These are not wonder pills. It’s clear from the piece she is not planning on changing her lifestyle or taking any measures towards food and exercise.
ByteSizedGenius on
>“I hate it. I can’t stop eating even though I know it’s killing me. It’s an addiction. I can’t stop it, so why won’t the NHS fund the GLP1/Mounjaro?
What is she going to do after she stops the injections? It’s not a permanent solution unless you change your diet and lifestyle.
ShyBiSaiyan on
Unfortunately she probably needs therapy to help with the eating addiction, but therapy in this country is quite expensive and good luck getting therapy through the NHS.
FrancescasGrove on
Surely no one can have this little self awareness or accountability?!
You’re “trapped” because of sustained bad eating habits over many years
PraiseTheSun1997 on
Comments about as expected from the armchair health professionals
IlluminatedCookie on
She probably doesn’t. There’s a checklist to qualify for nhs of it and you need to hit all the points. Being overweight is just one. Besides that if you can’t stop eating it likely won’t do her any good. She has to want to lose the weight too or she’ll just eat through it and cost the nhs money.
Tonk666 on
From a purely financial point. I’m buying Mounjaro myself and am currently better off because the treatment is more than offset by the reduction in food costs.
Efficient-Pop-302 on
Because they’re not a miracle drug, you have to exercise and stay active as well as using the jabs.
They’re probably looking at you like a lost cause.
lil_squib on
Someone like this would likely just develop some type of transfer addiction, or eat through the numbing effects. These injections aren’t magic, they’re a tool.
starfishwantscoffee on
This isn’t the point of the article. But a friend buys the jab privately for the “food noise”. She was worried she’d be absolutely skint, but she’s said because of how much less she spends on takeaway cravings (that alone was about £250 a month), fizzy drinks etc she can afford them fairly comfortably.
It’s not ideal but maybe this lady could fund them herself and the costs might balance out? She clearly needs significant therapy and huge lifestyle changes as well as the jab, but it’s a start 🤷🏻♀️.
No_Atmosphere8146 on
So she can’t afford £200/month for the jab privately, but she can afford enough food to eat constantly? Come on Abigail, do the maths. You get the jab and pay for it with the hundreds of pounds you’re saving on Monster Munch.
tombola345 on
Heh. she calls LBC all the time, cool to put a face to a name.
Organic_Cat_Poo on
NHS should go out and mounjaro people with blow darts. Denying access is crazy.
pintofendlesssummer on
How can she afford to feed herself to get to that size, she obviously cannot work so is the benefit system funding her food bill. Meanwhile everyone else is struggling with food costs and here we have some 40 stone woman eating herself to death.
NGeoTeacher on
I do think people who’ve got themselves into situations like this do deserve help to get back on their feet, but I also think there needs to be self-responsibility. It sounds like she’s been given opportunities in the past, but not taken them. While the drugs may help, it’s got to be accompanied by a very strict exercise and diet regimen, as well as psychiatric treatment. That could also include temporarily relinquishing control of her finances to a licensed professional so she doesn’t have access to money to buy extra food – she gets gets what she’s given. That would be quite radical, but sometimes I think that’s what’s needed to break the cycle and establish good habits.
All the above would be expensive, but I’m going to assume she’s not working and so is completely reliant on benefits – the article doesn’t say. But, the cost of multiple hospital visits and treatment over what remains of her life is also going to be very expensive, and at least putting the money in now could help her get to a point where she can actually work again.
ButterscotchBest8866 on
She says she’s on PIP so that extra £194 a week tax free on top of her Universal Credit could easily afford the jabs from med express
KoffieCreamer on
Everyone saying she just needs to ‘stop eating’ is no different than telling a depressed person to start smiling.
These issues are behaviors learned over a potential lifetime, there is so many complex issues that need solving before she can change her lifestyle.
Ironically the jabs could kick start those lifestyle changes, although unlikely.
Groovy66 on
I was about 3 stone overweight and tried Mounjaro privately for a few months.
I lost about 2 stone in total and have been maintaining the current weight since January. I’m still overweight but not dreadfully so anymore.
Mounjaro is weird in that it takes away the urge/desire to eat and seems to inhibit the pleasure you get from eating which I guess is like a dopamine hit or similar.
Food stopped being important and I didn’t fancy it (or booze unexpectedly) so just ate (and drank) less.
I would expect it to affect this person in the same way so I’m surprised they didn’t give it go for a few months to see what happens.
Significant-Branch22 on
I think it would make sense to change the eligibility criteria so that if you’re above a certain very high bmi threshold you are eligible for these even without meeting any other criteria. Anyone weighing 40 stone should be able to access these drugs
Max375623875 on
One excuse in a long long *long* line of lifelong excuses.
Lump001 on
I’m sorry to be crass, and I sympathise with food addiciton and impulsive disorders, but you cannot be that large without physically putting the food in your face. You don’t need medicine to resolve that.
And for the sake of argument let’s say you do; if you can afford to buy the calories that are maintaining that size, you can afford to buy the jabs privately.
ACanWontAttitude on
If the tale she is telling is true then she likely would qualify for PIP. She can use that to buy it
No_Peach2280 on
Woe is me. Not to be insensitive, but people are looking to these drugs as a quick fix. She needs to make adjustments to her lifestyle, and not blame the NHS. She’s made numerous upon numerous decisions that have led to her obesity, relying on weight loss jabs is not a long term solution.
I feel for her, as it’s likely food addiction that has spiralled, but she needs to take actions to address that or she will die. People before her have done it, and people after her will do it.
I sincerely hope that she isn’t continuing unhealthy habits, and blaming it on the NHS not prescribing her the weight loss jabs. This is her opportunity to take control.
R400TVR on
She should not qualify for expensive NHS treatment. She chose to get this way, she should now do the hard work to get healthy. The NHS was set up to help people with emergency needs, not lifestyle choices.
Nublar_Repair_Man on
Surely at that size it takes more effort to stay the same weight than to lose it?
I made small changes and lost 3 stone eating exactly what I want every day.
This was after starting medical cannabis…the drug “that makes you fat and lazy”
Been overweight/obese since childhood and I’m 36 so yes I get the mental difficulty.
bigkahuna1uk on
Usually if you have a high BMI but have been refused those weight loss jabs, it’s because there’s another comorbidity that would make your health even more deleterious. It’s not due to her being an overweight. For instance weight loss jabs can cause eye strokes in some patients. People with eye problems are often prohibited from taking such medications.
fundmanagerthrwawy on
Why does taxpayer money need to be used for stuff like this? This is a choice.
IkeTurn on
Thing is the best option for her is to move more, eat less. Thats worked for thousands of years.
OkPea5819 on
If whoever is feeding her brought her fruit and veg she would lose quite a bit of weight. Not possible for her to keep that weight on eating cucumbers.
Late-Development-666 on
She needs some psychiatric help to address the desire to eat so much, because the jabs won’t be around forever.
I wish her well, she clearly wants to make a change, and that’s often the biggest hurdle.
buttflakes27 on
I dont want to sound uncaring but how do you get to 40 stone before you realise there might be a problem and not like 15 stone ago?
fresh_start0 on
I’m a tall male and when I reached 17 Strone it was a wake up call that my weight had become a serious problem and I needed to fix it.
Coin-Biter on
I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked by some of the comments, but I am.
40 stone is a very serious condition. These drugs are proven to be effective.
Jakeyo on
The reality is that this person won’t ever lose weight or change their habits. If you want something badly enough then you get on with it no matter the discomfort or short term pain. I lost 40kg by exercising regularly and sticking to a diet plan, anyone can do it but most simply choose to continue living a terrible lifestyle – almost like they’re expecting someone else to fix the problem or a magic fairy to come along
DarkLordMuffins on
So I’ve been on mounjaro for just over a year now, I was prescribed it for blood sugar (type 2) and I’ve lost 10 stone. Like many of the comments said, I’ve not just relied on the jab to do all the work, you have to work with it! It reduced my appetite significantly and got rid of food noise, with that help I changed my diet and worked on myself in a therapeutic capacity. It’s not a miracle jab, you have to work with it.
CappriGirl on
I think another question to ask ourselves is, would we be saying this about a person with anorexia, for example? An alcoholic?
Getting that fat is as much a mental health problem as anything. She needs rehab or therapy and weight loss drugs just like we would treat drug addicts, alcoholics and any other eating disorder.
SillyMidOff49 on
Save and buy them.
I know people are gonna point to addiction and not having enough money etc.
But has she had no holidays in years?
Has she not upgraded her tv, bought stuff for the living room or any other “treats”?
Crazily, She could still indulge in her bad lifestyle but change to cheaper brands temporarily?
She just wants them for *free*.
And that’s FINE.
But don’t act like so entitled when you’re not willing to put in even the tiniest amount of effort.
_aoxi on
Honestly, why is this a problem NHS is tasked to solve at tax payer expense? If you’ve made conscious decisions to become spherical – generating your own gravity such that you can drop donuts and they will orbit around you… and now you complain and ask NHS to ‘help’ you…
I don’t think this is fair. I, personally, wouldn’t want my tax to be used for such purposes. This is ridiculous.
FeralSquirrels on
A sad case but unfortunately we all have to accept some responsibility for ourselves and our health.
Would GLP-1 give a quicker result though? Is it a wonder-drug? A magic bullet? Either no, or at best debatable.
Why? Well let’s be pragmatic: it would stop her feeling hungry, so eating less. So ultimately no different to changing her diet and cutting down.
She’s not going to spontaneously become Wonder Woman and be getting up to jog, exercise or anything else just because of a jab.
Either way will take patience, time and sticking to a routine and being realistic again here the NHS isn’t going to keep paying for her to be on a jab forever, it’ll stop once she’s at a healthier weight – at which point she’d need to accept responsibility herself.
Now I’m no specialist but I would surmise the sensible course here would involve her receiving support and advice on diet, exercise and working towards a healthier lifestyle – but it still relies on her taking accountability for what she eats and for exercise.
If she can’t keep to that herself, then her situation won’t change. Breaking a cycle of addiction like that takes a desire to do so on her part and not just shouldering the issue to anyone she can lump it on, blaming the NHS for something they can only ever do so much to aid.
Nobody can force her to exercise, much less withhold food from her and certainly there’d be uproar if the NHS was found to be spanking large wads on what ostensibly are people who often (yes I’m aware there are exceptions) have gotten themselves into a hole, been offered support but instead want a miracle drug to fix it for them.
Weight loss takes time. Getting fit takes time. Adjusting your whole lifestyle takes willpower and time. GLP-1 isn’t going to do all of it and at best makes it not your responsibility _quite so directly_ for a period.
39 Comments
These are not wonder pills. It’s clear from the piece she is not planning on changing her lifestyle or taking any measures towards food and exercise.
>“I hate it. I can’t stop eating even though I know it’s killing me. It’s an addiction. I can’t stop it, so why won’t the NHS fund the GLP1/Mounjaro?
What is she going to do after she stops the injections? It’s not a permanent solution unless you change your diet and lifestyle.
Unfortunately she probably needs therapy to help with the eating addiction, but therapy in this country is quite expensive and good luck getting therapy through the NHS.
Surely no one can have this little self awareness or accountability?!
You’re “trapped” because of sustained bad eating habits over many years
Comments about as expected from the armchair health professionals
She probably doesn’t. There’s a checklist to qualify for nhs of it and you need to hit all the points. Being overweight is just one. Besides that if you can’t stop eating it likely won’t do her any good. She has to want to lose the weight too or she’ll just eat through it and cost the nhs money.
From a purely financial point. I’m buying Mounjaro myself and am currently better off because the treatment is more than offset by the reduction in food costs.
Because they’re not a miracle drug, you have to exercise and stay active as well as using the jabs.
They’re probably looking at you like a lost cause.
Someone like this would likely just develop some type of transfer addiction, or eat through the numbing effects. These injections aren’t magic, they’re a tool.
This isn’t the point of the article. But a friend buys the jab privately for the “food noise”. She was worried she’d be absolutely skint, but she’s said because of how much less she spends on takeaway cravings (that alone was about £250 a month), fizzy drinks etc she can afford them fairly comfortably.
It’s not ideal but maybe this lady could fund them herself and the costs might balance out? She clearly needs significant therapy and huge lifestyle changes as well as the jab, but it’s a start 🤷🏻♀️.
So she can’t afford £200/month for the jab privately, but she can afford enough food to eat constantly? Come on Abigail, do the maths. You get the jab and pay for it with the hundreds of pounds you’re saving on Monster Munch.
Heh. she calls LBC all the time, cool to put a face to a name.
NHS should go out and mounjaro people with blow darts. Denying access is crazy.
How can she afford to feed herself to get to that size, she obviously cannot work so is the benefit system funding her food bill. Meanwhile everyone else is struggling with food costs and here we have some 40 stone woman eating herself to death.
I do think people who’ve got themselves into situations like this do deserve help to get back on their feet, but I also think there needs to be self-responsibility. It sounds like she’s been given opportunities in the past, but not taken them. While the drugs may help, it’s got to be accompanied by a very strict exercise and diet regimen, as well as psychiatric treatment. That could also include temporarily relinquishing control of her finances to a licensed professional so she doesn’t have access to money to buy extra food – she gets gets what she’s given. That would be quite radical, but sometimes I think that’s what’s needed to break the cycle and establish good habits.
All the above would be expensive, but I’m going to assume she’s not working and so is completely reliant on benefits – the article doesn’t say. But, the cost of multiple hospital visits and treatment over what remains of her life is also going to be very expensive, and at least putting the money in now could help her get to a point where she can actually work again.
She says she’s on PIP so that extra £194 a week tax free on top of her Universal Credit could easily afford the jabs from med express
Everyone saying she just needs to ‘stop eating’ is no different than telling a depressed person to start smiling.
These issues are behaviors learned over a potential lifetime, there is so many complex issues that need solving before she can change her lifestyle.
Ironically the jabs could kick start those lifestyle changes, although unlikely.
I was about 3 stone overweight and tried Mounjaro privately for a few months.
I lost about 2 stone in total and have been maintaining the current weight since January. I’m still overweight but not dreadfully so anymore.
Mounjaro is weird in that it takes away the urge/desire to eat and seems to inhibit the pleasure you get from eating which I guess is like a dopamine hit or similar.
Food stopped being important and I didn’t fancy it (or booze unexpectedly) so just ate (and drank) less.
I would expect it to affect this person in the same way so I’m surprised they didn’t give it go for a few months to see what happens.
I think it would make sense to change the eligibility criteria so that if you’re above a certain very high bmi threshold you are eligible for these even without meeting any other criteria. Anyone weighing 40 stone should be able to access these drugs
One excuse in a long long *long* line of lifelong excuses.
I’m sorry to be crass, and I sympathise with food addiciton and impulsive disorders, but you cannot be that large without physically putting the food in your face. You don’t need medicine to resolve that.
And for the sake of argument let’s say you do; if you can afford to buy the calories that are maintaining that size, you can afford to buy the jabs privately.
If the tale she is telling is true then she likely would qualify for PIP. She can use that to buy it
Woe is me. Not to be insensitive, but people are looking to these drugs as a quick fix. She needs to make adjustments to her lifestyle, and not blame the NHS. She’s made numerous upon numerous decisions that have led to her obesity, relying on weight loss jabs is not a long term solution.
I feel for her, as it’s likely food addiction that has spiralled, but she needs to take actions to address that or she will die. People before her have done it, and people after her will do it.
I sincerely hope that she isn’t continuing unhealthy habits, and blaming it on the NHS not prescribing her the weight loss jabs. This is her opportunity to take control.
She should not qualify for expensive NHS treatment. She chose to get this way, she should now do the hard work to get healthy. The NHS was set up to help people with emergency needs, not lifestyle choices.
Surely at that size it takes more effort to stay the same weight than to lose it?
I made small changes and lost 3 stone eating exactly what I want every day.
This was after starting medical cannabis…the drug “that makes you fat and lazy”
Been overweight/obese since childhood and I’m 36 so yes I get the mental difficulty.
Usually if you have a high BMI but have been refused those weight loss jabs, it’s because there’s another comorbidity that would make your health even more deleterious. It’s not due to her being an overweight. For instance weight loss jabs can cause eye strokes in some patients. People with eye problems are often prohibited from taking such medications.
Why does taxpayer money need to be used for stuff like this? This is a choice.
Thing is the best option for her is to move more, eat less. Thats worked for thousands of years.
If whoever is feeding her brought her fruit and veg she would lose quite a bit of weight. Not possible for her to keep that weight on eating cucumbers.
She needs some psychiatric help to address the desire to eat so much, because the jabs won’t be around forever.
I wish her well, she clearly wants to make a change, and that’s often the biggest hurdle.
I dont want to sound uncaring but how do you get to 40 stone before you realise there might be a problem and not like 15 stone ago?
I’m a tall male and when I reached 17 Strone it was a wake up call that my weight had become a serious problem and I needed to fix it.
I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked by some of the comments, but I am.
40 stone is a very serious condition. These drugs are proven to be effective.
The reality is that this person won’t ever lose weight or change their habits. If you want something badly enough then you get on with it no matter the discomfort or short term pain. I lost 40kg by exercising regularly and sticking to a diet plan, anyone can do it but most simply choose to continue living a terrible lifestyle – almost like they’re expecting someone else to fix the problem or a magic fairy to come along
So I’ve been on mounjaro for just over a year now, I was prescribed it for blood sugar (type 2) and I’ve lost 10 stone. Like many of the comments said, I’ve not just relied on the jab to do all the work, you have to work with it! It reduced my appetite significantly and got rid of food noise, with that help I changed my diet and worked on myself in a therapeutic capacity. It’s not a miracle jab, you have to work with it.
I think another question to ask ourselves is, would we be saying this about a person with anorexia, for example? An alcoholic?
Getting that fat is as much a mental health problem as anything. She needs rehab or therapy and weight loss drugs just like we would treat drug addicts, alcoholics and any other eating disorder.
Save and buy them.
I know people are gonna point to addiction and not having enough money etc.
But has she had no holidays in years?
Has she not upgraded her tv, bought stuff for the living room or any other “treats”?
Crazily, She could still indulge in her bad lifestyle but change to cheaper brands temporarily?
She just wants them for *free*.
And that’s FINE.
But don’t act like so entitled when you’re not willing to put in even the tiniest amount of effort.
Honestly, why is this a problem NHS is tasked to solve at tax payer expense? If you’ve made conscious decisions to become spherical – generating your own gravity such that you can drop donuts and they will orbit around you… and now you complain and ask NHS to ‘help’ you…
I don’t think this is fair. I, personally, wouldn’t want my tax to be used for such purposes. This is ridiculous.
A sad case but unfortunately we all have to accept some responsibility for ourselves and our health.
Would GLP-1 give a quicker result though? Is it a wonder-drug? A magic bullet? Either no, or at best debatable.
Why? Well let’s be pragmatic: it would stop her feeling hungry, so eating less. So ultimately no different to changing her diet and cutting down.
She’s not going to spontaneously become Wonder Woman and be getting up to jog, exercise or anything else just because of a jab.
Either way will take patience, time and sticking to a routine and being realistic again here the NHS isn’t going to keep paying for her to be on a jab forever, it’ll stop once she’s at a healthier weight – at which point she’d need to accept responsibility herself.
Now I’m no specialist but I would surmise the sensible course here would involve her receiving support and advice on diet, exercise and working towards a healthier lifestyle – but it still relies on her taking accountability for what she eats and for exercise.
If she can’t keep to that herself, then her situation won’t change. Breaking a cycle of addiction like that takes a desire to do so on her part and not just shouldering the issue to anyone she can lump it on, blaming the NHS for something they can only ever do so much to aid.
Nobody can force her to exercise, much less withhold food from her and certainly there’d be uproar if the NHS was found to be spanking large wads on what ostensibly are people who often (yes I’m aware there are exceptions) have gotten themselves into a hole, been offered support but instead want a miracle drug to fix it for them.
Weight loss takes time. Getting fit takes time. Adjusting your whole lifestyle takes willpower and time. GLP-1 isn’t going to do all of it and at best makes it not your responsibility _quite so directly_ for a period.