Sounds like it directly affects their lifestyle though? Being less drawn to addictions, and thus less engaged in related activities, is a pretty big lifestyle change.
It really depends. If you break the addiction and it could very well remain.
An example is tobacco/nicotine. If you stop smoking while you are on the drug and you break the addiction and the habit, you aren't going to reform that habit unless you start smoking again. And that's unlikely to occur because you no longer have the habit, you no longer have the chemical compulsion, and you aren't consuming any of it. Maybe stress could force a relapse due to weakness of mind but all things considered that's minor relative to the chemical addiction and the habit forming behavior.
An example where you may see relapse is alcohol or marijuana where the substance comes almost more from a social environment than it does from the chemical draw. Like once the habit is broken, it's still easy to be put into situations where recreational use is common and more or less expected on rare or semiregular occasions. That of course could lead to new habits forming and leading to relapse or it may not depending on what other (hopefully healthy) habits the user is now taking part in, their stress level, and other aspects of their life.
So the answer is of course that it depends but if the drug can reliably help people break habits then it can maybe also be useful in helping them avoid forming new bad habits or relapsing when the urge becomes too strong to resist.
What is the core of your point? That these drugs, that extend life, and reduce associated illnesses should be ignored or not used, because instead people can die sooner in some attempt to cure themselves the "correct" way?
A corpse cannot learn healthy lifestyle habits. A living person who lost weight the immoral way or whatever you're trying to say, can of course.
All the people I know who are on those for-life medications absolutely hate the fact that they have to keep taking those pills every day until they die.
eh, my inner "prepper" is annoyed by the dependency, the rest of me is pleased that I've already lived longer than any of my male ancestors. (Kind of hard to sneer at advanced technology given what I do for a living :-)
I was talking about one of the other "for-life medications" in the previous comment that are more in the "can't get this any more? oops, in 6 months your head explodes" category...
The point is you still need to develop a lifestyle that is healthy. The drug isn't a miracle, it's a band aid. If you do not change your lifestyle, and you discontinue using this drug, you will relapse. This is the same issue many people face when they diet as well, so it is nothing new.
The point of my saying this is to point that out, because a lot of people in this thread seem to think it is totally ok to be on an Ozempic prescription for your entire life. That's horrifying for so many reasons. Others seem to think you take Ozempic until you're "cured" then you just live happily ever after. That's hardly going to be the case for many people who have struggled with weight for their entire lives.
Why? AFAIK Ozempic seems to work by "modifying" behaviour and reducing the appeal of overeating and possibly engaging in other addictive behaviours.
It's not some magic pill that you take and then don't actually have to change anything about your lifestyles. It seems similar to antidepressants, ADHD drugs etc. in that way and a lot of people take those for extended periods or even their entire lives.
Besides potential side-effects etc. what's to horrifying about it?
I think we hear you, we should all take more care about bad lifestyle, everybody should exercise regularly and eat healthy food. But to be fair nobody has promoted a bad lifestyle, or said that, given there is this new drug let's care even less.
At the contrary, given the testimonies it sounds like the drug helps people to adopt better habits, no?
> given the testimonies it sounds like the drug helps people to adopt better habits, no?
No, it helps people live a better lifestyle so long as they remain on this drug. The feeling/impulses are artificially suppressed.
Maybe they come right back if you stop taking the drug. One would hope you can take the drug until in a good place to take over on your own. Time will see - a great experiment is about to take place.
A lot of people are less capable of controlling those impulse on their own and are inherently more prone to developing addictions than others due to genetic/etc. reasons. Yes they can make different choices, change their lifestyles, adopt certain routines etc. all which would require a huge amount of effort just to get on part with people who can achieve those things (relatively) almost effortlessly.
Why should they be forced to suffer due to something they have limited control over?
