{"id":110472,"date":"2025-05-18T01:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T01:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/110472\/"},"modified":"2025-05-18T01:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T01:29:10","slug":"all-the-ways-ozempic-will-change-our-world-from-alcohol-to-airlines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/110472\/","title":{"rendered":"All the ways Ozempic will change our world, from alcohol to airlines"},"content":{"rendered":"

The year is 2040. Half the population are regularly taking weight-loss pills. Airline profits are soaring as their passenger load drops. The treats aisle in supermarkets is relegated to a back shelf. Health food shops appear on every street corner. Sales of booze and cigarettes have collapsed, putting many addiction clinics are out of business. <\/p>\n

Britain, once one of the fattest developed nations in the world, has conquered its obesity crisis, freeing billions for the NHS. Health spas no longer promote weight loss, instead focusing on \u201clongevity\u201d and \u201cstress reduction\u201d. <\/p>\n

Last week, at the European Congress on Obesity, held in Malaga, southern Spain, presentation after presentation revealed that new weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro are not just good at tackling diabetes and helping people lose weight; they may also stop heart attacks, ward off cancer, reduce the risk of dementia, treat depression and help battle addiction. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s becoming increasingly apparent is that not only may these drugs permanently change our relationship with food: they could presage a much wider health revolution in our health.<\/p>\n

The consequences of this paradigm shift, intended or otherwise, seem increasingly momentous with each month that passes and could transform everything from alcohol sales to aeroplane fuel consumption.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are only in the foothills of understanding what these drugs might mean for the economy,\u201d says economist Daniel Susskind. \u201cWe know that obesity costs the NHS about 8 per cent of its budget. But we are now starting to sense that this is likely just the beginning. In the 21st century the economic consequences of weight-loss drugs may turn out to be similar in scale to what the discovery of penicillin did to the 20th century.\u201d<\/p>\n

The initial and most obvious impact is on our waistlines. More than half of adults in this country are obese or overweight, a number that could look radically different in ten or 15 years\u2019 time. These drugs, are already taken by about half a million people in Britain \u2014 and the figure is likely to rise fast, as the NHS seeks to tackle the obesity crisis. <\/p>\n

One recent study showed that making weight-loss drugs available to all eligible individuals in Britain would boost the economy by \u00a34.5 billion a year, simply by reducing the number of sick days taken.<\/p>\n

Professor John Deanfield, a cardiologist at University College London and a former government health adviser, believes the new weight-loss drugs will affect society in a way that goes way beyond health. \u201cIt will affect all sorts of aspects of our life,\u201d he says. \u201cThe restaurant industry, the airline industry, all these things will be affected.\u201d<\/p>\n

It may also affect our very appetite for life. Take the example of Anna, who at 47 was far heavier than she wanted to be. \u201cCounting calories works at first but then it just gets harder,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd going to the gym makes me want to shoot myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when she turned to Wegovy. At just over five feet tall, and weighing ten stone-plus, Anna (not her real name) wasn\u2019t quite heavy enough to be classed as \u201cobese\u201d, so she lied about her weight on the application. Once her prescription was approved, it changed everything. \u201cIt has been incredible,\u201d she says. \u201cI lost the three stone and I weigh less than I did when I was 30.\u201d<\/p>\n

What you need to know about weight-loss jabs<\/p>\n

And yet, after months of injecting herself, she gradually realised that her relationship with food \u2014 and her relationships with others \u2014 had changed. \u201cI\u2019m the kind of person who would look up the menu before going out for a meal and get excited about it,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd so did my friends. All of a sudden I was sitting in restaurants pushing my food around the plate. I wasn\u2019t even interested in having a glass of wine. It was \u2018just a Diet Coke for me please\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Family meals had been a way she bonded with her four children. \u201cI used to love planning meals, cooking for friends, making new things for the kids to eat; all of this became a chore.\u201d She is certainly slimmer. \u201cThat was the holy grail. But I don\u2019t feel like myself any more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally developed as a diabetes drug, researchers soon realised that these \u201cGLP-1\u201d treatments, which mimic the action of the hormone that makes people feel full after a meal, worked as a powerful appetite suppressant. <\/p>\n

The wider implications of this are beginning to become apparent. Last week Alex Gourlay, the executive chairman of Holland & Barrett, attributed a surge in health food sales to the new drugs<\/a>, whose users often have less craving for junk food. In response to changing preferences, the chain is now incorporating more healthy ingredients such as collagen and ashwagandha into its range. \u201c[It\u2019s] a real trend-breaker,\u201d Gourlay said. <\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

Alex Gourlay<\/p>\n

HOLLAND &AMP; BARRETT<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another example. According to a 2023 report, if passengers were an average of just ten pounds lighter, the US carrier United Airlines alone estimates it would save $80 million a year on fuel costs. <\/p>\n

Supermarkets are also watching the performance of the drugs carefully. Walmart, the world\u2019s biggest retailer, has already assigned a \u201cslight pullback in overall basket\u201d to the popularity of these jabs, with shoppers purchasing \u201cless units, slightly less calories\u201d. <\/p>\n

The alcohol industry may also be affected. In January, Fundsmith Equity, an investment fund, sold its stocks in Diageo<\/a>, the FTSE 100 drinks company, over concerns that weight-loss drugs would dampen booze sales. <\/p>\n

The drugs have already revolutionised the slimming market. WeightWatchers filed for bankruptcy in the US this month after losing nearly a third of its customers last year, many of them having decided that taking a weekly jab was easier than willpower alone. Polling in the US suggests one in eight US adults \u2014 25 million people \u2014 have already taken the drugs.<\/p>\n

Even gyms \u2014 after having arguably failed to help enough people lose weight themselves \u2014 are having to change their models. Some are starting to offer programmes specifically designed for those on the weight-loss drugs, to help them maintain muscle as they lose bulk. <\/p>\n

Deanfield, whose research \u2014 as is common in the field \u2014 has been partially funded by Novo Nordisk, the Danish company that makes Wegovy and Ozempic, says the new evidence is changing the way doctors think about the medicines. \u201cIt repositions these drugs from being weight-loss drugs to being drugs that benefit fundamental diseases that we\u2019d like to avoid.\u201d<\/p>\n

With one billion obese people worldwide, pharmaceutical executives \u2014 who are sitting on a generational goldmine \u2014 talk in fevered terms about an \u201cunknown ceiling\u201d to uptake. That ceiling is likely to rise when pill forms of the drugs arrive, the first of which \u2014 Eli Lilly\u2019s Orforglipron<\/a> \u2014 is expected in 2026. <\/p>\n

Deanfield believes the drugs will overtake statins, which are taken by about eight million people in the UK to ward off heart attacks and strokes. \u201cStatins have been extraordinarily helpful and beneficial for the population, but we\u2019ve always had to convince people that they were good for them, because they didn\u2019t see a visible benefit,\u201d he says. Those taking weight-loss drugs, by comparison, \u201ccan see the benefit very quickly for themselves\u201d. <\/p>\n

No drug is a complete panacea and many questions remain. Many doctors remain uneasy at the prospect of relying on big pharma to fix a problem created by big food. Short-term side-effects of GLP-1s include nausea, constipation and fatigue. Long-term impacts are less certain, but there are concerns that much of the weight patients lose is from muscle mass, creating potential frailty problems down the line. <\/p>\n

The treatments are also expensive \u2014 about \u00a3200 a month privately. As with statins, which now cost pennies, the true benefit at a mass scale may not be seen until the drug patents expire and generic versions become available. Ozempic\u2019s patent will run out in 2033.<\/p>\n

Nobody has yet come up with a convincing exit plan from the drugs. One study presented in Malaga showed that if patients stop taking them, they put the weight back on within ten months. Patients are likely to be locked in to taking the drugs long term.<\/p>\n

That was certainly Anna\u2019s experience. Unhappy with the impact of the drugs on her social and family life, she stopped taking Wegovy after a few months. \u201cMy appetite came back and then some \u2014 I was just ravenous,\u201d she says. The pounds started piling back on, so she resumed the injections. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is, I wouldn\u2019t have lost the weight any other way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting: Eleanor Hayward in Malaga<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The year is 2040. Half the population are regularly taking weight-loss pills. Airline profits are soaring as their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4315],"tags":[105,4326,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-110472","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-medication","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114526248276011455","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}