Magic pills don’t exist.
This holds for your health and finances.
The saying “If it sounds too good to be true, it isn’t” has no expiration date.
The latest craze, the anti-obesity drug Ozempic is a case in point.
While this drug will make you thinner, there’s more to the story. Losing weight hastily comes with a price.
Without putting in the reps regarding exercise and diet, Ozempic isn’t the miracle cure many believe.
Fat isn’t the only thing purged from their bodies when people lose weight rapidly. A chunk of rapid weight loss is lean muscle mass, which is vital for optimal health.
The Wall Street Journal explains:
When people lose weight, particularly when they lose a lot of weight quickly, as can happen with Ozempic and other GLP-1 medications, they lose not only fat but also lean muscle mass. Lean muscle is important for strength and metabolism (since muscle burns more calories than fat), and high-protein foods like chicken, fish, eggs, and tofu contain the amino acids that are building blocks of muscle, says Dr. Amanda Velazquez, director of obesity medicine at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles.
Strength and resistance training are indispensable companions for those considering this medication. While not as convenient as taking a pill, they’re imperative for losing fat and not muscle mass.
Another area of worriment regarding Ozempic is dehydration. This medication decreases appetite and thirst. Dehydration leads to many adverse side effects, and not drinking enough water under this prescription is problematic.
Economic theory states there’s no free lunch. The same truths hold for prescription drugs; Ozempic has a diverse portfolio of unpleasant side effects. Heading this hall of fame of disgusting bodily functions are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and constipation. Worse, Kidney damage, Gallbladder disease, and Thyroid Cancer are in the life-threatening side effects lineup.
The drug often leads to Ozempic Face. a gaunt, dehydrated, and shrunken appearance that results from unnatural weight loss.
Ozempic causes food to sit in your stomach longer, and these unpleasantries are amplified when eating quickly or consuming hard-to-digest processed food.
Dr. Peter Attia recently stated on Honestly, Ozempic causes patients’ average resting heart rate to increase by about ten beats per minute.
Weight and appetite return after discontinuing use. Alarmingly, studies show decreased efficacy after two years of continuous dosages.
The shortcut turnpike is dark and filled with terrors.
Like your health, investing requires time, discipline, and healthy habits. Just like a pill won’t make you thin and healthy, there’s no simple and easy solution for creating long-term wealth. Time and patience are irreplaceable.
Source: Morgan Housel
Some investors postulate picking the right stock, fund, or investment advisor, their work is over, and their job becomes watching the cash roll in. Nothing could be further from the truth.
It’s almost impossible to build riches without the following:
1. An understanding of one’s time horizon and risk profile.
2. Consistent investing through all market cycles.
3. Watching investment costs and paying attention to tax management.
4. Postponing some present for future spending.
5. Protecting against catastrophic loss with proper insurance.
6. Agreement on the fundamentals of a goals-based financial plan with your spouse.
7. Declining to enter the rat race to keep up with the Joneses.
8. Avoiding putting all of your investment eggs in one basket.’
9. Understanding no plan works without putting a lid on overflowing emotions.
We have some incredible chemists in this country, but despite their prodigious talents, none can put all of these components into a pill.
If it were easy, everyone would be rich.
The same advice goes for your health.
Do the reps and let compounding do the rest.
The best prescriptions are based on good habits, not magic pills.
