193: The Skinny on GLP-1 (Part 1)

 Are you as confused as me about this whole weight loss drugs? GLP ones, wegovy, mandu,  all the things, Ozempic? You’re not alone, and I’m going to be facing some really challenging topics in the next two. Podcasts because we need to open up the conversation and really see what’s going on. My name is Dara Thomason, and this is the Quilters Podcast, episode 193.

The Skinny on GLP one, part one.  All right, so it’s actually taken me a long time. To create these two episodes, and I am really excited for you to join in to really talk about it. We need to open up all these doors and really look at what’s going on. In fact, I could go on and on. I also need to say that I am not a doctor, and I also need to say that everyone can make their own decisions and have their own consequences, and so I’m going to be giving you my perspective of being a weight loss coach.

Since 2020, myself losing over 50 pounds and keeping that off since 2019 and helping so many women lose 50, 60, 80 pounds and all through using your brain to lose the weight. So as we go through these two episodes, it is gonna be very interesting to hear from you.  Actually open your own mind to these different concepts.

So before we dive into this episode, I really wanna share one of the wins of my members, because when people ask me about being a weight loss coach, I say that we lose our weight with our brains. And that doesn’t actually make a lot of sense because. We’ve been told our whole life that in order to lose weight, we have to count calories, track steps.

We have to swap things, we have to weigh food that is not, that’s not necessarily how to create permanent weight loss. And in fact, this lady that I’m gonna be sharing, I’ve been working with her since 2020. Her husband tragically died young from cancer. And it’s been  just such an amazing thing to watch her.

Implement these tools and learn how to grieve and also move forward in her life. And just recently, she shared this experience, and I wanted to share it because one of the concepts that I teach in semi membership is called emotional adulthood, which means that we all have, our relationships that we have with people are always our thought about them.

So even if someone has passed away, or my dad who has dementia. Like my relationship is always my thoughts about him. And so they can be deceased, they can be alive, they can be sick, they can be in an altered state of mind. And it’s always our perspective of how our relationship is with them.

While he was having cancer treatments and going through all of that, he wanted to build her a she shed. And so she let him do that and it’s been a few years. And so she wanted to put a new floor in the she shed and they came, the guys came to put in the flooring and it was a dirt floor.

And as you can imagine, she was, had all sorts of emotions because.  He had said that it was, a concrete floor and we had the right foundation. And the thing that was so amazing about this win was that she was able to use the tools, take a step back, and  was able to understand what was going on.

And then she decided. How she wanted to react to that. 

And one of the things inside my membership and with life coaching tools is that you are no longer at the whim or mercy of what other people say and do, whether they’re, alive or dead. And it just is such a great reminder that you are always in charge of your own life. You are the CEO. You really do have the power, and it’s amazing. It’s so amazing to watch what happens in the lives of the members when they truly learn the tools, and implement them. 

All right, so what I’ve decided to do with this really hot topic, which isn’t going away, and it’s not going to go away anytime soon, but for the part one, we’re gonna be talking a little bit more about the nitty gritty of what GLP one is and what’s actually happening in our body. 

And then we’re going to part two talking a little bit more about the emotional things that need to happen in order for us to be more balanced.  So let’s just start out now, remember, I am not a doctor. 

In fact, one of the, when I talk about the pillars of permanent weight loss, number one is weight loss. Science is simple. So I used to teach grade five and six mostly,  and there’s that. A TV show of are you smart, as smart as a fifth grader? And so one of the things that I believe is if you can explain something that everyone can understand it, it means you actually really understand it.

Going to explain it in the best way possible that I understand, I’m just going to give you the fifth grade understanding of what these drugs are.  So our body is a very amazing, complex organism and we have our gut health.

Now, when you look at ancient, like health, we have things like kimchi and sauerkraut and like probiotics, and those are found in our foods from all different societies and cultures, and those fermented type foods actually help with our gut microbiome. So when I had flesh eating disease in my hand and I was on these really heavy duty drugs to clean out the, these viruses, my body was stripped with the antibiotics of all this really healthy gut bacteria.

So I had to build that back up in order for me to be healthy again.  Now.  A lot of us are eating foods that are really bad for us. So we are having a lot more caffeine. We’re having processed foods. We’re not having a lot of vegetables, we’re not having a lot of fruit. We’re not even having a lot of whole foods.

And so when our body is deprived of these natural ingredients these minerals and nutrients. We are not having this healthy biome, and so our, we’re, our skin doesn’t look as good. We’re not digesting our food, we’re not having regular bowel movements. If we’re not having proper protein, even like having fiber like from beans and fruits and vegetables, we are really, we’re really suffering. 

And so when we are not having this proper nutrition and this proper gut biome, then our body is struggling and we’ll eat food and we’ll gain weight more. And we can even have this increased type two diabetes because our blood sugar levels are out of control. And so when we talk about a GLP one agonist, it basically helps produce.

GLP one is produced in our gut and in our brain actually, and it induces insulin and reduces glycogen. So when we eat food, our insulin breaks down our food into energy. And so GLP one actually is the process of helping with that. And when we aren’t eating healthy and our GLP one is naturally, it doesn’t last as long.

And so when we create these synthetic GLP ones, it actually helps it last longer and it helps. So there’s a lot of benefits. In fact if I read the pros here, because you’re getting that longer version of the insulin breaking down the sugars for a longer period of time, that’s extending the benefit of that.

And so we will actually tend to lose weight on that and typically 15 to 20% of our body weight for many of the users that use this drug. It helps control the blood sugar levels. And so that is one of the benefits you see a lot of people with type two diabetes will take it and it’ll be a benefit.

It reduces cardiovascular risk because we’re having a healthier right blood and less sugar in our system. And also. Less fatty tissue. All of that appetite regulation, it helps reduce that hunger and food cravings non-surgical options. If you are over 70, 80, a hundred pounds overweight, a lot of people will recommend a bariatric surgery.

So it will reduce the need for something invasive, a surgery like that. 

Also we talk about sleep apnea, fatty liver and joint pain. And if you take my menopause class, we have the problem of when we gain that weight in our fatty tissue. Around our liver, our organs that’s extra dangerous, right?

And so this can help with that. And you can just take it once a week and then it will be a slow release. Now those are all the pros now. So when you read those pros, you think, oh, this is a no brainer. Of course I should be taking this. Now. There’s a lot of cons and this is what I wanted to talk about today was just the dangers of it. And I did a webinar and I can actually it’s listed in the show notes, but it was, I actually did a history of weight loss drugs and also I have linked John Harry, I think that’s how you pronounce his last name, did a, he wrote a book about ozempic and the dangers of it, the GLP one agonists.

And the interesting thing is he himself has taken it, but he also knows that. It’s basically like a loaded gun. He has no idea what the side effects are gonna be. He said, we don’t know what we don’t know. And I do.  I have listed in the show notes the interview he did with the diary of A CEO. I have watched that interview at least three times.

I have taken notes. It has like deeply affected my life. It also has deeply affected my urgency of being a weight loss coach in the way that I am because of the dangers of this.  So I’m going to be going over the negatives, the cons of what happens when you take these drugs. So the first one is we can have a lot of gastrointestinal side effects.

So common issues include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation. I have a friend who went on a trip with a friend who is on these drugs, and she said she was mostly in the bathroom.  Very sick cost and excessive expense. So I was talking to a client today who is just starting to experiment with this drug, and she was saying that if so, insurance doesn’t pay for it, even though her doctor recommended it.

And I actually wrote down the figures.  So if she was. 

So if she paid for it straight out, it was over a thousand dollars a month, and then for her to get it once, so it’s over $400 a month, and that’s direct with the manufacturer. So it does have, and you have to actually stay on the drug for it to be effective. There’s supply shortages, let’s say you decide to commit to the drug, but then now it’s not coming. And then if you get off of the drug, which we’ll see in the next one is weight regain.

So many people regain weight after stopping the medication. So you’ve made a lot of progress, but now you’re gonna gain that weight back. The long-term effects are unknown.  This alone,  this. Alone should be the indicator of the danger of these drugs.  Can you imagine feeding your baby? Let’s say you have a brand new baby and they say, this is an amazing new formula for your baby, but we don’t know what’s gonna happen.

Kind of what happened with the women who were pregnant back in the seventies  and then they’re all of a sudden they’re having babies born without limbs.  We do not know the side effects. We do not know the dangers. If you watch my webinar and the history of weight loss drugs or just, you can just do a quick look in Wikipedia  or online.

You’ll see the app, the fend, all of it,  the dangers. We do not know Now. Next one, muscle loss concern. Some evidence suggests weight loss includes muscle mass, not just fat. The next one is potential risks. So rare but serious side effects may include pancreatitis, gallbladder issues, and thyroid tumors. 

So when you think about, when I talked about our gut issues, so one of the problems is now we’re having, we’re increasing  something. 

So even with just something simple like a tattoo. You put a tattoo on your skin. Your skin is always fighting against having that ink in the skin.  And so when you put something new into your body  that’s not naturally occurring, there is going to be resistance.

Now at the last one it is not for everyone. So if you’re pregnant. It’s not safe.  And there’s other conditions with thyroid cancer or  endocrine. This is one of the things that I wanna really talk about on this podcast that I think is extremely important. And I will also include an interview that Mel Robbins did with a female doctor who does hip replacements, and it is absolutely devastating.

To watch this interview and it’s devastating to watch the side effects of what is happening in women as we age. And there is this concept called sarcopenia. Now it’s the loss of muscle mass. So for all of us women who go through menopause, which.  Everyone, every woman goes through menopause. Okay?

Menopause is actually one day, it’s the 365 days since your last period, okay? And so you have pre menopause, perimenopause, and then post menopause, right? And so with menopause, and in fact starting at the age of 30, our body naturally starts to lose three to 5% of muscle mass per decade.  Okay, so starting at 30, we are losing three to 5% of our muscle mass.

Now I want you to listen to this without feeling afraid, this is the thing that we don’t have good knowledge. We don’t have good understanding. News radio stations and news stations always want to make you, it’s almost like they have to have these terrible headlines that attract you and you think, oh, that’s so terrible.

You don’t wanna listen to it, and you turn away. But this is the reality. So sarcopenia is the loss of muscle mass, it’s muscle weakness, loss of stamina, difficulty performing daily activities, poor balance and falls, decrease in muscle size.   This is reality. Women who fall have a higher chance of dying.

Because of this. And in the interview that I’ve posted in the show notes, the surgeon actually says one of the saddest things that happens is that we have these women who have fallen. If you don’t have good gut health, you also affect your urinary track.

And so if you’re having a lot of urinary infections and then we start having bladder control issues, we have to start wearing more diapers and sitting in our own urine, we also have more heart problems.  And so we have women who are needing to have a hip or a knee replacement. They have fallen. They don’t have the same muscle, they don’t have the same balance.

They require the surgery, but they don’t have it, we also have a higher risk of heart disease.  We’re not taking care of ourselves. We aren’t exercising as regularly. We’re not eating as healthy, and we’re not dealing with our stress. 

So she described this woman who is in the bed, who has urinated herself because of these of a pelvic floor that’s not as strong. She can’t actually go and get the surgery because her heart is not strong enough and we’re not talking about it. And then you’re going to add the GLP one. So now we’re even reducing even faster the, our muscle mass.  And on top of that, we don’t know  what we don’t know.

We don’t know the side effects. And so  the caution here  is that weight loss and there’s lots of conversations about weight loss being or obesity. Obesity is a disease  and this is where I’m gonna start being a little bit more opinionated and maybe have some feedback, and that’s okay.

When we think about obesity  and we think about, and we see the stats, the unwritten stats, the undocumented stats of how many women have obesity because they were sexually molested  or mistreated.  There are so many reasons why  we are overweight.  We do not have coping strategies. We do not know how to feel our feelings.

We do not know how to sit with our feelings. In fact, if you think about why are you overeating, why are we over drinking? Why are we having pornography, or why are we over shopping? Or why are we hoarding, or whatever those unhealthy patterns are, what does it boil down to?  It’s because we don’t know how to feel our feelings. 

We don’t know. We don’t like ourselves. We don’t know how to be with ourselves. We have so much shame. And so one of the biggest issues, and we’re gonna address this in the next one, is that when you take GLP one,  you are not addressing the real issues that are happening with weight loss. So when I say that I teach women how to lose weight with their brain.

I am saying we are now finally slowing down long enough  and connecting our brains to our bodies, to our nervous system, learning how to regulate our nervous system, learning how to actually be honest and open with ourselves and looking at what’s really going on. I can’t even tell you how many women I’ve worked with who have been sexually molested for,  and they’ve never told the soul. 

’cause there was so much shame. There was never a communication, there was never a word, a way to talk about it or to validate it or to even bring it up. And so when they lose weight, what starts happening?  Exactly. They get attention. They don’t want attention from males.  

Some people can up and down, they can say, GLP saved my life. No problem. That’s everyone is entitled to whatever they want to do,  but my concern is we don’t know what the consequences are going to be of taking these drugs.  And if we can actually get to the root of why we are having this problem,  why not solve it? 

That’s where I’m coming from. And so if, just like when I work with women who have anxiety medication do you know what one of the best things about anxiety medication is? It brings you to being more neutral. So I, I remember working with one of my clients who was on this anxiety medication.

I said, no problem.  Let’s just keep taking it and then what starts happening is well, so what I should say, what started happening with her was that she was able to be more even,  we started learning more tools to work through the situations  and then as she got more comfortable with those tools and being able to step back.

When emotions are high, intelligence is low. The more that she could do that from that neutral place, what started happening is we could reduce the dosage of that anxiety medication because now she had appropriate  coping strategies. Do you see how amazing that is? So if we need to take some GLP one to help quiet the noise in our brain.

Okay.  But that is not going to solve the real problem. And the longer you’re on it,  the more dependent you become and we don’t know what the consequences are gonna be.  

So the other thing I’m gonna say before I close, and you can come next week for part two, is that

You can do all the research in the world.  You can  just like a lawyer, right? If you’re a lawyer and someone comes to you and says, they think I committed this murder, and you are the defense attorney, then you are going to use all of your skills, abilities, and strengths to focus on protecting that person, defending that person, right?

Totally. 

Or if they came to you and said, and you were on the other side, you would do the same thing. So my invitation to you right now is to be open, is to look at both sides and even this is just a simple pros and cons list.  But I’m gonna tell you that there are things in this pro list, I’m sorry, in this con list that has a heavier weight than the pro, when you see the line that says  rare, but or we don’t actually know right here,  we don’t know what is gonna happen.

We do not have enough information.  And when you do a little history search and look at all the other drugs that promised all these other things and had all these other  and all the things that happened because of that,  I want you to pay attention to that. 

This is really important.  Your life matters.  So come to the next one. I’m gonna talk about how we can improve our gut health, how we can I have some mental skills and tools that will help you with this whole weight loss, and it will help you see how weight loss is actually  done up here.  All right, I’ll see you on the next one.

Bye.