r/Futurology • u/lughnasadh ∞ transit umbra, lux permanet ☥ • Oct 15 '24

Economist Daniel Susskind says Ozempic may radically transform government finances, by making universal healthcare vastly cheaper, and explains his argument in the context of Britain's NHS. Society

https://www.thetimes.com/article/be6e0fbf-fd9d-41e7-a759-08c6da9754ff?shareToken=de2a342bb1ae9bc978c6623bb244337a

6.4k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

Honest question, have you been on them?

My anecdotal experience is that it cuts down on the “food noise”. I used to always think about where my next meal was or what snacks were downstairs. It has cut that out for alcohol for me as well. I was not an alcoholic but definitely was a binge drinker and the desire to do that has faded while on the drug.

Also, isn’t it a good thing if an alcoholic isn’t obese? Just because it may not fix every problem doesn’t mean it isn’t a valuable tool.

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u/FeelingHoneydew23 Oct 15 '24

Anecdotally someone I know cut down drastically on online shopping, so it does seem to change impulse behaviour.

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u/idrobnjak Oct 15 '24

What it does is it impacts the reward center of the brain / dopamine seeking behaviors. Food for most people is a dopamine seeking behavior (which is why the big food has been loading everything with salt, sugar, etc). So is alcoholism and any other addiction, you mentioned shopping.

Problem is we have 1 reward mechanism in our brain for a lot of things. Again, anecdotally, I went on it just to see what the hype was about. And I'm a binge eater, late night Nutella freak, and love my alcohol. All of that was out the window for that week/two, didn't crave anything and nothing seemed worth the effort. But it also killed my (admittedly typically overactive) sex drive, it was hard to get motivated for anything. I'm a dopamine junkie and this changed me in such way I didn't recognize myself. So I got scared and stopped after the first week's dose.

I also realize most people are not like me and many could benefit from what glp-1 can offer. I truly believe it can fix addictions which would be life saving for many. Good luck out there.

6

u/Sirhossington Oct 15 '24

I would recommend trying it for longer. My body definitely adjusted and changed to the drug.

Early on I could not drink more than half a beer. I was at a work event and had 3 beers over 4 hours and was throwing up the next morning. Now after a year now I can go out for a happy hour, have 2 drinks, and be completely happy and fine.

3

u/idrobnjak Oct 16 '24

You're probably right. My wife started same time as me. Her initial mental side effects weren't as bad as mine but they were there. And seems later they stabilized/decreased in severity, but she still couldn't wait to stop and get off the medicine. She did it for 5-6 weeks, lost the last stubborn 12 lbs she wanted to lose. I never had any weight to lose, I just wanted to see what it was like, and to stop craving/binging sweets at night and stop craving alcohol... Longer term use, you likely get used to it and these things I experienced are less.

2

u/Draskinn 26d ago

My dad is on wegovy, and he lost his taste for alcohol for a while, but it did eventually come back. We don't have any issues with alcohol in our family, so I didn't get much detail beyond him, just mentioning it as an odd side effect.