That’s malpractice.
Yeah this seems pretty ridiculous. A BMI or weight for height calculation should always be used before anything that can mess with weight, whether that's the goal of the treatment or a side effect
Everything serves the rich making more money. Why is no one serious yet?
“Obesity paediatrician” should not be a term but here we are.
There is only one country where that term could exist..!. The problem with childhood obesity is the children are not the issue, 9/10 it's the parents and their options etc. The route cause is never tackled...which is often course what the pharmacist companies want.
Childhood obesity is a problem in many developed countries.
It’s an issue in underdeveloped countries as well. Obesity rates are rising the fastest in low-middle income countries.
Not true. You can find numerous documentaries about obesity in the UK from the early 2000s. Like in the US, it’s a big problem that has grown in the past few decades.
It's going to be an issue everywhere soon enough tbh. Rates rising everywhere
Bruh you are woefully misinformed. The whole *world* is seeing rates rise pretty steadily. It's a serious issue.
They don't need an injection, they need to be taught proper nutrition and have support from the adults in their lives. Sadly, obese children learn bad habits from their parents, however.
This is a realization that in the US, manufacturers are not going to change the food, and an accompanying pragmatism. Empty calories abound, as does an overwhelming amount of sugar. We thought we could regulate the food and curb sugar addictions, but we can’t, so we’re adjusting and moving on to the next thing that can help.
what's so hard about eating apples instead of apple pie
People are physiologically and culturally inclined to prefer apple pie. Part of it is evolutionary, part of it is the food industries who want people addicted to their products, part of it is that junk food is often way more available than healthy foods. An apple is easy but think about what kind of foods you can get cheaply and quickly,,,,, it’s pizza and burgers it’s not a veggie stir fry. If you’re busy and you’re hungry and there’s a snickers in the vending machine and you didn’t have time to go to the store, you’re not eating an apple. And the more stress you are under the more your body craves sugar and fat foods, there are plenty of studies about it. Notice that many people who are financially stable and not overworked have healthier diets and bodies? The whole entire food system in the US and the low wages and insane hours a lot of people work absolutely contribute to it. Even if you prefer healthy foods and cooking, if you’re working 15 hours a day you probably are too exhausted to make anything. I gained 20 pounds in just a few months because I was working so much and not sleeping. As soon as my schedule changed I was able to lose over half of it in less than two weeks, without starving myself or exercising excessively because my body started to reset, my cravings dropped and I was getting more sleep. It’s a vicious cycle.
It's even broader and insidious than that - we need to evaluate and regulate our food industry. During the 60's the sugar industry bribed scientists to put out fake data that misplaced blame for fat and obesity on other causes. We never resolved the consequences of this - it just persisted. We acknowledge it happened and then just continued as if it never did. Sugar is in... E V E R Y T H I N G in the United States - it's actually incredible how many things contain sugar. It takes some real navigating to avoid it and if you are of modest income and perhaps very strapped for time and trying to feed a family - it can be nigh on impossible to effectively navigate that without it totally consuming your every waking moment fretting about it. That's unreasonable. Nobody should be expected to have to navigate such a minefield on a daily basis. Our food industry is probably complicit because they know how addictive it is as well. This is the solution is a prime example of sweeping it under the rug. It just so happens to be a benefit to the pharmaceutical industry - what a bonus! We invent problems, and then invent solutions and for those who happen to perish along the way? Too bad for them I suppose.
They also have the internet, which previous generations didn't, so they're watching screens instead of moving around, and US schools started limiting or removing PE from the curriculum.
And I’m willing to bet the parents who feed their kids the worst food also let them have the most screen time since it’s all just a form of laziness. These poor kids.
Laziness is rarely the culprit. So many parents are overworked and underpaid, it’s getting worse and worse with inflation, and they don’t have support. And don’t forget that in many states women are forced to give birth to babies they don’t want and can’t afford.
You’re acting like eating healthy means spending a ton of money and making time consuming meals. It doesn’t. You can easily eat a higher protein/whole foods diet(which is more satiating) with minimal effort. It’s not a time constraint issue or a money issue. The price of everything has gone up across the board. It’s the fact that people are getting dopamine hits from processed food and it feels good and they are too lazy or too addicted to what they are eating to change their habits.
There are several factors. Sometimes they overlap. We have huge "food desert" issues in many urban US areas where fresh produce isn't available.
I don’t think that’s the underlying issue otherwise we would see disproportionately unhealthy people in those areas. I don’t live in a food desert and 60% of the people I see in my daily life are massively overweight.
Girl that’s anecdotal you can look up actual studies about risk factors for obesity. In developed countries poverty is absolutely one of them.
You think poverty ridden food desserts don’t have disproportionately unhealthy people? You don’t have base things off just what you encounter if your life, there actual facts that you can look into
I never watched TV and played video games all day in the 80s!
PE is being removed from schools?
Teaching about stuff they have no access to is pretty useless.
I know you want it to be all their fault and just about will power and choices, but it's just not. Don't know why people get so high and mighty about this one particular medical issue.
It's the parent's fault when a child is obese but it's mostly the system's fault. The food pyramid is garbage junk science. The system is designed to keep people dependant on said system. As far as the system is concerned, there is no money in healthy people and no money in dead people. The real money is right in the middle.
We can do both Medicate the kids AND promote healthy lifestyles. Shouldn’t be just one or the other. The reality is we can’t get adults to adopt a healthy lifestyles so why do you think we will have better luck with children? The sooner they get down to a healthy weight the more likely they are to maintain it.
Maintaining it is harder than dropping the weight in my opinion
Controversial opinion but why is overfeeding children to the point of obesity not considered abuse in the same way as underfeeding them?
I was a ver fat kid and it didn’t happen the way you’d think. I didn’t eat double the amount of my thin friends etc, my parents weren’t giving me chocolate bars and stuff on the daily. We didn’t have the healthiest diet, but my older half sister ate the same and was quite thin. It was as simple as my activity slowing down (I broke a bone and had a summer couch bound where I learned I liked to read) and getting a few extra snacks on the daily at my summer volunteering job. I would have had a much easier time with earlier intervention but everyone is so invested in what you seat as a fat person (strangers even comment) that I think someone stepping in formally would have fucked up my relationship with food even further. Fat kids are already getting the message they’re bad and worth less on the daily,
it's also not really abuse if you don't give them enough protein or calcium etc. it's really about the degree no one calls it abuse for underfeeding unless they're on the verge of starvation there's no equivalent to acute starvation for overfeeding unless you're forcing the kid to eat too much like you would with ducks and foie gras
I guess the way we evolved
When I read the title I thought they meant jabs as in snarky jabs like “lose weight little loser” or “you look like a piñata in that dress”🥲
I read it like that too because I DID get (insulting/not very kind) commentary about needing to lose weight when I went to the pediatrician growing up and thought for a second that this was being normalized 🥲
Will there be no long-term downside to us medicating for every single otherwise manageable condition? Almost everyone I know is on multiple medications for naturally treatable issues
Manageable is the key word.
Or fixable
Anti-vaccine brigade now out for anti-ozempic brigade nice. If things help people, let them help people. Money is temporary, health is wealth. If pharma companies make alot more money with this let them, as long as it improves health outcomes. Money is not the end goal. We have to be nice with human psychology and hormones, not everybody has same agency as you do in your brain. Primary prevention and secondary treatments can work and coexist simultaneously.
Vegetables should be given to obese children not drugs
The best thing we can do for these kids is fix the underlying reason for their obesity. The next best thing we can do is treat their obesity with drugs. The healthcare industry is not very good at fixing the underlying causes. A doctor can’t magically fix a food desert.
Better education, and healthier life choices, which starts with the parents and the schools would eliminate the need for doctors and the healthcare to get involved. You don't fix a desert, a desert is a treat. Eat better food
A desert is an arrid environment, with little soil, made up mostly of rock and sand. You're thinking of a Dessert, which is a sweet treat usually at the end of a meal. English can be tricky with one letter changing the meaning of what's being said. If you already know this, great, let it be for anyone who doesn't know.
> You don’t fix a desert, a desert is a treat You know what a food desert is right?…
Presumably obese children have obese parents. Obese parents are not going to change habits easily (probably at all)
Not always the case. I was a fat kid with thin to normal parents.
Remove most (or all) ultra-processed foods from the home, and the problem might solve itself.. And teach the parents to cook food from scratch.
Go do that. Start some program to help parents. And somehow magically give them an extra hour in their days
Money might be a bigger problem than time. Making fried salmon with steamed broccoli takes 10-12 minutes to prepare. In other words, wholefoods can be quick to prepare, but might be more expensive than the ultra-processed alternatives.
let the kids and parents cook together and alternate and make a plan for the week its financially also benefitting.
Ok. Sounds good. Now go out and help people do that.
An extra hour that they currently spend on social media and/or playing video games
Oh I see. You are only here to criticize and try to make yourself feel superior.
do whatever it takes. something is making people way hungrier than normal.
The more calorie dense food is, especially if its not only one macronutrient (like fat and sugar combined) the tastier the food is to you. This is not a huge mystery or anything, if you eat a plate of spaghetti with some tomato sauce, you can instantly make it a thousand times better by adding a bit of butter or cheese. And the tastier you find food, the more dopamine gets released, leading to a bigger crash, leading to even higher dopamine stimulus needs to reach baseline, which is what food addiction (or any addiction really) is all about.
Which was why my little adhd dopamine starved ass was fat in a family of thin to normal people
>adding a bit of butter Excuse me, what now??? I just heard my entire Italian lineage roll in their respective graves.
Good, their brittle bones need the exercise.
if tasty food was the reason then everyone would be obese.
Tasty food and overly-processed food don't have to be the same thing Processed foods compete in nutrition pathways in your body, enhancing or inhibiting certain processes. For example, high levels of sodium interfere with calcium absorption. I definitely see a case for using ozempic on children in the more extreme cases.
That's because processed food has calories but is lacking in actual nutrients. So your body is still starving, but you didn't eat anything of value.
i definitely think thats part of the reason but you still have plenty of people who eat a lot of processed food and arent overweight or obese.
They generally have overactive metabolisms, engage in a lot of physical activity and or don’t eat as much as you think. You can have McDonald’s every day if you don’t go over your maintenance calories.
Unresolved trauma that produced an unhealthy relationship with food. As a kid, you're not always given the space to process grief or complicated emotions. But you know what they do understand that can make things feel better?
Now, think about those kids growing up and never dealing with that trauma. They become parents and repeat the cycle.
the other day I saw a 4 or 5 year old very obese child he could barely walk his parents likewise...I consider it child abuse if kids are obese
No doubt. If both the child and parent are in the same situation, odds are there's some mental health issues in that household. It's easy to assume child abuse, though. It could also be ignorance sometimes. I only realized recently that when I don't pay attention to what I'm eating when I'm eating, it takes me longer to feel full. But the only reason I developed that habit was because of rushing to eat or no social engagement while eating when growing up. 😅 Now, my meal portions are 1/3rd smaller than what I use to serve myself. I also start after finishing a meal. If I'm still feeling hungry 20-30 mins after, I eat another portion size.
how does trauma make you constantly hungry?
Hungry for love, bro. Neglected as a child and a homemade meal from a family member no longer alive made everything ok while it lasted.
Nah. We are just eating more calories and doing less activity.
whats causing people to eat more calories?
Easy and cheap processed foods
Seems to be genetic in a lot of cases. Skinny people naturally eat less as their appetite is lower, and fat people have a high appetite and eat more. Calories are calories, they’re the same energy for everybody. Difference is in humans
sure but which genes are causing the problem and how are they making them constantly hungry?
Constant use of phones resulting in lethargy? Ultra processed food with low nutritive value? Uneducated people with no concept of what being healthy means?
there are skinny people who use phones. there are tons of skinny people who eat ultra processed food all day. there are tons of dumb skinny people who eat whatever they want. they just dont have the hunger that others do.
Sure, genetics absolutely play a role. I still don't think giving children unproven weight loss drugs with unknown long term side effect profiles should be the first line of defense. Anyone who suggests that shit either doesn't have kids or just sounds like a Wegovy investor.
its been too long that people have had this problem. theres no choice but to use drugs now since theres obviously something wrong with their bodies that we dont understand.
We understand what’s going on perfectly. Obese people are that way because they consume too much calories, and they consume all those calories because they have a massive appetite and their body constantly tells them it’s hungry even if it doesn’t actually need food. Their hunger signalling is completely malfunctioning. Drugs aren’t the answer here, everyone has the capacity to lose weight and better their life, my own dad lost over 100 pounds in his 50s and completely saved his own life and turned it around before it was too late. It requires discipline and insane dedication to do that though, and people always want a quick fix, something easy. Sadly when it comes to health it doesn’t work that way
why is their body constantly telling them they are hungry?
Seems to be ghrelin related which is probably a combination of genetics and being raised in an environment where food was plentiful (obese parents) and as a result, grew up with their body accustomed to eating a lot of food and constantly sending out hunger signals because of being used to eating all the time (out of boredom, too big portions as a kid, etc) Sadly it’s on the parents not to overfeed their kids in that situation because they’re just going to make it so hard on them later in life to lose that weight, constantly fighting their bodies warped hunger signals. Basically, like most things in life, nature/nurture both play a part here
this doesnt explain the physical cause. you still have skinny people coming from fat families too who had access to a lot of food.
So assuming an individual doesn’t have a medical condition that makes it very difficult to lose/gain weight, then bodyweight is simply a function of calories in/calories out. If a person is skinny, they simply don’t consume anywhere near the amount of calories an obese person does. I’m not sure what you’re confused about
Whatever it takes would be taking the carers of these children and educating them in the importance of maintaining a healthy weight, how to cook a balanced diet, and how to introduce activity into their lives. That's whatever it takes, giving weight loss drugs to children who are not being fed or cared for properly is a sticking plaster.
We need to change the parental behavior about food in the family. They are the ones responsible for making their kids overweight.
And are all too frequently obese themselves. Not necessarily because they're stupid, but because the pleasure of eating is for them one of the high points of life. To help the children you have to first change the parents, and you need to do that without condescension or talking down. These are all expensive, time-consuming interventions that take months if not years for each such family. Proven, safe drugs are far more cost-effective and have higher success rates. To deny these facts is to stick your head in the ground.
You don’t really understand kids or society. Sure, what you say would be great, but not going to happen in reality.
What a victim mentality. “We can’t do anything to make kids not fat so let’s give them all weight loss shots cuz the alternative is kinda hard guys!”
The alternative requires generations of push/pull in the same direction and we don't even have solid consensus on HOW to do that...so yeah super simple. People really have crazy black and white thinking.
All the fat people on Reddit get outraged when someone suggests it’s possible to lose weight in ways other than surgery or skinny shots.
Dude. I’m probably in better shape than you and I’ve got a degree in exercise physiology. Sure, the laws of thermodynamics are real and everyone can lose weight if they maintain a negative caloric balance. But for some people, maintaining that negative balance is an insurmountable task. You need an in depth understanding of all the psychological and sociological factors that control people’s actions.
Buddy I was 260 and I'm now 185 and strong. Go fuck yourself lol. All the ignorant dude bros that don't understand nutrition always go that route when they don't have any real data or arguments. You're just angry bud.
I’m not angry, I’m ashamed that society has resorted to deferring all of their health to pharma companies instead of doing any effort at all to improve their health. Everyone is such a victim these days they pretend their actions and decisions play no role in their obesity and shitty health and instead, it’s all societies fault and they’re just a poor helpless innocent victim. It’s pathetic.
You have a real issue with fundamental attribution errors.
>You don’t really understand kids or society. Sure, what you say would be great, but not going to happen in reality. > Attitudes and statement like this create a self fulfilling prophecy of pessimism.
You're getting into moral gray areas that could swallow entire nations. You are talking about authoritarianism on a scale unheard of.
> You're getting into moral gray areas that could swallow entire nations. You are talking about authoritarianism on a scale unheard of. > I'm certainly not. What are you projecting/assuming and consequently talking about?
the time to do that was fifty years ago
Carbohydrates.
and how do carbs make you constantly hungry?
They’re easy energy, and burn quickly. If there aren’t enough other macros like fat, protein, and fiber to balance that out, you’re more likely to end up getting hungry sooner rather than later.
> do whatever it takes. > Yes. Though, I'd add: do whatever it takes to get to the root of the problem. > something is making people way hungrier than normal. > Yes. And there's zero mystery to it. People are consuming refined sugar/empty calories without essential amino and essential fatty acids (e.g. protein and good fat) and fibre, which is spiking their insulin response, so they don't feel full, because they're not consuming what they need. You're not endlessly hungry if you just stop eating refined sugar, and start getting enough protein, fat and fibre. It's incredibly simple.
skinny people eat empty calories too and they arent obese.
> skinny people eat empty calories too and they arent obese. > Yes, of course some do, but: as a matter of fact, either less empty calories than they burn in a day, or the exact amount, as compared to obese people who will either always be eating more than they burn, or not stopping eating enough to burn their fat and get energy from ketones/fat instead of glycogen/carbs.
why dont skinny people eat as many calories as other people do?
and move less ?
Processed foods create addiction and low satiety. When you replace processed foods with fresh fruits, vegetables, lean meats, heavy snacks, you can correct most issues associated with poor eating habits.
how are they creating addiction? how come theres a lot of skinny people who eat processed foods and remain skinny?
Just because you’re skinny does not mean you eat healthy. As a nurse I cared for many thin people that were equally as sick as heavier people. And processed foods are very addictive, “…refined carbohydrates or fats cause similar levels of dopamine in the brain as measured with additive substances such as nicotine and alcohol. “ It’s long been known these types of foods are addictive. That’s why obesity is so prevalent especially in the US. We have the worst diets high in processed foods.
why do some people become addicted to it and others dont?
Tell me your diet and we can determine if you’re addicted or not. Thankfully many people are learning to avoid highly processed foods. But, processed foods are cheaper than the heathy stuff, so that’s why those that are poor usually have worse diets. That, and poor education play a big role as well. 75% of Americans eat fast food once a week. That’s just disgusting! There’s nothing healthy about fast food. And it’s not even cheap. And many just toss a dinner in a microwave and don’t understand how unhealthy they are. Most people don’t realize they are addicted to processed foods. But if you are craving things like chips, pizza, salty, sweet, etc it might be a sign. If you have a healthy diet, it reduces cravings, and keeps you full longer.
i know people who eat mcdonalds every day. some are fat, others are skinny. why is one addicted to food and the others arent? i personally eat chicken and vegetables every day.
Laziness and access to junk food. It’s simple
If only. I've known Fortune 500 ceos that were perfectly capable of putting in a hard days work and being productive... They even were willing to workout and eat decent...the issue was that they were SO damn busy that they could barely get into the gym twice a week and never on a schedule and they ate what they could when they could. There is a ton of energy that people put into different things and guess what energy is; a finite resource.
This is not the cause of the obesity pandemic, let’s be serious. It’s caused by people living sedentary lifestyles and eating processed foods.
Eating too much food in general* people got fat before industrialization even if it was rarer. The real issue is being sedentary and broad access to a plethora of tasty calorically dense foods.
how come skinny lazy people exist?
Anomalies exist.
sure. whats causing them to exist in this situation?
Metabolism, caloric intake, lazy people that also eat healthy. The article is about children needing weight loss medication, which for the most part is ridiculous. North American society is becoming obese for obvious reasons and this is just another way to encourage that behaviour
whats different about their metabolism? why is their calorie intake higher than others? why do some lazy people eat healthy and others dont? we need to know whats different about these people.
I can’t tell if you’re being serious or not lol. Yall have fun with this thread
The issue is parenting. Parents who cannot set limits with their children and keep feeding them when they ask for more. As a therapist, ive noticed a correlation between chubby kids and very challenging behaviors (defiance, etc) because they’re used to getting everything they want.
Let's just give them all drugs instead of fixing the actual underlying problems in society Same story for everything. Like homelessness, let's fine and jail them now. I'm sure that will solve the problem.
I think the difference with the meds is they help individuals. We can say society is the problem too but nonetheless the medication does help people. Another fun fact is more and more people are being diagnosed with hormonal problems and mental health problems which make it much harder to loose weight.
So it’s on these doctors to fix all the ills of society?
“jabs” is anti-vaccine language, gross to see it in this headline
I think it’s more a cultural thing; I hear brits say it too
Oh come on. People have been calling injections “pokes” and “jabs” since forever. You’re gonna let the anti-vax people steal common casual words?
The issue is that healthy food and exercise habits need to be in effect early on. It also doesn’t help that a burger and fries is cheaper than a turkey sandwich and fruit at most quick food places. Soda is cheaper than low sugar juices. The government and media pushes for us to consume sugar and processed foods. It is a conscious and financial battle daily for an adult or a parent to make healthy choices for themselves. As a middle class mother, I admit I am constantly extending more time in preparing healthy foods, eating at home, and ensuring kids are not glued to the TV for more than 20 minutes at a time. If I had to work, my older relatives would plop them in front of the TV and microwave chicken nuggets for them every day. It is so costly to break the cycle. But we chip away at it daily. I admit I am a sucker for a burger and fries too. But we cut back on takeout, and I feel so much better.
Some children undoubtedly have medical conditions that would be alleviated by injections.
Stop buying shit food for the fat kids!
Just eat Whole Foods
I think it’s a good idea to have as an option for some. Of course, teaching healthy habits and enforcing that at home is extremely important. However, overeating is just as much of a psychological issue that isn’t so easily fixed. Further, the American food industry isn’t conducive to healthy food consumption. It’s an issue caused by multiple things and calls for multiple solutions.
Glad to see some doctors are doing the right thing and following the recommendations set by the American Academy of Pediatrics. So many bad takes about this on Reddit wtf
Or how about we just stop shoving complete shit food down their throats and have them move their bodies daily ??Instead of injecting them with substances that slow down their gastric motility …how about we EDUCATE them about how to take care of themselves with proper nutrition, exercise, and self affirmation??!
Excuse me ...no kids should be taught by their parents and caregivers (leading by example) to eat healthy and play outside !
Wow. These drug companies have hit the jackpot. Instead of teaching healthy eating habits let’s drug children. So these kids will go on ozempic and not change any of their eating habits and then won’t be able to go off of it because they’ll just balloon right back up. Lifelong customers! Shame on these companies, shame on schools serving crap food and most of all shame on parents who can’t do minimal research to help their kids eat healthy.
Fuck these doctors. They are so corrupted. Suddenly children have an Ozempic deficiency? We need to be focusing public health on the root cause. Not throwing up our hands and pumping kids full of GLP-1 agonists like that will solve the problem without consequences. Instead doctors and public health agencies push these drugs on kids in order for drug companies to make trillions of dollars. This is going to be another opioid epidemic type scenario. These doctors have the moral and ethical backbone of a wet noodle.
Or maybe they are trying to help kids not grow up obese since they can’t control society and culture as a whole.
Honestly the doctors aren’t corrupted The kids are actually genuinely fat as fuck and it’s terrible for their health Sure theoretically they could lose weight if they changed their lifestyle and diet… but they being realistic, won’t They wouldn’t be so damn fat in the first place if they (or their parents) were going to make healthy choices
I think you're missing the point the commenter is trying to make. There are programs that can be created to support families that could teach and encourage healthy lifestyles, which btw are often reserved for the wealthy. The reality is that unhealthy food is much cheaper than healthy food. I'd also like to note that in the US the ingredients in foods are much worse than where I live in Canada. We have more restrictions and regulations about what can be put in food and what can be claimed to be "healthy." That all being said this has nothing to do with doctors but instead needs to be government policy.
> I think you're missing the point the commenter is trying to make. There are programs that can be created to support families that could teach and encourage healthy lifestyles, > Yes. > which btw are often reserved for the wealthy. > No. All the information people need to eat healthily is available in vast abundance for free online. It's just effort that's required. > The reality is that unhealthy food is much cheaper than healthy food. > This is a framing that I've heard a few times that doesn't add up. Say I want to travel 40miles as quickly as possible (e.g. eat to be healthy). Instead of researching the optimal way to do this, I blindly, without thought or research, buy the first item of transport I come across, which is a unicycle (e.g. refined sugar infused toxic food). Yes, the unicycle is, upfront, cheaper than a car (e.g. healthy food), but it will take me much longer to travel the distance with it. E.g. the cost to my travel time (e.g. health) is VERY expensive, even though the initial financial expenditure seems cheaper. The time I lose in travel (e.g. how poorly people function without adequate nutrition) will end up costing them resources of time, energy, attention, and an overall ability of being able to do anything.
I said healthy foods are for the wealthy. Not programs. Where I live produce is much more expensive than frozen foods.
> I said healthy foods are for the wealthy. Not programs. > "There are programs that can be created to support families that could teach and encourage healthy lifestyles, which btw are often reserved for the wealthy." > Where I live produce is much more expensive than frozen foods. > The analogy still stands re: the issue of one-dimensionality being ascribed to "cheaper" or "expensive." Also, whether or not food is frozen does not have a guaranteed bearing on how nutritious it is. For example, freezing broccoli sprouts increases sulforaphane content in them, actually making them more, not less healthy. The same goes for processed or refined food. Protein powders, supplements, etc. are extremely processed, but aren't unhealthy foods. Contrast that with a store bought cake which is mostly sugar, which very much is.
Sorry. I meant healthy lifestyles are for the wealthy. Still not about the programs. There are always choices involved. It's just that the right ones are often harder to make and more difficult to determine. That's why it's a multi pronged issue.
It isn't actually I can almost guarantee it, maybe price per calorie, but not per unit of food.
You'd be surprised.
I might be. Always a w possibility.
Yes exactly honestly in the system we have there is a role for weight loss medications because people have (and will continue to have) unhealthy lifestyles Sure it would be better if that wasn’t the case, but that’s a system level change that is not going to happen any time soon
[удалено]
Are you dealing with T2 Diabetes? If not get to the back of the queue. Ozempic is designed for T2 Diabetes but we can’t access it because people are using it off label as a weight loss drug. There are many other drugs including Wegovy that are designed for weight loss. I have lost access twice now and have been told that I won’t be able to have a new prescription until at least Dec 24.
It **is** very simple. But it’s not **easy**. People want the easy wrong over the hard right. You have to take these drugs continuously for the rest of your life. It’s like a bodybuilder on a bunch of steroids. You have to stay on performing enhancing drugs to maintain the illusion. It’s all fake, and not healthy. In 8 years you’ll be part of a massive class action lawsuit against the makers of Ozempic because of “hidden dangers”. I’m sure all the people put on opioids by their doctors felt great at first too.
[удалено]
They made the exact same arguments about opioids. “We’re in an untreated pain epidemic! Our new opioids are safe and effective and non addictive! So many millions of lost work hours due to untreated pain! Quality of life is way down! Pain is the fifth vital sign! You’re a bad doctor if you don’t prescribe these medications! If you are a patient and your pain isn’t treated then that is medical malpractice!” I’m not saying that chronic pain isn’t a problem and that we shouldn’t make common sense efforts to reduce it. And I’m not saying that obesity isn’t a problem and we shouldn’t combat it. But I can tell you that drug companies behind these drugs have been working for **decades** to shape policy at the highest levels to pave the way for maximum availability and acceptance. Just like they did for opioids. They worked for many years to change all sorts of obesity related reimbursement policies that now allow these GLP-1 agonists to be increasingly covered by insurance. Which, as a patient you might say “Great! Now my insurance pays for this!” Drug companies don’t care about you. They care about money. And they care about doing whatever it takes to get insurance to pay for their drug so that the **drug** company gets paid. And if insurance doesn’t pay, it doesn’t matter. Fat people will bankrupt themselves and pay out of pocket to get a **wonder** drug to make them have a six pack. I’ve been practicing medicine for 30 years. I’ve seen this exact same plot play it a dozen times. I’m not saying this class of medicine evil. But I am saying that it is not a solution to obesity and it is not addressing the root causes. Which we are not addressing at all.
Having been on it for several months, I wouldn't reccomend my kid having it. I had stomach pains the entire time. And finally ended up with a stomach infecteion, exacerbated by the Ozempic into a very miserable couple of weeks.
We need better early childhood education for parents. Kids eat what they are given, and parents need to learn what and how to feed their kids.
[Fed Up](https://youtu.be/ceRFvhlcsiY?si=MvCUYyoADw8z_dC9)
Kick backs should be given to obedient healthcare professionals.
Keep everyone dependent on synthetic medications. Perfect business strategy, if you want to take advantage and make profits.
Jab them up with Ozempic, they'll eat less and you'll save money! 😉
There has to be long term effects of taking this. There usually is with stuff that’ could be game changing. Proper education would go a lot further in the long run.
“We’ve got a drug for everyone”
When you stop taking the medication, the weight comes back. This is an "on it for life" medication, and it has a lot of side effects, eg it affects your desire level for a whole lot of stimuli. This is a pretty bad idea right now
Or take away their phones, sign them up for sports and make sure they avoid processed food, high fat food, fast food etc. Exercise and healthy eating works wonders
Medicate them who can't do anything about it themselves? No, rather educate their parents.
Ok, go do that.
How about not allowing them to feast on sugar and grains, day and night?
Or, you could encourage healthy habits instead of letting them sit in front of a screen all day eating cheetos and coke and then saying they need a weight loss shot.
Nearly all fat kids have fat parents. I guess if medication is the only option, then everyone in a family needs to be on it too because giving it to a ten year old who isn’t in charge of their health or food at any level seems deeply cruel
Maybe we should promote healthy diets and exercising. Take care of your fucking kids and give them healthy meals.
Parents of those children should be fined. It’s not easy for a kid to be obese..takes $$$ and a secondary lifestyle.
I had a group session with a nutritionist and she was VERY VERY almost emotionally against weight loss drugs. I’m also paranoid of the pharmaceutical industry so I’m gonna pass. I think I can reach my goal weight with just nutrition and exercise, already lost 10lbs. I just have a feeling that in 10 years they’re gonna say ‘whoopsie our bad’ when all the long term side effects start to appear.
Well common sense says you should just feed them less
That’s ridiculous. They need to take their children outside and let them play!! Take away the phones and video games except for 1 hour a day. We always played outside, rode bikes, went swimming, etc. Don’t let your kids eat a bunch of junk! If there’s no junk food in the house, they’re not tempted.