Tag: obesity

Illinois Taxpayers Appear to Be Footing the Bill for Billionaire Pritzker’s Weight Loss Drug

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker revealed to “CBS Mornings” that for the last two years he has been using a GLP-1 medication to lose weight.

In a CBS News interview broadcast Monday, Pritzker said he’s lost 80 pounds so far and he feels “a whole lot different and a whole lot better.”

“I’ve been overweight most of my life, really, since I was probably 7 or 8 years old,” Pritzker said.

Pritzker told the network a diabetes diagnosis two years ago pushed the change. A doctor recommended a GLP-1 and warned he might need treatment for life. Pritzker said he injects weekly, walks about four miles most mornings, and is off insulin.

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GLP-1 Weight-Loss Drug Prescriptions for Young Kids Skyrocketing, Study Finds

The number of American children being prescribed GLP-1 weight-loss drugs has surged dramatically over the past few years, fueling debate over whether doctors are medicating childhood obesity instead of preventing it, according to new research.

A recent study led by researchers at NYU Langone Health found prescriptions of Saxenda, Wegovy and Zepbound for children ages 8 to 11 rose 310-fold from 0.03% in 2019 to 9.3% in 2026.

Researchers said 20,282 children in that age group were prescribed the drugs in 7.5 years — still a small fraction of the more than 3.5 million children studied, but a fast-accelerating one.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved GLP-1 drugs for children under 12, but doctors prescribe them off-label for extreme cases.

We ‘need more long-term data in children,’ physician says

Babak J. Orandi, M.D., Ph.D., the study’s lead investigator and an obesity medicine specialist at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said the research offers the first national look at how GLP-1 drugs are being used in young children amid the broader obesity epidemic.

Roughly 20% of U.S. children are obese, he said, and that underlying trend is what worries him most.

“My biggest concern is upstream of any medication: Nearly 1 in 5 children this age has obesity, and that’s what’s really driving this,” Orandi told The Defender.

He added:

“Medication can help an individual child, but it doesn’t address why so many children are developing severe obesity in the first place. I’d like to see real investment in the food environment kids grow up in, with less reliance on ultra-processed food, better food access and affordability, less screen time and more opportunity for physical activity, and support for families trying to build healthier routines at home.

“Treating more children with medication while leaving that environment unchanged just means we’ll keep producing more children who need treatment.”

Orandi said the drugs can be effective for treating obesity and related health problems, and that forgoing treatment carries its own long-term risks, including a higher chance of developing chronic disease later in life.

Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity physician-scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, agreed.

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Popular GLP-1 weight-loss drugs linked to potentially deadly brain disorder

Researchers are warning about a rare but potentially life-threatening brain condition that may be linked to popular GLP-1 weight-loss medications.

A new study, published in Clinical Nutrition, identified 15 reported cases of Wernicke encephalopathy, a neurological disorder caused by severe vitamin B1 deficiency, in people taking GLP-1 receptor agonists.

Most of the reported cases involved semaglutide, sold under the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy, or tirzepatide, sold as Mounjaro and Zepbound.

Researchers found 15 cases through the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS), published medical literature and their own medical center.

Most patients reported gastrointestinal symptoms or nutritional issues, including weight loss, vomiting, loss of appetite or malnutrition, the study noted.

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INSANE: “Fat Queer” Communist Activist Declares GLP-1 Weight-Loss Drugs “Fascistic” — Claims Society Is “Genociding Fat People”

The radical left has apparently discovered its latest form of “fascism”: Americans using medication to lose weight and improve their health.

During the four-day Socialism 2026 conference in Chicago, self-described Black, fat, queer anarcho-communist activist Da’Shaun L. Harrison launched a bizarre attack on popular GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic, claiming the drugs represent a new phase of so-called “body fascism” while delivering the remarks in a face mask.

Harrison made the remarks during a September 5 panel titled “Health Fascism, Body Politics, and the Anti-State State.”

Harrison: “The political deployment of GLP-1s is fascistic, not because individuals take them, but because the conditions under which they become necessary are shaped by a world fixated on genociding fat people.

A shot that helps diabetics, heart patients, and obese Americans lose dangerous weight is, in this worldview, a tool of genocide.

Harrison did not stop there. The author of Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness, a self-described Afropessimist, anarcho-communist, and trans theorist who uses they/them pronouns, tied the entire obesity debate to race, slavery, and “colonial surveillance.”

“This is a structural critique that asks what happens when the conditions produced by capitalism, by public health, by the state apparatus, and by anti-black desire align around a single bodily ideal that leaves little to no room for divergence and punishes any body that does.”

And then the academic name-drop:

“But to understand why the deployment of GLP-1s is fascistic requires turning to Frantz Fanon’s account of black flesh under colonial surveillance.”

BMI charts. Diet culture. Doctors telling patients they are overweight. All of it, according to Harrison, is “body fascism” built on the policing of “Black fat flesh.”

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Pharmacists sound alarm over popular drugs used for weight loss: Users ‘look like chemo patients’

Drugs prescribed for diabetes and chronic obesity such as Ozempic are increasingly sought after for quick, cosmetic weight loss, a life choice pharmacists warn can lead to serious health risks. 

“We have seen thin people try to come in and get it,” Dr. Carrie Leske, a licensed pharmacist in Minnesota, recently told Just the News. “As pharmacists we are supposed to use our judgment and, if need be, call the physician and try to understand what’s going on, because it’s supposed to only be used for obese people.”

Such prescription medications, known under such popular brand names as Ozempic and Wegovy, are a class of drugs known as Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (or GLP-1s) that mimic a natural hormone to lower blood sugar and reduce appetite. Two types of GLP-1s – semaglutide and tirzepatide – are found in such medications. 

However, they were not created for weight loss in people already at healthy weights. So taking it off-label brings such serious medical risks as severe dehydration, muscle loss and pancreatitis.

“Some of the people using [these] just look so unhealthy,” Leske, also told Just the News. “They look like chemo patients to me.”

Dr. Nairi Kasparian, a clinical pharmacist in Omaha, told Just the News that while GLP-1s can be “very effective,” they are designed for continual, indefinite use as long-term weight management – not necessarily as a temporary weight loss pill.

“They are FDA-approved as chronic weight-management treatments, meaning the goal is generally to continue them as long as they are providing benefit and are tolerated,” she said. 

“The biggest issue is when people stop taking the drug,” said Kasparian, while also pointing out “current obesity-treatment guidance notes that stopping semaglutide or tirzepatide abruptly can result in regaining roughly half to two-thirds of the weight lost within a year” – particularly if the individual has not maintained a strict diet.

Nevertheless, the efficacy of the medications in curbing appetite and delivering speedy results has gained the attention of otherwise healthy individuals seeking short-term, cosmetic weight loss.

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Scientists Warn of Vision and Nerve Side Effects from GLP-1 Drugs

Vision problems often develop quietly, with no pain or early warning, yet once eyesight is damaged it’s rarely restored. That’s why any new evidence linking popular medications to sudden changes in eye health deserves your attention. GLP-1 receptor agonists, marketed under names like Ozempic and Wegovy, are being taken by millions of people worldwide, not only for Type 2 diabetes but also as quick solutions for weight loss.

These drugs have been hailed as breakthroughs, but their effects on human health, including the eyes, tell a more complicated story. Emerging research suggests that their influence on vision could trigger unexpected harm.

For those already managing diabetes or for individuals considering these drugs solely for weight management, the stakes may be high because eye-related changes can be lasting. Understanding how they affect the delicate tissues of your eyes is central to protecting your long-term health. That is why new studies examining their role in vision changes are so important, offering insight into the risks tied to their use.

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RFK Jr. Announces Obesity Rates in America Are Down for the First Time in Half a Century

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday that the obesity rate in the United States dropped last year for the first time in half a century.

Speaking at an event hosted by America First Policy Institute in Charlotte, Michigan, Kennedy said, “Since President [Donald] Trump came into office, obesity rates in this country have dropped by 2.5 percent. That’s the first drop in 50 years. And that drop alone will have significant impacts on health care costs in this country, because obesity drives about 80 percent of chronic disease.”

Health care costs account for approximately 35 percent of federal expenditures, according to the most recent data from the Treasury Department.

In fiscal year 2024, the federal government spent $1.9 trillion on health care programs, making it the largest category of federal spending.

“Thirty-five percent of American adults are obese,” RFK Jr. said. “When my uncle [John F. Kennedy] was president [in the early 1960s], 3 percent of children were obese. Now, it’s 20 percent.”

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‘You’ve Got to be Freaking Kidding Me’: U.S. Military Spends Over $700 Million for Ozempic and Other GLP-1 Weight Loss Meds

Military personnel criticize the hundreds of millions spent on weight loss medications as a misguided approach to addressing the obesity crisis in the U.S. Armed Forces.

A report from the American Security Project in 2025 revealed that approximately 68 percent—two out of three—of the military’s Reserve and National Guard forces are classified as overweight.

Subsequent to this report, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth expressed his concern on X, stating, “Completely unacceptable. This is what happens when standards are IGNORED – and this is what we are changing. REAL fitness & weight standards are here. We will be FIT, not FAT.”

Was the solution found in raising the bar for “REAL fitness & weight standards?” Perhaps they were. However, some startling revelations concerning weight loss have emerged, with RealClearInvestigations dubbing this disclosure the “Waste of the Day.”

Since 2021, the military has allocated nearly $726 million for Ozempic and other GLP-1 weight loss medications, with $274.6 million spent in fiscal year 2025, as revealed by spending records acquired by Open the Books.

This expenditure encompasses 102,597 individual purchases, all made through the Defense Logistics Agency for “troop support.” The majority of the funds were directed to the wholesale pharmaceutical company Cencora. Over a dozen varieties of GLP-1 medications were acquired, including Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Trulicity.

Many individuals—and taxpayers alike—who have served in the military are infuriated.

Lt. Ted Macie, a retired Navy Medical Service Corps officer, was appalled. He informed The Gateway Pundit that data obtained from the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED) indicate that obesity rates have surged in the military over the last decade.

From 2016 to 2019, an average of 13,863 cases of overweight and obesity were documented across all branches of service. This average rose to 21,969 between 2020 and 2023. Remarkably, there was a 190 percent increase during this period, with cases soaring from 12,249 to 35,531.

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FDA Grants Speedy Approval to Eli Lilly’s Weight-Loss Pill for Obesity

Federal regulators on Wednesday approved Eli Lilly’s new weight-loss pill, a second daily oral medication to treat obesity and other weight-related conditions.

The Food and Drug Administration granted expedited approval to orforglipron, a GLP-1 drug that works like widely used injectable medications to mimic a natural hormone that controls appetite and feelings of fullness.

The drug, which will be branded as Foundayo, is expected to begin shipping Monday. The company said people with insurance may be able to get the drug starting at $25 per month with a Lilly discount card. Prices for people paying cash will range between $149 per month to $349 per month, depending on the dose.

The new pill joins drugmaker Novo Nordisk’s oral Wegovy pill, which has spurred more than 600,000 prescriptions in the United States since it was approved in December.

The FDA authorized Eli Lilly’s drug as part of a new program aimed at cutting drug approval times. The agency said it reviewed the company’s application in 50 days.

In a clinical trial of more than 3,000 adults with obesity, participants who received the highest dose of orforglipron, 36 milligrams, lost 11.2% of their body weight — about 25 pounds on average — over more than 16 months. That compared with a 2.1% weight loss, or less than 5 pounds, in patients who received a placebo, or dummy pill, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Hims and Hers Stops Offering Semaglutide Drugs Following FDA Scrutiny

Telehealth business Hims and Hers will stop offering customers pills made of compounded semaglutide, which is used for weight loss and diabetes control, the company said in a Feb. 7 post on X.

Compounded drugs are medications created by licensed pharmacists or physicians by mixing and combining the various ingredients of a drug. These are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, as a result of which their safety, quality, and effectiveness remain suspect. Semaglutide is the active ingredient of medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy, which are GLP-1 drugs used to treat diabetes and weight loss.

On Feb. 5, Hims and Hers announced it was offering compounded semaglutide to customers.

“This new option features a specialized formulation that is engineered to protect the active ingredient through digestion and support absorption,” it said.

The company offered introductory plans beginning at $49 from the first month, with a 5-month plan. Hims and Hers claimed it adhered to “all federal and state standards for compounding.” Moreover, all active pharmaceutical ingredients used in the compounded drugs are exclusively sourced from facilities registered with the FDA, according to the company.

In a Feb. 5 post on X, FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said the agency would take “swift action” against companies that mass-market copycat drugs with a claim that they are similar to FDA-approved products.

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