Welcome to the 8th monthly installment of my Substack vertical, VOLUMINATI. Paid subscribers can access full essays. Listen to this month’s edition by scrolling down to the bottom and hitting play.
My new podcast, GLP-1 Truth Serum, comes out later this month. Subscribe to my Substack to get notifications. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Press play for the trailer:
Note: (1) These predictions are based on GLP-1s used for the purpose of weight-loss. (2) I make these predictions as a weight stigma expert; I’m not a doctor.
The cultural pressure to lose weight is immense right now. That pressure is driven primarily by anti-fat bias masquerading as health. Last I checked, losing significant amounts of weight rapidly through extreme food restriction is not a health-promoting behavior. The pressure to lose weight has been exacerbated by the aggressive marketing tactics deployed by GLP-1 manufacturers.
I’m not publishing 7 predictions for GLP-1s because I’m looking forward to them coming true, but because I know that so many people are being gaslit into believing that this GLP-1 landscape is never-ending and inescapable, and that if they don’t take these medications then they are being irresponsible with their lives and their health. I think there’s nothing farther from the truth. I feel 100% clear that despite the irresponsible and predatory claims of being a “miracle drug,” GLP-1s are actually just another fad diet, subject to the very same scientific evidence that has debunked every other rapid weight-loss method in history.
Trust me when I say: history will repeat itself.
Prediction 1: More Lawsuits Due to Adverse Effects
Back in March 2024, USA Today reported: “More than five dozen lawsuits accuse Novo Nordisk or Eli Lilly of failing to notify patients about the side effects of their popular diabetes or weight-loss drugs.” As of the first of this month — 16 months later — that number has jumped to 1,997 pending lawsuits against Wegovy and other GLP-1 drugs.
Just to be clear: That’s over 33x in 16 months.
According to King Law: “The lawsuits primarily allege that manufacturers like Novo Nordisk (maker of Wegovy) failed to adequately warn patients and healthcare providers about the risks associated with these drugs, such as severe gastrointestinal complications like gastroparesis (stomach paralysis), ileus (intestinal obstruction), and recently, vision loss due to non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION).”
Prediction 2: More Emergency Room Visits Due to Adverse Effects
In April 2025, Annals of Medicine reported that nearly 25,000 emergency room visits had occurred due to ”semaglutide adverse events” in the years 2022 and 2023. This is before the mass marketing of GLP-1s, which began in 2024. Further, Pharmacy Times reported “Among patients with a pre-existing psychiatric diagnosis who started treatment with a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist, more than one-third had a psychiatric emergency department visit within 60 days of GLP-1 initiation.”
Prediction 3: High Rates of Attrition
In July 2024, NBC News reported that most people are no longer on GLP-1s after