Originally published via American Thinker: I get a veritable avalanche of breathless complaints from (probably obese) individuals when I write about semaglutide (marketed as Wegovy and Ozempic in the United States). Their objections tend to go along the lines of "but
I was on the weight loss roller coaster for about a decade before I stumbled upon the most incredibly simple "food plan" imaginable. Basically, you stay away from pretty much anything that is even minimally processed, complex carbs, trans fats, seed oils, and most importantly anything that has wheat, corn, flour or SUGAR.
They call it a "food plan" rather than a "diet" because you're never hungry. The most common complaint initially is that it's simply too much food, but eventually the stomach expands to accommodate the high volume of food that is dispatched to the stomach every day.
I lost 150 lbs. in less than seven months and i did it without ever doing ANY exercise whatsoever. Now I ride my bike, play disc golf, run wind sprints, swim and screw like I'm seventeen again without any drugs.
I was taking over 8 prescription drugs just to keep my heart pumping relatively well. I had a standing 15 year diagnosis for congestive heart failure. My cardiologist was dumbfounded after seeing my latest EKG and echocardiogram which indicated that I no longer had congestive heart failure. He still wanted me to continue to take a couple of medications, but I eventually weened myself off of them as well and haven't seen any cardiologists in over a decade. I haven't been cardioverted in over a decade either.
Food was killing me and changing my diet has literally saved my life. It's really that simple, and if you grow a few things in your garden, it's quite a bit cheaper to eat healthy than to buy prepackaged crap from the supermarket.
I'm almost 60 years old and in better condition than I was in my early 30's. The body is quite resilient if given half a chance.
Everyone wants an easy solution. Truth be told, the mechanisms for weight loss and improved body composition are quite simple. While there are multiple approaches for weight loss, the most reliable one (for me) was low-carb with time restriction.
As for fitness, almost anything will do. For me, a combination of daily yoga and calisthenics does the trick. Like I said, it’s remarkably simple.
The real problem is the will. Just as in smoking, where you merely stop putting cigarettes in your mouth. Easy, right?
Any approach that bypasses the conquering of your will is doomed to failure. That’s because your will needs to be mastered. Herein lies the difficulty. The good news? Small wins beget more wins, and the wins get bigger and bigger.
Conquering your will is the miracle. It pay’s dividends in every area of your life. Cheat there at your own peril.
Now, I have two issues with this - one is that it is sounding as if the cure might be worse than the disease, especially as your PJMedia article identified cognitive impairment as a side-effect (!); the other is that I believe that the theoretical basis for the research may need revisiting. The assumption that has been made, certainly since I last worked as a nurse in 2011, is that Alzheimer's might be a metabolic issue, hence the use of an anti-diabetes drug. However, hypoglycaemic medications also have antibiotic effects - whether this is intrinsic, or is simply because they target high blood sugar levels which would otherwise paralyse your immune response. Some years back (c.2015), I came across a very small piece of research, where the brains of six people who had had Alzheimer's were examined, and all six were found to test positive to gram negative bacteria. Granted, a very small piece of research, small enough so that the result should mainly trigger replication, rather than informing clinical intervention, but still a possible pointer to what should be being investigated. Unfortunately, the new website for the Pilgrim's Friend Society, which was where I found this article originally, does not appear to have the same archiving facility that the old one did, so I am unable to provide a citation. However, this more recent piece of research also appears to highlight a pathogenic process
When I discovered the original piece of research, and made the connection that I did with the antibiotic properties of hypoglycaemic agents, I contacted the hospital that was conducting the liraglutide trials. However, given that my background was nursing, not medicine, and that I was no longer practising, I did not have the necessary professional standing to warrant being taken seriously.
My reason for this post is: (1) If this family of drugs has serious side-effects, then we are no longer talking about administering something that is effective and merely misunderstanding the mechanism by which it works - there is a serious cost-benefit appraisal that needs doing; (2) Given the new piece of research, there could be other agents that are more effective, and ultimately a vaccine (though heaven forbid that it is developed by the COVID lot!); in the meantime, people are potentially being given false hope (or not being treated at all if they are in the wrong bit of a double-blind trial). And, of course, I'm hoping that a journalist might be more effective than I was in raising this issue, if you conclude that it warrants an article or two.
I was on the weight loss roller coaster for about a decade before I stumbled upon the most incredibly simple "food plan" imaginable. Basically, you stay away from pretty much anything that is even minimally processed, complex carbs, trans fats, seed oils, and most importantly anything that has wheat, corn, flour or SUGAR.
They call it a "food plan" rather than a "diet" because you're never hungry. The most common complaint initially is that it's simply too much food, but eventually the stomach expands to accommodate the high volume of food that is dispatched to the stomach every day.
I lost 150 lbs. in less than seven months and i did it without ever doing ANY exercise whatsoever. Now I ride my bike, play disc golf, run wind sprints, swim and screw like I'm seventeen again without any drugs.
I was taking over 8 prescription drugs just to keep my heart pumping relatively well. I had a standing 15 year diagnosis for congestive heart failure. My cardiologist was dumbfounded after seeing my latest EKG and echocardiogram which indicated that I no longer had congestive heart failure. He still wanted me to continue to take a couple of medications, but I eventually weened myself off of them as well and haven't seen any cardiologists in over a decade. I haven't been cardioverted in over a decade either.
Food was killing me and changing my diet has literally saved my life. It's really that simple, and if you grow a few things in your garden, it's quite a bit cheaper to eat healthy than to buy prepackaged crap from the supermarket.
I'm almost 60 years old and in better condition than I was in my early 30's. The body is quite resilient if given half a chance.
Everyone wants an easy solution. Truth be told, the mechanisms for weight loss and improved body composition are quite simple. While there are multiple approaches for weight loss, the most reliable one (for me) was low-carb with time restriction.
As for fitness, almost anything will do. For me, a combination of daily yoga and calisthenics does the trick. Like I said, it’s remarkably simple.
The real problem is the will. Just as in smoking, where you merely stop putting cigarettes in your mouth. Easy, right?
Any approach that bypasses the conquering of your will is doomed to failure. That’s because your will needs to be mastered. Herein lies the difficulty. The good news? Small wins beget more wins, and the wins get bigger and bigger.
Conquering your will is the miracle. It pay’s dividends in every area of your life. Cheat there at your own peril.
Hilarious, Ben. "Move their fat asses" indeed. Love it (you right wing fascist: if that's what we're calling sensible people these days).
And $ickcare "doctors" are giving this shit to kids and recommending stomach stapling surgeries. Where the hell did parental wisdom go today?
Thanks, Ben. Always good to hear of a scammy organisation being sued.
Obesity, vomiting and loss of teeth. Not exactly glamorous and, heaven help me for being cruel, toggling between tragedy and comedy.
I read your related article on PJMedia - my reason for pursuing this issue is that there is a drug in the same family, Liraglutide, which is viewed as a potentially effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease in the UK https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/research/our-research/research-projects/testing-effect-diabetes-drug-liraglutide-alzheimers-disease.
Now, I have two issues with this - one is that it is sounding as if the cure might be worse than the disease, especially as your PJMedia article identified cognitive impairment as a side-effect (!); the other is that I believe that the theoretical basis for the research may need revisiting. The assumption that has been made, certainly since I last worked as a nurse in 2011, is that Alzheimer's might be a metabolic issue, hence the use of an anti-diabetes drug. However, hypoglycaemic medications also have antibiotic effects - whether this is intrinsic, or is simply because they target high blood sugar levels which would otherwise paralyse your immune response. Some years back (c.2015), I came across a very small piece of research, where the brains of six people who had had Alzheimer's were examined, and all six were found to test positive to gram negative bacteria. Granted, a very small piece of research, small enough so that the result should mainly trigger replication, rather than informing clinical intervention, but still a possible pointer to what should be being investigated. Unfortunately, the new website for the Pilgrim's Friend Society, which was where I found this article originally, does not appear to have the same archiving facility that the old one did, so I am unable to provide a citation. However, this more recent piece of research also appears to highlight a pathogenic process
https://www.pilgrimsfriend.org.uk/news-views/dementia-symptoms-reversed-and-personality-restored-in-japanese-trial
When I discovered the original piece of research, and made the connection that I did with the antibiotic properties of hypoglycaemic agents, I contacted the hospital that was conducting the liraglutide trials. However, given that my background was nursing, not medicine, and that I was no longer practising, I did not have the necessary professional standing to warrant being taken seriously.
My reason for this post is: (1) If this family of drugs has serious side-effects, then we are no longer talking about administering something that is effective and merely misunderstanding the mechanism by which it works - there is a serious cost-benefit appraisal that needs doing; (2) Given the new piece of research, there could be other agents that are more effective, and ultimately a vaccine (though heaven forbid that it is developed by the COVID lot!); in the meantime, people are potentially being given false hope (or not being treated at all if they are in the wrong bit of a double-blind trial). And, of course, I'm hoping that a journalist might be more effective than I was in raising this issue, if you conclude that it warrants an article or two.