The cruel costs of denying anti-obesity medication
Advertisement
I have had obesity all my life. I have lost and gained the same 60 pounds 10 or 11 times over the years. There have been times when I did 90 minutes of cardio six days a week or hot yoga five times a week. I felt better, but it didn't result in significant weight loss. In 2021, at the heaviest I have ever been, I tried again, losing 50 pounds in one year and keeping it off for a year. But then my weight started to creep up, and desperate to avoid the yo-yo, which is detrimental to one's health, I asked my doctor about the drugs.
Advertisement
I started taking Zepbound just over a year ago, and I am now 70 pounds lighter than I was at my heaviest. Several of my friends had gastric bypass surgery years ago, only to gain back all the weight and more. But they are now on weight loss drugs and are average-sized. Everyone knows someone whose life has been immeasurably changed for the better because of these miracle drugs.
The medications work by regulating satiety, making you feel you have had enough to eat. Ask anyone who is on them, and they will tell you that the drugs quiet the voices in their head telling them that they are hungry. They will also tell you that the foods they generally
want
to eat are healthy, unprocessed foods. The drugs have interrupted the impulses some of us develop in response to foods that have been engineered to make people constantly want to consume more of them.
If it sounds like I am describing addictive behavior, it's because I am. It is no coincidence that the explosion in obesity in the United States corresponds with the growth of Big Food in the second half of the 20th century. I believe this industry is as responsible for the increase in the disease of obesity as the Sacklers are responsible for the increase in the disease of substance-use disorder.
Advertisement
Of course, the
When such statements are publicized, what many people hear is 'fat people are causing your insurance premiums to increase.' But there's seldom any discussion of the return on investment from these drugs in the form of long-term health improvements for the many people who take them.
For me, there's the obstructive sleep apnea I no longer have, the heart disease I probably won't get, the joint replacements I hope to not need, and the diabetes I have been flirting with for 25 years but may now avoid. I have been able to stop taking drugs for diabetes and high blood pressure. And I am clearly not alone.
A
Advertisement
The insurance company PR machine is now playing chicken with pharmaceutical companies to try to get them to come to the table and negotiate reasonable prices. And people with obesity are collateral damage, terrified about the return of the ravages of their disease.
I think I will be OK, because I know how to advocate for myself. My own insurance plan is forcing me to switch from Zepbound, which has been extremely effective for me, to Wegovy, a different drug that may not have the same efficacy. If that doesn't work for me, I will find a way. I have agency and privilege that a lot of other people — including many other women and people of color — don't have.
But for those who are losing access to these drugs altogether, the future is stark. If expensive drugs used to treat your chronic disease were causing my insurance premiums to rise, I wouldn't assume that you got that disease because of your lifestyle choices. In fact, I'd fight for your access to those drugs. Please help fight for others' access to drugs that can improve their health and, in the long-term, help reduce costs for everyone.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hamilton Spectator
4 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
RFK Jr. promoted a food company he says will make Americans healthy. Their meals are ultraprocessed
WASHINGTON (AP) — Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday praised a company that makes $7-a-pop meals that are delivered directly to the homes of Medicaid and Medicare enrollees. He even thanked Mom's Meals for sending taxpayer-funded meals 'without additives' to the homes of sick or elderly Americans. The spreads include chicken bacon ranch pasta for dinner and French toast sticks with fruit or ham patties. 'This is really one of the solutions for making our country healthy again,' Kennedy said in the video, posted to his official health secretary account, after he toured the company's Oklahoma facility last week. But an Associated Press review of Mom's Meals menu, including the ingredients and nutrition labels, shows that the company's offerings are the type of heat-and-eat, ultraprocessed foods that Kennedy routinely criticizes for making people sick. The meals contain chemical additives that would render them impossible to recreate at home in your kitchen, said Marion Nestle, a nutritionist at New York University and food policy expert, who reviewed the menu for The AP. Many menu items are high in sodium, and some are high in sugar or saturated fats, she said. 'It is perfectly possible to make meals like this with real foods and no ultra-processing additives but every one of the meals I looked at is loaded with such additives,' Nestle said. 'What's so sad is that they don't have to be this way. Other companies are able to produce much better products, but of course they cost more.' Mom's Meals do not have the artificial, petroleum dyes that Kennedy has pressured companies to remove from products, she noted. Mom's Meals said in an emailed response that its food products 'do not include ingredients that are commonly found in ultra-processed foods.' The company does not use synthetic food dyes, high fructose corn syrup, certain sweeteners or synthetic preservatives that are banned in Europe, said Teresa Roof, a company spokeswoman. The meals are a 'healthy alternative' to what many people would find in their grocery stores, said Andrew Nixon, U.S. Health and Human Services spokesman, in response to questions about Mom's Meals. Mom's Meals is one of several companies across the U.S. that deliver 'medically tailored' at-home meals. The meal programs are covered by Medicaid for some enrollees, including people who are sick with cancer or diabetes, as well as some older Americans who are enrolled in certain Medicare health insurance plans. Patients recently discharged from the hospital can also have the meals delivered, according to the company's website. It's unclear how much federal taxpayers spend on providing meals through Medicaid and Medicare every year. An investigation by STAT news last year found that some states were spending millions of dollars to provide medically tailored meals to Medicaid enrollees that were marketed as healthy and 'dietician approved.' But many companies served up meals loaded with salt, fat or sugar — all staples of an unhealthy American's diet, the report concluded. Defining ultraprocessed foods can be tricky. Most U.S. foods are processed, whether it's by freezing, grinding, fermentation, pasteurization or other means. Foods created through industrial processes and with ingredients such as additives, colors and preservatives that you couldn't duplicate in a home kitchen are considered the most processed. Kennedy has said healthier U.S. diets are key to his vision to 'Make America Healthy Again.' His call for Americans to increase whole foods in their diets has helped Kennedy build his unique coalition of Trump loyalists and suburban moms who have branded themselves as 'MAHA.' In a recent social media post where he criticized the vast amount of ultraprocessed foods in American diets, Kennedy urged Americans to make healthier choices. 'This country has lost the most basic of all freedoms — the freedom that comes from being healthy,' Kennedy said. — Aleccia reported from Temecula, Calif.
USA Today
6 hours ago
- USA Today
Leading doctors sue RFK Jr. over COVID-19 vaccines. Here's why.
America's top medical organizations are suing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over the agency's COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for children and pregnant people. On May 27, Kennedy said the shot would no longer be included in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommended immunization schedule for healthy children and pregnant women, a move that broke with previous expert guidance and bypassed the normal scientific review process. The health secretary also fired all 17 original members of a federal vaccine panel June 9 and quickly appointed eight new members, including some vaccine skeptics. The panel met for the first time on June 25 but did not make COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for the fall. The plaintiffs, which include the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, claim Kennedy's recent decisions were designed to mislead, confuse and desensitize the public to anti-vaccine and anti-science rhetoric. In the July 7 lawsuit filed in Massachusetts, they ask the judge to halt changes made to the COVID-19 vaccine policy. Vaccine panel on thimerosal: What is that and why is there controversy? 'This wasn't just sidelining science,' said AAP President Dr. Susan Kressly. 'It's an attack on the very foundation of how we protect families and children's health. And the consequences could be dangerous.' The American College of Physicians, American Public Health Association, Infectious Diseases Society of America, Massachusetts Public Health Alliance and an anonymous pregnant physician were also listed as plaintiffs. The organizations urge parents and patients to follow medical advice published on their websites. 'We will not stand by while a single federal official unilaterally and effectively strips Americans of their choice to vaccinate with actions that thoroughly disregard overwhelming scientific evidence and decades of established federal processes,' said IDSA President Dr. Tina Tan. 'As a community of clinicians, public health officials and scientists, our focus remains the protection of patients and public health.' USA TODAY reached out to HHS for comment. Adrianna Rodriguez can be reached at adrodriguez@
Hamilton Spectator
7 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Doctors and public health organizations sue Kennedy over vaccine policy changes
NEW YORK (AP) — A coalition of doctors groups and public health organizations sued the U.S. government on Monday over the decision to stop recommending COVID-19 vaccinations for most children and pregnant women. The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Public Health Association and four other groups — along with an unnamed pregnant doctor who works in a hospital — filed the lawsuit in federal court in Boston. U.S. health officials, following infectious disease experts' guidance, previously urged annual COVID-19 shots for all Americans ages 6 months and older. But in late May, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced he was removing COVID-19 shots from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women. A number of health experts decried the move as confusing and accused Kennedy of disregarding the scientific review process that has been in place for decades — in which experts publicly review current medical evidence and hash out the pros and cons of policy changes. The new lawsuit repeats those concerns, alleging that Kennedy and other political appointees at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have flouted federal procedures and systematically attempted to mislead the public. 'This administration is an existential threat to vaccination in America, and those in charge are only just getting started,' said Richard H. Hughes IV, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs. 'If left unchecked, Secretary Kennedy will accomplish his goal of ridding the United States of vaccines, which would unleash a wave of preventable harm on our nation's children.' HHS officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Also joining the suit are the American College of Physicians, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Massachusetts Public Health Association and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
