This story gets wilder. One of the researchers who is helping design this new generation of addictive foods is on GLP-1!!!

Wild but true.
buff.ly/40QHDnk

@us.theconversation.com piece here:

theconversation.com/ozempic-and-...

Substack here:

ziyadalaly.substack.com/p/unpacking-...

Happy to do it. Reach out by email please (Gmail).

Thanks to Kristina Sauerwein for the press release and Abeeha Shamshad and Jessica Church for media outreach

Thanks to our reviewers, editors and all those supported us.

Link to press release medicine.washu.edu/news/study-i...

A lot of people who would benefit from GLP1 are not able to access them due to cost. Access issues to these meds should be solved.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

While I am enthusiastic about the potential for GLP1 meds in helping address the obesity epidemic, prevention must remain the foundation of our approach to health and well-being.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The beneficial effects on many conditions (e.g. Alzheimer’s) may implicate GLP1 in their mechanisms – and open new therapeutic avenues (e.g. GLP1 could play a role in mechanism of Alzheimer’s and may be effective treatments)

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

c. I am struck by the consistent effect on addiction disorders – it elevates the likelihood that obesity itself is a form of addiction to food (in excess of caloric need) and that addressing it effectively requires drugs that work on that pathway.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Some thoughts:

a. Obesity is a chronic disease – it is not lack of willpower
b. Treating obesity itself – likely has many downstream benefits beyond just weight loss

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

GLP1 increased risks of gastrointestinal disorders, hypotension, syncope, arthritic disorders,
nephrolithiasis, interstitial nephritis and drug-induced pancreatitis.

GLP1 reduced risks of substance use and psychotic disorders,
seizures, neurocognitive disorders (including Alzheimer’s disease and dementia), coagulation disorders, cardiometabolic disorders, infectious
illnesses and several respiratory conditions.

The results show that GLP1 have a wide-ranging beneficial profile but are not without risks.

GLP1 meds were associated with reduced risk of 42 (24%) outcomes and increased risk of 19 outcomes (11%).

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We included several controls - people on sulfonylureas, DPP4 inhibitors, SGLT2 inhibitors and people on usual care who did not start GLP1
We followed study participants for 3.7 years
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

So, we decided to do the comprehensive study!

We did a discovery analysis which comprehensively examined 175 possible health outcomes (leaving no stone unturned) in 215,970 people on GLP1 and more than 2 million individuals not on GLP1.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Why we did this study?

We saw that GLP1 use has substantially increased, and reports started to emerge about off-target beneficial effects. But realized that no one had comprehensively investigated effectiveness and risks of GLP-1 across all possible health outcomes

www.nature.com/articles/s41...