So to me, the best use of this self discipline in a syringe is to look at it as a temporary enhancement to overcome addictions rather than this is your new normal and you're going to be drugged for life.
Speaker BWelcome to the Metabolic Mind Podcast.
Speaker BI'm your host, Dr. Bret Scher.
Speaker BMetabolic Mind is a nonprofit initiative of Bouzouki Group where we're providing information about the intersection of metabolic health and mental health and metabolic therapies such as nutritional ketosis as therapies for mental illness.
Speaker BThank you for joining us.
Speaker BAlthough our podcast is for informational purposes only and we aren't giving medical advice, we hope you will learn from our content and it will help facilitate discussions with your healthcare providers to see if you could benefit from exploring the connection between metabolic and mental health.
Speaker CWhat if we're using GLP1 medications all wrong?
Speaker CLook, the GLP1 medications, WeGovy, Manjaro, Ozempic, they are revolutionizing the medical profession of weight loss.
Speaker CRight?
Speaker CLike the medical weight loss is beyond anything we've ever seen.
Speaker CBut what if we're using them incorrectly?
Speaker CWhat if to get optimal metabolic health and long term safety and long term weight loss, there was a better way to use them?
Speaker CI'm joined today by Dr. Ben Bickman, who's a professor and researcher at BYU and and he specializes in insulin and metabolic health and he has a really interesting theory about using these medications as microdoses to help curb cravings for carbohydrates, which will then allow a transition to a healthy low carb diet to allow for longer term success with weight loss, but more importantly, improved metabolic health with very low risk for any side effects and lower cost.
Speaker CSounds intriguing.
Speaker CLet's get into the details with Professor Ben Bickman.
Speaker CMany of the interventions we discuss can have potentially dangerous effects if done without proper supervision.
Speaker BConsult your healthcare provider before changing your lifestyle or medications.
Speaker CIn addition, it's important to note that.
Speaker BPeople may respond differently to ketosis and.
Speaker CThere isn't one recognized universal response.
Speaker CWell Ben, welcome back to Metabolic Mind.
Speaker CIt's great to see you again.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker AHey Brett, glad to connect with you.
Speaker CYeah, I enjoy every opportunity to sit down and chat with you.
Speaker CWe had a great interview a while back here on Metabolic Mind, which I highly recommend people check out.
Speaker CBut I reached out to you to circle back and talk to you again because of this really interesting article you wrote, this op ed about the use of GLP1s, sort of microdosing to address cravings.
Speaker CSo I want to get into all that.
Speaker CBut before we get into the details tell us a little bit about, you know, what got you interested in metabolic health to begin with and maybe how that led you to think about GLP1s and so forth.
Speaker AYeah, my journey in towards the.
Speaker AWell to the point I'm at now.
Speaker AAll of which of course always a means to an end.
Speaker AAs a young married guy thinking about how to provide for a future family, I during my master's degree in exercise science or exercise physiology, which really had me thinking that I would have a career devoted to muscle tissue and muscle metabolism.
Speaker ABut in the course of that thesis work I stumbled on a paper that had just recently been published and this is 25 years ago ish at this point.
Speaker AAnd the paper documented a phenomenon that was an absolute revelation to me, which is that the fat cells can aggressively secrete pro inflammatory hormones which in and of itself was fascinating.
Speaker AThe fact that the fat cell was an active endocrine organ.
Speaker AI had no idea of that at the time.
Speaker AI'd never learned that.
Speaker ABut during the course then of my dissertation, which was my dissertation work with a man named Linus Dome, my work was looking at the degree to which inflammation contributes to insulin resistance.
Speaker AAnd in fact Linus at the time my mentor, whom I love and revere to this day, he had one of the first grants funded by Johnson and Johnson to look at the effects of these incretins.
Speaker AAnd all of the conversation around these gut derived hormones with GLP1 then and even now still being the most famous, was focused on its role as an anti diabetic.
Speaker ABut there was this side effect, there was this known phenomenon that people on these drugs tended to just eat a little less and would thus lose a little weight.
Speaker AAnd that became of course the fervor that we find the world enraptured with now, which is this idea that the drugs are weight loss drugs.
Speaker ASo I've had my finger on the pulse of these drugs for over 20 years now.
Speaker ABut I never could have predicted, in fact indeed Brett, if I had, I would have made some more prudent investments to secure my family's financial future.
Speaker AI never could have imagined the, the obsession that has come to surround what was what had long been known as just a pretty effective anti diabetic.
Speaker CYeah, I think it's so interesting to go back in your history and the, the concept of fat being an endocrine organ and actually being able to secrete pro inflammatory marker or pro inflammatory hormones and chemicals and.
Speaker CAnd you're right, that's not how we're taught in medical school or, or undergrad or you know, fat is just something that is stored calories.
Speaker CBasically.
Speaker CYou don't, it's not thought of so much as being active.
Speaker CAnd really interesting concept about, you know, GLP1s have been on the radar screen for a long time, haven't they?
Speaker CWe think they're like a brand new drug, but it's a brand new formulation and a brand new use.
Speaker CAnd there was actually a podcast I heard not too long ago about the GLP1s, about sort of the history of their development and how it was almost scrapped.
Speaker CLike they couldn't quite get it for a long enough half life and a high enough dose and like it sounded like it was so close to being scrapped, but then of course turns into the blockbuster medication that it is.
Speaker CAnd, and a very effective one.
Speaker CLike, we have to be be honest, like people are losing more weight on these medications than they've lost on any medication in the past.
Speaker ANow the question, I would even argue that's.
Speaker AThat's all absolutely amen.
Speaker AThey're very effective.
Speaker AIn fact, that's really why I think we need a little bit of a nuanced view.
Speaker AThey're too effective.
Speaker CRight, Right.
Speaker CSo let's talk about that.
Speaker CSo I was just.
Speaker CSo the fact that you can say people are losing more weight on these drugs than any other drug in the history, most people would take that as a positive thing, was to say you don't necessarily see that as an overwhelming positive statement.
Speaker CSo help us clarify that.
Speaker AYeah, yeah.
Speaker ASo a lot of my view on the current use of these drugs is, is that they are, they are a little too much of a good thing.
Speaker ASo with, with the use of the drug, we need to appreciate what GLP1 does.
Speaker AAnd GLP1 has myriad effects throughout the body.
Speaker AYes.
Speaker AOn the alpha cells of the pancreas regulating glucagon.
Speaker AYes.
Speaker AReceptors on the intestine regulating the movement of the smooth muscle, or in other words, the rate at which food is moving through the gut.
Speaker ABut also too, there are effects at the hypothalamus in the brain which influence satiety and hunger, in fact, reducing hunger, promoting a sense of satiety.
Speaker AAnd when you combine that central brain effect of promoting a sense of fullness with the slower movement of food through the intestines, that is a dynamite combination of helping someone just want to eat less now, it is a little too much of a good thing where you are starting to get.
Speaker AThere are enough consequences that have been revealed in the published literature that I've, I've tried to be a voice of, of caution.
Speaker ABut I, I somewhat regret that some people have, have assumed that I am just universally opposed.
Speaker AI'm actually not universally opposed.
Speaker AI just think that I am opposed to how they're currently used, which is that the dose is too high and that they are used, they are prescribed with the language being this is a weight loss drug.
Speaker AWhen, when I actually think we, we don't do the patient any good when we describe it as a weight loss drug because we ought to be helping using it in a, in a way to improve habits.
Speaker ANow before I even mention the habit part of it and my ideal use of the drug, if used at all, I just want to mention that there are consequences to the currently prescribed use of these drugs, including a significantly elevated risk of blindness that just came out within the last month, a twofold increased risk of blindness and the consequences on overall body mass where a two year trial found that of the total weight lost, roughly 40% was coming from fat free mass.
Speaker ANow that doesn't mean it's all muscle and bone, but it certainly means some of it is muscle and bone.
Speaker AThat is sobering in light of the fact that over 70% of patients in the United States get off the drug at two years for whatever reason, cost or access or they get tired of feeling a little nauseous, which is how a person feels when the stomach slows down as much as it does.
Speaker AAnd what do they gain back?
Speaker AWell, the human body will readily gain back fat, but depending on the age and even the sex of the individual, they may never gain back that muscle and bone mass, even as modest as it was, that's gone probably for good.
Speaker AAnd one last nail in the coffin I would say is with, with regards to why I'm opposed to these drugs as they're currently used is it's the, the effect on emotional well being where we often hype up the effects of the food noise, where the person's cravings are gone for, for junk food, for various foods.
Speaker AAnd we'll revisit that in a moment.
Speaker ABut what if the reality is that their cravings for many things they used to enjoy are gone?
Speaker AAnd what I mean by that is there is an over about a 200% increased risk of major depression in these individuals on the drug versus placebo as well as an over 100% increased risk of anxiety and even suicidal behaviors.
Speaker ASo one way of perhaps more honestly describing the reduced cravings for food they shouldn't be eating may be to say that you just aren't going to like anything as much as you used to like, in other words, you have a dude who is less interested in getting together with his guys, his, his friends to go bowling or you have a gal who's less interested in going for a walk around the block with her, with her girlfriends from her neighborhood or something.
Speaker AAnd so you have people who just may be less interested in all of the things that used to find them, to bring them joy.
Speaker AAnd this may be the reality that explains the significant effect of, on mood disorders.
Speaker ASo that's why those are some of my main concerns that really I think justify some heavy caution with the current use of the drugs.
Speaker CYeah, it's a very interesting point about just less interest in everything and not just food.
Speaker CI hadn't seen so much about that.
Speaker CSo that's very interesting to hear about.
Speaker CAnd we've done content here about the psychiatric potential impacts with some studies showing no worsening.
Speaker CBut all those studies exclude anybody with any kind of a psychiatric history.
Speaker CAnd those that don't, sort of the real world evidence suggests something completely different, that there could be an increased risk for those who are predisposed to depression or suicidality or whatever the case may be.
Speaker CSo that's really interesting.
Speaker CBut just to go back to the muscle loss or the lean body mass loss, you know, it sort of highlights that weight loss isn't necessarily the goal, but improved metabolic health is the goal.
Speaker CAnd losing fat and gaining muscle is a perfect combination for improving metabolic health.
Speaker CBut losing fat and muscle can still improve metabolic health as these studies have shown.
Speaker CBut makes me wonder about the long term consequences of that with, with decreased muscle mass.
Speaker CAnd then to throw on top of that though, some people are saying, well it's the same thing with weight loss surgery.
Speaker CIt's the same thing with severe caloric restriction.
Speaker CYou see the same percentage of lean mass loss.
Speaker CSo that makes it okay.
Speaker CSo I want to get your impression on those two things, both, you know, justifying it that way and also the impact on long term metabolic health.
Speaker AYeah, so I, I do think it is appropriate to compare the use of the GLP1 drugs to other very often relied on weight loss interventions like gastric bypass.
Speaker AAnd the, the other one you mentioned.
Speaker CIt was gastric bypass, severe caloric restriction.
Speaker AVery, very low calorie diet.
Speaker AYeah, yeah, that actually the reason I mentioned that is just from the scientific perspective, which is that it helps us understand how a person is losing this weight, even this good weight, if you will, the lean mass potentially on the drug because it does suggest that it's not a direct effect of the drug itself.
Speaker ABut rather an artifact of the fact that they're just not really eating as much as they were before.
Speaker AAnd even maybe what they are eating is being very poorly absorbed.
Speaker AThat's certainly part of the consequence of so significantly slowing the rate at which food is moving through the intestine.
Speaker AAnd so that's an interesting just point for people to take away from how you phrased the question, which is that it does at least bring some comfort to the fact that it's not a direct effect of the drug, for example, or in other words, it doesn't mean the semaglutide is somehow directly damaging muscle tissue, but again, it's rather just a feature of the overall metabolic milieu of someone, of someone who is perhaps poorly nourishing their body.
Speaker AYeah, but further, it's not like, it's not like those interventions severely, severely restricting calories and undergoing gastric bypass don't have a rebound themselves, that we know that the people who attempt to lose weight just through calorie restriction alone, with that being the intention, that's also the intention, that is the mechanism whereby people lose weight on the Biggest Loser game show.
Speaker AAnd there's a reason you never see these people again, because once they're off the air, they can't continue this starvation induced model.
Speaker AAnd then hunger always wins.
Speaker AMoreover, even the rate at which people regain weight with gastric bypass is quite sobering.
Speaker AWhere they can start to out eat the physical restrictions of the gut, what was once a very small little stomach because of the surgical restriction of it, the intestines have this remarkable ability to be somewhat dynamic or plastic, if you will, and then they can start to stretch out again with repeated stretching and before the person knows they're back to eating how they were before with the use of the drug.
Speaker AIt's actually even simpler than that, which is that this phenomenon of diminishing returns where you have too much of a signal, in fact there is evidence to suggest this, although it's in animals that with repeated GLP1 activation, the signal starts to decay.
Speaker AIn other words, too much of a signal will result in a resistance to the signal, which is a fundamental principle of biology, whether it's cancer biology and chemotherapeutics, whether it's antibiotics to treat infections and even hormones, too much of a signal will result in the decay or the loss of that signal over time.
Speaker AAnd GLP1 would be no exception to this.
Speaker ASo we see the diminishing returns of the drug, which is one of the reasons why I would imagine people are getting off it at such a high rate because it just has.
Speaker AIt stops working like it used to.
Speaker CRight.
Speaker CIf you're still getting the side effects and the.
Speaker CAnd the bill to have to pay for it, but not seeing the benefits, why would you continue it?
Speaker CYeah, well, so obviously here at Metabolic Mind, we focus on metabolic health and mental health.
Speaker CAnd the reason why I like to talk so much about these medications is because they do have an impact on metabolic health, but also that, as you mentioned, they have direct brain effects.
Speaker CAnd part of that could be for cravings.
Speaker CLike we know a big part of overeating leading to obesity and type 2 diabetes and poor metabolic health is cravings is just, you could say the brain going haywire, so to speak.
Speaker CAnd it's not necessarily willpower, it's not necessarily just, you know, white knuckle it, but your brain is almost being hijacked.
Speaker CSo a lot of what you wrote in this article of maybe a new way to use these GLP1s focused on cravings.
Speaker CSo tell us about, about that.
Speaker CHow, how you got into that.
Speaker AYeah, yeah, it was a paper.
Speaker ASo I need to give some credit to Arnie Ostrup, who is in Denmark, and he has been really at the forefront of GLP1 research maybe since its inception.
Speaker AI was at an event with him and he had mentioned a compelling perspective, which now in hindsight seems obvious, but it's not one that I'd considered, which is that he had said, what if some people just don't have a sufficient GLP one response to Food and that's what's driving the obesity and that it was an offhand comment and I'm sure for him it wasn't.
Speaker AAnd he was thinking of a dozen studies that he could readily cite, although none of which would have been familiar to me because it was such a novel view for me.
Speaker ABut to say all this another way, there was a paper published in the journal Gut by Ranganath et al.
Speaker AAnd anyone could look this up.
Speaker AIt is fascinating what they did in 1996, which, Brett, was a wonderful year to graduate from high school, class of 96, but also also a fascinating year to make us a seminal discovery in the relevance potentially of GLP1 when it comes to obesity and its origins.
Speaker ANeither you nor I are saying that calories don't matter, but you and I both have a more nuanced view, not to put words in your mouth, but that there needs to be an endocrine component that allows the fat cell or that enables the fat cell to even store that energy in the first place, and that would be the hormone insulin.
Speaker AAnd so when you appreciate the necessity of insulin telling the fat cell to store that energy and then the need for sufficient calories to fuel that storage into the fat cell, it does leave you with a unique perspective that has you say, okay, well then what will spike insulin the most?
Speaker AAnd of course that's going to be dietary carbohydrates.
Speaker ANow, to bring all of this back to GLP1, in this Ranganath study in the journal Gut in 1996, they took people and separated them into two groups.
Speaker ASo imagine two people.
Speaker ANow, I'm oversimplifying, but one is lean, one is obese.
Speaker AThey eat a carbohydrate, heavy meal.
Speaker AThe lean guy eats that same amount of carbohydrate and his brain has told him, you're done, you don't need more.
Speaker AAnd so he pushes the plate away, he's done, he gets up and he leaves.
Speaker ABut his buddy, his roommate, his college roommate eats that same amount of carbohydrates.
Speaker AAnd he does not get the signal telling him to stop.
Speaker AIn fact, not only does he not get the stop signal as GLP1 goes down, which it did at around two to three hours, not only did he not stop, he may want more.
Speaker AAnd now we have this, this, I think an alternate, a different paradigm here when we look at GLP1 and its potential utility.
Speaker ABecause what if, based on that study and others like it, rather than saying we're going to give you this drug for weight loss, the individual thinking it is just a magic intervention, that they can still eat whatever they want, but the drug is going to help them lose weight, which is not true.
Speaker AThe drug helps the person lose weight as it changes habits.
Speaker AAnd what is the habit that it perhaps changes the most when it comes to diet, it is controlling carbohydrate consumption or the cravings.
Speaker ABecause within the scope of all of the neurobiology research of cravings, there is no evidence that humans crave fat.
Speaker AThere is no evidence that they crave protein.
Speaker AThere is significant and consistent evidence that they crave carbohydrates.
Speaker ANow someone say, well, with fat makes it even better.
Speaker AYeah, but still carbohydrates are the thing that they crave the most.
Speaker AAnd we intuitively know this.
Speaker ANo one is sitting down and craving a hard boiled egg.
Speaker AYou know, a perfect balance of fat and protein.
Speaker AWe crave carbohydrates.
Speaker AThe saltier and crunchier, the better or the sweeter and the gooier.
Speaker AThe best of all perhaps, but it's going to be a carbohydrate.
Speaker AAnd so what if our use of the drug influences the conversation that the clinician has with the patient?
Speaker AAnd that's maybe to sum it all up in a crystallized way here.
Speaker AIt would be that I would imagine the best use of the drug being a clinician who sits down with the patient and then explain, you know, the patient doesn't need to be told they're overweight or unhealthy because of it.
Speaker AThey would know intuitively.
Speaker AAnd it is important that the clinician acknowledge it and not pretend that having too much body fat is benign.
Speaker ABut they say you need to learn, you need to change the way you're eating.
Speaker AAnd this even comes back to an earlier part of our conversation, Brett, where I said, as much as you and I can both acknowledge that calories matter, that should not be the beginning of the conversation, I believe, because that leads to hunger and just pure restriction.
Speaker AWhat we ought to say is, let's put you on a program that's going to help lower your insulin, because when you lower insulin, the body will be burning more fat and metabolic rate will go up.
Speaker AThus we say, don't worry about your calories, just control your insulin.
Speaker AAnd to do that, most effectively, control your carbohydrates, which is stop getting your carbs from bags and boxes with barcodes.
Speaker AWhole fruits and vegetables.
Speaker AEnjoy them liberally, eat them, don't drink them, but stop getting these refined ultra processed carbs.
Speaker AAnd then the.
Speaker AThe seed oil crew would also shit.
Speaker ANod their heads to that because that's how we mostly get our seed oils at the same time, within those packages of refined carbs.
Speaker CRight.
Speaker CSo that puts an extra layer on sort of what you were saying about this study, though, because, you know, same time we're saying that they were craving the.
Speaker COr that the, the GLP one did not go up with the carbs and they were craving carbs at the same time.
Speaker CThey're not craving probably broccoli and beans or lentils.
Speaker CRight.
Speaker CThey're craving the more refined carbs and the processing, which is actually really interesting because now, you know, so many people are focusing on the processing itself and it's the processing and maybe focusing less on the fact that it's carbohydrate and its effect on insulin.
Speaker CSo there does seem to be like a little bit of a balance, but it seems like GLP1 might be the equalizer for that.
Speaker CDo you think it.
Speaker CBecause it addresses both.
Speaker AYeah, yeah, that's.
Speaker AI think so.
Speaker AI think so, Brett.
Speaker AI, in fact, that.
Speaker AThat Question sort of allows me to sort of complete that, that this whole long ranting thought, which is that I think the best use of the drug is when the clinician tells the patient, you need to control your carbs.
Speaker ABut there will be some people who will say back to the clinician, maybe even having, after, after having attempted, they will say, I just can't do it.
Speaker AI am trying to control my carbs.
Speaker AThen the clinician can, with nothing but empathy, say, all right, to some degree or another, you're addicted now let's help you with your addiction.
Speaker AAnd so here's a drug at what we could call a microdose, you know, a fraction of what it's commonly used at now.
Speaker AAnd then I'm going to cycle you on this for, I don't know, 90 days.
Speaker AAnd then during this time will be checking in with you to determine how well you're doing at controlling your carbohydrate cravings.
Speaker AThe thing that humans crave the most when it comes to nutrition.
Speaker AAnd many people I have known, this is anecdotal, which pains a scientist to invoke, but I've known individuals who do a 90 day protocol and when they wean themselves off, they cycle off the drug.
Speaker AThe habits have persisted.
Speaker AAnd there is something powerful about that 90 days.
Speaker AWhen it comes to changing habits and breaking addictions.
Speaker ASome people will find that they can get off and they're, and they have a new normal.
Speaker AThey've, they've rewired their habits, if you will.
Speaker ASome people will be good, but then they'll find the craving starting to come back.
Speaker AOkay, no problems, cycle them back on.
Speaker AAnd so overall, my view and the perspective that I attempted to articulate in that article, which was a good experience for me, a good exercise to actually crystallize these thoughts, it is that the drugs are very powerful and thus could be effective at a lower dose if framed in the context of this is a drug that's helping you control your cravings, not framed as a weight loss drug.
Speaker AAnd then second, presenting the idea that this is a temporary intervention.
Speaker AYou're not on this forever, so you need to be deliberate about the habits that you're changing and the decisions you're making.
Speaker ABecause in 90 days I'm going to want to start to cycle you off this to see how well the habits have become a new normal for you.
Speaker ASo to me, the best use of this self discipline in a syringe is to look at it as a temporary enhancement to overcome addictions rather than this is your new normal and you're going to be drugged for life.
Speaker CRight.
Speaker CAnd not just, well here, now you're going to eat less of the standard American diet or now you're going to eat less of the very high carb diet, but rather this is the way to curb your cravings and your addiction so that you can transition to a lower carb.
Speaker CLower carb diet, which will then impact your insulin and your fat burning and lead you to better metabolic health.
Speaker CAnd as, as you pointed out, and and so have I in numerous studies, the weight loss from a ketogenic diet is generally preserving of the lean mass or certainly losing a lot less of the lean mass.
Speaker CSo it seems like this is a way to really move towards greater metabolic health.
Speaker CIs that how you see it as well?
Speaker AYeah, yeah, yeah, right.
Speaker AIn fact, that's a great ending there, as you said it, because earlier you'd sort of phrase this question of are all weight loss interventions going to result in the same degree of lean mass loss?
Speaker AAnd no, if you can be adequately nourishing the body with all of what it needs, vitamins, minerals, et cetera, and not driving it into an an overt caloric deficit, but yet insulin is low, you are creating an environment that does facilitate uniquely fat loss versus muscle loss.
Speaker AAnd, and so the, in fact my lab published a report finding that ketones are actually muscle preserving at a, as a direct signaling molecule that where beta hydroxybutyrate actually inhibited the, we gave it the muscles a chemical insult and beta hydroxybutyrate actually made the muscle cells more robust and resistant to injury.
Speaker ASo we have evidence right at the level of the cell.
Speaker ANot to mention the significant commentary of decades of work from Dr. George Cahill, who would often refer to ketones as the great muscle preserving molecule, that they're muscle sparing.
Speaker ABut yeah, I think it's not a stretch to then say well with the, with a ketogenic low carb diet, with the intention being I'm just lowering my insulin, I'm not lowering my calories per se.
Speaker AYou're going to find I think yourself in a very superior metabolic environment to promote selectively greater fat loss.
Speaker CYeah, and I think that's so important to emphasize that it's not weight loss, it's fat loss, especially visceral fat, maintaining lean muscle mass.
Speaker CAnd you just set it up perfectly for, for a way to do that.
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Speaker CNow, you know, a lot of studies that involve pharmaceuticals and medications are sponsored and paid for by the pharmaceutical company.
Speaker CAnd that's why they get done quickly and with, you know, thousands and thousands of people.
Speaker CBut for a study for what you're proposing, it probably wouldn't be to the benefit of the pharmaceutical company because it's a much lower dose and for a short time, as opposed to the current high dose, take it forever, see you later, which obviously benefits the pharmaceutical company.
Speaker CSo do you think labs will start doing research studies on this?
Speaker CThey'd have to get NIH funding or philanthropy funding or whatnot.
Speaker CBut do you think more will be doing it and will your lab be doing it?
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AYeah, good question.
Speaker ASo we are currently actually analyzing a data set from a clinic.
Speaker ASo I had a clinician reach out to me who has been using low dose semaglutide with a combined low carb diet and their results outperform even the reported results of just semaglutide alone.
Speaker AAnd, and again, what the patient finds so enjoyable is the fact that they're not expected to be on the drug indefinitely.
Speaker AI think that is, I think that's common as as much as we have a culture, particularly in the US where people are able to see advertisements for drugs so much more readily than almost any other in any other country on the planet, we certainly have a more drug friendly culture in clinical care where the patient comes in asking for a drug, which is very odd in the rest of the world because they've seen an ad.
Speaker ABut even then I don't think a person would want to be on the drug indefinitely.
Speaker ASo this all comes back to what I mentioned earlier, that I think a lot of the value in this alternative paradigm of the use of the drug, namely microdosing and cycling, is that it changes the purpose of the drug, that the person is looking at it as you are a temporary tool, you little syringe, to help me learn to change my habits.
Speaker ABut that still requires some effort on their part.
Speaker AIt's not depriving them of the benefit of learning that self discipline, which I think is one of the points of life in a kind of grander sense, which is to just there's, you know, to me telling my body, hey, you fleshy tabernacle of clay, you're not in charge.
Speaker AI am the part of me that is beyond this, this fleshy body.
Speaker AAnd I don't like, and I think it's human nature, we don't like feeling addicted to things.
Speaker AWe don't like feeling dependent on things.
Speaker AEven if it is the intervention that's helping us curb the addiction, we would like to get over both of them.
Speaker AWe want to stop using the intervention because we've learned to control our addictions.
Speaker CYeah, yeah, I think that's really well said.
Speaker CAnd I think the way you're proposing it is, is almost like a, I don't know, like a no brainer, like why not?
Speaker CWhy wouldn't you try this first?
Speaker CRight.
Speaker CRather than giving somebody a large dose of a medication that has serious potential side effects and can likely sort of commit them to lifelong use, why wouldn't you try a lower dose, safer, shorter term to see if it helps kickstart their, their own sort of lifestyle changes?
Speaker CAnd I'm going to answer my own question here because I think part of that is doctors have sort of become jaded.
Speaker CThey're like, ah, diet doesn't work.
Speaker CYou know, lifestyle interventions don't work because what they've been taught and tried for so long, they eat less, move more low fat.
Speaker CYeah, it hasn't worked for 50 years.
Speaker CSo they get sort of jaded.
Speaker CBut, so that's the other part that's really important to emphasize of what you're saying is it's as a transition to reducing the carbohydrates.
Speaker CSo, so yeah, why wouldn't they do that?
Speaker CI think people should do it more well.
Speaker AAnd I think it's a combination.
Speaker AYou would know, of course, having gone through medical training.
Speaker AI think it's a combination of the fatigue that a physician may experience, the fact that they can't bill that time.
Speaker AYou get paid for what you can bill.
Speaker AAnd talking about nutrition might not be something a clinician, a physician is able to get compensated for.
Speaker ASo I really, I appreciate that.
Speaker ABut at the same time, they might not have even learned anything other than eat less, exercise more.
Speaker AIf that simplistic mantra worked, we would have solved the obesity problem before it ever started.
Speaker ABecause we've been saying that for 60 years.
Speaker AObviously a weight loss strategy that is based on just straight calorie deprivation and restriction and this sort of mistaken view of the laws of thermodynamics in a biological system, it does not, it does not lead to an actual successful intervention.
Speaker CWell, I appreciate you coming on and giving us this insight and I think it's a very interesting thought and I hope some clinicians will embrace it and try it because it does seem like a much safer and potentially longer term effective solution.
Speaker CSo if people want to hear more about you, learn about all the work you're doing, where can we direct them to go?
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AThanks again, Brett.
Speaker AThis was great.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AI have two efforts that I really try to stay a high degree of involvement with.
Speaker AOne is my education arm, which is a professor.
Speaker AJust thrills me.
Speaker AI like teaching as many people as I can, but people, people can find me there@Ben Bickman.com and Bickman is just B I k M A n Ben Bickman.
Speaker ACom and then I've also helped put together a coaching effort to help people get through these very kinds of things that we've been talking about.
Speaker AAnd that's people can find that@insuliniq.com Great.
Speaker CAll right, well, thank you so much Ben.
Speaker CI really appreciate it.
Speaker AYeah, my pleasure.
Speaker AThanks Brett.
Speaker BThanks for listening to the Metabolic Mind Podcast.
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Speaker CThanks again for listening and we'll see.
Speaker BYou here next time at the Metabolic Mind Podcast.