r/science • u/Wagamaga • Feb 12 '25

Neuroscience The first clinical trial of its kind has found that semaglutide, distributed under the brand name Wegovy, cut the amount of alcohol people drank by about 40% and dramatically reduced people’s desire to drink

https://today.usc.edu/popular-weight-loss-diabetes-drug-shows-promise-in-reducing-cravings-for-alcohol/
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u/_Caustic_Complex_ Feb 12 '25

Technically speaking, antibiotics have a trade off in the creation of superbugs

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u/Mindless_Cucumber526 Feb 13 '25

Or fluoroquinolone antibiotics which disable you for life. R/floxies

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u/Ouaouaron Feb 12 '25

If the only downside to antibiotics is that some things can't be killed by antibiotics, that's not a trade off, that's just a lack of perfection.

Imagine if you were starving to death, and I offered to give you food. I tell you that if you accept this offer, it will come with a terrible downside: the food doesn't include dessert.

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u/_Caustic_Complex_ Feb 12 '25

Well no, we’re inadvertently bioengineering bacterial diseases that have the potential to wipe out significant portions of the human race, especially those in city centers. COVID on steroids that cannot be stopped or treated.

It’s more like I’m starving now so you offer me free food in perpetuity, with the caveat that after X years of eating your food, no food will nourish me anymore.

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u/mud074 Feb 13 '25

I was under the impression that the problem with antibiotics was it produces antibiotic resistant bacteria which would result in the return of that disease as a major problem, not that it makes bacteria all-powerful.

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u/jaggederest Feb 13 '25

Antibiotic resistant bacteria are, in general, less fit than regular bacteria. Antibiotic resistance isn't free, so if you eliminate a particular antibiotic for a while (a few years at least) in a given area, resistance drops back to near zero, because the bacteria stop wasting their energy on it.

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u/Wischiwaschbaer Feb 13 '25

Also the resistant bacteria become much, much more vulnerable to phages. So if we actually put resources into finding the right phages, we could kill most resistant bacteria. But money is as always more important than lifes.