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The Wellness Connection with Fiona Kane
Real Conversations about things that Matter
All things life and health - physical health, nutrition, mindset, mental health, connection plus society and culture with Fiona Kane, experienced and qualified Nutritionist, Holistic Counsellor and Mind Body Eating Coach
Frank discussions about how to achieve physical and mental well being.
I talk about all things wellness including nutrition, exercise, physical and mental health, relationships, connections, grief, success and failure and much more.
Some episodes are my expertise as a nutritionist and holistic counsellor and some are me chatting to other experts or people with interesting health or life stories. My goal is to give you practical and useful info to improve your health and tidbits that you may find inspiring and that may start discussions within your circle of friend/family.
The Wellness Connection with Fiona Kane
GLP-1 Medications Explained: What They Do, How They Work, and the Risks | Ep. 140
GLP-1 medications explained in a simple and relatable way. In this episode, Fiona breaks down how drugs like Ozempic, Mounjaro, and other GLP-1 agonists actually work, why they’ve become so popular, and the real risks people need to understand.
We explore side effects, long-term concerns, emotional impacts, gut health changes, and why these drugs may not be right for everyone. Whether you're curious, considering them, or just want to understand the hype, this episode gives you a balanced, thoughtful look at what the research, and real people, are saying.
Outro: Music by Musinova from Pixabay
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Hello and welcome to the Wellness Connection podcast. I'm your host, Fiona Kane. Today I'm going to be revisiting a topic I talked about in episode 64, which is talking about Ozempic and essentially the GLP1 agonists. I've learned a little bit more along the way, so I'm going to share a little bit more of what I've learned. This is one of those drugs where we need to just keep tracking it and keep looking at the evidence and keep looking at what happens as time goes on so that we know whether or not it's something that should be recommended. When I talk about this today as well, just clarifying this is a drug that was originally used for people with diabetes. For the purposes of this, I'm actually not talking about it for people with diabetes. I think being treated by your doctor with four things like diabetes is one thing. Taking a medication for weight loss is another. And I think that that's just consider I'm talking about this. If your doctor's prescribing it for diabetes, that's a different topic, and that's not what I'm talking about today. So essentially, these medications are used now, very popular used. I think they're the probably the most biggest selling medication now so far, I think. And um, and they are medications that people do now use for weight loss, and you only have to look at Hollywood. Suddenly, all of the people who were all about um about not those all kind of up in arms about you know the whole fat acceptance movement and the accept us as we are kind of thing, gone out the window now that they've got this drug, so they're all uh losing a lot of weight. So looking at people like Oprah or um Sablonde actress now who is a comedian, I can't think of her name. Amy Polar, I think is her name. Uh but yeah, look at all the look at the Hollywood red carpet. They're all on Azempic or a version of that, um, almost all of them. And um, you know, so it has become the popular drugs and um examples of GLP1 agonists are Azempic's one of them, it's semaglutide. Um, we've also got Lyrogluglutide, which is sexenda and Victosa. There's diagulaglutide, which is Trilicidae, and terzepatide, I'm probably saying it wrong, which is Monjaro. So these are all GLP1 receptor agonists, some are slightly different, whatever, but anyway, these are the medications that I'm talking about. So these are super popular, everyone's using them, and my concern is I like I've said, if you go back to the first episode, you'll hear me talking about it. I think these drugs have their place, and I understand that some people in certain situations, if if you have if you are very obese and have major issues where your weight is affecting your life itself, uh then it's always like a balance of you know risk reward, right? So in those situations, I feel like sometimes these drugs can be very, very useful or have their place. In situations where it's kind of just about looking good on the catwalk or on the like in the red carpet, I don't know if it's it's a good idea. We just don't know enough long term about these drugs to know that that's sort of a good idea. So, you know, what we know is that um there have been iterations of this drug around for a long time, but the ones that are out now are the most potent versions that have been on the market. So what um the safety for the the drugs that were less potent is um it's not the same now because they are much more potent than they used to be. What we also know is that there are a lot of potential side effects. I talked about them a lot in the last episode, and they are not as it's interesting because they a lot of people are saying, oh, this never happens, that never happens. However, the warnings on the side of the box of the medication, when you look at those warnings, they are there based on the studies. So these are the things that happen during the studies, so they are there because they happened, right? So the sort of stuff that you'll see on the side of the box will be things like thyroid cancer, um, which is very rare, but it can happen. Uh, things like intestinal blockage, stomach paralysis, uh pancreatitis. Uh, and um, the other thing that we're seeing uh now, this isn't on the side of the box, I don't think, but there are there seem to be um there seem to be anecdotal evidence for visual loss. So some people are talking about visual loss as well. Uh so that's anecdotal, but that you know, anecdotal still matters. We still need to pay attention to these things. So, what we do know is uh that those things on the side of the box, they're there because of the study. So don't think that, oh, they never happen. They do happen, that's why they're on the side of the box. Now, going back to about how this drug works and the issue with this uh this strength of this drug is that so so so what these drugs are doing, they're they are a replica of a hormone that we have. So we have a hormone that's called GLP1, and it's a satiety hormone. And um, so this hormone essentially uh will sort of slow down how quickly how your gastric emptying slow down how your digestion and make you feel full for longer. And this is a replica, this is a replica of that hormone. Now, the issue is that um like as a peptide, it's called a peptide. The the issue is that when we when we make the hormone ourselves, it hangs around in the body for 15 minutes. When you take this medication, it hangs around in the body for seven days. I don't think we're meant to have that hormone that that um that happening for seven days, right? It's very different to 15 minutes, and so the concern is well, something that your body allows for 15 minutes at a time, suddenly for seven days, what's the issue there? And we do have GLP1 receptors all over our body, so this isn't just about eating it. What else is it affecting? And we're starting to get some idea, but we don't know for sure. So what we um the other things I wanted to talk about in regards to this, so the things that we're seeing, the things that we're hearing about. So one is, and I talked about it a little bit in the last one, is suicidal ideation. So we're not seeing so far an increase in actually happening, but the ideation is there. And I've talked about this more in the last episode, where I sort of talked about if you're if you've been using food as your way of managing your stress and a way of managing your emotions, and you can't use food for that anymore, then maybe you're having like much stronger emotions that you're needing to deal with and you don't know how to deal with them. So if you've always used food as your way to dampen your emotions or give you that dopamine boost or those kinds of things that we do with food, if you've always done that and then suddenly that your food is not the thing that you can do that with anymore, then and you haven't learned how to deal with those emotions, then yes, it could certainly increase your uh risk of uh depression and anxiety and and all of those stress, stressful things. So I think um we need to consider that that if you're not changing other things and you suddenly start taking a drug that stops you from being able to use the thing that you have used to manage your mood, yeah, you are gonna notice a difference. If you're using that to regulate your emotions, uh food to regulate your emotions and manage your manage your emotions, suddenly you're not gonna have that. So you you will have that issue. So I talked about that a lot more in the last episode, but it's worth being aware of. Uh, so that's just something that you know there's definitely a risk there. The other thing that um that what what we know is what happens is because it delays gastric emptying, which is your stomach emptying and and sort of your digestion. How does that affect your microbiome? Well, we don't know, like the the gut bacteria. We know our gut bacteria, our microbiome affects everything, it affects our immune system, it affects our mood, it affects so many things. So having that um adjusted, because food's hanging around in our system for longer, we certainly know it could drive more things like SIBO and these sort of um the bacterial overgrowths that cause IBS and those sorts of issues. We know it certainly can do that, but um, but what else does it do? I don't know. We're just slowly learning this. Uh, what we also know is that um they're having to rewrite protocols for anesthesia now because what they're finding is you know, you used to used to fast for so long and and being able to safely have your surgery, but now what's happening is people on these medications are aspirating in surgery, which is like where you um your food comes up and goes into your lungs, right? And uh that's happening because they're still got food in their system because they're on a medication that's slowing down the emptying of the food. So they're having to rewrite the protocol so that uh people aren't uh that that they they stop eating for longer because the food's taking much longer to get through their system. That also I know I don't think they've changed protocols yet, but it makes me what sort of I'm out loud wondering if it's gonna change the protocols for blood tests as well. Because if you're delaying gastric emptying, you're also delaying how quickly your blood glucose goes up from meals. And if you're um doing a test that requires you to be fasting for so long so that you don't have any any glucose effect on your bloodstream, I imagine they're gonna have to, you're gonna have to go longer before you do blood tests, otherwise it's not gonna be accurate. So I don't know if they've addressed that yet, but I suspect that is going to be an issue in the future that they're going to have to think about, they're going to have to manage. So, you know, these are the things that they haven't thought about. The other thing is too that it would seem at this point that the way the medication works is you have to pretty much stay on it for life and for it to have that effect. And if you don't, then things go back to how they were. That's my understanding so far. So, what does that look like staying in a medication like this for life? What other effects does it have? Uh, what could happen in the future if you're um needing to go on other medications for other reasons? Uh, is this medication going to um be a problem for that? So we we just don't know the answer to these questions. The other thing that they're seeing in people with uh who are on these medications, they're developing these things that are called a gastric bezoar. And what that is, I had to look up what it what it was myself. So it's a massive indigestible material, it's a bit like a like a furball, like you know, a cat coughing up a furball. It's like that. So it's a massive indigest indigestible material um and that sort of hardens and accumulates in the stomach. So because of this slowing down, what happens is people just end up with this hard mass that just hardens and sits in their stomach. Um, and that can certainly lead to that's why people can get these blockages in their digestive tract and um feel unwell and all that sort of stuff. So apparently that this is something that they are seeing that people who are on these medications have more risk of developing this gastric bazoo, uh, so like the verball type thing, but uh that can be quite serious, right? So we're seeing this happening. So what we're also uh what we're also seeing is like I said before, because because this medication acts on the pleasure center of your brain, it does quiten down that food noise, which you know it obviously that can be an advantage. So for people who do have an issue with addiction, and I don't usually like to use the term addiction in regards to food, I prefer to use habituation. There's a whole other episode where I've talked about that. Just Google Fiona Kane talking about addiction or something, you'll find it. But just because when we use the term addiction in relation to food, the issue is that the only that our cure for addictions is usually uh abstinence, and they can't be abstinent from food. So just using that word is not helpful, but uh you know, habituation is a word I use instead. But essentially, if you have a history of whether it's uh habituation to food or whether it's addiction to drugs, alcohol, other things, uh, what they are finding is this is really useful. This medication is really useful for dampening that down. It really takes away that noise that people have in their brain for that sort of thing. So it potentially is a really useful treatment for people with those issues. So I can see that's another place where risk reward, it may or may not be worthwhile depending on the level of risk associated for that person in regards to that addiction, whatever that might be. Uh so that's you know, instead of um, because you know, with food, we kind of get that like get that dopamine effect, that pleasure effect that we get in our brain. Um, and if you're not getting, you know, you do you don't get that um when you're using this medication. Um so that could be a useful, useful medication. Uh, you know, is that ultra-processed food gives us that really big dopamine hit. Um, so yeah, that could be useful. So that might be a reason to use the medication. But the other issue is another way of seeing it too, though, is that for a lot of people, and it might be in particular for people who don't have that, if you're kind of not particularly addictive person or don't really have that kind of um those kinds of issues, then it might be more detrimental for those people because what we're seeing uh overall is that people are getting having like lack of libido, lack of lack of interest in life in general. So that sort of malay and just lack of of being interested and being getting joy in life. And um, you know, it takes because it's taking away kind of desire of any kind. So whether that's desire for food or desire for sex or desire for life itself and things in life, that that that's that's sad, and that's a very kind of anti-human kind of thing, really, isn't it? Because even though I can imagine it could be really useful for someone who's got a severe issue that's life-threatening, uh, for the average person, um, that that risk reward, I don't know if that would add up, you know, that you're losing that uh drive for things in your life. So again, it's always comes back down to a cost benefit, a cost, you know, a cost benefit sort of stacking it up and seeing whether or not it's worthwhile. Um, the other thing is that um, you know, you do plateau on this medication eventually. Uh, and um, so that again, that's an issue. Uh, and so I don't know if they need to use different drugs or stronger drugs or how they how they manage that, but that is an issue. Uh, they um they also, I don't know if this is just in the US, but they're starting to recommend this medication for six-year-olds, and I am absolutely against that. I just don't think it should be interfering at that age group of children. I think that there's other ways you can manage these issues for children. If we get all of this uh ultra-processed food out of our system, that could be a really good start for it. So I think that that is um that's not healthy, and we just really don't understand what it's doing overall and what it could do to a growing brain, a growing body. So I just the idea of uh proving that for six-year-olds just horrifies me. Um, as I said before, we've got these GLP1 receptors all over our body. So we know how it's affecting weight, but how is it affecting other things? We just don't know. Um, so what um they're finding in the US is they're finding that um microdoses uh can have similar effects, but without the severe side effects. So that could be a good way forward. However, um that is being there's a lot of people working against that, and I think I suspect it relates to the fact that they won't make as much money out of the medication if they're using microdoses if if compounding pharmacies are able to make it in that way. But that looks like a, you know, for the future at some point, that looks like a positive thing that maybe in the future that could be a good thing where you can get the benefit of the drug with microdoses, but without as many severe side effects. So that's something to look out for or to um to maybe um to push for in the future in this with in regards to this medication, because that seems to be that would be a good solution to really, really reduce the risks associated. Um, so what is happening with this medication is you know the what the way these GLP1 and um agonists work is that they uh what they do is they they disrupt that vagus nerve connection to the brain. And uh that can again, if you so all right, so if you are someone who has like really severe obesity issue, then you already have a disrupted uh gut-brain connection, your vagus nerve is already disrupted because you have learned how to not listen to your body signals, right? So you've absolutely disconnected from that. So a lot of people have disconnected from that, they're just not listening to their body signals. Though, so that so again, those people are the ones that could potentially benefit from this medication and and do benefit from this medication. But if you have a really good sense of, you know, you listen to your body, you listen to your body connection, you have a really good like vagus connection, gut brain connection, you're gonna lose that when you go on this medication. And that concerns me because essentially one of the things, one of the tenets of healing, one of the things I talk about with my clients all of the time is learning how to listen to your body, learning how to be connected to your body. Because I believe the more connected you can be to your body, the more you will look after it, the more you will nourish it. And so being on a medication that actively encourages and actively disconnects that, I believe, is really, really concerning. Also, the vagus nerve is involved in a lot of things in the body. So, again, what does that affect? What else does that affect? You know, so that to me is also quite a concern. Um, what does that mean? What is that going to mean long term? I don't know. Um, so I do have concerns about that. Um, the other thing too is, you know, I've talked about it before in the last episode where I was talking about things like muscle wastage. That is a real issue, muscle wastage. And we do need muscle as especially as we get older, we need muscle to have function and to have independence as we get older. So anything that kind of can encourage muscle wastage, I get quite concerned about. Uh, people are certainly losing their hair as well. But the other thing that sort of came up earlier, and so in the beginning they said that it seemed to be aging people, that people's faces were aging faster. And then they said, Oh no, no, it's just like it's just about weight loss in general. That that whole thing that Madonna used to say about you can either have a nice backside or a nice face, you know, one or the other, but you can't have both. And it's sort of kind of true in a way, I suppose, um, as you as we age. But it doesn't seem to be that it's just about the weight itself. So, what is uh what we're hearing from is we're hearing from uh we're hearing from plastic surgeons, and plastic surgeons are actually saying that they've noticed that people aren't healing as well. And at the moment, they're trying to they're trying to figure out what that's about. They're trying to sort of get a bit of an idea of why is that the case, and something that they're discussing at the moment um that they're they're thinking might be the case. I'm not saying this is absolute, this is just something they're discussing and something they're trying to figure out. But one of the theories they're going with is that they believe that the medications might be dampening the stem cells in the subdermal layer of your skin, to which affects people's healing. We don't know that for a fact, but that's what they're they're they're guessing might be the case. Obviously, this could be a major issue. So, one, anything that affects your ability to heal, major issue. But secondly, overall, anything that affects your stem cells, which stem cells are so important for healing and and um and for uh for health, uh that's quite scary that information. So that's something that we need to watch and listen and listen for as well. So, you know, again, on this uh I'm still in that situation now where I'm not completely against these medications, but I think we really do need to look. Risk reward needs to be balanced, and it really needs to be that the reward is so great for you that the risk is worth it. And I think for like just the average person who just wants to lose a little bit of weight to fit into the to go to their daughter's wedding or to get married or whatever, I don't think it's worth it. I don't think it's worth it for largely healthy people who don't have a lot of weight to lose. I really don't think that that's that's a good risk benefit ratio. I just don't think that works in the favor of taking the medication. Um, if you have severe addictions that are affecting your health and your life, or you know, severe weight, uh severely overweight, and that's affecting your health and your life, then in those situations, yeah. Um, and like I said before, right at the beginning, diabetes that's kind of a different topic, but that it has its place there. Uh six-year-olds, no, definitely no, in my opinion. I just can't see a reason why that would be a good idea at this point in time, especially we just really don't have these long-term uh and a lot of long-term data and a lot of this stuff we just don't know yet. We're just sort of figured as figuring out as we go along, which is why I've done this sort of second episode, just to keep keep talking about it saying, okay, well, this is what we know so far. Um, and um over time we'll learn more and more. Um, you know, there are sort of natural GLP1 um natural things that in that influence our GLP1 receptors, and uh those things are what I've always talked about with my patients, with my clients, and it's in regards to having protein with your every meal, because when you have protein with every wheel, uh every meal that increases your GLP1 and promotes satiety, so helps you feel fuller for longer. When you have dietary fiber, does the same thing. Uh um, you know, and it's um when you have healthy fats, it does the same thing. And so anything that helps support healthy bacterial growth in your stomach, in your in your body, in your digestive system overall, anything that helps encourage a healthy microbiome and having the protein, the dietary fiber, the good fats, all of those things will make a big difference to your um how how long things sit in your stomach for, how quickly your blood sugar goes up, and how how much you make of these GLP ones, these natural GLP ones in your body. So don't forget there are things you can do to support that just by the way you eat. Um, there are also supplements that can be useful. We do know that um berberine and curcumin and green tea extract can all be useful as well. Um, there's been studies on those that you seem to improve this insulin sensitivity and GLP1 secretion. Uh, anything to do with supplements, though, I would get advice from someone like me, your naturopath, or your doctor, or your pharmacist or whoever it is that you trust, I wouldn't just go out and start taking them, especially if you have any health conditions, and especially if you're on any medications. So they are supplements that we know have can be useful, but again, like all things, they need to be measured risk-reward, and they might have risks and they might not be beneficial depending on your medications and depending on any health conditions you have. So they are things, you know, there are natural sort of sort of things that affect the GLP ones. But what I would say is just make sure you're having things like some a little bit of fermented foods, a little bit of um having a good having a good amount of healthy fats, having a good amount of protein with each meal, um, and just overall um increasing your fibre, lots of veggies and a little bit of fruit, that kind of thing. All of that will just encourage your body to do this naturally, and um, and that I think is a far better way of managing uh these issues than AZENPIC. But like I've said before, everything comes down to risk reward, and you have to decide whether or not the risk is worth it and talk to your medical professional and monitor things, all of that stuff. Anyway, that's my latest update on where we're at with uh with AZENPIC and the GLP ones, as far as I'm aware, and um, I'll update you in the future when if and when I learn more. But I think this is just something that needs to be watched. There might be good that comes out of this medication, we might find that it's been a good thing, but we also might find it's damaged a lot of people along the way. So we've just really got to. I think what happens is we find something that's too much of a good thing, and seems like such a good thing that everyone wants it, and not everyone should have it, and not everyone will benefit from it, and that's my big concern, anyway. Uh, please like, subscribe, share, um, comment, let me know if you know, and let me know your experiences as well. What's been good, what hasn't been, if you've tried these medications yourself. Anyway, I will uh, and you know, this is where, like I've said before, I like to have real conversations about things that matter, and this is a very popular drug right now. This really, really matters. So, we do need to be talking about it and continuing the conversation. So, uh, yeah, like I said, like, subscribe, share, uh, rate review, all of that sort of stuff. And I will see you all again next week. Thank you so much. Bye bye.
