People have been taking them for decades for other reasons, so if they had side effects reducing max life expectancy worse than being overweight surely we'd know by now.

have they? why are they only gaining prominence now?

Because they have been made available for weight loss.

Viagra's original purpose was for heart conditions, that purpose didn't make the headlines (or spam folders) either.

Almost. Pulmonary hypertension, high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs. Pretty close to the heart.

Oh? I stand corrected. I thought it was for angina.

Treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Entirely possible they do - but those effects would probably manifest in some fashion earlier than actual death. We'll have at least 7 years to see if we can spot them. But, even if they do exist, they will probably be small (given we haven't found them so far), and the positive effect on life expectancy via weight loss is huge.

i.e. the benefits of the weight loss almost certainly outweigh any side effects that are likely to manifest.

We don’t know if MMR doesn’t but we still give kids[0] the vaccine in infancy. The vaccine is too young (<60 y old). So I suppose ask yourself what proof you need and why.

0: most kids, I just got the disease instead and the vax later

We do know MMRV causes more seizures in kids than MMR and countries (like Canada) still choose to administer the vaccine with riskier outcomes due to costs and the fact parents don’t like to come back for more shots.

A vaccine is very different than a hormone taken daily.

A study by researchers from the University of British Columbia (Canada) shows a link between drugs intended for diabetics and severe gastrointestinal diseases: pancreatitis, intestinal obstruction, biliary pathologies and gastroparesis.

Only fools would convince themselves a drug has no sideeffect.

The worst is that these drugs were created for legitimate use but are now being abused by what I would call lazy fat who can't get their finger out of their arse and start eating healthy.

When there is a natural, effective and no side effects alternative, why go the medication way.

When I was at university, I made a game of spending as little as possible on food. 50p/day. Didn't realise until someone here refused to believe me, that my diet then was about 1100 kcal/day during term time. Didn't feel bad at all.

A few years after graduation, for unrelated reasons, I was on antidepressants. I massively over-ate, became obese, gained stretch marks that will likely remain for life.

There was no voice in my head telling me I was even over-eating, there was no awareness of what I was doing to myself even when I felt the weird tingle in my belly that in retrospect was the tearing flesh that has the outward sign of a stretch mark — I ate without thought.

There is no "natural, effective" solution, because our natural instincts are at odds with our unnatural world.

There really is no natural solution if you are taking medication that increases your weight. Kinda disproving your own example there.

Is this "nature" in the room with us right now?

Seriously — the US and Europe have not been in a remotely "natural" condition since over a century before I was born. Even the air we breathe is significantly different from its natural condition.

Why do you think I gave that example?

So the solution is to take a hormone so we can still eat all the junk food we massively produce?

Ozempic is exactly the type of drug Unilevel/Nestlé would create if they were tasked with reducing obesity. I wonder if they'll include a free 7 day dose of it with Mars bars.

It reduces food intake by lowering appetite.

That's pretty much the exact opposite of what you seem to think it does, and is exactly the kind of thing that will hurt Nestlé's junk food line. (Though probably not their bottled tap water line).

I wish people with your worldview could try some drug enhancing appetite for like a month. See how easy it is to get their fingers out of their arse and keep eating healthy when their body is craving food all day long.

Would you also tell people suffering from depression to just cheer the fuck up instead of going the medication way?

We don't, but there's also no particular reason to believe it will unless some evidence for it appears.

Similar to zero-calorie sugar substitutes, "too good to be true" isn't always the case. Sometimes new inventions really are just better.