Misinformation?

[Beeswacks]

I’ve been on mounjaro for 8 months now, privately. My GP knows and is very supportive and talks very encouragingly about it, wishes more of her patients were able to take it.

My neighbour is a gp, nearing retirement age but still working full time. He found out during a discussion about my weight loss that I’m on MJ and started ranting about it, saying 1 in 5 of his WLI patients are having severe side effects and that I should be moving more and eating less, that’s the only way to lose weight.

I did a load of research online before taking them, spoke to lots of people IRL and online. I haven’t had any side effects beyond some constipation, and I feel healthier than I have in decades. It really feels like MJ is fixing something that’s been wrong since childhood, and other chronic issues have cleared up.

As well as being highly unprofessional, he’s just wrong isn’t he? I feel he’s projecting his disapproval onto me and possibly his patients. The only places I’ve seen these sort of statistics are on weird anti vaxx, anti medical treatment websites (my research was thorough), most of which is unsubstantiated nonsense by people who don’t understand risk and statistics.

I do understand there are risks involved, but being morbidly obese put me at higher risk. I’ve discussed this with my own GP who agrees and said that her experience with patients is overwhelmingly positive.

Why do people come out with rubbish about it? I know some people are so ingrained in the view that fat = lazy and stupid, but why spout rubbish about statistics that are easily proven wrong?

Well, Mounjaro and Wegovy have both been extensively tested and approved by MHRA as safe for weight loss. And it’s now available on the NHS. The only reason their criteria is so restrictive is due to cost and their lack of ability to monitor patients, so they say.

You can see why some posters are reluctant about their GP knowing they’ve been prescribed it. Thankfully you have a good one. It also helps us understand why so many people are reluctant to share generally that they are using it.

I had terrible side effects in the early days. So what, they were unpleasant not dangerous. What’s dangerous is the health issues that come hand in hard with obesity for many people. My friend has been prescribed metformin by her GP for her recently diagnosed T2. Should she not have her medication either because she’s having side effects? Listen to your GP and ignore this ignorant man.

Your neighbour is a GP, so not specialised in obesity. I would not give two fucks about his opinion as he will lack relevant expertise.

Just ignore him, we now know anecdotally thay many doctors are ill informed arseholes who like to give opinion but not do their research. Just nod and say yes Derek it’s a shocker, you’re right, then crack on with your day.

Highly unprofessional and none of his business if you are not his patient. Ignore.

He just sounds like a run of the mill dick of a man tbh.

Just because he is a Dr doesn't mean he is an expert in this area. He is sharing his (uninformed) opinion and trying to back it up with nonsense facts.

I doubt he has even had a discussion with 95% of his patients who are on WLI.

His comment shows a lot of ignorance. The eat less, move more comments show this. Yes that is true but for many reasons I struggle to do this. Mounjaro is the tool I need.

As someone else said the side effects are largely uncomfortable but not dangerous. And whilst the risks might be unknown, the risks of obesity are very much known so I’ll take my chance.

I used to genuinely think doctors were knowledgeable and wouldn’t give an opinion until they knew what they were discussing, the advent of weight loss injections has proven to me just how naive that was.

these idiots don’t even take them time to research. They just spout shite and he’s not alone.

fortunately my gp is excellent and very knowledgeable, in fact the practice has training sessions on them. I now know that’s not the norm. Far from it.

👏👏👏 Agreed, another reason to keep it to yourself that you're taking it, too many mouthy opinionated arse holes, plus as a gp he should keep his opinions to himself outside of his practice, highly unprofessional. I never consented to my gp being informed and as a consequence have never discussed it with them, don't trust them, have had many many bad experiences with them. I'd tell him to fuck off and keep his big trap shut.

If he starts again, ask him what proportion of his obese patients

1. have severe side effects from obesity (almost all)

2. successfully lose and keep of significant weight based on his guidance (almost none).

Plus

3. how severe those side effects actually are (for obesity, significantly reduced life expectancy; for WLI, a bit of an upset tummy).

Then if he hasn’t melted, ask him whether he’s reflected on his obviously deep-seated issues which prevent him giving scientifically-based advice about obesity to his patients. Has he considered therapy, if his emotions are getting in the way of his clinical practice?

As the nhs doesn’t really prescribe for wli the man doesn’t even have wli patients and he’d have no idea how many had side effects as most don’t go near a doctor.

Typical old school Dr (I assume if he’s nearing retirement) who “knows best” but actually lacks knowledge about the most recent up to date research. People think Drs are the font of all knowledge, but having been married to a surgeon and having worked in healthcare, I can categorically say that many of them are pompous pricks (yes mostly men!) with superiority complexes, especially regarding subjects outside of their area of expertise.

I’d imagine the only WLI patients he sees are the ones who go to him about side effects, so he will get a skewed perspective. Of the 10 or so pens I’ve bought, only 2 have ended up in my medical records. So if I hadn’t jumped around providers my doctor would not have known that I’m on WLI.

But it's not misinformation if it is his experience as a doctor. The lengths people will go to convince themselves there are no serious side effects possible on WLI, despite the manufacturers listing them, and many being well known, is very odd.

You may not have enjoyed him sharing his experience, but that does not make it misinformation. Forewarned is forearmed, surely.

Of course it’s misinformation and I also very much doubt it’s his own actual experience. Serious side effects are extremely rare. They do not happen to 1 in 5 of WLI patients. No one is suggesting that serious side effects are not possible, just that they are extremely rare.

Plus it’s patronising to suggest that people are not already “forewarned” as if people who choose to take WLI are too stupid to do any reading about them first.

But he told the OP it was one in five of his patients. You don't know him. You don't know his practice. And you are not a doctor.

He was urging caution/worried about his neighbour, based on his experience. I'm not sure how anyone can criticise a doctor for showing ethical and human concern, based on what they have experienced and known themselves.

As a doctor he should know not to extrapolate from a limited sample. He should also know not to offer unsolicited medical advice when he isn’t aware of the persons medical history. Being a doctor doesn’t make him exempt from criticism or mean that everything he says is true and accurate.

It is ridiculous to call someone professional's personal experience of a situation well within their purview "misinformation" simply because it does not align with your experience.

I very much disagree with that, as I said he should know not to extrapolate from his limited sample and apply that as fact, to the point of trying to tell off someone who isn’t his patient about their own medical treatment. It’s also nothing to do with my experience. I am referring to the data that is known about the rate of side effects. My own individual experience is irrelevant in that context.

If something is factually incorrect it is classed as misinformation.

there is no way one in five patients of his have severe side effects. It is illogical to assume that his patients are completely different to the rest of the cohort on it. And suffer significantly more. And you do need to move more and eat less to lose weight, the drugs enable this, the fat doesn’t melt off.

hes just another ignorant gp, and sadly he is not alone. He’s failed to educate himself on the drugs, but giving his opinion. He failed to look at the risks of obesity, the safety records of the drugs, understand how many of his patients are on them. He’s done none of that, just another rant.

If GPs across the board were finding that 1 in 5 of their WLI patients were having serious side effects we would know about it, there would be headlines. A huge number of online posts (including here) would be about this, but that’s not the case.

Yes there are side effects, and there is a risk of bad side effects, but they are rare. The vast majority of people have little to none.

My own GP has kept very up to date with the progress of GLP1s and wishes more of her patients could access them as she considers them a huge success for modern medicine.

NDN is rooted in the opinion that fat people are lazy and undisciplined, even though there is more than enough evidence to prove otherwise, as the WHO has clearly stated.

He is indeed wrong. So many gps are completely ignorant in this area and are therefore a menace to their poor patients.

He is trotting out the same basic information which has left millions of very obese people suffering and gaslit across the world.

Of course it is about calories in vs calories used at a very simplistic level but there is much, much more to it than that as any expert and all research into chronic and severe obesity agree.

Ignore the old fart.

I had very few side effects with Mounjaro, just nausea when i intitially increased from the first month.

Whereas it's poorer cousin Wegovy has made me incredibly tired and I find the injections quite painful, nothing like the Mounjaro injections.

Incidentally I've recently sprained the MCL in my knee. The conversation between me and the consultant in Minors where I attended the other day (as I was almost non weight bearing) was very interesting. Because I've lost muscle in my legs I've not got the support structure I once had, so my ligaments that used to be supported by muscle which have radically reduced due to WLI need to be strengthened with eating more protein and doing strengthening and resistance exercises to rebuild muscle tissue. Something I'd not realised!

Sounds like you error was discussing this with your neighbour to begin with. Why did you need to do that?

But this is also incorrect. Wli did not reduce your muscle what reduced your muscle was dieting without streght training and not eating enough protein.