GGTA, POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: TYPE 2 DIABETES #20: From “Obese” To A Beast…The Myth of Ozempic Curing FATNESS

For the first time since I started this blog eleven years ago, it’s going to be about me. I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes two weeks ago. While people are happy to talk about their experiences with diabetes, I WASN’T comfortable with talking about diabetes. My wife is Type 2, as are several friends of ours. The “other Type” of diabetes was what caused the death of my Best Man a year after my wife and I got married. He was diagnosed with diabetes when he was a kid. It was called Juvenile Diabetes then. Today it’s Type 1. Since then, I haven’t WANTED to talk about diabetes at all. But…for my own education and maybe helping someone else, and not one to shut up for any known reason, I’m reopening my blog rather than starting a new one. I MAY take a pause and write about Breast Cancer or Alzheimer’s as medical headlines dictate; but this time I’m going to drag anyone along who wants to join my HIGHLY RELUCTANT journey toward better understanding of my life with Type 2 Diabetes. You’re Welcome to join me!

America is the land of “do it for me, I don’t feel like it”.

The “Ozempic Crisis” is an horrific case to point.

“You’re just being mean!!!!!!!” you might wail. I’d say that there are a couple other people beside me that feel the same way. Just GOOGLE, “Lazy Fat People Driving Ozempic Crisis”, or if you want to spare the feelings of lazy fat people, you can GOOGLE, “Ozempic Crisis”.

Before you try to GOOGLE me to discover how unfair I’m being – and that as a skinny person, I couldn’t POSSIBLY understand how awful being overweight is and how WONDERFUL the “new diet drug…I mean…the new Type 2 diabetes drug treatment” is. I’ll just say right here, I AM a lazy fat person looking for ANY excuse to try something that will let me eat a dozen chocolate eclairs, or old-fashioned glazed donuts, or a FAMILY SIZE package of Oreo cookies, or two dozen breadsticks at OLIVE GARDEN…let me say it again:

“I’m a lazy fat people.” I would just as soon lay around the house eating all day long (“...and I mean lay AROUND the house!”) than cut my donut intake from a dozen to half-a-dozen; or my Two Big Macs and two large orders of fries and a Coke; to ONE Big Mac, a medium fry, and a DIET Coke…If I could eat whatever I want to, whenever I want to, and then take a shot that would make me lose weight instead of gain weight – I’d do it in a split second!

If Type 2 diabetics suffered because the Ozempic supply has dwindled, making it hard to get – so? You shriek, “They’re using Ozempic and losing weight just because they’ve been eating as much as I have and have some kind of fake disease! I mean, it’s not like they’re gonna DIE just because they can’t take their Ozempic!!! Why should they just get to take a shot and lose weight and people used to tell me that I CAN'T?”

Doctors who have prescribed and still prescribe Ozempic for weight loss are the FIRST LINE of people who sparked the rush on the drug. But the rest is on US. Friends told friends who asked their doctors…then asked again…then begged them…then WEPT AND BEGGED THEM SOME MORE…

Until there’s not enough Ozempic – clinically known as semaglutide – it was originally prescribed to Type 2 diabetics alone.

The word got out (not factual words, just THE EDITED WORD) Of course, as with ALL miraculous drugs, there are NO SIDE-EFFECTS! It’s a true miracle!

Hmmm…as with nearly all miracles, when you look closely you discover that it’s not a miracle at all, but equal parts selective hearing/seeing and blind stubbornness.

The problems with semaglutide were always there: “Possible side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, abdominal pain, headache, fatigue, indigestion/heartburn, dizziness, abdominal distension, belching, hypoglycemia (low blood glucose) in people with type 2 diabetes, flatulence, gastroenteritis, and acid reflux. It can also cause pancreatitis, gastroparesis, and bowel obstruction.” Those were all discovered in the original trials.

Despite the warning signs, lazy fat people like me continued to beg their doctors to give them OZEMPIC THE WONDER DRUG!!!!! And the doctors did.

So, why do people who have a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes deserve to have semaglutide?

Because Type 2 diabetes is a disease; fatness is a choice – or more accurately, a long series of bad choices. Admit it – you know lots of fat people whose doctors have NOT detected Type 2 diabetes in them. They’re perfectly NOT SICK, even though they weight 700 pounds.

“Say, WHAT!?!?!?!?!”

Yep. Type 2 diabetes is an illness NOT caused by being a sugar pig when you were 20 years old. It’s NOT caused by me eating too many candy bars. I know, that’s not what YOU were told!!!! The weird thing is, YOU WERE TOLD WRONG.

Here’s the SCIENCE definition of Type 2 diabetes: “Type 2 diabetes happens because of a problem in the way the body regulates and uses sugar as a fuel. This long-term condition results in too much sugar circulating in the blood. Eventually, these high blood sugar levels can lead to disorders of the heart, veins, and arteries; trouble with the nerves; and the body’s ability to fight disease.” [Remember COVID-19? “Diabetes (is) significantly associated with the death of COVID-19 patients in all of the published…analyses. Therefore, COVID-19 patients with diabetes…need much more monitoring to reduce deaths.”]

“In type 2 diabetes, there are two big problems. The pancreas does not produce enough insulin AND cells respond poorly to insulin and take in less sugar. There's no cure for type 2 diabetes. Losing weight, eating well and exercising can help manage the disease. If diet and exercise aren't enough to control blood sugar, diabetes medications or insulin therapy may be recommended.”

So…people with Type 2 diabetes – which is as much a disease as COVID19 actually NEED semaglutide TO SURVIVE. (Remember that pandemic thing? No? Just because you don’t remember it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen! Another example is that just because you never heard Taylor Swift back in 2006, doesn’t mean she isn’t a SUPERSTAR today.) 

You and me being fat slobs doesn’t mean we need to get a prescription to inject away our fat because we’re too lazy to exercise and force our hand down from stuffing our sixteenth chocolate donut into our mouth so we can scurry into the bathroom and shoot ourselves up with semaglutide to get skinny. Type 2 diabetes is a disease that a person's food choices didn't CAUSE. It's a disease.

Besides, the articles below are pretty much in agreement – Ozempic won’t change our lives. It’ll lead right back to where every other diet has led us all along: saying no to eating that second dozen donuts in the past three days and not looking for a magic sure for our self-indulgence.

Source: https://time.com/6332910/ozempic-americas-obesity-crisis/
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/02/12/1229920739/weight-loss-drugs-ozempic-arent-magic-bullet-lifestyle-changes-lasting-health
https://fortune.com/well/2024/03/01/ozempic-weight-loss-drugs-not-solution-obesity-who-world-health/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWEVeVypkyI
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/09/opinion/ozempic-obesity-fat-diabetes.html
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/a-diabetes-drug-is-being-used-for-easy-thinness-is-it-as-magical-as-it-seems-20230405-p5cyfs.html
https://www.everydayhealth.com/type-2-diabetes/ozempic-shortage-how-a-weight-loss-fad-has-slashed-access/
Other sources: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/type-2-diabetes/symptoms-causes/syc-20351193
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10191721/

Image: https://www.hcd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/living-well-with-diabetes.jpg