Promising new weight loss medication in short supply and often not covered by insurance | 60 Minutes

Lesley Stahl reports on how obesity is misunderstood, and the struggle to get new weight loss drugs to people who need them.

#60Minutes #News #WeightLoss

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[mepulley]

So basically the pharmaceutical cartels are ensuring their profits skyrocket. The insurance companies also want to make sure they don't spend more money than the bare minimum they are required to. You have to love the US and our for-profit healthcare system. It is so sad how a media program has to shame insurance in order to get a medication covered.

[spazzywhitebelt]

This is a really high quality infomercial, almost thought it was a news report till noticing the reporter forgot to ask questions

[supersnapp]

This was a great pharma ad -- everyone interviewed in this segment had a financial conflict. 60 Minutes declared theirs, but they did no questioning of what they were told.

[lisaryderwellness]

Can we please start covering dental care for everyone?

[Sipher]

At my heaviest I was 400 lbs at age 35, that’s when I started seeing a doctor regularly. This doctor wanted to shove so much medication down my throat and insulted so many times that I ended up looking for another doctor. My new doctor put me on a better path with no medication. Saw a nutritionist that thought me how to eat. 7 years later I’m sitting at 260 with my lowest at 230. I started bodybuilding and increased my muscle mass which is why I gained weight but still look thinner than I ever was. I was fat my entire life and I know obesity is sometimes caused by your genetics. The point of my story it is possible to loose weight if you have a good support system but we are not all the same.

[DoctorMikeHansen]

I'll be making a video about this 60 minutes obesity video soon (stay tuned). One of the thoughts I had while watching this was exactly what @josmacch said (most upvoted comment). The biggest reason we have an obesity epidemic has everything to with our environment (food manufacturers, processed food, etc), and how the obesogens and endocrine-disrupting molecules in our environment have impacted our epigenetics (it's not genetics as our genes have not changed since human existence). And altered epigenetics affects downstream generations - it's called transgenerational epigenetic inheritance.

[carolrichardi]

So many feelings.
My mother took me to my first Weight Watcher meeting at 9. I have tried to lose weight MY WHOLE LIFE. I’m in my 60 ‘s now. Lost weight many times but could never get down to a ‘normal weight’ and could never maintain the weight loss. Finally had a gastric bypass - taking the easy way out - as many have judged. Maintained an over 100 pound weight lose but today still weigh 275. (This is after working very hard and taking off 45 pounds in the last two years.) What has my obesity cost me? While I do not have diabetics or high blood pressure I do have nerve damage and constant pain from a botched double knee replacement, chronic vitamin deficiencies from malabsorption due to the gastric bypass, and decreased mobility….. and if I’m honest I never did find that special someone to start a
family with. So I guess you can say it cost me a piece of my happiness. Being obese causes emotional and mental scars. When I’ve been thinner people and doctors treated me and looked at me totally different. I never wanted to live this way. I’ve lived my life thinking this is all my fault. “Come on pull yourself together and lose weight!”
I’m not looking for an excuse I’m looking for help.

[miker]

I know this sounds simple and basic, I'm male and went from 269 in March last year, to today 172 - a normal and healthy weight! It was following Keto and cutting carbs, that did it for me and I swear by it. I went from a 44" waist to 32" now 1/6/23, I'm still amazed - I can finally pull anything from my closet, and it fits - that's freedom. I'm out of 45 years of being fat, obese - never imagined I'd be thin, I'll never go back.

[vaunniethayer]

I grew up in the fifties and sixties, obesity was rare, even for older people. Grew up in the Midwest where hot dishes and meat loaf reigned supreme. Not a lot of meat, no fast food, getting a Hershey bar or bottle of pop was a big deal. Didn’t even get fresh fruit that often. Came to meals very hungry, no snacks. Grew up lower middle class and couldn’t afford much more than the basics. Yes, times have changed a lot. It surprises me that more people don’t have issues with weight. You only have to gain one pound a month over a year for five years and you are now obese, and on it goes. It’s much harder now to stay healthy with all the choices and temptations. I don’t think pills are the answer in the long run.

[B_Bodziak]

Food addiction has to be the hardest addiction to treat. You must still eat. Imagine telling an alcoholic that he has to drink 2 cocktails every day but no more than two... Or telling a heroin addict that they must inject heroin once each day. That's what food addicts have to do.

[foxxieloxxie]

It's NOT a brain disease. I was diagnosed food addiction, morbid obesity, binge eating disorder and a couple of others. I started researching what foods / food components increase appetite and studies showed dairy, salt, gluten (wheat), and processed sugar (as well as a high carb diet) have the greatest effect on increasing appetite because they derange hunger hormones, preventing the body from regulating appetite appropriately.

I researched what food / food components suppress appetite and protein was #1. I cut out dairy, salt, wheat, and processed sugar, and built my meals around lean and vegetables. Within days my appetite dropped like a rock. Before I couldn't do anything but think about food, and now I have to remind myself to eat! I've lost tons of weight and am not deprived in the slightest.

We allow food manufacturers to poison our food supply with crap that messes up our body's ability to regulate appetite because the more we eat benefits THEM and despite the consequence killing us they're never held accountable!! To anyone reading this, please, if you're hungry, craving, can't control your appetite, cut out dairy, wheat, salt, and processed sugar!

Watch how your appetite suddenly seems much more controllable! Dairy was hard for me to give up. I love cheese. And yogurt is touted as "healthy, " but cow's milk is meant to fatten up cows so we shouldn't be shocked that studies show it stimulates appetite! Drop the dairy. Trust me! It's also extremely inflammatory, that's why people with arthritis are recommended to go dairy-free to improve their arthritis symptoms!

Stop buying packaged "food, " It's not food and our bodies don't recognize it as such. Cook your own food, cook and buy REAL food, let's get back to that! In the 70s people were thin as rails! Why? Because moms cooked their families REAL food! Not the packaged crap that food manufacturers call "food." Don't let them win, don't let them keep killing us!

[GamerbyDesign]

"Like most patients she will be taking the drug idefinately." Of course she will. This is what it was truly designed for.

[melvawilding]

The processed food companies want you to be addicted to their products. Processed food addiction is the new smoking! Read the book Hooked to find out why people cant say no to foods that are making them sick. Food is our medicine not pills. All the best to you.

[tishw]

I see the hate trolls already. I don't see anyone commenting on the rich people, who don't need the drug. These are people who are taking the drug to lose 5 lbs, not 50. What kind of message is that sending? What hypocrites.

[vmmurphy]

Insurance will cover bariatric surgery but will refuse to cover these medications. How does that make any sense?

[eadecamp]

And as soon as you stop taking the medication your weight will go right back up again. You have to develop lifelong healthy habits that work for you. Everyone is different.

[jnj]

I'm really torn with this piece. I think there are a lot of factors at play when it comes to weight loss. I was 205 a couple years ago, I am now 171. A couple of observations I've made. The 1st is, fitness is an all immersive lifestyle. It's about routines, discipline, and having fun. I think the having fun part is soo ridiculously important. A run, a lift, a karate class, a spin class should not feel like a chore. It should almost be looked at an outlet or a release. Not a laborious, awful undertaking. Also, weight loss is not about deadlines, or crash diets, or even goals. It's about healthily existing. I simply cut back, substituted a few known "bad" things for better things. Never did I starve myself, or do some sort of drastic diet. The weight slowly but surely came off, and stayed off. I'm not trying to oversimplify things. It took me years to sort of find the right cocktail combination. It just seems like everyone turns to big time trivial measurements, "20 pounds in 4 weeks, " or "I want to run a 5k in 3 months." I think ridding of that goal oriented crap is freeing. It seems like after you accomplish the goal you simply regress and are worse off than you were before. I guess what I'm saying is, don't be defined by your previous journey or what a doctor or dietician tells you. Ultimately you are the master and the architect of the blueprint.

[jahouser]

Her insurance company must have bought a ton of stock into that obesity drug. The pharmacy companies need to be regulated, their greed is an obscenity and the scourge to humanity.

[bobbyrobmaxey]

Not the most important detail here but I really appreciate them making a point that the pharma company that makes the drug is an advertiser on the show. We need more of that kind of transparency in news media

[michaelramage]

It’s doesn’t cost $1000 per month. The drug company charges that in the USA. In Australia Ozempic cost about $98USD per month without any subsidy.