I want to hear what you think of the GLP-1s

Especially if you have used them. Eugyppius, one of the geniuses on this platform, had a remarkable piece today about his personal experience with them.

I’m working on a depressing piece (or pieces) about meningitis “vaccines.” It grows out of Sunday’s article on the gonorrhea vaccine failure (that trial actually tested a repurposed meningitis B vaccine called Bexsero, on the theory that gonorrhea and meningitis bacteria are closely related).

Spoiler alert: I cannot believe the meningitis jabs (at least the newer ones) are approved for human use. The clinical trial and safety data on them makes the mRNA Covid shot studies look like revealed truth from on high. Details to come.

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(Support my work investigating vaccines. Not demonizing them. Investigating them, following the data, and reporting the truth — whatever it may be. I don’t think ANY other journalist out there will actually consider and report on the pros and cons of every shot individually. I’m not bragging, it’s pathetic that this issue is so polarizing. But if my work is important to you, you know what to do:)

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But a piece today from the great German Substacker Eugyppius about the GLP-1 weight loss drugs grabbed my attention.

Over the last couple of years, many of you have asked me about the GLPs, obesity drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro. I have answered honestly. I don’t have a strong opinion. Long ago, I wrote a piece for the New York Times about exenatide, an Eli Lilly diabetes drug that is the forerunner of the modern GLP-class, and thinking, wow, people lose a lot of weight on this, I wonder if it could be a blockbuster. (It wasn’t. It was too hard to tolerate.)

These new drugs are far more effective at taking and keeping off weight, at least for a while, but I haven’t looked at the clinical trial data or the real-world evidence supporting them. And in general, I am deeply allergic to media hype about new medicines, whether pharmaceuticals or vaccines. In general, even when they work, their benefits are more modest than the earlier trials suggest, and side effects tend to emerge over time and grow with continued use. So I haven’t had much to say about the GLPs.

And as those of you who read him know, Eugyppius is every bit as skeptical about drugs (and politics, and climate change fanaticism, and everything else) as I am.

So when I saw Eugyppius was writing about the GLPs, I figured he’d roast them as a cheap, or not-so-cheap, pharmaceutical response to the obesity epidemic that we seem otherwise unable to control.

That is not where he went. Eugyppius has been taking grey-market retatrutide, the newest and apparently most effective yet GLP-1 inhibitor, for about a month. Here’s his description:

It’s been a curious experience, mostly because the food thing is not the half of it. The drug has subtly realigned aspects of my personality (generally for the better), and given me new perspective on some basic human struggles. I hope that doesn’t sound too dramatic but I’m serious…

I’m losing weight at the pace I wanted to… I’m never really hungry and confining myself to my set food schedule requires no effort at all...

In general I feel incredibly focused all the time – much as I do after my first cup of coffee in the morning, but this lasts all day. Alcohol is much less interesting to me, and the same goes for nicotine.. spend vastly less time dicking around on X, YouTube and other social media sites. I still have to use these platforms because they’re part of my routine as a blogger, but the stuff the algorithm feeds me just doesn’t hold my interest anymore. Oh, and perhaps most unexpectedly, I’m shopping less…

I’m doing more of the stuff I always theoretically wanted to do but got sidetracked trying to do before. Because things moving on screens has lost its attraction, I’m reading a lot more, and with luck this reading will supply material for interesting blog posts before long…

We evolved to survive in conditions of ruthless scarcity, but via our own ingenuity we have plunged ourselves into environments that provide nearly everything. For this reason we have long prized self-denial as a virtue… this struggle has been central to human culture for millennia, and now these dodgy once-weekly injections just resolve it entirely, at least in some people. That seems like a big deal.
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(Weight, down. Stock, up!)

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Yeah. It sure does.

That is… quite an endorsement.

But, as much as I like his writing, Eugyppius is just one guy. (Again, find the whole piece here, though it may be paywalled.)

So. I want to hear from you, in the poll and the comments:

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This one matters. Depending on what you have to say, the GLPs may become a major line of reporting going forward.

So vote — and if you are a subscriber, comment! (If you’re not a subscriber, you can change that here… you’ll also get to hear the podcast with Ben Ryan tomorrow!)

Speak now, or forever hold your waistline.