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A $5 drug could bankrupt America.

A month's supply of Ozempic and Wegovy cost about $5 to manufacture, but in the US the retail price is about $1300. In contrast, the price is just $100 to $150 in Europe.

https://www.instagram.com/perfectunion/ ... RaQamSYkb/

Fortunately there are free alternatives. By eliminating processed foods and sugar from the diet, many of the same benefits can be obtained. See Dr Robert Lustig's book Metabolical.

Another option is intermittent fasting which has been found to reverse type 2 diabetes. Dr Michael Mosley was diagnosed to be in the early stages of type 2 diabetes. He was prescribed medication, but not given any alternatives to address this problem. Instead of following the same path as most people, he explored how various diets could help. He discovered that intermittent fasting, e.g., fasting 1 or 2 days a week, could provide even greater benefits than medication. See the documentary he made about his journey called Eat, Fast and Live Longer.

In addition, Dr Sanjay Gupta made a recent documentary called The Last Alzheimer's Patient. He showed that a diet rich in vegetables and whole fruits combined with exercise could reverse the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

Note, I have eliminated sweetened foods from my diet and have been sugar free for almost 3 years. I now find sugary foods to be so sweet that they taste offensive.

The process of reducing and finally eliminating sugar was a change that occurred over many years. For example, instead of sitting down with a spoon and a pint of ice cream and finding the bottom of the container in just one night, I found I could get 4 servings from the same pint if I dished a little out into a small bowl instead. I also switched from eating sweetened yogurt to eating plain yogurt. The plain yogurt tastes better and still has the natural milk sugar lactose. However, there is no added sucrose and lactose doesn't have the negative effects that sucrose has.

After several years of these simple changes, I discovered that highly sweetened food was no longer compatible with me. For example, at a family birthday party I had a small piece of cake made by a local high end restaurant. I found it sweet, but not offensive. However, afterwards I felt felt like my body was vibrating for about 30 min. This encouraged me to avoid sugar. I still enjoy chocolate though. For example, I eat 88% cocoa or above dark chocolate. I often have unsweetened chocolate as well and now prefer it. I eat whole fruits as well. These have natural sugars in them, but the fiber changes how the body absorbs the sugar. They also taste much better now. Note, these changes may not cure MS, but I feel much better. Moreover, a recent blood test revealed my fasting blood sugar to be 78 mg/dL.

Here's yet another good reason to follow some of the suggestions in the post above if you're interested in weight loss.

The weight-loss drug boom has become one of the internet's biggest scams

Published Sun, Dec 8 2024

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/08/weight- ... -scam.html

KEY POINTS:

• Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk continue to ramp production facilities and capacity for booming weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound, with Lilly this week announcing a $3 billion investment to increase obesity drug production at a Wisconsin plant.

• But supply and demand issues have led to a boom in pharmaceutical cybercrime, with cybersecurity firm McAfee's Threat Research Team tracking a continued rise throughout 2024 in malicious websites, scam emails and texts, posts on social media and online marketplace listings.

• Consumers are flocking to TikTok and other social media platforms and websites to purchase branded and illicit GLP-1s, often without a prescription.

One interpretation of the law of supply and demand is that when demand outstrips supply, scammers get busy. That's certainly the case with the super-popular weight-loss drugs from Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk.

As millions of Americans are prescribed injectable Ozempic and Mounjaro to treat type 2 diabetes, and Wegovy and Zepbound for obesity — and countless more without prescriptions seek them as "vanity drugs" to shed unwanted pounds — the manufacturers can't keep up production. The GLP-1s, as they're known, are pricey, too, and insurance often doesn't cover them, provided consumers can find them.

That confluence of factors has laid the groundwork not only for a confusing online marketplace for compounded versions of the drugs — allowed by the Food and Drug Administration when proprietary ingredients are determined to be in short supply — but a proliferation of nefarious scams offering to sell both brand-name and counterfeit GLP-1s on websites and social media platforms.

Consumers have received Lilly- and Novo-branded GLP-1s from unauthorized sellers, counterfeit versions, completely different medications or nothing at all — other than an expensive rip-off. Most disturbing, Novo told CNBC that as of mid-November, it is aware of 14 deaths and 144 hospitalizations of people who had taken compounded semaglutide, the active pharmaceutical ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy. It recently asked the FDA to ban the copycat drugs.

Within the past year, cybersecurity experts, consumer advocates, pharma researchers and media investigators have uncovered scores of accounts and content on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms, as well as numerous websites, where bad actors have been doing business, much of it illegal or at least unethical.

In May, a joint investigation by the nonprofits Digital Citizens Alliance and Coalition for a Safer Web revealed how consumers are flocking to TikTok — which faces an uncertain future after a federal court on Friday upheld a law that would seek to ban the company in the U.S. on Jan. 19 — and other social media platforms and websites to purchase branded and illicit GLP-1s, often without a prescription. According to the report, scammers create accounts promising to sell the drugs for between $200 and $400 for a month's supply — far below market prices — paid through Zelle, Venmo and PayPal rather than traditional credit cards so as to avoid tracking.

"Scammers take advantage of human emotion and human want, and the emotion and want now is that everybody wants to lose weight," said Eric Feinberg, vice president of content moderation for the Coalition for a Safer Web. "It's a perfect audience to use online to take advantage of people psychologically and emotionally."

A common ruse the investigation exposed was sellers saying the drugs were coming from overseas and then claiming that the order was held up in customs, requiring an additional $300 to $500 payment to release it. The scammers were devious, said Tom Galvin, executive director of Digital Citizens Alliance. "They send a tracking number from a delivery service that shows you where your package is, but the tracking number is BS." Digital Citizens shelled out just over $3,000 to purchase GLP-1s, and yet the money yielded no deliveries of the drugs.

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Unexpected GLP-1 Side Effects with Ozempic, Wegovy and MANY Other Drugs

It can take the FDA decades to discover bad drug reactions. Are there unexpected GLP-1 side effects with Ozempic and Wegovy that affect eyes?

Joe Graedon - June 12, 2025

https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/article ... e-unexpect

GLP-1 agonists remain among the most sought after drugs in the pharmacy. Doctors prescribe them for both type-2 diabetes and weight control. Semaglutide, sold under the names Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus, is revolutionizing blood sugar and obesity treatment. But new side effects keep emerging. A new study in
JAMA Ophthalmology (June 5, 2025) reports that people with type-2 diabetes using such GLP-1s appear to be at greater risk for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD). That is the wet form of AMD. In this article, we will explore some other unexpected GLP-1 side effects. We will also point out how many other popular medications surprise both the FDA and health care professionals with unexpected side effects that can take a long time to be discovered.

AMD = an Unexpected GLP-1 Side Effect:

By now you are very familiar with the term GLP-1 RAs, even if you can’t remember what that stands for: glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists. Most people have shortened that mouthful to GLP-1 and recognize drugs such as semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy, Rybelsus), liraglutide (Victoza, Saxenda) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound). In truth, tirzepatide is both a GLP-1 RA and a GIP-1 receptor agonist. Please don’t ask me to explain the glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) activity of tirzepatide.

As successful as these drugs may be at helping people control blood glucose and lose weight, new side effects keep emerging. The latest unexpected GLP-1 side effect to show up is the wet form of age-related macular degeneration (JAMA Ophthalmology, June 5, 2025).

The authors of this report introduce their research this way:

“Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of irreversible blindness in older adults in Western populations. It is characterized by the progressive deterioration of central high-resolution vision, which is essential for daily activities, such as reading and driving. As of 2020, AMD affected approximately 196 million individuals globally, with projections suggesting an increase to 288 million individuals by 2040. In the US alone, AMD accounts for 8.7% of all cases of blindness.”

These researchers point out that in two clinical trials of semaglutide, there was a slightly higher risk of diabetic retinopathy among patients taking the medication than in the placebo group. That, of course, seems counterintuitive. One might anticipate that taking a drug that controls diabetes would reduce the risk of eye problems such as diabetic retinopathy or wet age-related macular degeneration (nAMD).

The authors reinforce this idea:

“Given that GLP-1 RAs can effectively and consistently reduce insulin resistance in patients with diabetes, these agents were anticipated to reduce the risk of nAMD in patients with diabetes through this mechanism. However, our analysis revealed the opposite: patients with diabetes who were exposed to GLP-1 RAs had a substantially higher risk of being diagnosed with nAMD, with a shorter time to diagnosis, compared with propensity-matched patients who were unexposed. These findings should be put into context of the known literature, as there have been numerous reports of unexpected worsening of diabetic retinopathy following a rapid reduction in blood glucose levels, occasionally resulting in permanent visual impairment in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes.”

“Our findings expand on the growing body of literature raising concerns regarding the potential ocular safety of systemic GLP-1 RA therapy in patients with diabetes.”

The two-fold increase in wet AMD was most evident in people using these drugs for the longest period of time. While the absolute risk is low, diabetes specialists and ophthalmologists should be vigilant for this potentially serious complication.

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Additional GLP-1 side effects:

• Ileus [when the intestinal tract stops moving normally]. This can lead to some serious complications, especially if a patient requires anesthesia and surgery. You can read about stomach paralysis associated with semaglutide at this link.

• Pulmonary aspiration [when stomach contents are inhaled into the lungs during anesthesia or endoscopy]. This is a very serious medical emergency.

• Suicidal ideation. We find it fascinating that there is no mention of suicidal thoughts in the official prescribing information for Ozempic. The same exact medicine, Wegovy, comes with this warning:

“Suicidal behavior and ideation have been reported in clinical trials with other weight management products. Monitor patients treated with WEGOVY for the emergence or worsening of depression, suicidal thoughts or behavior, and/or any unusual changes in mood or behavior. Discontinue WEGOVY in patients who experience suicidal thoughts or behaviors. Avoid WEGOVY in patients with a history of suicidal attempts or active suicidal ideation.”

• Hair loss. This is not listed as a potential side effect with Ozempic but is listed in the official prescribing information for Wegovy.

• Dizziness. This potential side effects is not listed for Ozempic, but is listed at 8% for people taking Wegovy. Remember, both of these drugs are semaglutide.

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