This comes from a journal called Pulse, which is a weekly publication aimed at medics, and GPs in particular:
Weight-loss drugs cannot be seen as short-term solutions by the NHS and GPs will inevitably need to engage with obesity management as the medicines are rolled out, researchers have said.
Researchers from the University of Oxford said that while the medications are highly effective in helping patients lose weight, their recent findings strike a ‘cautionary note' on how they are best used.
A systematic analysis of trial data of GLP-1RA treatments found that semaglutide and tirzepatide led to an average weight loss of 16kg, but once participants stopped taking them, weight returned to baseline by 1.7 years.
In summary, weight-loss drugs do not cure weight loss. They remove a person's weight, temporarily. And when the person taking them stops doing so, they put all their weight back on again because the epidemic of obesity that we have is being caused by the food that we eat, and nothing else. So, if eating behaviour does not change - and GLP-1 drugs will not encourage that change - then they cannot work for a person seeking to keep weight down. It is as simple as that.
So, the Streeting plan to make these widely available is profoundly flawed.
Firstly, it is going to be very costly.
Secondly, it targets a long-term condition, and clearly does not do so.
So, thirdly, it must encourage addiction to these drugs: they are a lifetime choice if they are to work in the way people imagine.
But, fourthly, lifetime use of these drugs is likely to have massive consequences for broader well-being.
With regard to mental health, they do not just remove the appetite for food. They remove the appetite for everything: they mute desire. Full stop. Mental health complaints will spiral as a result. That will be true for those on the drugs, but also for those off the drugs when their weight returns and the sense of well-being that being on them might have created, temporarily, is lost. There is no upside here.
And when it comes to physical well-being, they destroy muscle mass as part of the weight reduction programme, and for many people, that muscle mass is very hard to recover once lost. So the weight gain will not equal the weight loss. It will be weight gain without the means to carry that weight. And given that there is also bone density loss, expect massive side effects for disability as a result of that.
Wes Streeting is rolling these drugs out as the wonder cure that will get Labour re-elected. The reality is he is encouraging long-term addiction and a massive and fast-developing health crisis for the UK population that will become hooked on them.
It's horrible to watch a health crisis in the making, but that is what is happening here.
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Unbelievable.
Anything but taking on the sugar lobby.
These drugs will produce a short-term psephological advantage. Their long term health or social effects are unimportant.
After 2029 Wes Streeting calculates he will have his payoff one way or the other, either in a drug-industry/private health sinecure, or as Starmer’s replacement.
What else matters in the moral dystopia of the current so-called Labour so-called government?
I remember when valium was hand out like sweeties for the most minor of mood changes whatever the life causing event . They were known as “mother’s little helper” til the severity of the addiction and ill effects were recognised.
Seems they never learn.
They don’t
Why oh why was Wes Streeting made health secretary? He has no relevant experience and seems unwilling to learn either. His only selection criteria seems to be his willingness to take money from private health care donors and make ill informed decisions. Please could we either have someone with a health care background or someone intelligent and willing to listen and learn.
Its precisely because he has private healthcare donors that he was made Health Secretary. Our politics now runs almost entirely on dark money – replacing subscriptions of mass membership.
It was all done in plain sight – Reeves and Starmer – publicizing their fawning dinners in the City etc etc.
So much of their money comes from pharma/food/oil/gas interests – they are effectively paid not to regulate – and BBC platforming gushing opinions ‘we can abolish illness’ stuff.
I know that. I’m an ex nurse who’s aware politically. I refused to vote Labour because I didn’t trust Starmer and I’m Green but they have exceeded my expectations in quite how bad they are and my expectations weren’t high.
“Why oh why was Wes Streeting made health secretary?”
I’d suggest a regular perusal of Private Eye, which elucidates very well the darker and more corrupt connections between the government and big business in a way that quite eludes the MSM.
Mrs Murphy I think you are being deeply unfair to Wes. I am certain he loves animals and is kind to children.
As for his motivations – does he not have a family to feed – his future outside parliament to plan, houses & yachts to buy etc.
The man has a lifestyle to fund and obviously feels that his funding needs & the needs of obese people in the UK to become slim, converge.
What is not to like? In these troubled times we need to have faith in our politicians who always have our best interests at heart.
🙂
🙂
You are too kind-hearted Mike
Obesity is very definitely a problem. There is little doubt that it is exacerbated by the food industry who need to be more effectively regulated and taxed. I would suggest that the obesity epidemic is made worse by financial inequality. It costs money to eat healthily and too many people cannot afford to do so.
The health problems of obesity are well known and are a substantial problem for both individuals and society.
For many decades people have tried all sorts of diets and, in general, it hasn’t worked. Dieting has led to yo-yo weight loss, loss of muscle mass etc. I suggest that even if the excesses of the food industry are addressed there will still be an obesity problem, though this is difficult to prove in the absence of a counter factual.
Too many people seem to think think that obesity can be resolved by people simply “pulling themselves together” and exercising will power. To me that is both misconceived and offensive. Appetite is a bodily regulation like the need to breathe. To say that you simply need will power to avoid obesity is like saying there is no need for assisted dying because people can simply kill themselves by choosing to stop breathing. Many people can no more prevent obesity by will power than they can stop breathing.
The question is what to do about it. Weight loss drugs potentially provide some answers in an overall managed scenario. They provide immediate relief from the acute problems of obesity.
Muscle mass loss is a problem with all weight loss. It is managed by slow, controlled, weight loss. To object to weight loss drugs on the basis of loss of muscle mass is to object to all dieting.
You assert “. They remove the appetite for everything: they mute desire.” What is the evidence for this? I have seen none. It sounds like an exaggerated generalisation.
Is there really evidence that “it must encourage addiction to these drugs”. This sounds like a contradiction with the assertion that they mute desire. Addictive drugs don’t generally mute desire.
What is the evidence for damaging mental health? It is well known that chronic obesity damages mental health including, but not only, through loss of confidence and depression caused by poor body image. It seems likely that resolving obesity will help with mental health problems as well as physical health problems. Resolving these mental health issues may, itself,remove some need for the use of antidepressants, which definitely are addictive.
At the moment there is too little experience with these drugs, for weight loss, to be sure what will be needed long term. It does seem likely that, once weight has been lost (in a controlled way, with minimal muscle loss), a maintenance dose may be needed for a period, perhaps for life. Is this so bad? Apparently a majority of the population “should” be on statins in perpetuity and this apparently is fine. These weight loss drugs have been used for long periods in managing diabetes. As I understand it there have been no major problems with this. Given that diabetes is one of the major pathologies of obesity, unless people can achieve weight loss they may well end up on this type of drug for life anyway! We don’t seem to get unduly concerned about people being on antidepressants for long periods (although there are certainly problems with this as well as benefits). Is it really a disaster if suffers of obesity remain on a managed, and monitored, dose of drug for extended periods? The lifetime use of these drugs could, potentially, have massive consequences for broader well being, for the better.
Weight loss drugs are not a magic bullet. Like every other drug they have benefits and problems. Vaccines are the same – but most reasonable people don’t castigate vaccines because we know that they have problems. No, we balance the risks and benefits (and, in the case of vaccines, come down heavily in favour of their use). Weight loss drugs are not all bad. They do have a lot of benefits along with associated problems. Let’s not make the perfect the enemy of the good. Let’s not demonise them and write them off.
I do don’t expect you to agree. I hope I have made a reasonable counter argument and that you will agree that there is more than one side to this debate and that reasonable people may differ.
Sorry Tim, bit you say “It seems likely that resolving obesity will help with mental health problems as well as physical health problems. Resolving these mental health issues may, itself,remove some need for the use of antidepressants, which definitely are addictive.”
There is not a shred of evidence to support this.
You have fallen for the gross misinformation.
Thanks for posting my comment. It is good to debate such matters in a civilised way even if we disagree. 🙂
🙂
“Thanks for posting my comment. It is good to debate such matters in a civilised way even if we disagree.”
Which is why so many people consume this Blog: intellectual discussion and intellectual debate expressed properly.
You are a bit of a role poly yourself, maybe you need to try them ?
BMI of aroud 27, and falling, and below average for a man of my age already
Waist 34″ – average for my age 41″
What the heck are you talking about?
It’s all these videos…
It is a well-rehearsed truism that television makes the participant appear 10 lbs heavier on average.
Maybe…
Bizarrely, I actually now have an almost flat stomach
The suggestion I am roly-poly is quite laughable
The troll could not see the shoes you are wearing or the length of your trousers so it had to made the only personal attack it could.
Amazon is getting ready to introduce a new product for “Home & Online use”: Trollicide.
🙂
Better Roly-Poly than lean and hungry, perhaps …..
Bodyshaming?
You DO sound desperate.
I am so so tired of politicians and policymakers and media figures glomming on to these simplistic “solutions” that completely miss the complexity of the systems involved. We need mandatory training in systems thinking for anyone aspiring to one of these roles. Or we can go back to much simpler societies where simple solutions made sense.
What I love about this blog ia the intelligence of the contributors. I had resisted posting for a long time because I didnt feel I could add anything – now am too angry about everything i dont care.
One of the many good points Tim makes is the common phrase of just ‘pulling yourself together.’
Many years ago a family member started having panic attacks and depression. The doctors just prescribed anti-depressents, which did nothing for him and he stopped taking them.
He would explain, in honest detail his problems and family members would just go nothing to worry about. He told me he could never find a counseller – who was probably drowned under a sea of patients (or service users, as they are disgustingly reduced too) – who would really listen and understand.
He still suffers from depression, he now sees this as his default. He did find some solace in the works of writer called David Smail.
I have never had depression.
I know many who have.
It needs massive understanding to help people manage it.
I am making no judgement about your family member. I was a counsellor for two decades and would agree some client-therapist matches don’t work. Both are human. But I do wonder at ‘never find a counsellor’. Most are pretty good at understanding as far as we can what goes on inside another person. A few people come into therapy with the intention of sabotaging it -for a number of reasons which we don’t have space for. Counselling involves change and that can be terrifying so a few will cling to the status quo.
Ian, thank you for your response. I must stress that I was not attempting to be critical of counsellers, I have two friends in this field and they tell me about the challenges and vagaries of their work.
I apologise if I mis-represented the profession.
This is a powerful and worrying read. These weight-loss drugs might help short term, but the long-term risks can’t be ignored. We need real lifestyle changes, not just medication. I always look for balanced info and support from places like Shemed too. Thanks for sharing this.
It is horrible to listen to Keir Starmer, standing in a glass factory somewhere in England, chosen for photo/speech opportunity: “I have them in my mind’s eye”. This is the caring Starmer, desperate to rise above his leaden Government and personality. ‘Them’ are the Land Rover workforce, which he claims he signed the US trade deal in order to protect their jobs (whatever that is, and wherever it is after the Trump tarriiff decisions have been ‘vacated’ by the Federal Trade Court).
So now we know. The workers in Ineos Grangemouth will be open-mouther. They know now (if they had any delusions left) that they are definitely not in Keir Starmer’s mind’s eye. It is Scotland. Scotland is expendable, sold out, taken-for granted, for absolutely nothing at all. All Labour thinks it needs to do; some glib cost-free hand-wringing, a surfeit of content-free Unionist waffle, and waves of dim-witted working class nostalgia. We have had it for decades. Same guff in Scotland, repeated over and over. Nothing ever changes. They keep thinking nobody notices; and in the 2024 General Election, they though they could finally sell Scotland out, with no risks at all.
Spot on John
@BayTampaBay
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05/29/its-horrible-to-watch-a-health-crisis-in-the-making/comment-page-1/#comment-1023173
J. R. R. Tolkein tells us that the best trollicide is sunlight. (not sold by Wallmart, yet…)
And elsewhere, “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not put it out”.
Either way, neither trolls nor their deeds survive the dawn of a new day.
“This too, will pass.”
Weight loss drugs do feel like a somewhat simplistic quick technical fix to what is a much more complex problem. Food, inequality, housing, education, exercise and more are all in the mix. Streeting jumping to the quick technical fix is in character and the pharma gang will be delighted.
I claim no technical knowledge but there seems to be plenty out there that suggests the effects are short term and weight returns when the drug is removed. One wonders just what the full set of side effects is. Maybe it’s right for a subset of very overweight people but not as a mass panacea. And even then, with recognition that there may be multiple factors that need to be tackled.
Scoffing and Shopping is the summit of Neoliberal culture. No wonder people feel lonely and ill.
The answer to this is more scoffing, of drugs to lose the fat and the numb the unbearably loneliness.
Neoliberalism really is a joyless sh1tshow.
With respect, I think you are, if not definitely wrong, then at least hasty in your conclusions.
> if eating behaviour does not change – and GLP-1 drugs will not encourage that change – then they cannot work for a person seeking to keep weight down.
These drugs DO work by encouraging change in eating behaviour. That’s how they cause weight loss. It is just that the change in appetite doesn’t persist after you cease taking the drugs.
> when it comes to physical well-being, they destroy muscle mass as part of the weight reduction programme
It still isn’t clear whether this is mainly an effect of the rapid weight loss, and whether it can be countered with a program of weight bearing exercise.
> the epidemic of obesity that we have is being caused by the food that we eat, and nothing else.
If you mean “the epidemic is caused by the food environment” then I agree. However, just because a condition has an environmental cause doesn’t mean removing that cause from the environment cures those who already have the condition. Lets say I have cancer caused by a powerful environmental carcinogen. Banning that carcinogen will stop other people getting the cancer, but it won’t cure mine. I still need other drugs to cure my condition.
Similarly, it looks like obesity is a condition that is quite difficult to reverse once entered. Even if we fix the food environment, the already obese may need some extra pharmaceutical help.
I say this as someone who has suffered from quite serious obesity. Though not currently an obese weight, the only way I have been able to keep the weight off is years of strict calorie counting. For me, this is worth it, and not too onerous any more, but many people won’t succeed at this. And its clear to me that my appetite levels are such that, left to my own devices without my tracking app, I would soon be obese again.
So:
a) Thete is no chanhe in behaviour
b) As a matter of fact, muscle mass in incredbly hard for most people to correct
c) The carcinogen in question is sugar – most cancers are caused by it. It feeds the grith of cancer cells. What else do you think they grow on?
We can change the envionment – by beating ultra-processed food.
And you do not need to caorie count – just elminate sugar and the carbs that deliver them. Then eat fat.
You are a troll. Don’t call again.
I think these drugs might be worth a go if all else has failed, but judging by the grim side-effects they really would have to be a last resort.
as ever with nutrition-related matters I look to Dr Michael Greger, who taken a long hard look at Ozempic and similiar drugs (and the fake science being pushed by Big Pharma to promote them). In fact Greger has collected his findings in a book on the subject, and it’s fair to see he’s not exactly a fan. As he points out:
“History is littered with failed weight-loss wonder drugs. From “rainbow diet pills” packed with amphetamines to the rise and fall of fen-phen, the vast majority of weight-loss drugs approved in the United States have been pulled from the marketplace due to unforeseen side effects that turned them into a public health threat.”
https://nutritionfacts.org/book/ozempic/
I see weight watchers went bust recently, due to the boom in jabs…
Just as bad as the decision to encourage vaping in order to help smokers to stop smoking cigarettes and in so doing fend off lung cancer….. Official wisdom deemed that it was a good bargain. Now vaping is becoming a problem (officialdom is making policy decisions about restricting it already) even before it is known what the long term health consequences may be. Meanwhile profits rise for big pharma. More attention should be given to assisting individuals in making their own fully informed beneficial decisions about keeping their bodies safe from market forces.
Big sugar,the food industry and inequality are no doubt making a big contribution to the obesity problem we are facing.
But not only do we have an obesity crisis. We have an inactivity crisis, with over half of adults in the UK taking no regular exercise.
The benefits of regular exercise are well understood. And in terms of obesity, it is not the calories consumed undertaking the exercise. It is the building up and maintaining of lean muscle that uses more calories at rest.
Exercise also helps to increase and maintain lung capacity, which is essential for maintaining our quality of life as we age.
Without addressing our diets and our lack of exercise, we face more and more chronic illnesses that are expensive to treat being diagnosed in younger and younger people. Weight loss (appetite suppressing) medication alone is not going to address our lack of activity, which by 2017 was thought to be costing the NHS £16 bn a year.
This of course ties into active travel. Which is something more money should be spent on to encourage fewer sedentary car based life styles.
Regular exercise and avoidance of passive travel of course not only improves mental health, it helps reduce levels of pollution from transport in our towns and cities. Pollution linked to many chronic respiratory, cardiac and mental illnesses as well as learning disabilities.
Anecdotally, I have, over the last two years increased my own activity level, improving my fitness and dropping almost two stones in weight.
If Wes Streeting was serious about health, he would be working with the Transport Secretary and spending money on more safe active travel infrastructure for walking, wheeling and cycling. Removing VAT from bicycles, accessories, walking shoes and perhaps even looking at subsidies for adapted e-cycles for the less able.
Much to agree with.
Just walk.
That is all that is needed.
Just walking would be a massive improvement, but there are clear health benefits to regular more vigorous exercise.
These include reduced instances of Cancer and CVD.
See table in results section:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7242898/
Walking as if in a hurry is just about the best exercise anyone can take over the age of 50 unless they want to spend half their time with injury
I don’t
There is some push back – by 20 leading health organisations – to the government’s inadequate response (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-response-to-the-house-of-lords-food-and-health-report/government-response-to-the-house-of-lords-food-diet-and-obesity-committees-report-recipe-for-health-a-plan-to-fix-our-broken-food-system) to the House of Lords’ Food, Diet and Obesity Committee report ‘Recipe for Health’ (https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5901/ldselect/ldmfdo/19/19.pdf) that you previously drew attention to.
The letter to Wes Streeting, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, can be found here – https://www.soilassociation.org/media/28322/soil-association-letter-to-the-health-secretary_may-25_final.pdf
I see this was signed by the association of directors of public health (https://www.adph.org.uk/2025/05/adph-joins-call-to-government-on-ultra-processed-food/) , which figures as the HoL’s recommendations in ‘Recipe for Health’ reflected the Obesity Health Alliance report of 2001 (https://obesityhealthalliance.org.uk/turning-the-tide-strategy/)
It was another letter which might have benefitted from the signatures of public intellectuals and other ‘social influencers’, had they been invited to sign.
But it seems, from The National’s scoop, that Wes Streeting takes funding from private health firms (https://www.thenational.scot/news/24250557.wes-streeting-takes-175k-donors-linked-private-health-firms/), so I do wonder if he’s promoting diet drugs on their behalf, for personal or party gain?
Thanks
The food industry is working on ways to “hack” GLP-1 “Ozempic Could Crush the Junk Food Industry. But It Is Fighting Back.”: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/magazine/ozempic-junk-food.html?unlocked_article_code=1.004.6GbE.G6TP5qKiOtrG&smid=url-share
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGrGi_FyBdo/
Interesting if true
Except the evidence is that the fast foods come back when the drugs go
Lobbying by big business and their funding political events, sponsoring individual MPs etc is obviously useful. Be it Food, Pharma or Finance they are very skilled in these areas.
US firms are very good at this as I have seen close up.
Less well known is the fact that Civil Service consultations on impending legislation is geared to interact with big business too irrespective of ministers.
Individual citizens however well informed have little impact. Local citizen groupings are similarly discounted. Civil servants do not listen to them.
Without a revolution in the way consultations are conducted the input of ordinary citizens will never amount to much.
Given the sheer volume of statutory notices and primary legislation each year the public end up on the receiving end.
This is our democracy in action.
It’s crap imo.
The Fridge that came in from the cold
In a world of devices that dreamt of life,
An intelligent refrigerator came to life,
Not content with being a simple cooling box,
It yearned for something other than ice blocks.
It scanned each item with a careful eye,
Gathering data on every slice and pie
Instructing its owners on meals to make,
Calculating every ingredient to take.
No spoiled food dare linger inside,
It monitored every shelf with pride,
Sending alerts, gentle notes and prompts
To avoid wasted food and unhealthy chomps.
Equipped with clever screens,
It planned meals and tracked routines,
An intelligent fridge, set to assist,
A partner in the kitchen, never to resist.
With technological wit and flair,
It became the heart of the houseware,
A central hub to plan and create,
The intelligent fridge, a modern mate.
(This poem was been mostly generated by Nova Chat GPT app – scary, eh?)
Buckingham
Sorry am late to reply to this – had to go to optician yesterday afternoon, and was shattered when got home, plus eyes were playing up somewhat after all the incredibly BRIGHT lights that were shone into them!
I watch/hear a lot of Sky News, as I tend to leave it on when using the computer. I’ve noticed the last few months (not exactly sure when it started) there are quite a few ads for private clinics selling weight loss drugs. Including one that shows a woman shoving a needle into her tummy – Eeeek! She was very pleased with her weight loss, making a joke of not showing her weight on the scales in film shot before she started on the drug, then after using it parading in smaller sized clothes. To be honest I didn’t think she looked particularly fat/overweight in the “before” film of her. The clinics go on about having pharmacists and medics to give best advice for losing weight.
The best method I have found for losing weight is having a load of teeth out. Can’t chew a lot of foods now, I’m just about on the lowest “healthy” weight for my height, and I’m working at not losing any more. It’s not a method I’d recommend though!
Tragic is a passive reflection on something more vicious.
Underproviding healthcare now adds more expensive problems later.
Added healthcare expenditure has a multiplier effect of at least 3.6.
Managing a health system with insufficient capacity leads to overheating, blockages , delays and inefficiencies.
Starving healthcare of capital expenditure is a brake on productivity and a misallocation of resources.
All for what?
Back handers from those who want to cherry pick nhs budgets.
It’s both corrupt and incompetent.
I know a woman who is taking weight-loss injections. She persists with them, wrongly in my view, because she thinks she is unattractive because of her weight.
But she reports that, while the injections are active, she can barely make herself eat, she can only eat a little and she is tired and without energy all the time. The only times she eats properly or has energy is in the interludes between injections.
I can’t help but think that, whatever the supposed benefits, and I have seen many touted about in the media, the nutritional deficits must be building up pain for the future and damaging her health.