The Truth About Tapering Off GLP-1s with Dr. William Summers

Most doctors say GLP-1s are for life. After 12+ years of prescribing Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound, this obesity medicine physician disagrees.

Ana Reisdorf, MS, RD sits down with Dr. William Summers, an obesity medicine physician double board-certified in OB/GYN, who has been prescribing GLP-1s for over a decade and runs clinical trials on the next generation of these medications. They cover his actual tapering protocol, why real-world side effect rates run far below what the media reports, the one rare complication every patient needs to spot early, and why he believes we're only at the very beginning of what obesity medicine can do.

IN THIS EPISODE
- The 9-month tapering protocol for coming off Ozempic, Wegovy, or Zepbound
- Why media-reported GLP-1 side effect rates don't match what physicians see in clinic
- Pancreatitis on GLP-1 medications — the early warning signs every patient should know
- Why some people don't respond to Ozempic or Wegovy (cortisol, leptin, and genetics)
- What's coming next: triple receptor agonists, Foundayo, and the future of obesity medicine

ABOUT THE GUEST
Dr. William Summers is a practicing physician in Birmingham, AL, board certified in OB/GYN and Obesity Medicine.

CONNECT WITH DR. SUMMERS
Practice: The Weight Clinic - http://summersweightclinic.com/
Video series: Weight Management — A Class With ACT -  https://www.youtube.com/@theweightclinic-drsummers

SPONSOR
Tyde Wellness — sustainable weight loss with support, for women.
https://tydewellness.com/GLP1Hub — use code GLP1HUB50 for $50 off your first month

CHAPTERS
00:00  The penicillin of weight loss
01:33  Meet Dr. William Summers
03:48  Why obesity is a disease, not a behavior
06:51  The tapering protocol most doctors don't follow
12:51  What the media gets wrong about side effects
15:55  Pancreatitis: the one to watch for
17:56  Gut impaction, gastroparesis, and constipation
20:43  When GLP-1s don't work and why
25:54  What's coming next: triple agonists and oral pills
31:08  Where to find Dr. Summers

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*The content of this show is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The goal of this show is to provide various points of view about GLP-1 Medications. The personal and professional opinion of the guests and their content does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Ana Reisdorf or GLP-1 Hub.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

And I would also use this synergy that penicillin came out in 1941. And if you had strep throat in 1939, you didn't have any antibiotics for any bacterial infection. We just didn't have it. So we now have the penicillins of weight loss. So we are at the beginning of the development of the medicines that will target just in the early foundations of the disease of obesity.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Most people are told that once you start GLP1, you're on it for life. Today's guest, a physician with over 20 years in obesity medicine, has a different protocol. Welcome to the GLP1 Hub Podcast. I'm Anna Reisdorf, registered dietitian, GLP1 user. And today I'm joined by Dr. William Summers, an obesity medicine physician out of Birmingham, Alabama. He's double board certified in OBGYN and obesity medicine and has been using GLP1s with patients for over a decade and runs clinical trials on the next generation of these medications. We're going to talk about how he actually tapers patients off the medication, why side effect rates you read about online don't match what he actually sees in the clinic, though one of rare but serious complication every patient should know how to spot, and his case for why we're only at the very beginning of what these medications can do. And as always, if you're enjoying this podcast, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps us grow. And if you're watching on YouTube, drop a comment below to let me know what you think. So let's get on to the episode. Welcome to the Jopy One Hub Podcast. I want to welcome today Dr. William Summers. He is an obesity medicine doctor out of Birmingham, Alabama. Welcome so much, Dr. Summers. I'm so happy to have you. Can you tell the people a little bit about your professional background and your work?

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Yes, thank you. And thanks for having me on here today. I am a physician in Birmingham, Alabama. And I'm I tell people I'm double boring, I'm double boarded, and OBGYN and obesity medicine the past several years. And I've been in a private practice in Birmingham for 30 plus years, dealing with patients with obesity and concerns for 20 years of that time. I graduated from the University of Tennessee. I think you were in Franklin, Tennessee.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

I am.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

Our neighbor. And uh that was years ago. And um I always say this just to impress people because it doesn't represent, but I graduated first in my class at the University of Tennessee Medical School. I wasn't the smartest, but it sounds good when I'm introducing myself. We'll just say that. But I've I've had a career in the clinical practice with uh patients that I have the privilege of taking care of, I would say. And now with these new developments and understanding of the chronic disease of obesity, I'm excited to have the information that I can present with them, discuss with them, and options for them that are really I consider very safe medicines, targeting specifically things that we need to target, like we would for any disease.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

So with your history as OBGYN, are you mostly seeing women or do you see all patients?

SPEAKER_02 2:57

Well, I did uh an OBGYN practice until 2001. I quit delivering babies, which allowed me to sleep at night. That was kind of a nice uh addendum. And of course, in my GYN practice, I still do that, and that's with, of course, all women patients. I have in the past decade plus uh been seeing men and women and and kids actually in my weight management practice with uh with an approach for evidence-based medicines and uh ideologies and not the gimmicks that we know are so widespread and available. Definitely it's a privilege to have men now. And you know, I look at it as all we all have our individual uniquities, but we are all the same and deserving of the same respect and an opportunity for education.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Yeah, definitely. In terms of since this medication started being used more widely for weight loss, yes. What are some of the specific benefits that you've seen? Maybe I mean, obviously, people know it helps people lose weight, but like what are some other benefits that you've seen with your patient population?

SPEAKER_02 3:57

Well, there are so many comorbidities associated with being overweight. There are actually over 200 diseases associated with obesity, and we could just talk about this all day long. So providing an opportunity for developing a higher quality of life. That's what all of this represents. And we now have an understanding that overweight is not just put your fist down and quit eating. It's we have a disease model, chemicals and neurochemicals in our body that are upset or are are off when we get overweight. And when they're and when these sort of metabolics are not working properly and we eat, we gain weight unfairly. And as we gain more weight unfairly, then these chemicals get more messed up. So having something in the toolbox to specifically target the receptors and the neuroendocrine signaling that's that's not working right gives us a chance to lose weight. And of course, anything we do to lose weight, anything, then we must continue to do for a while. So to reset our sort of our body's apparatus, it wants to put all the weight back on rapidly if we just sit back and lose weight and and don't pay attention.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Right.

SPEAKER_02 5:03

I think that for the for the individual patient, they see results. And there's so many things that we could talk in terms of lifestyle changes or I call health style changes that that are all pertinent here. But when patients see momentum, they get into it. I can talk nutrition and I'm have a limited knowledge, as all physicians, I will say. We can do and talk, but when they actually see results, they become their own educators and they know and they're very protective of the success. And we haven't seen in the past these types of success with weight reductions and quality improvements.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Right. I started my uh career working in bariatrics, and I found for a lot of people the obesity made them more obese because like 100%, they couldn't move as well as maybe they were able to, and then the cravings would come in and you know, fluid retention and all the cycle.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

100%. And then they are put into this sort of stereotypical what are you doing? What are you not doing? You're lazy, you should be ashamed. And that is so just gets me on my passion. That is so wrong. And it's uh the way I sort of oversimplify it, I will tell patients anybody overweight, I can measure four blood tests and they're not right. And when you eat and they're not right, you're gonna gain weight. And when you gain more weight, these chemicals are get more messed up, and you're in a snowball and you have to eat. And these people get so frustrated and get so shamed. It's just um so I would be the advocate to say we all need the education to understand in simple terms the chronic disease of obesity, and we have medicines for that. And like any disease model, we should have these medicines accessible and not restricted because of cost.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Yes, 100%. So you kind of mentioned that the patients then become their own advocates and are making those lifestyle changes. And you alluded a little bit to maybe they can maintain that long term. So where are you with staying on the medication?

SPEAKER_02 6:58

Well, okay. This that that's always this question comes up. And when I got boarded in obesity medicine several years ago, there was a question. If someone used these medicines to lose weight and they're done, they get to their goal weight, how long should they stay on them? And the answer on the test was two years. And I always thought, well, that's just sort of like a generalization. But I remember that two-year mark. I know that now there are some academicians that will say that if we use these medicines, you need to stay on them forever. And I do not agree with that. Okay. There is a Harvard model, and I think they stratify. If you were gonna use these medicines, say for nine months, and you get your goal weight, it would be reasonable to continue them for another nine months, maybe possibly tapering the doses. And then at some point, if you see the weight recidivism, you could perhaps get back on them. But always with medicines, the less is better. And these are not something that somebody would say, these are the questions I'll get. Well, am I gonna be in this forever? Not no, not necessarily at all. I think that we should all have the goal of using them like we would to treat a disease, and hypertension gets better. With weight loss, we get off hypertensive medicines. They all ask me, well, is this gonna have cause me to have diabetes when I stop these medicines? No, it will not. Losing weight will help you prevent diabetes. So there's just a lot of myth and misunderstanding. And I think that what when we started talking earlier, when somebody sees that they can use these medicines safely with results, that that just brings in more attention to all of the other vectors in the health style, the physical activities, the awareness of what's in our packaged foods and refined sugars and processed foods, they become very, very protective. And I think that's the best. So I used to see a patient and before and I give them a full lecture on what I understand nutrition from my point, not as probably as as detailed as from your point, but what you know, the what I've sort of a package to really bring out the the the evils of the sodas and the things that we just do every day here. But no one's really getting anything out of that. I I tend to give those lectures now more after they start losing weight. And they can start lecturing and teaching me things because they are their own advocate and being frustrated with many, many years and decades of trying to do something with no success, and they see the success. It's it's it's a really it's so rewarding on my end to be able to have the privilege of taking care of a patient that sees that we just didn't see this as a disease at all. And we just saw this as a behavioral problem, and that is so incorrect. And so it so it's been very rewarding. I used to say delivering babies was so rewarding for the most part, and I think I get just as much of the sort of just feeling good inside when I see people that can change their life and the quality of life and the elimination of potentially 200 diseases with their their success.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

So when they're ready to come off, what is the sort of protocol you're following? Because I haven't seen in the evidence like do this, do this, do this, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 9:49

There's not really any evidence-based algorithms for patients to follow. And I think it's an individual sort of management. And I tend to, when somebody gets to the goal weight, and even insurance companies will um back this up. And when someone gets to the goal weight, well, we don't want to pay for the medicines, but we have evidence that says, well, we need to continue doing what we've been doing for a while in both health style and these medicines. I tend to start tapering the doses at gradually. As you know, there's titrations from like I say level one to five or six. And if they're on level five after a month, I might go to level four for a month and three. It's all very individual. And when somebody feels that they're getting a little bit more food noise or uh weight is returning, then we adjust the doses accordingly. But I do try to do the if you're on it for nine months, let's just plan to be on it for nine months, and if we can taper the doses, that's fine. This is so off-label in terms of manufacturer recommendations, but I'll have patients sometimes do an injection once every two weeks. I read about microdosing, and I don't really understand the micro-dosing aliquots that they're using, but less is always better with medicines, and if less works better for a person, I'm all for that. So we go off-label and just try to individualize that. But I think we get people that have had so much success, they're sort of scared to get off of them. Like they don't want to sort of get back into that corner. And so it's it's all about communication and the patients help us make decisions with them. And I think that's important.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

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SPEAKER_02 13:16

I hope everybody does understand there is a pretty high gastrointestinal side effect profile that accompanied these medicines. And I do clinical trials right now with some of the manufacturers and other and these industries. And the way the trials are set up, we the patient must come in, say, and do level one for once an injection once a week, and then the next month must go to level two and then must go to level three. And if they don't tolerate that, then they're sort of kicked out of the study or just different sort of protocols for this. So there's kind of these forced titrations. For most people using these medicines, that's really not that practical. And if they're doing level one and they're having some nausea, we'll just go on with level one some longer. The GI side effects are reported up to 40%. And I think in my patients, and I mentioned this in my videos, I see this more around 10 to 15 percent. And because we just go go slow, baby steps, because this is for a while. Get used to it, and your body has to get used to it to keep elevating the doses, and elevated doses are usually associated with a little bit more weight loss. Um so nausea, most common, constipation, diarrhea, vomiting, digestion, list and going down, and you'll and the news will pick up on this fatigue slash not feeling well slash mood changes associated, and these are all kind of overlapping that you'll see some people reporting uh seeing suicidal ideations using the medicines. I personally have not had to deal with that in my clinical practice, maybe a couple of of these questionnaires in the research protocols, but there is, and I'm aware that when our sugar, these medicines help regulate our sugar properly. And when our sugars are not regulated properly, we kind of feel a little sugary buzz when they're not. And there is, and I see it more, and this is maybe my observation, a little bit more when women first start on these medicines, they experience a little bit more fatigue than men. Just like if I would say, and it's not my favorite nutritional plan to recommend, like an Atkins diet under 30 carbs a day. But men seem to okay with that, and women just always like just worn out and tired. And I think we have that sort of individual way that we regulate sugar. And uh so so when I see suicide, fatigue, depression, it's real, and people need to be aware and monitor any sort of mental health changes. But I think that gets a little bit overstated in the press, that these overlap, and some of that will be a dose titration, um, a medicine break, so to speak, in terms of terms of between injections. And but that's that's down the list. You know, the the concern that everyone needs to be aware, we call AEs adverse events, could be anything related to a use of any medicine, and every medicine, chinol, has a list of adverse events. The the serious adverse event on this medicine is pancreatitis. And pancreatitis, these medicines work on the pancreas, and that a sensitive person, the pancreas could be involved in a very serious way. And pancreatitis is super serious. You would more likely be in the intensive care unit. Yeah. It carries 10% mortality. So anybody using a medicine, we can say any medicine, but not this you can say these and use electively, but but as a medicine here with any essay, serious adverse event that could lead to death, we gotta really be aware on that on the front end. And the nausea and the vomiting can be overlapping in terms of am I just having a side effect and need to lower my dose, or is this something more serious? So I've tried to let everyone be aware that if there is a protracted nausea, epigastric pain, pain shooting to their back from their stomach, that that could be just a side effect, but it's serious enough to say we need a blood test. We need to check an amylase, we need to check a lipase. And if these are edging out of the normal zone at all, I stop the medicine. And I would tell my patients when I'd talk in groups, and I'm not not to be cocky, but if you'll play by my rules, there's very, very rare, rare pancreatitis that could occur. 100% I won't let it occur in you because you need to communicate any concerns of your nausea and any kind of GI side effects, and we will respond with instructions and often a blood test. And a blood test can can thwart anybody's advancing to a point where they would need to even be in the ER with IB fluids, much less a hospitalization or worse. So I think we can really, really monitor that. That's the one thing, the one what's the worst bad thing that can happen? Well, it's rare. And in probably how many years now? I've been 12, 15 years I've been using GLP1 medicines, and I've had a lot of patients and a privilege to have a lot of patients, but I've not had a single patient that had to be admitted with pancreatitis. But I've had to stop the medicine a dozen times over thousands of patients.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

What about I've heard a lot of rumors about gut impaction and like people having to get you know that sort of heart of that?

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Okay. Well, one of the one of the way the GLP1, which is a peptide that's secreted from our intestines and everyday action and goes to the brain and gives us a feeling of satiety, goes to other parts of the body to help regulate sugar, and it also slows down our upper GI emptying. One of the ways it works to help us create weight loss, it slows our stomach emptying, which gives us a feeling of satiety. There are people, I'll use a diabetic population of patients who deal with diabetes that may have nerve damage from the diabetes itself. And the nerves that that sort of innervate that part of our body with a little bit of a neuropathy or slowing action, these medicines could turn that into something. Well, that would be a contraindication. If you have gastroparesis, I wouldn't let you use these medicines. But some people not knowing that, they will get to the point where they feel the what you call the impaction or there's obstructions and all. That's in my practice, that occurring is super, super rare. I've seen it more when we have patients in the protocols for diabetes that deal with where a little bit more serious action. Somebody that already had nerve damage from any other clinical reason, that would be a consideration, and that's where it gets individualized if they can or cannot use that. But it's a serious, serious side effect. But in the general population, I don't think that's something on the top board that we would worry about. Um, and and what as we dose up, there there could be more nausea related to a slower upper GI emptying. And that could be, well, we need to lower the dose, but that's not nerve damage, so to speak.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

Right. So from what I hear, I'm hearing you say is you're kind of making sure that you're in communication with your patients to kind of play with the dose a little bit if they're having these sorts of side effects or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

100%. Constipation, lower GI constipation is is pretty common. And that's, you know, it's it could be constipation or diarrhea. And so I deal more with the constipation. I don't like to put a patient on a medicine that creates a side effect that then I have to put them on another medicine because of the side effect. I mean, I did it's just not very rational. I will tell my patients that with constipation and they're having success on these medicines, that mirrorlax, the generic is a long word, that mirrorlax we used to have as a prescription, a daily sort of a water sort of uh consuming medicine that can relieve probably 90% of those. So if somebody were just experiencing upper GI, I think is a dose related in terms of the slowing of the stomach, which is gonna be part of the treatment. I mean, it's just gonna always be a little bit slower. So the lower doses seem to be fine and effective for these patients. The constipation lower GI, it's not the same. It's not the that's not part of the nerve that empties the stomach, that that this is a just a it's just the motility, peristotility in the colon. And Miralax will take care of that. So if they can use Miralax, and that's another medicine to take care of the side effect of this medicine, I think that's okay. I wouldn't advance to Lensest and these other medicines that are available, like for IBSC.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Mm-hmm. Okay. And so from what I'm hearing, there's a small percentage of people where these medications are not working for them.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

What would your recommendation be there and why do you think that that is the case?

SPEAKER_02 21:09

Okay. Well, that I love this question because I I always get just sort of like when someone doesn't respond, I get uh like, whoa, what's I mean, I have to get into my head and my textbook and just go through the numbers here. Okay. Semaglutide. It started with hexenotide, known as biodophiliabetes, later laraglutide, known as victosa, branded saxinda, to the weekly semaglutide. All right. There I had people that didn't respond, but terzepatide, a double receptor agonist, GP1 GIP. Just about everybody that did not respond on semaglutide, branded Wigovi, once a week, went to Zbound, they had success. So we I'll just say again, there are four blood tests messed up if you're overweight. G1, GIP, glucagon, and amylen. The drug we will see next year will have GLP1, GIP, and glucagon, a triple Receptor agonist. So I think some of these failed responses will lead into success because they may have more influence on the other receptor not represented in the previous stroke. There are a subset and there's a genetic component of obesity and about a 20% representation. To look at the brain map of what turns on our hunger and turns off our hunger, it looks like the interstate in LA. I mean, all these overlapping wires. But this map is all sort of this is all mapped out, and there are very prominent, like the leptin receptor in our brain may not have been formed right. And there's a very rare genetic autosomal leptin receptor deficiency that we recognize in a child probably right after it's born. But we now know there's some heterozygous influences where that receptor is there, just not formed right. So what to answer your question, I think if someone was on a single receptor agonist and failed, I would push so whatever way possible to get them a double. And in the future, a triple. When those when they don't respond, they need some specific testing. Because in these patients, especially with morbid obesity, a history of childhood obesity, two particular things come to mind. To look for there's also too much cortisol, known as Cushing syndrome or disease. We can do a test to check for cortisol. And that with an endocrinologist could do that, or I do that in my practice just with a little pill at night, dexamethasone, and they'll come in for a cortisol level because that could just you know wreck habit on success in these medicines because we're fighting in a different sort of field. I think there's now that this this is exciting that there's a medicine called MSIM3. I don't prescribe it maybe once a year, but it's for a person that has their brain receptor is it's there, it's just not functioning correctly. And you can just by step that that one little button and move on. So the company that makes it, it's outrageously expensive, will do for free if somebody has had a failure on GLP1 and there's some few questions, childhood obesity and some other sort of stigma that associate with this and some clinical criteria, they will run a complete genetic profile with many, many of these alleles or the like little markers of the genes not right. And if they're identified, they will offer the medicine. And if the medicine is not recovered, and I don't think I've ever seen it covered, they will offer it for free. So people that are refractory to these medicines, you know, there's there's more than just like, let's oh, let's go do another test of more medicines. We, you know, a good history and an exam, but we do, I think the cortisol represents probably up to about 10% of the people that failed these medicines have a have a cortisol issue from either the adrenal gland or in the pituitary area. And then we have a smaller subset, but but at least availability. The genetic part of this contribution to where we're going really excites me because there's a you know, when people are living, we all live and we don't eat perfectly and we all have that soda and fries, we're also not all of us gaining weight unfairly. So there are things in our body that are just now being understood. And to take away from anybody's quality, the integrity to say, oh, you're doing this yourself, oh you're lazy, oh you deserve, that's just BS baloney. So to recognize that that we're not we're all the same, but we all have our unique little influences here. But we have the triple receptor agonists coming. They're doing studies with amiline right now that will not be as available, but I I think that as we map out more and more what's going on physiologically, and it'll all come down to the sugar regulation from the pancreas in the liver. And it just doesn't run the same in all of us. And if and unfortunately for those, it it's better than in others, but we do have some um exciting things to look forward to, and I'll say.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

Yeah, I agree. And I I recently uh was at a lecture about nutrigenomics and a small piece of it brushed on this GLP one, you know, whether it works for some people or not. And it's so fascinating to me. And I hope we will continue to learn more about how genetics plays a role and why certain people respond to medications or caffeine or exactly.

SPEAKER_02 25:54

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 25:54

You know, all the things. It's it's like such an interesting field. So you mentioned a little bit about uh some of the future medications that are coming up. I know that the the triple agonist is a is a big piece of news right now. I believe they're sharing sharing their results soon and hopefully going to get approved.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

Is there anything else on your radar where you're really seeing uh improved health, any of these kind of sides or Nordis who uh who created semigluti, branded uh Ozimpic and Wigovi, and now put into the pill was put into the pill about oh a decade, not quite a decade ago, known as Ribalsis is now oral Wigovi. I call it the Diva. If people use the pill, you must take it just with a just a minimal sips of water and wait, they say 30 minutes, and I'll just shout it out right now. Wait an hour, get the data and look at absorption over time. But now there's the new orpherglyferon that is now branded, found data by Eli Lilly. It is also the the pill. And I gotta say, Eli Lilly makes terzepatide that's branded Manjaro for diabetes and branded Zapbound for weight loss. And when they came out with this pill right on the heels of Weigodi pill, people are confusing it. This is not, it is just another GLP1 agonist, a new GLP1. And they've created the pill where you can take it first thing in the morning and eat breakfast and other medicines and it doesn't confuse absorption. It's brand new. I mean like a week old. So you can get found AOS comparable for self-pay through their own websites, cheaper than any other retail pharmacy. And I as I'm going through the data because it's new. I only have a handful of patients on this new pill. But there's I think a little bit more GI upset. It's not oral Zbound, it's a single receptor agonist, a new GLP1 agonist. Going back to responsivity, as we've learned, if you look if you rank up all the GLP1 agonists, and there's several that we don't talk about, that like, for example, Trullicity is not branded for weight loss. And all of this confusion, why is this one better? Why is that one not as good? And we all now know that size matters and small is better because to get the satiety effect at the hypothalamus in our brain, the place that controls hunger, we need this molecule to go from the bloodstream through into through the blood-brain barrier to get to the hypothalamus. And when they created these molecules earlier, seeing results, it just sort of like was an accident. Someone said, Oh, the smaller they made the molecule, the more effective it was for weight loss. So when they can now they know that, so they will be created with a smaller molecular size, like the one we make. We make this little peptide that I always say if your house is a protein, your front door is a peptide, it's a very small piece of a protein, and we make it, but when they make it in a lab through the processing, and it's called base recombinant, that it can be a little bit larger. And that's okay, it goes into the blood to regulate sugar, but we really want it to get in the brain. So some of the responsivity can be the type of medicine. So if you don't respond to one medicine, it's always good to maybe try another one instead of just give up on the class itself. There are some things that are actually being developed that that I haven't seen the data on, but I mean now obesity has been, I would think, where it needs to be pushed up to the top. The pandemic that kills more people than COVID ever killed, that we are just now recognizing. So, yes, there are some really smart people in a lot of places do some fantastic research, dedicating their life to some of the things that that excite me. So we're gonna see some of these with like the leptins and the genetic part of this, but also other medicines because we know that these buttons that are not being signaled correctly, they can develop something that attached to the button and holds it longer or makes it more effective in its response. So we're at the beginning. And I would also use this um, I guess, analogy that penicillin came out in 1941. And if you had strep throat in 1939, you didn't have any antibiotics for any bacterial infection. We just didn't have it. So you may, and I'll say in the extreme, get been given leeches. So we now have the penicillins of weight loss. And penicillins of weight loss. And after penicillin came out, we had cephalosporins, and then we had the macrolides, and now we have all the you know quinolones. So we are at the beginning of the development of the medicines that will target just in the early foundations of the disease of OBCD.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

That's so exciting. It's like so fun to be in this uh space because it's always something new.

SPEAKER_02 30:09

I try to keep up with the news, but it's like the news is when I when I when I turn the news on, I just like uh you know, like I'll say, oh, in uh in fair time, if it was like a political party, we'd have to give the other side fair chance to respond with something good. But I think people are scared by the side effects they read. And again, GI side effects are common and easily managed. And I very, very rarely, whether it's my clinical practice or even in the protocols in phase two trials. And those are the trials where we're doing dose adjustments on the medicines coming. And the ones I'm working on are really just copies of the ones that when GIP double receptor agonists do other companies. But what what the topic of the news needs to be we all need equal access to health care, including health care and obesity, period. All of us. Wherever you came from, any background, any economics, we need to be able to be given treatment for diseases that we have. And that's just a right. I think it's a should be in our constitutional right.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

Yeah, absolutely. Well, where can people find out about you and your practice? I know you're you're online and and doing all sorts of things.

SPEAKER_02 31:10

You know, I'm the least social media person you'll ever see at your podcast. I do not post anything. There's a name for that now. I just saw that there's a name for the the person who just avoids social media. It's actually a green flag for people, you know, because it's like, okay, no drama. I created a series, a video series. And I used to go into a a room with patients and give them lectures and they would go to sleep. And I mean, I just I just I feel like if I could spend three hours with everyone, I would I would be so satisfied, but I can't. So I created a video series. It's called Weight Management, A Class With Act. And I broke down into eight 10-minute videos discussing the disease of obesity, every medicine that we have, every FDA approved medicine, the side effects that might be expected, what you might do if you have concerns. And now I did this for my patients, but I also did this for physicians and for anybody in allied healthcare, because even in my colleagues that they're busy and they're way overworked and doing their own specialties, they haven't had time to go back and say, Oh, what's this disease of obesity? So it's just very simple, no big doctor words. Like if I was talking to like I my nurse practitioner that was rotating with me, said, Yeah, you really dumbed it down, but I could understand it. So it's just a that so I'm doing that for my patients because anybody that comes to see me, I ask them to watch those. And our discussions can just start at a different place. But I've had but I've sent them to colleagues and so the video series, and and so I'm not trying to, I always said when I was going on this, I wasn't trying to self-promote. I don't have these things, don't sell ads. There's no links to buy anything. There's some doctors I really admire that that come out into the this market, but they sell you something, and I think that loses credibility. So I'm not here to sell you anything. I've got a great practice that I'm really proud of, that I think it's a privilege for every single patient that chooses me, and that is my privilege to have them in my office. So I wasn't doing this to build a practice volume, but I really wanted to do it as an educator.

SPEAKER_01 33:05

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_02 33:06

And so if I left any legacy, it'd be like, you know, he was just trying to help out in the in this as an early role model in this with information that I've been given opportunities to have education.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

Does your practice have a specific name or is it just your name?

SPEAKER_02 33:20

Well, you know, years ago when we didn't when patients came in, my GYN practice, and somebody said, I just want to be seen for weight loss. And we're like, what? You know, and so so we would call it when they came in, well, she's here for the weight clinic, and we just said that so there would be a different sort of like vitals and things before they see me. So my clinic is called the weight clinic. And I actually had what I put the logo down or whatever, the weight clinic. And I had several in the state, and now I've just got two, I've kind of handed those off to people because I was traveling a lot, and that somebody needs to be there more full time when I had too many. But but uh so the weight clinic is my weight practice name. But but what if I was promoting things, I would love for everybody to view weight management a class with act because I put a lot of time, I didn't GPT my my lectures, I just you know kind of scripted them and just talked off the cuff. The biggest thing my patients laugh about is I never wear a suit and I had to put on a suit for that. They're like, I don't even recognize you in a suit. Uh I hope that I just hope they would help someone understand the disease of obesity in a respectful way. And to understand that that that there are options. And there's always, and I like this term, health style changes that accompany all of this, which I like instead of lifestyle. I like health style changes individual. Somebody like might say, I can't just give up that ice cream. Okay, then you have that in moderation and give up something else, because we all have a path just for a higher quality of life and avoiding the 200 diseases associated with obesity.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

Yeah, that's awesome. Well, I will definitely be linking that in the show notes so people can check out your series. And thank you so much, Dr. Summers, for being here. I really appreciate your time and your expertise.

SPEAKER_02 34:54

Thank you. I appreciate your having me. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 34:56

Thank you. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of the GLP One Hub podcast. I love having different physicians on and other experts to share their point of view from the clinical side with all this GLP1 stuff. This was a really great interview. And if you want to stay up to date on everything that you need to know about your GLP1 journey and everything going on at GLP One Hub, make sure you are on the Steady State newsletter. I send that out every Tuesday, and I give nutrition information, mental health ideas, all the maintenance tips, everything you need to know along your journey. So you can find that in the show notes below to sign up. And I'll see you in the next episode.