Faith Venture

I thought I would lead an exercise in thinking. This works with whatever you read or hear (or see, if you are addicted to TV news).

While browsing my news feed, I saw the headline and lede of an article about various side effects from taking one of the popular weight-loss drugs. It was in The New York Times, a publication that years ago lost its way (no not liberal/conservative) into the morass of click bait and sensationalism in order to increase viewership.

This article found a couple. They always try to find what we call “anecdata”—extrapolating seemingly general data from one anecdote.

The “reporter” identifies a couple using only middle names to protect privacy (?) as being both 53 years old at the time of the interview. The wife decided to take a weight loss drug. The husband said OK more as a reaction than thinking about it.

The wife lost a lot of weight (unspecified). She had been carrying a lot of white adipose tissue (fat). It melted away.

The husband then moans about the changes. He liked cuddling with the body mass and didn’t like the slender body now sleeping next to him. She experienced much emotional drama over a couple of years leading to complete loss of sex drive.

He (and implicitly the writer) blamed the weight-loss drug.

As I contemplated the article, I remembered their ages.

She took that drug at the same time she was most likely going through menopause. That body change in females is, of course, experienced somewhat differently by individuals. There are generalities—often emotional swings, hormone changes, body reactions, and eventually for some (many?) loss of sexual drive.

Perhaps the problems were caused by menopause and not the weight loss drug?

I assume the writer was not a scientist. Most likely they held a BA in English or BS in Journalism. The training (and the job) involved writing interesting stories.

The entire article left me with questions rather than answers. It should not have even been researched (and I use the term generously), let alone published in a national media outlet. A social media influencer, sure. We don’t expect them to be anything other than pandering to our emotions in order to gain views. 

I’ve experienced the same lack of thinking from some preachers and teachers of the Bible. It could happen to us that we read a passage and fail to take the time to think about the context and what the writer was trying to convey (or failing to convey).

When someone tells you something outlandish, pause and think. It’ll save you much grief.