Is semaglutide the magic pill for weight loss it's often touted to be, or is it just another quick fix in a world that overlooks the value of a holistic health approach? This episode uncovers the truth behind the weight loss wonder-drug and why it's not the solution we've been waiting for. As your hosts, Jenni and I take a hard look at the broader issue of hormone imbalances and the quick-fix mentality of hormone replacement therapy. We unravel the intricate tapestry of symptoms like mood swings and sleep disturbances that affect both men and women, digging into the real adjustments that can set our health straight without relying on a needle or a pill. Throughout the discussion, the mantra remains clear: identify and treat the root causes, not just the symptoms.
Turning the pages to the nutrition and aging narrative, we depart from the damaging myths endorsing very low-calorie diets for the aging population. Let's get real about the shifts in muscle mass and hormones that accompany our later years, and why these factors necessitate a smarter approach to our macronutrient intake. I highlight the less-talked-about consequences of restrictive diets on our metabolism and why blood sugar stability and vitamin levels are often the unsung heroes in the quest for restful sleep and overall well-being. With an unequivocal focus on aging with grace and health, this episode builds a blueprint for a life well-lived, far beyond the allure of an easy solution. Join us for a conversation that might just change the way you think about health, aging, and the food on your plate.
Check Us Out On Social Media - Facebook: @bermanwellness , @physicaltherapynaples, @Berman Golf Instagram: @berman_wellness, @bermanphysicaltherapy , @Berman Golf Youtube: Berman Golf, Berman Physical Therapy TikTok: Bermangolf, Bermanwellness
Email us - drberman@bermanpt.com jenni@bermanwellness.com
Check out our website - https://www.bermanpt.com/ https://www.bermanpt.com/wellness/ https://bermangolf.com/
Is semaglutide the magic pill for weight loss it's often touted to be, or is it just another quick fix in a world that overlooks the value of a holistic health approach? This episode uncovers the truth behind the weight loss wonder-drug and why it's not the solution we've been waiting for. As your hosts, Jenni and I take a hard look at the broader issue of hormone imbalances and the quick-fix mentality of hormone replacement therapy. We unravel the intricate tapestry of symptoms like mood swings and sleep disturbances that affect both men and women, digging into the real adjustments that can set our health straight without relying on a needle or a pill. Throughout the discussion, the mantra remains clear: identify and treat the root causes, not just the symptoms.
Turning the pages to the nutrition and aging narrative, we depart from the damaging myths endorsing very low-calorie diets for the aging population. Let's get real about the shifts in muscle mass and hormones that accompany our later years, and why these factors necessitate a smarter approach to our macronutrient intake. I highlight the less-talked-about consequences of restrictive diets on our metabolism and why blood sugar stability and vitamin levels are often the unsung heroes in the quest for restful sleep and overall well-being. With an unequivocal focus on aging with grace and health, this episode builds a blueprint for a life well-lived, far beyond the allure of an easy solution. Join us for a conversation that might just change the way you think about health, aging, and the food on your plate.
Check Us Out On Social Media - Facebook: @bermanwellness , @physicaltherapynaples, @Berman Golf Instagram: @berman_wellness, @bermanphysicaltherapy , @Berman Golf Youtube: Berman Golf, Berman Physical Therapy TikTok: Bermangolf, Bermanwellness
Email us - drberman@bermanpt.com jenni@bermanwellness.com
Check out our website - https://www.bermanpt.com/ https://www.bermanpt.com/wellness/ https://bermangolf.com/
Speaker 1:
This is the Berman Method Podcast, featuring Dr Jake Berman and physician assistant Jenny Berman. We are here to treat problems and not symptoms. Disclaimer this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and not to treat anyone or to give medical advice. If you are interested in any information that we are giving and would like to use this for yourself, we recommend that you contact your primary care physician or reach out to us and ask us questions about yourself specifically. Enjoy.
Speaker 2:
And we're rolling baby down the street of the Berman Method Podcast Woo.
Speaker 1:
Good morning everybody.
Speaker 2:
Even the dogs came running for that one. It's okay, Gypsy stay.
Speaker 1:
You're tail-beating everything.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, tail-banging against the wall. The Berman Method Podcast. Dr Jake Berman here with Jenny Berman, physician assistant.
Speaker 2:
Thank you for turning in. Today we are David against Goliath, trying to shed light on how the corporate medical system, insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies do not have your best interest in mind. They are focused on treating symptoms and not problems. They are focused on client retention and not curation in any way, shape or form. Today we've got a very tasty topic for you and we're not going to be able to get through this in one episode, so this is going to be a part A, a part B, a part one, part two, whatever way you want to see it, because today we're going to talk about semaglutide, the popular easy pill for losing weight, and hormones and hormone replacements, and we're going to talk about how all of these things tie together. Is that correct?
Speaker 1:
That is right, and you know semaglutide, that's good. Many of you said the easy pill, but it's actually a shot, it's not even a pill.
Speaker 2:
It's not even a pill.
Speaker 1:
No, so it's the easy shot.
Speaker 2:
but you don't even have to swallow it. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1:
So that kind of made me chuckle a little bit.
Speaker 2:
So it's the easy button, not even the easy pill.
Speaker 1:
That is true, the easy button On the ozympic pen. It literally is a button which makes it even better. So yeah, semaglutide, which is ozympic. There's also another brand out Mondeurot. So all of those injectable medications that people are using for weight loss.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, just last week one of my clients came in. I had not seen him in a while and he came in and he was down 25 pounds, almost 30 pounds. I was like man, you're looking really good. He goes yep, and it ain't the damn semaglutide. And I said what? I just started laughing. I'm like what are you talking about? He goes. Everybody that sees me, they keep out the first question out of their mouth Are you on semaglutide? I'm like no, I just put my freaking fork down and I started walking more.
Speaker 1:
Right Started doing something about it, not just taking a shot. Yeah.
Speaker 2:
So great, all right. Well, let's tip toe into this thing again. Make sure that you stay tuned for both episodes, because we're going to set everything up in this episode and bring it full circle in the next episode. So it's not too long of an episode. We're going to break it up, so let's get started.
Speaker 1:
All right. So I really wanted to talk about hormones today because I've been doing a lot of seminars, a lot of public speaking, speaking in communities, at fitness centers, and I always get questioned at the end how I didn't talk about testing hormones. Do I check hormones? Do I test hormones? Do we look at hormone replacement? And why did I not speak about it? Because I will talk about a lot of different things but hardly ever touch on the topic of actual hormone replacement therapy, or HRT as you might have heard of it, and so you know. Then I always get into. These questions are always asked during my Q&A, so at the very end of my seminar and then I go into. I could talk about hormones for hours and hours, but it's not because we do hormone replacement at our office. I have a handful of patients that we've ever prescribed something hormonally to, because we generally don't need to take hormone replacement. Even for men in their older ages, women, postmenopause, hormone replacement is not typically the answer, in my opinion.
Speaker 2:
Okay, so just to clarify, we're talking about hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of clients that have come to you over the years with hormone issues, meaning hormones are too high or too low. What's the most common thing?
Speaker 1:
For females well, in men too low generally.
Speaker 2:
So we're talking about over years. Hundreds and hundreds of people have come to you over years with hormones that are too low, and only a handful of them you said, okay, we need to do something as far as hormone replacement goes.
Speaker 1:
That is correct, and women will be like oh, I'm not even listening to this because I just know that it's my hormone and I need medication for them. And I'm not discounting the fact that your hormones are a problem. I'm discounting at this moment that we may not need hormone replacement therapy, meaning to take estrogen or progesterone or even testosterone in women. And the reason being women come all the time complaining about hormone symptoms, meaning they're having hot flashes or night sweats, they can't sleep through the night, they have trouble falling asleep, they're having mood swings. So one moment they're perfectly fine, the other moment they're anxious, the other moment they're very angry. Having these mood swings where there's no specific trigger, they just wake up mad one day, or they wake up feeling really anxious one day.
Speaker 1:
Weight gain is another very common symptom of hormone imbalance or not having the proper hormones after going through menopause. They could be headaches, brain fog. So we hear these symptoms every single day when women come in. In men, the most common symptoms that we see again weight gain, brain fog, poor sleep, low energy, mood swings. Now you know, if you come in and you're actually having women issues with dysfunctional uterine bleeding, meaning you're having periods when you haven't had a period in five years now. That's something totally different. But we're talking about the general postmenopause or low hormone symptoms that even occur in men as their testosterone levels decline.
Speaker 2:
Okay. So what I'm hearing you say is people are coming to you for symptoms that they are attributing to hormones being low, so they're anticipating or assuming that if I could just fix my hormones, these symptoms would go away. Thank you, but I think that you're about to tell us that the hormones being low are actually a symptom of something else.
Speaker 1:
Correct. Well, and it's. I don't know that. I would say the hormones being low are a symptom, because, certainly, hormones change as we start to age. Hormones do change. That is a normal part of aging. Where I'm getting at, though, is why do we have those symptoms as our hormones change, and do we really need to just go take hormone replacement? Is that going to actually fix the problem? So as our hormones change and as we age, there is a simultaneous process going on called sarcopenia. What this means is our muscle mass is decreasing as we age. So for every year after the age of 30, we have the ability to lose 1% of our muscle mass. So this process of losing muscle mass is occurring at the exact same time that our hormones are declining as we age. So we have two processes going on here.
Speaker 2:
Okay, I'm following you. Okay, okay, we're setting the stage right now. I see what's going on. We're we got our eye on this ball over here that's coming at us. We're getting older and our hormones are changing, but we're completely losing sight of what's going on simultaneously, which is we are losing muscle mass. Sarcopenia, sarcomuscle, penis smaller muscles are getting smaller.
Speaker 1:
Correct. So we have this process of losing muscle mass at the same time that we have the process of our hormones declining. Now what happens because of that is our body for one starts to get vitamin deficiencies. So it is not abnormal, as we age, to see a deficiency of magnesium specifically into the red blood cell, not a serum magnesium, so these are two different blood tests that should be done by the doctor. But also a vitamin D deficiency as we age is very, very common, a B12 deficiency. Now, the reason that these three things are important is because all three of them play into how efficiently our cells are functioning, meaning cells we have. We're built up of cells. Our entire body is a cellular organism and as we age, those vitamins are very important to make sure that our cells are efficient, healthy, replicating appropriately and have energy for metabolism. So that's factor number one is vitamin deficiencies not absorbing our nutrients as efficiently, not having the proper nutrients into our body.
Speaker 2:
Let me summarize that one so far. So is this the third thing that we have going on simultaneously as we're getting older.
Speaker 1:
The vitamins decreasing is actually a result of the hormones changing and of the sarcopenia.
Speaker 2:
Okay, so we're getting this, this web that we got going on, and it's almost like the chicken or the egg, but it's not really because you're going to bring this full circle for us here. I am.
Speaker 1:
So now we're aging, our hormones are changing, we're losing muscle mass and we have vitamin deficiencies Now one of the main symptoms of hormonal changes again in men and women. So for women, estrogen levels dropping, progesterone levels dropping your FSH and LH are no longer normal for an ovulating woman. In men, testosterone levels are declining. Dhea levels are abnormal. These are very common again as you age and you start to lose muscle mass.
Speaker 1:
What also happens because of this result of losing muscle mass as we age is our metabolism slows down Something called a resting metabolic rate, so that's the amount of calories that we burn at rest declines as our muscle mass declines. The more muscle mass you have, the higher your metabolic rate. The more muscle mass, the more calories that your body burns at rest. That does not mean that we need to go on a very low calorie diet as we age and as we get older. It means that we need to replace our macronutrients meaning our proteins, carbohydrates and fats more appropriately for a change in our muscle mass. So the same diet that we ate in our 20s and low 30s is not going to work when we get into our 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, because our body needs different nutrients with a change of the amount of muscle compared to fat mass and with the hormone changes that we're going through, I agree with that.
Speaker 1:
And people tell you all the time oh, just wait till you're 30, right Like you can't just eat a full pizza and 18 cookies anymore without seeing some changes to that and that is absolutely true.
Speaker 1:
So you know one thing we see a lot with our women or men who are going through these changes, where they can sleep through the night and they're having weight gain and they're having brain fog. Is they put themselves on these really low calorie diets, thinking that that's going to help them to lose the weight they want to lose or to stay on track with what they're eating, when really the low calorie diet is actually making things worse. The longer we're on a very low calorie diet or we'll talk about other things but the longer we're on low calorie diet, the more of an impact that has on our resting metabolic rate, meaning your the amount of calories you're burning at rest will go down because your body is not used to consuming a lot of calories. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:
That should make perfect sense because, at the end of the day, we have to remember that the body is the most efficient machine on the entire planet.
Speaker 2:
If you don't use it, you lose it. If you're not using it, you're going to turn it off, meaning that there's a reason why body builders have to keep working out every single day, because if they don't exercise the muscles that they have grown, your body will literally metabolize them, because it costs too much to keep those muscles there. It costs too much in calorie expenditure to keep those muscles there. So if you don't use it, you lose it. This is the same thing that you're talking about here is, as we get into our 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s and we start to have that weight gain, that spare tire around the midsection, we think that if we decrease the amount of calories that we're consuming, that we're going to actually help ourselves. But in actuality, because your body is getting used to the amount of calories that you're consuming and now that it's getting smaller, it's going to turn the levers down even more and it's going to say okay, I'm going to burn even less calories now because I'm taking in less calories.
Speaker 1:
Right and it's essentially trying to reserve energy. So it's going to burn less calories because it's trying to reserve the energy that it does have when we're not consuming enough total calories to make our organs function.
Speaker 2:
Yes, this is all about survival. At the end of the day, your brain is going to do whatever it takes to make sure the body survives. Right? Because it goes way back to hundreds and hundreds of years ago, when you didn't know when your next meal was going to appear. So your brain had to control your body to make sure that you're able to survive days, and sometimes weeks, between meals. So that's exactly what's happening here.
Speaker 1:
Right, right. And then it makes the process of the weight gain even worse. Right, because now your body is holding on to energy. It's storing the food that you did eat as fat to try to reserve energy for your body, which is slowing down your weight loss process even more. So let's kind of pull it back to where we started is now.
Speaker 1:
You know we've gone through this hormonal change. We are seeing a loss in muscle mass every year as we age. If we're not fueling our muscles appropriately which we're going to talk about more when we get to the treatment side of things through all of this, we're lacking certain vitamins. Our resting metabolic rate is declining, so we're not burning as efficiently. We're not burning as many calories at rest. And then, on top of all this, because of the hormonal changing and because of the lowering of our muscle mass and because of these vitamin deficiencies, our body doesn't actually metabolize food as efficiently either, meaning glucose. Glucose is sugar, right, food comes into the body, specifically carbohydrates and sugar turn to sugar. But even regular food proteins, fats if we are not consuming the right balance of our nutrients, meaning the balance of your proteins, carbs and fats in your diet for your body, your body is going to store that food as sugar Again, most of the time to store energy, but also because your cells don't have the energy they need to be able to burn this and get rid of fat. So those are the main points as to why we have symptoms when our hormones change. We are having the symptoms of the weight gain, the belly fat, the poor sleep, the poor energy, the mood swings, the brain fog. These are all symptoms because of all of these factors occurring simultaneously.
Speaker 1:
Yes, hormones are changing, but our body is also losing 1% of muscle mass every year that we age after the age of 30. If we're not fueling our muscles appropriately, we have vitamin deficiencies occurring, our resting metabolic rate is declining and we are not burning sugar. We are not metabolizing sugar or glucose nearly as efficiently as we did in our teens, 20s and early 30s. So our body actually stores the food that we're eating as sugar and sugar turns to fat. So this is where we're seeing a lot of the symptoms.
Speaker 1:
Now you may say to me well, what does any of this have to do with being able to fall asleep and stay asleep at night and your glucose metabolism? That last thing that I just touched on, your blood sugar stability is a main factor in your body's ability to be able to sleep and stay asleep, but also your vitamin levels, your magnesium level, your melatonin level all of these are playing into your sleep. So, when it comes to patients experiencing these symptoms, these are the main factors that we have to look at, which are impacting all of these different symptoms and where I want to go on. The next episode is more talking about okay. Well, what do we do about it? We talked about the very beginning, about semaglutide. Is that the fix all, or is there something else that we should be looking at, in addition to hormone replacement therapy, to help with these symptoms?
Speaker 2:
Love it, absolutely love it. Let me summarize it in my layman's terms, because this is obviously not my specialty. This is yours. Hopefully I'm able to ask the right questions that our listeners need to hear and dumb this thing down as much as we possibly can so that we don't go over anybody's heads.
Speaker 2:
The biggest thing that I'm taking away from these past 20 minutes is that, as we age, things get harder to do. It gets harder to lose weight, it gets harder to build muscle, it gets harder to stay in shape, it gets harder to move without aches and pains, and so many times we focus our attention on our hormones changing, us males. We're losing testosterone, so we're not able to build muscle as easily as we used to in our 20s and 30s Women. You got the spare tire or the hot flashes, all these other things, and we tend to focus on the hormones changing. But at the same time, we've got a bunch of things that are happening simultaneously, and the hormones are just the popular ones. The hormones are just the easy or the lowest hanging fruit that everybody wants to talk about, because nobody wants to talk about the fact that you haven't done the right things to maintain your muscle mass for the past 20 to 30 years.
Speaker 2:
Because if you take somebody that's 200 pounds, you take two people that are 200 pounds. One of them has 100 pounds of muscle mass and the other one has 50 pounds of muscle mass. And they're 200 pounds. One of them has 100 pounds of muscle mass, which means they're in better overall body composition, right, compared to the other one that has 50 pounds of muscle mass. The one that has 100 pounds of muscle mass is going to burn more calories resting sitting at their desk than the one that only has 50 pounds of muscle mass. It's that simple, correct, right. And then, on top of all that, your vitamin deficiencies that are happening. How do you know what your vitamin levels are? When's the last time you had the proper blood work to show you what your vitamin levels are? Because it's too hard to do that, it's not easy to do that.
Speaker 1:
Well, and a lot of times your primary care doctor won't order them because they don't think it's going to be covered by insurance. So you're not getting a proper evaluation as we age and as our hormones change, to really show us what's happening with our vitamin levels and why we're not sleeping through the night and why we're having these hot flashes.
Speaker 2:
That's probably the last thing I want to say before we wrap up and go into the next episode is when I was wearing the continuous glucose monitor a month ago or so. It was a direct correlation with the nights that I slept through the nights, assuming that the babies didn't wake up, right. The nights where I woke up in the middle of the night two or three in the morning, usually one or two in the morning I was like oh, I'm awake, I'm going to go pee. There's a direct correlation with what my blood sugar was doing, because that just happened to be on a Saturday night when my diet all day Saturday was an ideal, like it was through the week, and then I topped it off with some dessert at night or before bed, which was a nice bowl of cereal, right. So at two in the morning my blood sugar crashes.
Speaker 2:
You can see it on the app and that's when I woke up. So you can see these things, but you can't see it if you don't measure it. You've got to measure these things. You've got to ask for the right blood work. You've got to put this glucose monitor on. It's not for diabetics, it's not just for overweight people, it's for anybody that wants to know what is happening.
Speaker 1:
Right, that's absolutely it, and we hardly touched on hot flashes or night sweats, but we will in the next episode, because it is all part of the same things that we're discussing, specifically coming back to blood sugar stability and glucose metabolism.
Speaker 2:
Good, I love it. So you might have to listen to this episode and the next one a time or two to hear it over and over again so that it finally sinks in. Please make sure you like and subscribe to this podcast and share this two part series with somebody that you know needs to hear it. Stay tuned to next episode, because this will be part two.
Speaker 1:
Thank you for subscribing on your social media and podcast platforms to the Berman method Dr Jake Berman with Berman physical therapy and Jenny Berman, physician assistant with Berman health and wellness. You can find more information on our website wwwbermanptcom for physical therapy, berman ptcom forward slash wellness for the health and wellness. You can also find us on social media Facebook, instagram, and on your podcast platform, so be sure to follow us, like us, subscribe to us and, if you would like any further information, definitely visit our website and reach out to us. You may also find our free reports on the websites as well, where you can download this free information for yourself. Have a great day.