Labour should invest in weight loss medications immediately

[HowToSaveTheNHS]

AIBU to think the Labour government should seriously consider rolling out weight loss drugs to the obese population, to tackle obesity, diabetes and cut NHS waiting lists? Traditional public health measures to tackle obesity are not working.

We spend so much money treating disease associated with obesity and it’s only going to get worse as increasing numbers of people are living for decades with multiple health conditions associated with obesity. Even dementia’s leading cause is Type 2 diabetes.

Looking at the Mounjaro thread on here, huge numbers of Mumsnetters are successfully losing weight and improving their health. But people on lower incomes won’t have access because the drugs are expensive.

A course of drugs for a year will surely be money well spent if we can reduce heart disease/ diabetes/ dementia/ cancer etc… even hypertension.

That's right. Let's start putting fat people in the stocks and throw things at them. Make them realise how disgusting they are.

Or maybe we could recognise that obesity is a disease and treat people with respect. Just an idea.

They’d be much better off investing in treating the psychological causes of obesity. I say this as someone who is obese.

surely better to tax all high sugar foods, ban foods companies from marketing them at all like they have done cigarettes (plain packaging that not shows adverse side effects), in particular any marketing directed towards children

Well you clearly don’t understand the biology and causality behind obesity then. Your approach does not work at population level

People know what they need to do to loose weight, so to some extent they should be responsible for their own actions. It used to the case that if you smoked or were overweight you had to address that before expecting surgery on the NHS. Maybe it should the case for other issues, as a fair amount of health problems will be helped/reduced by losing weight.

The food lobby is massively powerful. They pump out cheap crap by the hundred tonnes and resist all regulation to insist on quality. Profits first and last and never mind the health of the nation. Good food is not cheap, nor should it be. It should be subsidised so it's cheaper to eat well and healthily instead of propping up shareholder dividends.

But the other ways have been proven not to work at a population level ?

Couldn’t agree more with this. Food in schools, hospitals etc is absolutely dire. UPFs are everywhere. Education and a change in the food industry is what is needed.

That’s not the main thread I have been reading. I think they’re on number 14 now

Fascinating resource for public health professionals! Stories and data in real time from real people

This is what makes mumsnet such a great resource!

Or how about people take responsibility for themselves instead of expecting someone else to do it for them?

No. I think health messages should underpin every aspect of our society and the government should invest in facilitating that. We should be taught about and encouraged towards looking after our bodies with good nutrition and excercise from cradle to grave. Parent and baby groups with this advice on tap, healthy school meals, green spaces and incentives to use them such as free sports facilities, bike hire, use of swimming pools, free gym memberships, employers to offer excercise breaks...There is no point sticking a plaster on it with a quick fix, a quick fix that targets only one unhealthy group at that, what about all the thin people who never eat a vegetable from one year to the next? The whole culture around health needs to change and that needs a long term holistic approach.

No. It's like I am legend as it is.

Looking forward to a load of women who look dried out waiting for gallbladder surgery. These meds were for a specific group of people who can't ruddy get a hold of it. It's not on.

This would actually be really effective! But obviously not palatable to the population.

No. The purpose of the NHS is to treat disease. It's up to individuals to eat well and proportionately, rather than expecting to be given a pill for it.

I recently had to pay £2500 for a course of medication for two years to ensure I was optimally treated for osteoporosis because NICE has too high a bar.

If people want to lose weight they should eat less. If they can afford to eat too much food, they can afford to pay fkr weight loss drugs if that is what they want. Want being the operative word.

I'm absolutely not prepared tonaccept my taxes shoukd be spent in this way when the NHS has refused to provide me with the clinical treatment I need for a chronic disease.

SO, increase taxes to pay for weight loss medication for people who are overweight for mental/social reasons? Oh, just medicate people? They may not be able to afford to eat healthily, you know that, right? They may be eating for depression, stress....paying for medication when not treating mental health/social reasons won/t work! They will still buy the cheap shit because.....that's the most filling foods they can buy on what little money they have.

In this country (my home country's obeisty rate is about 4% of the population, as opposed to Britain's 25% obese/almost 40% overweight), when you a) have little money, you need to feed yourself/your family and a pizza costs the same as a broccolli head so what will keep you feeling full more, it's very easy to judge when you have mouths to feed but the shit food is cheap but more plentiful. In my home country, where a more unintentionally veggie diet is cheap, varied, and extremely healthy, even if you are poor it's very easy to eat cheap but healthily. Also, it;s not about "doing more exercise" - it's literally diet. Literally.

Obesity would be better controlled with a ban on margarine and vegetable oil, and a huge tax on sweets, puddings and cakes, and the money go to the NHS, Also, big tax on UPF.

Do you have a link to show it's a myth? I can only find information saying fat is an issue. Will low fat upfs make you sick too?

Isn't sustaining the weight loss over time a very different matter?

And if we aren't changing the obeseogenic conditions that have created such widespread overweight and obesity then there's little to support the maintenance of that weight loss.

This is a map showing how complex the contributions to obesity are (with explanations). (There are more complex system maps.)

https://foresightprojects.blog.gov.uk/2017/10/04/dusting-off-foresights-obesity-report/

King's Fund has a useful overview: https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/reports/tackling-obesity-nhs

Wrong.

Education, time, and the wealth to buy healthy foods like lean meats and veggies and how to cook said supplies is what helps. Not just taxing the shit out of everything.

Studies show that once you pass a certain point of no return with weight gain, the chances of you losing it and getting back to a healthy weight AND keeping it off is tiny, less than 3% .

I am obese, about 18 stone and 44 years old. I was diagnosed bipolar years ago and that's definitely contributed to it but it recently come to light that I actually likely have ADHD and not bipolar. People are self reporting that mounjaro turns off the hunger and alcohol part of your brain ( for those that have that urge) and so I'm really hoping studies are done on this. I do struggle to regulate my alcohol intake and also stick to a balanced diet -although when my diet is good, it's bloody fantastic. I make my own fermented foods, eat 40+ fruit , nuts and veg a week etc. but when I'm having a bad /week day it all goes to shit. I think this has all come about for me as actually I have untreated ADHD and a Dopamine deficiency. Food fills that un medicated urge thing and so I'm looking forward to trying mounjaro as im currently under weight management and hoping to start them in the next 4-6 months, as they are just finalising the funding. Then I'm hoping to get weight loss surgery to keep it off.

I don't think weight loss injections are a cure all though. We also need

-better mental Health services
-nutritional education in school + cooking classes
-higher taxes on fast food and UPFs
-affordable/subsidised vegetables and fruit
-more free /subsidised sports for children
-more allotments and school growing schemes
-walking buses in suitable school areas

They need to change the fact it’s so much cheaper & easier to eat unhealthy. The shitty options should cost more.

for people on low incomes, how are they meant to eat well? Plus the fuel/equipment needed to eat low UPF/cook from scratch

Look, can I just say something about the "but they'll just put all the weight back on afterwards" brigade.

Some people do, some people put a bit back on but most people don't and more people can be prevented from doing so by adding mental healthcare appointments to the weight loss surgery/drugs.

I think you have a point OP, but YABU if you think it is the first priority.

There are so many things wrong with this broken fucking mess of a country, that's worse than most other European countries, that I wouldn't want the job of prioritising where to even think of starting, but this would be way down the list.

Exactly. Very narrow minded, and failing to understand many complex factors.

Untrue. Some have been used as treatments for other conditions for decades, they're just now being repurposed as weight loss meds.