A woman tells the New York Times that Zepbound – part of the class of drugs belonging to the GLP-1 family, which also includes Ozempic and Mounjaro – cured her alopecia. A man reports that taking it for obesity-related sleep apnoea weaned him off cannabis.

On the Reddit user forums devoted to GLP-1s – or glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, to give them their full title – there are many posts about rapid weight loss, the relief that follows the silencing of “food noise” or the experience of “feeling full” for the first time. But others barely mention obesity.

One user talks about losing interest in wine: “Even if I think I might be interested in a glass of wine after a particularly long week, I have a sip or two and then hand it to my husband.”

A man describes going out for chicken wings and managing to drink only one beer. “It’s like the thought of having another beer, let alone seven or eight more, almost made me wince,” he says, sounding amazed and perhaps – or maybe I am projecting – not entirely delighted.

Daniel Kinahan, the ultimate ‘nepo baby’, ends the most audacious run in history of Irish gangland

Is Rory McIlroy set to become Ireland’s first sporting billionaire?

Government and civil servants uneasy over President’s choice of first overseas trip

Sex teacher Jenny Keane: ‘Are Irish people sexually repressed? I always say absolutely not. No way’

Other users report that GLP-1s cured their acid reflux, joint pain, migraines, Diet Coke addiction, bloating, high blood pressure or their menopause symptoms.

GLP-1s, which have been around for 20 years to treat diabetes, exploded into our lives five years ago with the bold promise to “solve obesity”. In Ireland, the available brands are Wegovy, Saxenda, Ozempic and Mounjaro. Ozempic is prescribed to treat diabetes only. About 60,000 people are taking them at a cost upwards of €200 a month. A pill form of semaglutide, which should make it more accessible, is awaiting European approval.

In markets such as the US, where one in eight adults is reportedly taking them, the drugs are flying out of pharmacies faster than clinical trials can keep up. (At this point, I should say that in normal circumstances user accounts posted on Reddit are not regarded as reliable primary sources for journalists – let alone health researchers. But these circumstances are so far from normal that Nature Health has just published a paper by engineers at the University of Pennsylvania, which used AI to scan 400,000 posts by 70,000 Reddit users on GLPs. The goal was to see what side effects clinical trials and patient information leaflets have missed – it turns out there are quite a few.)

The New York Times recently published the results of a survey of 2,000 American adults who have taken GLP-1s. Sixty four per cent said – no surprises here – their body image improved. But then there are the other, stranger findings: 59 per cent said their productivity improved. Forty five per cent said their memory had got better. Nearly half noted an improvement in their relationships with friends and family. The same number were happier with their social life. Some of this could be attributed to the boost in self-confidence weight loss can bring or the sudden quieting of their inner critic. “I’m even finally learning German,” one person exclaims on Reddit.

But it feels like something else is going on too. The level of expectation, hope and – still – no small degree of shame surrounding these drugs is unprecedented.

[ Huge increase in number of fake and illegal weight-loss drugs seized by medicines watchdogOpens in new window ]

People have seized on other treatments, drugs and supplements as miracle cures before, especially in this age of TikTok wellness. Creatine, HRT, mindfulness, the shingles vaccine and fish oils have all had their moment in the algorithmic sun. But not like this. “GLP-1s may be a medical first: a blockbuster drug class, enthusiastically taken up by millions, not for one or a few uses but, it appears, a multitude,” says the New York Times.

There are, amid the buzz, a few notes of concern, frequently involving unpleasant gastrointestinal symptoms and muscle loss. The World Health Organisation warns about the risk of acute pancreatitis. Those University of Pennsylvania researchers found four per cent of Reddit users had weird or unexplained menstrual issues. Harder to measure is what one friend who successfully uses Ozempic for weight loss describes as the “meh” effect. On Reddit, someone characterises it as “ruining my desire or craving for everything in my life. No more wanting to go out with friends, no more wanting sex, no more drinking. Just completely ‘blah’ about everything”.

And then, of course, there’s the fact that – for now anyway – taking these drugs is a long-term commitment.

Still, focusing on the downsides – or even raising questions about the potential long-term effects we can’t yet measure – feels like coming back from your trip to Angkor Wat and only talking about the mosquitos.

There are two possibilities here. The first is that we’re either in an age of the most rapid and exciting medical advances in history, one that is transforming our understanding of disease generally and obesity particularly. The second is that what these magical elixirs are really selling is an illusion: the fantasy of control in an out-of-control world.

Then there is the third possibility: that both of these perspectives are at least partly true.

GLP-1s are a genuinely transformative kind of medication, one that will profoundly alter the public health landscape – even if, for now, health economics put them out of reach of many who may need them most. But we should be careful, in the outpourings of hype, to remember what they’re not. What we’re seeking in these drugs is, perhaps, something more than a treatment for obesity, diabetes or addiction. It is a way to outrun our messy, distracted, dopamine-dependent, hormonal, insatiable selves. But there is no cure for what is, in the end, simply the condition of being human.

© The Irish Times