We are in a unique section of time where there was recently the belief that obesity was the fault of the person. Now we know a person has obesity and it is in their biochemical makeup. In 20, 50, 100 years, we will be telling stories of how hard we tried to lose weight all our lives and how pointless it was because, it turns out, it wasn’t something in our control at all. A lifetime of being told we are lazy, gluttonous, and slobs is vanishing before our eyes (quite literally!).
Polypeptides Come Raining Down
Medications with convoluted chemical makeups like glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), peptide GEP44, glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) have begun peppering our vernacular regarding weight loss. We now speak in generic terms like liraglutide, semaglutide, tirzepatide instead of only in their brand names Victoza, Ozempic/Wegovy, and Mounjaro. I challenge folks to tell me what the generic names sildenafil or tadalafil represent in their brand name versions. (Viagra and Cialis) This shift in speaking chemistry has me baffled. Why now? Why these obesity medications? Is it a way for the masses to see obesity as a disease instead of a moral failing? Perhaps we have to use the complicated formulations to get the message across that medicine is going to fix/heal/help what so many in the world suffer from.
What Weighs Me Down Still
My own body is wracked with damage from carrying around so much weight for most of my 62 years. Even though I have lost and gained hundreds of pounds, the majority of my life has been lugging around at least 150+ extra pounds. Most recently, 200+ extra pounds (weighing 405 pounds April 22, 2022). I am 17 months into my weight loss excursion with Trulicity and Mounjaro and while I have lost an entire person (148 pounds), I am still 257 pounds. So many just beginning these meds weigh less than that!
How I wish I were 35 again, when I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, a disease my entire Cuban family suffers from. My relatives have gone blind, lost body parts, and had heart attacks and strokes from too much glucose in their systems. One 25-year old cousin died after a belly button piercing because her body couldn’t fight the blood infection she had due to her uncontrolled diabetes.
My Latine Grandbabies & Their Babies
Is the future for my progeny filled with light and the joy of not being fat? Will there be a vaccination for obesity in their future? Will they tell stories of their mother and grandmother experiencing the birth of obesity treatment, how they had to have a shot every week? Will that seem so archaic they will shake their heads in amazement that we actually had to do these machinations?
I suspect they will.
I bless the day when no one has to endure the weight of obesity.