[MPSimmons]

At what point do we start to re-evaluate and re-test old assumptions about how much weight/caloric restriction impacts things? It seems unlikely that a molecule that slots into receptors in the pancreas also does something(?) to cardiac muscle [1], addiction [2], and now osteoarthritis(!).

This feels like a stretch to say that this happens independent of weight loss, and much more like we may have underestimated the impacts of weight loss on all of these other facets of life.

[1] - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12431743/

[2] - https://med.stanford.edu/news/insights/2025/04/ozempic-addic...

[rustyhancock]

Similar reports have been ongoing about Metformin (another medication used for diabetes that causes weight loss and improves metabolic profile).

It's the simplest explanation that we have been underestimating just how unhealthy we are?

There's a synergy here, eat healthier, reduce blood sugar spikes, lose weight. And you are healthier than each individual effect alone would cause.

Maybe we're just ruining our bodies even if we don't put on weight by eating sugary foods that spoke our blood sugar. Or big meals that constantly make us switch into sit down and digest mode.

I'm open to something more happening but this isn't just GLPs. It seems we have uniquely attacked our bodies in a way that diabetes is the ultimate result but the entire journey is exquisitely toxic to our physiology.

Maybe fasting helps. Maybe keto helps. But this is similar to people who live off McDonalds suddenly go vegan and become healthy, is veganism that great? Or was the alternative for you just so awful for you?

[ericmay]

> There's a synergy here, eat healthier, reduce blood sugar spikes, lose weight.

I'm not a doctor, this isn't medical advice, I'm just bullshitting on the Internet. I know this is a controversial topic and the science doesn't appear to be settled.

My understanding about how artificial sweeteners work in part is that they don't have a caloric impact but still cause an insulin response. I've avoided them as best as I can. Some people believe there's a free ride to be had with them - drink Diet Coke and nothing happens, but I'm not so sure that's the case.

If a sugary drink causes an insulin response, and perhaps that response is different of course, but if it causes an insulin response, and so do "sugar-free" drinks - we seem to be in a world where a large number of people are still dealing with issues related to sugar that they maybe aren't expecting. I just have a hard time believe there's a free ride with "sugar-free" drinks. This response probably leads to more cravings for so-called empty calories. A lot of people I find viscously defend "sugar-free" drinks which leads me to suspect there's something there too.

If you grow up with an awful diet, like I did, not centered around so-called whole foods and actual cooking I think you wind up in a vicious cycle of sugar, sugar substitutes, and other empty-calorie style foods that all feed the same biological addiction mechanism. You get fatter and fatter and no amount of exercise will work (you can't outrun a bad diet) and then add in our modern lifestyle and of course we're all pretty dang sick.

[thefz]

Exactly. Take 40Kgs off a person that weighs 150, and suddenly the cartilage in the joints get better. Go figure!

[kixiQu]

FTFA:

> By designing a precise diet-controlled setting to rule out the effect of appetite suppression and weight loss induced by SG, we demonstrate a weight loss-independent mechanism.

[estearum]

Hormones do a lot all over your body.

You're commenting on a paper that specifically found OA improvement without weight loss improvement...

[FeteCommuniste]

> addition [2]

I had heard about the effects on addiction but this typo had me thinking there might be some effect on arithmetic ability, too.

[MPSimmons]

sorry, fixed!

[MattGaiser]

Why is that unlikely?

There are other known molecules that are many to many like cortisol, testosterone, and insulin.

[RobotToaster]

There's GLP-1 receptors in the brain, they induce neurogenesis

[cthalupa]

If they're not losing weight they're not restricting calories. Energy has to come from somewhere.

They explicitly controlled for all of this.

[thefz]

You can't mention CICO in this forum, where people have a unique genetic disorder that makes them "extract more calories from the food" or "burn way less" than other people, barring them of any personal responsibility about what they put in their mouth.

[pertymcpert]

I mean...if you read the paper they control for that.