Price discrepancies and dysfunction are not new in the $73 billion wedding business. However, the rise of weight-loss medicines in the 2020s has created an additional challenge for the seamstresses and designers in charge of the Big Day’s centerpiece garment: the bridal gown.

The Hollywood weight-loss secret has been revealed, and it’s more accessible than ever. GLP-1 medicines, known by the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy, have become widely available, thanks in part to compounding pharmacies that sell cheaper, non-FDA-approved versions. (The Food and Drug Administration has warned customers about the risks of unlicensed GLP-1 medications, and a recent JAMA Network article discovered that high demand has resulted in a proliferation of illegal internet pharmacies selling the drugs without prescriptions.)

Ozempic-Fueled Slimming Is Blowing Up The Wedding Dress Industry

And, as my colleague Tami Luhby wrote this week, demand for these treatments is expected to rise even further as employers increasingly explore covering them for weight loss rather than just diabetes.

For better or worse, many brides are taking the medicines ahead of their wedding, drawn in by the promise of quick weight loss. That complicates the already difficult task of purchasing and changing their gowns.

“The first issue is the bridal industry’s dysfunction right now, where it takes five to nine months to order a dress,” Susan Ruddie Spring, a designer and proprietor of bridal styling business The Wedding Dresser, told me recently.

Like many businesses, bridal fashion saw a slowdown during the pandemic, followed by a surge in demand as couples postponed their weddings.

Dress orders that used to take three months are now taking much longer, Spring explained, in part because supplies from China are being redirected away from disturbances along the Suez Canal, a critical highway that contributes for up to 15% of global trade.

That’s only one aspect of the time issue.

The right match.
According to the wedding planning website The Knot, the best time to buy a wedding dress is eight to ten months before the event, while other planners prefer buying a full year ahead of time to account for shipping delays.

However, a lot can happen to a body over a 10-month period, especially when GLP-1 medications are involved.

One study discovered that patients who are obese or overweight lost up to 15% of their body weight while using tripeptide, commonly known as Mounjaro, over the course of a year. Those using semaglutide lost approximately 8%.

“I have recently had a couple of brides who lost about 50 pounds with Ozempic,” Springs told me. “Usually, the dress was ordered somewhere in the middle of those 50 pounds.”

It’s difficult to overestimate how much a substantial weight loss can affect the fit of a wedding dress. The clothes are frequently structurally elaborate, adorned with layers of pricey beading, tulle, and lace, and, of course, burdened with unfathomable amounts of emotion and societal expectations.

That worry is obvious on numerous Reddit wedding and weight loss threads, where brides seek advice on how to buy a dress — possibly the most costly item they’ll ever buy — while they have no idea what their bodies will look like a few months later.

The financial risk is real. While most gowns may be taken in several inches, there are limitations, and brides who lose a significant amount of weight may need to purchase a totally new dress. The typical bridal gown cost $2,000 in 2023, according to the Knot. That’s before modifications, which might add hundreds or even thousands to the cost. (Dress and all, the Knot discovered that the typical American wedding costs $35,000.)

The biggest loser.
The Ozempic effect is also causing stress for seamstresses.

Each buyer and dress is unique, but Spring estimates that a typical gown requires 20-40 hours of labor. That’s three one-hour fits with the customer, plus anywhere from six to twelve hours of work in the interim.

However, fast shrinking brides generate more work, which does not always result in more money. Most tailoring companies charge brides a flat rate for a specified number of fittings and adjustments at the beginning of the process, and seamstresses insist they will not penalize brides who lose weight.

Ozempic-Fueled Slimming Is Blowing Up The Wedding Dress Industry

“Brides will always lose weight because of the stress of preparing for the wedding,” said Myrna Lundberg, senior tailor shop manager at Alterations Specialists in New York. However, with her 40 years of expertise in the market, she claims that the projected 5-to-10-pound reduction for most brides has increased with the development of Ozempic.

“It’s really affecting our business, because, it’s more fittings, more time, more work — we lose money,” she told me.

Say yes to stress.
The continual supply of brides in need of significant changes is just one of the unforeseen consequences of the Ozempic Era. But it’s one that’s disproportionately harsh on women, both for the bride dealing with decades of disordered weight standards and for those who work to make conventional wedding dress aspirations a reality.

Spring informs me that tension travels in both directions.

“It’s unrealistic for brides to expect to look like models when walking down the aisle. “And we do more work for the same money.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the majority of seamstresses in the United States are women, with a median pay of $37,000. They are also disproportionately immigrant women, who are frequently underpaid. According to fashion insiders who spoke with CNN the Knot, many undocumented women get below-average salaries under the table.

Lundberg argues that, in addition to the physical strain of modifying the gown, there is also emotional labor involved.

The GLP-1 medicines may be novel, but the worry that brides experience about their bodies and weddings is not.

“Weight loss has always been a primary priority. So we just have to be extremely careful how we deal with them,” Lundberg explained. “It’s not like you are their seamstress — it’s like you’re also their psychologist.”

SOURCE | CNN

(VOR News) – A recent study found that gay and bisexual men who engage in Mpox unprotected anal intercourse as the receptive partner are five times more likely to get the mpox virus.

The study and the release of a second report on mpox cases in California and Illinois that are associated with a strain that is resistant to first-line treatment with tecovirimat coincide.

Since not all viruses from cases are genetically tested, “these findings likely underestimate the frequency of this newly recognized drug-resistant variant,” a team led by Crystal Gigante noted. Her job is with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States.

Previously known as monkeypox, mpox is a quickly spreading virus that is primarily disseminated by close skin-to-skin contact, especially during sexual encounters. Symptoms include fever, severe sores or rashes, and enlarged lymph nodes.

During the outbreak in 2022 and 2023, mpox spread to other countries.

Now that a new, potentially more deadly strain of the virus has emerged within the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the WHO has declared a public health emergency of worldwide significance.

Both of the new studies on MPox were published in the CDC journal Morbidity and Death Weekly Report on October 10. A study sought to determine whether specific sexual activities raise the risk of viral transmission because gay and bisexual men have been identified as the primary carriers of MPX outside of Africa.

A group led by CDC researcher Anna Chard looked through documents pertaining to the sexual activities of almost 1,500 American men under 50 who said they had sex with other men. Of these, 457 had contracted MPox, whereas 1,030 had not yet shown symptoms of the illness.

Chard’s team, Mpox, addressed guys with “close contact” with an MPV patient.

After accounting for other factors, Chard’s team found that the primary risk factor for mpox infection in this group was condom-free, receptive anal sex, which increased a person’s risk five times higher than that of men who hadn’t engaged in this unprotected form of sex.

The CDC researchers emphasized that while condoms can significantly lower the risk of mpox transmission, they are not infallible.

According to Chard and colleagues, “condoms alone might not prevent all exposures to [the virus] because rash can occur on other parts of the body and transmission can occur through other routes, including saliva and respiratory secretions” .

However, vaccination with the Jynneos vaccine is one effective means of preventing illness. Only 1 in 4 of the almost 2 million Americans who were eligible for the immunization had received both doses, according to experts.

Even among inoculated gay and bisexual men, booster shots may still be required. Current study indicates that the thempox immunization loses effectiveness against the virus after a year.

Drug-resistant mpox spreads across the US.

So immunization may be even more necessary. Gigante and colleagues report that modifications to the thempox virus brought on by extended therapy may result in viral resistance to first-line drugs, such as tecoviramat.

These resistant viruses “have been reported since 2022,” according to the researchers, and new cases keep popping up.

The latest data shows that between October 2023 and mid-February 2024, a cluster of five comparable cases were reported in California, eight more in Illinois, two in Louisiana, two in Texas, and one in New York.

Even though Gigante’s team had to admit two patients to the hospital in order to treat their pain, all 17 of the drug-resistant mpox patients whose medical records were available “reported mild (or not severe) mpox disease.”

However, the new data “highlight the urgent need for additional therapeutics for treatment of mpox” and most likely understate the prevalence of this strain of the virus, according to the researchers.

SOURCE: MP

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Listeria-Related Meat Recall Affects Almost 10 Million Pounds.

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(VOR News) – BrucePac, a meat processor based in Oklahoma, is recalling approximately 10 million pounds of beef and poultry that are ready for consumption due to the possibility of Listeria bacteria being present in the items.

This week, the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) of the United States Department of Agriculture revised a notification that stated the meat was manufactured between the middle of June and October 8 of this year.

The notification also stated that the meat was “shipped to other establishments and distributors nationwide, then distributed to restaurants and institutions.”

This meat information was incorporated into the notification.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is concerned that specific products may be available for use in restaurants, institutions, and other establishments, according to the organization’s statement.

The establishment number 51205 or P-51205 is inscribed on the label of each and every one of the meats that have been recalled. This information can be found either on the inside of the label or beneath the USDA stamp of inspection. Both of these locations are feasible.

According to the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), comprehensive information regarding product labeling and the inventory of items that are being recalled is currently being generated and will be made available upon its release. The public will have access to this information.

After conducting normal meat product testing on completed products including [ready to eat] poultry products made by BrucePac, the Federal Security Agency (FSIS) certified that those items were positive for Listeria monocytogenes. The statement issued by the FSIS stated that the issue was detected after the FSIS conducted the testing. “The products in question were found to contain Listeria monocytogenes.”

At this time, no confirmed disease incident has been associated with the consumption of products that have been recalled due to contamination with hazardous substances.

The recall of a significant quantity of Boar’s Head deli meats, particularly liverwurst, was initiated at the beginning of this year due to the discovery of listeria.

The recall was implemented as a result of the flesh discovery.

In response to the initial recall, which garnered significant media coverage, the most recent recall has been implemented.

Between the commencement of September and the 26th of the month, a total of 59 hospitalizations and ten fatalities were reported throughout the nation as a consequence of contaminated Boar’s Head products.

Listeriosis, the third most prevalent cause of mortality in the United States as a result of food-borne illness, may be caused by meat bacteria classified as listeria. This condition is typically characterized by an elevated temperature, muscle aches and pains, and a sense of exhaustion.

Not only can an infection induce symptoms such as a headache, a stiff neck, confusion, and even seizures, but it can also cause these symptoms. It is conceivable that these symptoms are the result of an illness. Women who are expecting are perpetually at risk of either losing their pregnancy or giving birth prior to their due date.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States issued a press statement cautioning that listeria poses significant risks to pregnant individuals, those aged 65 and older, and individuals with weakened immune systems. “Listeria is a pathogen capable of inducing severe health complications.”

The CDC consistently advises individuals at elevated risk for listeriosis to refrain from consuming deli-sliced meats or to heat them to an internal temperature of 165°F or until scorching hot prior to consumption.

SOURCE: USN

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Recently Identified COVID-Vaccine Targets Could Last Longer.

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