#140 - Health Headline Highlights: Rethinking Education, Peptides, And Vaccines

A lot of health advice sounds confident right up until you ask one simple question: “Based on what?” We open with the real-life habits we’re experimenting with right now, from making sourdough with organic einkorn flour for digestion to cutting down microplastics exposure by swapping out everyday items like toothbrushes. These small choices add up, especially when your goal is better gut health, lower toxic load, and a routine you can actually stick with.

Then we jump into a brain-and-learning headline that deserves way more attention: handwriting vs typing. A study using EEG points to stronger brain connectivity and better memory formation when you write by hand, which has big implications for kids in screen-heavy classrooms and adults leaning on typing, AI, and voice-to-text. If you care about recall, focus, and cognitive performance, you’ll want to hear what the research suggests and how to apply it.

We also tackle some of the most searched and debated topics in health right now: GLP-1 weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, the wave of lawsuits alleging serious side effects, and what long-term use may reveal that short studies miss. From there we break down the FDA peptide policy shift, why the 2023 crackdown helped create a peptide gray market, and what to look for when purity and third-party testing matter. We close with influenza vaccine effectiveness data that surprised us and the U.S. military ending the influenza vaccine mandate, all through the lens of informed consent and personal responsibility.

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Transcript

Why Some Health Products Go Gray

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Today on the Frontline Health Podcast. So 2023, they came in and said these products need to go away. You can't compound them anymore. And when that happened, they technically didn't say they were illegal. So it opened up this gray market. And there's a lot of uh bantering back and forth that you can find one person who says, Oh, you shouldn't touch them, and then several other people who say that no, it's fine, it's legal, everything is good to go, which then created this, I guess, vacuum because everybody was already using them. They were used to them, they were getting great results. And then from that vacuum, you had a lot of uh people come into the market who were not very legitimate and didn't test their products and didn't do a good job with it. And then that unfortunately affected those that were uh high-quality products as well. So you really had a tough time discerning what products you needed to use and which products to avoid for the for the consumer.

New Habits Sourdough And Microplastics

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Frontline Health Podcast by Centurion Health, where we share health news, tips, and insights to help you take ownership of your health. I'm Evan Patrick, along with Troy Duell, founder and CEO of Centurion Health. And we're very excited to be bringing you guys another round of health headline highlights from the last month. But before we get into that, we actually want to kick this episode off uh with a question for Troy and for myself. And that is what is one health topic or habit that you've been learning about or implementing in your life recently?

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Yeah, so that's a great question and certainly think about it. But one thing that we've started doing in our house is making more bread, specifically sourdough bread, and looking for only organic flour. And we've stepped up from organic flour, which is a little bit cheaper, to the eincorn flour, which is the uh form of wheat that has less gluten, more protein in it, and it supposedly is better for your digestive health and doesn't seem to affect your digestion near as much. So been a really, really good change. We just made some eincorn pizzas this weekend, sourdough pizzas, and also some sourdough pancakes. So it was uh really good um opportunity for us to try that new flour, and it seemed to be pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Well, kudos to you for uh keeping the sourdough alive because I hear that is pretty hard.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Uh that can be a little bit of a uh task for sure, and makes it hard because I'm not always great about remembering, but it seems like we've been able to do it just in time. I have let one of them die uh over the last year, but uh for the most part, you either thankfully know somebody who has some so I can get it back, or we keep it alive. Um, so it's been good. But what about you in this last month? What have you been able to do?

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Yeah, so I was actually moved uh by a recent Netflix documentary that I watched that I would recommend called The Plastic Detox, um, that will have you questioning every single personal care product or cleaning product that you've ever used. Uh so I was looking for one small change that I could make. I've been on the microplastic journey uh for a little while now since you've been informing me about this. And uh one thing I decided to do is to replace my toothbrush. Um, no longer using a nylon toothbrush. I now have a bamboo and horsehair toothbrush. Um, probably sounds pretty wacky to some people, but it kind of makes sense to me rather than you know getting these plastic bristles in my mouth uh twice a day, which they say, I think they said in the documentary that's uh a hundred microplastic particles every time that you brush your teeth. Now I'm getting a little bit less and uh yeah, just a little bit of bamboo and and horsehair, probably.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

That's uh that's really good. I I just have this image of this toothbrush with this long flowing hair in it. But I'm sure that they they cut that down. Uh, not quite exactly what I'm imagining.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

Yeah, it's stiffer than you would think, and the other option is boar hair. And I thought that the horse hair might be a little bit softer because I have sensitive gums sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Yeah, it also seems a little cleaner. Boars don't uh really make me imagine cleanliness when I'm thinking about putting boar hair in my mouth. So uh I'll go with horse hair too.

Handwriting Vs Typing For Memory

SPEAKER_01 4:27

Glad we're on the same page on that. So why don't we go ahead and uh and dive into our headlines for this month? Uh Troy, do you want to share the first one?

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Sure. There was uh a great study that came out uh from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology that showed handwriting provided superior learning and memory benefits over typing. They actually did some EEG studies to demonstrate that writing by hand activates more extensive brain connectivity, and it was essential for memory formation and encoding new information compared to the minimal activity produced by typing. I think we've all kind of seen that along the way, where if you're writing, you typically remember things a little bit more, but this study actually went in and tested that within the brain in the parietal and central regions, and they looked to see what actually happened. And they found that memory and learning actually increased recall and had better understanding for people because they felt like it provided increased visual and sensory motor or proprioceptive information for the brain, which kind of lights up three areas in the brain in order to increase that recall. And they felt like obviously typing is a lot faster, but the handwriting was more effective for memory. And what they really were trying to roll this out with was the educational implications of trying to get away from these classrooms that are going with all typing and getting back to handwriting specifically, they found that cursive had an even greater impact for those kids. So a couple takeaways that they had with it was handwriting is best for active learning and taking notes during lectures or for better understanding and brainstorming, whereas typing seemed to be better if you're doing long text, if you're editing things, or if there are situations that are really all about just getting it fast instead of getting it right.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

I mean, that's that's really interesting. Uh, a lot of people don't realize how big of a deal this actually is. Um, I was a teacher for a couple of years and and my eyes were opened to the importance of this, not necessarily just because of the reasons that you're mentioning, you know, retention and accuracy, but like writing is a real motor skill that kids need to be able to master, just I mean, because you're gonna be writing at some point in your adult life with a pen or a or a pencil, you know. Um, and so I noticed this. I was helping to administer, I was administering the ACT, and I had uh 16-year-olds in my classroom who literally they could not fill in or were struggling to fill in the boxes with their name um and to to bubble things in because they I mean from the time that they were in the I mean like first, second, third grade, I don't know how early now they're introducing the the Chromebooks and everything, they they started doing that and they did not develop those writing skills. And so um it's important uh for a lot of different things. And I think for a lot of different reasons, uh educators are moving back to pen and paper.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Absolutely. And I I think some of the things on top of that is we know that it is better for your eye health, but it's also going to be better uh long term. Just well, I was trying to think about what is happening now with AI. One of the things that you're starting to see more often is people aren't even typing anymore. They're actually hitting vocal or voice-activated AI. So we've gone from writing to typing to now voice. So it'd be interesting if they threw that piece into this study as well to see what the total ramifications of that would be, how much less impactful it is just to talk it out and just have your verbal as opposed to all the um all the senses being used with feeling, touch, and um verbal as well.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, one thing is for sure, it is a crazy world that's changing very quickly, and um hopefully our education system will be able to adapt in a way that is um best for our kids.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Our next health headline for today weight loss drugs draw thousands of lawsuits alleging serious harm. So thousands of lawsuits alleged that GLP1 weight loss drugs, we're talking about uh drugs like Ozempic and Wigovi have caused serious health issues, including digestive shutdown, organ damage, vision loss, and neurological problems linked to nutrient deficiencies. These risks become more visible as usage expanded to over 31 million Americans, revealing consistent patterns tied to how drugs alter digestion and metabolism. Um, we know that these drugs work by suppressing appetite and slowing digestion. Uh it explains both the weight loss and many of the reported complications like poor nutrient absorption and gut dysfunction. And uh new safety warnings actually also highlight additional risks, including psychiatric symptoms like suicidal thoughts and reduced effectiveness of oral contraceptives. And this article argues that sustainable weight loss should focus on restoring natural metabolism rather than suppressing hunger through medication. It suggests approaches like improving gut health, reducing metabolic stressors, and rebuilding proper nutrition to support long-term energy and fat loss. Troy, we did a recent podcast sharing um where you shared some of your opinions on these GLP1 drugs. On the one hand, uh, you know, many healthcare providers and even pharmacists that we know, they they are amazed by the results people are getting as far as uh weight loss, but we can't ignore the serious problems either. Do you want to just kind of summarize your views on that and your take on that?

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Yeah, I mean, I I think like most things, if you use it in uh as kind of a Kickstarter for your weight loss, then it could be good because I'm I'm assuming that a lot of these things, it didn't talk about it, uh a lot of these things are based on using it for long periods of time as opposed to just a short time. You know, some of the things that we didn't see uh or didn't discuss were the vision loss, because that seems to be relatively new, and the suicidal thoughts, or the reduced effectiveness of oral contraceptives. So those are three things that came out of these uh lawsuits that I think are new. And I'm sure a lot of it is because we're now getting to the point where we're having people who've been on it for nine months to a year to even more than a year now, and we're starting to see the results of people being on these things long term. The short-term studies, which are typically the only studies that you have before a product comes up, so they'll have a study for six to 12 weeks typically. They find that it's safe, that it does what it says it's gonna do, and then they bring it to market. The problem is it's tough to know what's gonna happen a year, two years down the road when somebody's on this thing long term. And I think we're starting to see that with some of these lawsuits. And again, use it for a Kickstarter, help build your confidence, but ultimately go to what the the article mentioned at the end, which is getting right nutrition, getting exercise, and changing your lifestyle so then you can really have long-term success with your weight loss.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

That's it. You got to take ownership of your health medication, no matter what it is, is not gonna solve all your problems.

FDA Peptides Update And BPC-157

SPEAKER_00 11:58

That is very, very true. Um, so yeah, thought that was a good one based on the fact that we had just done one of those uh peptide or GLP1 um podcast, and this next one uh is about peptides, which we've talked about in the past. But the article title is FDA Eases Peptide Limits with backing from RFK Jr. His quote was today we took long overdue action to restore science, accountability, and the rule of law. So the FDA, supported by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, plans to ease restrictions on 12 peptides. Specifically, we know BPC 157 is one of those. And what they're gonna do is allow compounding pharmacies to produce them again, which is what they had been doing a couple years ago. And they said that officials say the move actually restores that science and accountability, while the FDA will continue to hold meetings to kind of uh figure out which peptides to bring back out and which to keep on that level of uh not bringing it out and allowing pharmacies to compound it. So the original restriction started in 2023. Prior to that, you were able to get it, but they based it on limited data and potential safety risk. But policymakers and pharmacists really argued that there wasn't enough evidence to justify banning them because they'd been out for such a long time that they were still safe and they were good to bring out. And then, of course, there's another side where some critics say that they just haven't been out long enough and that they're untested in humans. So you've got both of these uh factions fighting one another when it comes to peptides. I probably lean towards the they've been out 30 years. Uh, we've known about them for 30 to 40 years, depending on which peptide it is. And we see lots of not only anecdotal evidence, but we've seen animal studies, we've seen it used in humans for some time now. And I personally think that most of them are safe, uh, look forward to seeing what they have to do and what they're going to decide with the FDA, which I know I think is the end of July, they're going to be coming out with some uh, I guess, info on how to move forward with these peptides, which I think is is an exciting time for sure.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

So a little context uh for our listeners. A lot of people, uh, like you said, they fall on one of two sides of this. Some people are sketched out because all they know now is that they are in a gray area. Um, and then you have other people who maybe they've uh had anecdotal experiences or have heard other people, you know, just getting really good benefits from some of these peptides. The the background and context of this is that the FDA actually created a gray market years ago when they changed the classification. As you mentioned, compounding pharmacies were allowed to make them. They were making them, they were, you know, giving them to patients, obviously um qualified pharmacists working with patients that they know about their medical history and um doing it in a a really safe way from that perspective. So can you explain how the peptide gray market was created when the FDA reclassified them several years ago, just so people can understand that?

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Yeah, so basically the FDA came in and said these 12 products that are very, very common products within the peptide realm need to go. This was in 2022. 2021, 2023. 2023. Yep. So 2023, they came in and said these products need to go away. You can't compound them anymore. And when that happened, they technically didn't say they were illegal, so it opened up this gray market. And there's a lot of uh bantering back and forth that you can find one person who says, Oh, you shouldn't touch them, and then several other people who say that no, it's fine, it's legal, everything is is good to go, which then created this, I guess, vacuum because everybody was already using them. They were used to them, they were getting great results, and then from that vacuum, you had a lot of uh people come into the market who were not very legitimate and didn't test their products and didn't do a good job with it. And then that unfortunately affected those that were uh high quality products as well. So you really had a tough time discerning what products you needed to use and which products to avoid for the for the consumer um portion of it anyway. And you know, one thing to think about with peptides, we just got done talking about the GLP ones. GLP ones were actually peptides, and they just went and took them uh into further testing, specifically on the diabetic part, and then they saw some weight loss benefit, and that's where a lot of that came from. So it's it's not like these things haven't been out there forever. I the the cynical part of me says, well, some of this is due to the fact that big pharmaceutical companies don't like it because they can't patent it and they can't make money off of it. And then, you know, other parts you want to certainly walk somewhat gingerly and make sure that these things are safe uh for people and allow that to come out to play. But I I think these 12 that they're talking about certainly have enough track record to say that they're gonna be safe for people to take.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Well, I won't be bashful about this. Uh, I don't think you'll you'll mind that. Um, we do want to let people know we have these have these products. We have uh several of these peptides. Um we've been working with pharmacists and healthcare providers for over 20 years now, and we've been trying to do something the right way and have been uh a company that's kind of been caught in the middle of of some of this as they're going through that process. So this is very close to us and we're following it closely. Um if you are looking for some of these peptides like BPC 157, KPV, GHKCU, Centurion Peptides.health, um, you can can find some there. And like I said, we won't be bashful about this because uh, you know, we we're confident in ours. We know that we're doing our our due diligence to make sure they are pure and third we third party test them um for purity and have the the um the C of A's and all that good stuff to to give you guys confidence.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Our next headline for today, uh moving along, it says the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine during the 2024 to 2025 respiratory viral season. This preprint study of 53,000 Cleveland Clinic employees found that flu infection rates were slightly higher among vaccinated individuals compared to unvaccinated ones during the 2024 to 2025 season. Wow. The calculated vaccine effectiveness was 26.9%, suggesting the vaccine did not reduce infections in this group. Uh early in the season, infection rates were similar between groups, but over time, cases increased more quickly among those vaccinated. The analysis suggested for factors like age, sex, and job role when comparing risk. And because the study has a preprint, it has not yet been peer reviewed. Uh thoughts on this, Troy?

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Yeah, it's kind of crazy. It was one of those that as I was just skimming through headlines, this one uh certainly jumped out at me because I think it's been one that a lot of people have talked about for years, that they felt like the flu vaccine was really more about a monetary gain than necessarily being very effective. And this is one of those studies that has come out and shown that. Um, you know, I think there's still plenty of studies that we need to do. You know, you certainly don't want to throw out all vaccines because I think there are some vaccines that have shown to be effective. But at the same time, we shouldn't be scared of critically analyzing whether these things are working or not. And the fewer vaccines we can take, the better off our body is, because we're just burdening our immune system and I think is causing a lot of autoimmune issues through the years because we're burdening it more than we need to. Now, if there's no way to treat a disease, if there's uh lots of evidence showing that certain vaccines are effective, then we need to keep them. But what we don't need to do is sit back and go, well, it's already settled. We don't need to do anything with it, and uh don't do any testing, don't check on the effectiveness of it at all, because I think that's when we get into this um bind of going, well, medical community is always right, and we've got to believe everything they say instead of truly taking ownership of our health, and that's how we do it. We just ask questions and continue to to test the theories that are out there. What are your what are your thoughts on that as a whole? Was it pretty shocking to see that that headline?

SPEAKER_01 20:50

Well, yeah, it is. I mean, you you would want to think that uh that something that is so highly encouraged would be uh very effective. Um and so I mean that's that's always the hope, right? But we have to be honest and we have to to look at the data um to inform the decisions that we make.

Military Drops Flu Vaccine Mandate

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Absolutely. And I I think this leads into our next headline, which is the U.S. military ends influenza vaccine mandate. The War Department continues to take decisive action to once again restore freedom and strength to our joint force, the Secretary of War said. And the article went on to talk about how it ended its requirement for service members to receive the influenza vaccine. They made it optional instead of mandatory. So, again, trying to give more ownership to individuals over their health. If you have a fear and you want to have that vaccine because maybe you're susceptible by your health, then you don't have to take it, which I think is a great policy. And ultimately, it was stirred and uh started because of the COVID 19 vaccine mandates that uh started during COVID. And they had a lot of troops that were uh, I guess. Discharged from the military because they chose not to take it. And we lost a lot of good service members that way because they didn't feel like it was going to do what they wanted. Um, and this is a way to try to help uh keep our troops healthy and safe, but also give them a little bit more ownership of their health and allow them to take that responsibility themselves and give them all the information they need before they uh take a vaccine. Because I know a lot of those, uh, as my dad's told me and other people are in the military, they they basically become human guinea pigs because they're just taking every shot, they just line up and get shot, shot, shot, shot, shot and move on through because they're getting exposed to a lot of different things. Uh, but I think this is a a great step in the right direction. And you being in the military, what what's your thought?

SPEAKER_01 22:52

Uh Troy, I think this is the new army. These kids are soft now. If you have never stood in the line and been injected with things that you have no idea what they are, you are just not fit to serve in the United States military. Uh is true. Because that was that was my experience, right? Going to basic training, roll up your sleeve, and you get five or six shots and uh are none the wiser. Um, but no, uh jokes aside, I I mean, I do think this is a great move. The COVID thing was a huge deal. Um, I knew people in my National Guard unit, they got kicked out um because they refused to take the vaccine. Um, people who had been on, you know, deployments, uh served overseas, done some great things um for their for their country and for their units. And uh and what a lot of people don't also know on the other side of that, some of these people were forcibly brought back in. And so it created just a lot of instability in in some of the personal lives of the people I know where you know that somebody might have plans to be in for 20 years, they get kicked out after eight because they refuse to take the COVID vaccine, and they start, you know, just kind of trying to figure out what life looks like at that point, and then they're told they're coming back in because uh recruiting numbers were low. So, um, so yeah, I think it's a it's a great uh great step in the right direction to help service members, like you said, have a little bit more ownership over their health um because uh yeah, they need it.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

Absolutely. Yeah, I know uh several people uh who were injured from the COVID vaccine that took it and they had to be discharged from the military because of the injury. So, you know, you hear both sides. I know there are plenty of people who got it that did not have any side effects or issues with it. Uh and I think that's where you just have to allow people to make those choices, and then you don't have to worry about the uh the consequences, they can worry about them themselves.

Take Ownership And Closing CTAs

SPEAKER_01 24:45

That's good. Well, I think this has been a great round of health headline highlights, lots of interesting things that we have discussed on today's podcast, hopefully some good takeaways for our listeners. Anything you want to leave us with today?

SPEAKER_00 24:58

I don't think so. I think we're we're good. Just uh go out and take ownership of your health. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

Take ownership of your health because you are your best health advocate. If you enjoyed what you heard today on the podcast, please consider subscribing and leaving us a review. We would love to hear your comments or questions about anything we've talked about on the show. For more health news, tips, and insights, follow us at Centurion Health on Instagram, Facebook, X, and YouTube. And for safe, effective, and affordable healthcare products made in the USA to help you elevate your health in life, visit centurion.health. We look forward to you joining us next time on the Frontline Health Podcast by Centurion.