Kate has a history of anorexia. Why was she prescribed weight loss jabs?
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What is the focus of the episode and why is Kate’s story significant?
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Priya, do you know your cholesterol level? I do. Aren't you too young to know your cultural level? He's trying to flatter me. You think that I think you're older than you are, but I know how old you are.
And we should explain to people why you did overestimate my age when we first met.
And you've never forgiven me for it, which is fair enough.
I do know it, though, because of my family history on the paternal side. So I'm aware of what it is and I'm doing some extra stuff.
Yeah, I often wonder whether people should know the cholesterol a bit younger in life so they can really plan for the future, change their lifestyle and so on. I think we often get too late in the story with cholesterol, don't you think?
Possibly, yes. We're being more aggressive these days, but yeah, there's still a long way to go, I think, in terms of being aggressive with prevention.
Anyway, LDL cholesterol, which is the nasty form of cholesterol that leaves stuff in your arteries, is what we're going to be talking about, and the global burden of disease. In other words, the impact it has on disability and death around the world. It's quite interesting. That's coming up here on The Health Report.
I'm Priya Alexander on Wurundjeri land.
And I'm Norman Swan on Gadigal land.
Also on the show, we explore the other side to GLP-1s. And Norman, I think we explore a lot of emerging research and benefits on the health report today. We're going to look at eating disorders and potential harms with these medications.
It really is a very dark side of these drugs and probably hasn't had enough exposure. We're going to give it, you particularly, going to give it big exposure today on the health report. Yes. We're also going to look at a cause of abdominal pain. It's actually quite a nasty cause of abdominal pain. We'll explain more about it later. It's acute pancreatitis. It seems to be going up in Australia in young people. And one of the few conditions in Australia that seems to be going up in people who are advantaged, who are well-educated and so on. And more on that later, a survey on acute pancreatitis.
And in news? There is a report that's come out from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, and it looks at the trends in overdose and other drug-induced deaths in Australia from 2005 to 2024. And I think normally people would expect to see an increase in potentially all drug classes, but what's been quite astounding with this report is that stimulants, so things like methamphetamine, are contributing more to drug-induced deaths and hospital presentations.
Yeah, we should just say that between 2023, 2024, overall drug-induced deaths went up by 7.4%. The dominant cause was unintentional drug overdose. And as you rightly say, the biggest increase was in amphetamines, in stimulant medications. It disproportionately affected males. And interestingly, you think this is a problem of younger people, the biggest age group was midlife, so 35 to 54, but even significant in 55 to 64-year-olds. So not necessarily what you think. Disadvantage was certainly a risk factor, but they also went through other risk factors for drug overdoses, which really go to people recognizing when somebody's at risk, personal history of self-harm, family disruption by separation or divorce, legal problems, disappearance or death of a person in your close group, problems with relationships with a spouse or partner, somebody who's not complying with or adhering to medical treatment, and so on.
So these are very much the social circumstances of a person. And it starts to explain why it happens in midlife, because these are problems which tend to accumulate in midlife.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the focus of the episode and why is Kate’s story significant?
0:00–8:20
2
How do GLP‑1 medications work and why are they being prescribed for weight loss?
8:20–16:03
3
How did Kate, a person with a history of anorexia, obtain GLP‑1s through telehealth?
16:03–23:11
4
What potential harms can GLP‑1 drugs pose for people with eating disorders?
23:11–33:04
5
Why is acute pancreatitis on the rise in Australia and who is most affected?
33:04–42:14
6
What did the South Australian study reveal about trends and causes of acute pancreatitis?
42:14–50:14
7
What regulatory and clinical changes are needed to protect vulnerable patients?
50:14–51:30
8
What resources are available for listeners who need help with eating disorders?
51:30–52:06
Speakers
9 identifiedMore from Health Report
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