DR. MARC SIEGEL: More bad news about our kids' health. Is Ozempic the solution?
Please note: this is not connected to the kind of diabetes (type 1) that is autoimmune or tied to genetics and the most common form diagnosed it childhood, but the kind (type 2) where you don't make enough insulin to drive the glucose you have into the cells and where insulin resistance builds up. And it doesn't take actual type 2 diabetes to do that. Pre-diabetes is well on the road to actual diabetes, though it can often still be reversed by lifestyle changes. The inflammation and excess glucose associated with pre-diabetes can also damage kidneys, coronary arteries, retinas, and nerves, whether a child goes on to develop full type 2 diabetes or not.
Considering that between 21 and 40% of obese patients have pre-diabetes, and considering that the GLP1 agonist drugs including Ozempic and Wegovy are highly effective at not just glucose control but also weight loss, and adding to that they appear to have cardioprotective effects and are also seemingly good for the brain, it is no surprise that there is a huge clamor for them all across America. So shouldn't all of our children with a weight or sugar problem be on them?
The answer is a resounding no.
Not only are there concerns about gastrointestinal side effects and intolerance, but optical side effects (headaches, macular degeneration, and even loss of vision have been reported) need to be further studied along with thyroid cancer concerns. Currently, there is no data on long-term side effects and a child who, once committed to them, could be on these drugs for life.
It is easy to see that the benefits outweigh the risks much more for adults than for most children.
Also, at a time when there is an epidemic of social media and excess screen-time addiction, where our children's diets are filled with ultra-processed high-sugar foods, when too many children are not exercising, I feel it would be a big mistake to rush to these semaglutide drugs as a quick fix to the problem.
Don't get me wrong, I much prefer the drugs to the long-term side effects of obesity, which include all the diseases and more mentioned above. If I knew for sure that a child was in a group where they were destined for diabetes or heart disease because of their weight and I could do something about it, of course I would, but most of the time there are lifestyle changes to promote first. Clearly, we have a long way to go to improve our kids' diets, but now is the time to start.
For those children with persistent obesity and/or prediabetes, a nutritionist along with an endocrinologist should be involved, but for most, it should be a very runway before the Ozempic or Wegovy plane is launched, at least for now.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
UnitedHealth Group reports mixed second quarter earnings, highest MLR ever
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) reported second quarter earnings Tuesday beating Wall Street's expectations on the top line by a small margin, and missing on the bottom line. But its earnings continues a trend of higher-than-expected costs in the industry this quarter. The company reported revenues of $111.6 billion, compared to Wall Street expectations of $111.53 billion, and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $4.08, compared to $4.59 expected by the Street. The company also updated its guidance for the full year, after pulling it last quarter. It now expects revenues between $445.5 to $448.0 billion, and adjust earnings at least $16 per share. UnitedHealth's stock was falling in premarket trading on Tuesday, more than 3% after the earnings report released. Industry pressure More patients seeking care means more premiums being paid out and less revenue for health insurers. Typically, insurers aim to be on the lower end of between 80%-85% of the premiums they receive, known as the medical expense ratio. UnitedHealth reported 89.4% this quarter, compared to 84.8% in the first. That number is the highest in the company's history, breaking its 2024 record of 85.5% — which was attributed to higher utilization of care by seniors. Other insurers have reported 90% or more in the second quarter this year — a significant jump from prior quarters, and it's all related to Medicare or Medicaid programs. The marks a continuing trend, which has been plaguing the industry since last year and has taken several stocks for a ride every quarter. Notably, CVS (CVS) saw a hit to its stock after its Aetna Medicare costs came in higher than expected, but then its stock was boosted last quarter as fears of costs were allayed. This quarter, Centene (CNC) and Elevance (ELV) have faced higher-than-expected costs. The hit to UnitedHealth Tuesday appears to be a delayed part of that trend — and the company has acknowledged it, like other big insurers, is surprised by the hit. Especially with the company's focus on revenue management, owning and acquiring companies over the years that would rely on technology to streamline and increase profits. 'UnitedHealth Group has embarked on a rigorous path back to being a high-performing company fully serving the health needs of individuals and society broadly,' said CEO Stephen Hemsley, in a statement. 'As we strengthen operating disciplines, positioning us for growth in 2026 and beyond, the people at UnitedHealth Group will continue to support the millions of patients, physicians and customers who rely on us, guided by a culture of service and longstanding values.' Industry change In addition to the insurance market woes, UnitedHealth has faced internal struggles. Former CEO Andrew Witty was ousted in May, and former CEO and board chair Stephen Hemsley then took the helm. The executive shakeup came after a year of turmoil for the company, including the largest ever cyberattack on its Change Healthcare subsidiary. Meanwhile, the company is still reeling from the death of insurance executive Brian Thompson, who was shot and killed in New York City last year. The incident prompted an awakening in the insurance industry, which faced a backlash for its system of prior authorization requirements that result in denials of care. Several companies, and the Trump administration, have pledged to fix the problems and relax prior authorization burdens for patients. Humana executives said last week during an earnings call that the company would reduce prior authorizations by one-third of the current volume. United Health previously said that it only sees prior authorizations for 2% of total claims and that it will further reduce that amount. UnitedHealth said Tuesday the company is focused on greater transparency with Hemsley leading, and expects to continue offering greater insight into its operations as it rebuilds the company. Anjalee Khemlani is the senior health reporter at Yahoo Finance, covering all things pharma, insurance, provider services, digital health, PBMs, and health policy and politics. That includes GLP-1s, of course. Follow Anjalee as AnjKhem on social media platforms X, LinkedIn, and Bluesky @AnjKhem.
Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Atlanta United honors Children's Healthcare of Atlanta patients at match
Patients overcoming pediatric illnesses were honored during Atlanta United's Pediatric Illness Awareness match against the Seattle Sounders on Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Atlanta United partnered with the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta to honor the strength and resiliency of patients during the match. Barzi, who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, which caused him to have his leg amputated, walked on stage to hit the golden spike. He also designed a special scarf for the match that highlighted special moments of his life. Alejandro, who lives with sickle cell anemia, served as Atlanta United's honorary captain. Colton, who was diagnosed with b-cell acute lymphatic leukemia two years ago, rang the honorary bell at halftime. For him, it was a special ceremony that marked the end of his cancer treatment. And Rowan, an avid Atlanta United fan who recently had his appendix removed at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Arthur M. Blank Hospital, was the in-stadium graphic designer. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] TRENDING STORIES: Walton County family sues after home sold using forged deed PHOTOS: Best 25 public middle schools in Georgia Geo-fencing technology leads to arrest in 71-year-old grandmother's cold case murder [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The 3 Things That Matter for CRISPR Therapeutics Now
Key Points CRISPR Therapeutics' gene-editing treatments are highly customized and shockingly expensive. The market is watching to see if the underlying science can be applied to treat many diseases. The company has plenty of money right now, but its expenses could grow quite a bit from here. 10 stocks we like better than CRISPR Therapeutics › Biotechnology outfit CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRSP) isn't a name on many investors' radar -- and understandably so. Its market capitalization is a mere $6 billion. The company remains in the red largely because it's barely got any revenue to speak of. It's not likely to swing to a profit in the immediate future, either. Still, if you've got room in your portfolio for a little more risk paired with above-average upside potential, this is a stock worth adding to your watchlist (if not your portfolio) with three key things in mind. But first things first. What's CRISPR Therapeutics? Although the company was founded back in 2013, most of its time since then has been spent refining the work first done by Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., and co-founder Emmanuelle Charpentier, Ph.D., who jointly figured out how to "edit" defective genetic code in a strand of DNA. By using a protein called Cas9 to find and remove a damaged portion of a genetic sequence and then replace it using a gene-editing biotechnology based on clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats -- or CRISPR -- medical science is now able to do what was once unthinkable. It's still early days for the science -- very early. In fact, the FDA only made its first-ever approval of a gene-editing therapy in December of 2023. That's Casgevy, for the treatment of sickle cell disease, which was approved in the U.K. only a month earlier. The thing is, Casgevy is CRISPR Therapeutics' treatment, underscoring how well developed this biotech outfit's science is, and perhaps indirectly underscoring the fact that many rival drug developers are still well behind. Casgevy isn't the company's proverbial big Kahuna, however -- it's merely proof that gene editing can be successfully done. The heavy hitters in CRISPR's developmental pipeline are CTX310 for the treatment of certain cardiovascular diseases, and CTX131 and CTX112, both of which are taking aim at cancer using the very same CRISPR science. Although all of these drugs still have years of developmental work ahead of them, again, the underlying gene-editing technology works. Its potential applications are enormous. That's why CRISPR has a dozen or so others in clinical or pre-clinical trials also underway at this time. Three things to watch As time marches on, though, this stock's backstory is evolving from one broadly driven by an idea to one that increasingly hinges on some very specific factors. To this end, here are the three things that matter the most to current and prospective CRISPR Therapeutics shareholders right now -- and for the foreseeable future -- since they'll either drive the stock higher or let it slide into a sell-off. 1. Insurers and patients' acceptance of CRISPR-based medicine's cost While the science of using CRISPR to repair faulty cells is exciting, it's not exactly cheap or easy. See, Casgevy isn't a pill or an injection. It requires a sample of a patient's own blood stem cells to create a completely customized therapy, which is then infused back into that patient after he or she has undergone chemotherapy. All of this care can only be done at one of CRISPR's 65 authorized treatment centers. Total cost? A little over $2 million per patient. That's pretty steep for any therapy, but particularly for sickle cell disease, which at least has a handful of more affordable treatment options. The cost of treating life-threatening cancer is less of a stumbling block, even for insurers that may occasionally see bills nearly this size for even the most conventional of oncology treatment regimens. The price tag of this and any other future CRISPR-based therapy, however, is likely to remain in this ballpark, where payers may well balk. 2. The ongoing development of CTX310 Again, while Casgevy is approved to treat sickle cell disease, it's really more of a proving ground for the other drugs in CRISPR Therapeutics' developmental pipeline. This, of course, includes CTX131 and CTX112, but the company itself is putting the spotlight on CTX310 as a treatment for ANGPTL3 (angiopoietin-like 3), which is often associated with poorly regulated cholesterol, lipids, and triglycerides. If the company can demonstrate its solution is at least as good as (if not better than) alternative cholesterol-fighting drugs, investors might continue to support this stock. This information is coming. The company posted encouraging early results of CTX310's phase 1 clinical trial late last month, and says it intends to offer more detailed data at a healthcare conference scheduled for later in the year. If it's compelling enough, it could tamp down worries over the high cost of any CRISPR-based treatment. 3. Liquidity Finally, you'll want to keep an eye on CRISPR Therapeutics' liquidity, or the amount of cash it has on hand to cover its operating costs while it continues to develop CTX310 at the same time it's looking to expand Casgevy's commercialization. As of the end of the first quarter, CRISPR was sitting on $1.86 billion in cash, which is a lot for a company of this size. It's working through this money pretty quickly, though, shelling out nearly $150 million in operating expenses in Q1 alone. That doesn't include a full quarter's worth of the sort of costs the phase 1 trial of CTX310 is incurring now, or any other trials it starts or expands in the foreseeable future. Continued revenue growth from Casgevy should seemingly help offset some of this spending, even if not all of it. Indeed, the analyst community expects CRISPR's top line to soar from less than $50 million this year to more than $400 million in 2027, even if these same analysts believe the company will still be well in the red then. A few years' worth of losses isn't exactly unusual for a young biotech start-up. CRISPR Therapeutics would still lack much-needed scale even after such growth, though. The money it needs to spend just to get any meaningful degree of traction from Casgevy or maintain its clinical trials could far exceed any conceivable amount of revenue the newly approved drug might produce in the foreseeable future. Don't confuse what CRSP stock is So what's the call? There isn't one -- not this time. Buying or avoiding a stake in CRISPR Therapeutics is entirely up to you, depending on your risk tolerances and your ability to manage such a holding. If you're strictly a buy-and-hold investor, there's probably not enough certainty here yet to latch onto for the long haul. And there may never be. If you've got a speculative side that can tolerate risk in exchange for hype-driven reward, though, you could make a decent bullish case. Just don't confuse the two, or muddy the waters by trying to be both. The last thing you want to do here is talk yourself into a long-term position that requires you to ignore obvious red flags like the three potential ones discussed above. Should you buy stock in CRISPR Therapeutics right now? Before you buy stock in CRISPR Therapeutics, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and CRISPR Therapeutics wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,063,471!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,041% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 28, 2025 James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends CRISPR Therapeutics. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. The 3 Things That Matter for CRISPR Therapeutics Now was originally published by The Motley Fool
