Separating Fact from Fiction: Everything You Need to Know About The Weight Loss Medications Ozempic (semaglutide) and Monjauro (Tirzepatide)

In this episode, I take a deep dive into the world of GLP-1s, the revolutionary weight loss medications that have captivated the health and wellness scene. We all know that whenever there’s a new breakthrough, doubts and controversies tend to emerge, leaving us wondering if it’s too good to be true. But fear not! In this show, I am here to unravel the mysteries and shed light on these drugs like never before.

My goal is to address your concerns, provide clarity, and empower you with the knowledge to make informed decisions. I will share my own journey on tirzepatide plus client experiences. Whether you’re considering these medications or simply seeking accurate information, this episode will be your ultimate resource.

So sit back, relax, and join me on this captivating journey into the realm of GLP-1s. By the end of this podcast, you’ll have a comprehensive understanding of the pros and cons, equipping you with the insights to navigate this topic with confidence. It’s time to separate the facts from the myths and arm yourself with the information you need.

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Today’s Podcast is sponsored by Nutrisense. Nutrisense combines cutting-edge technology and human expertise so you can see how your body responds to different food, exercise, stress, and sleep in real-time. You can visit nutrisense.io/weightloss and use code “WEIGHTLOSS” to save $30 and get 1 month of free dietitian support.

Listen to the episode with Carlee Hayes on How a Continuous Blood Sugar Monitor Can Help You Find Your Perfect Diet.

Transcript
00:00 Karen Martel Okay, so before I jump into this very hot topic, I just wanted to let all of you know that this podcast has officially gone way over 1 million downloads, which is so very exciting for me. And I just want to thank all of you for listening, for downloading, for sharing the podcast with your friends. It’s very gratifying for me because I do put a lot of work into this show and it makes me so happy to know that I have helped educate so many of you on the topic of women’s health. So thank you. So one of the hottest topics in women’s health right now, or weight loss, I should say women’s weight loss, is the drugs Ozempic, also known as Simaglutide, and Monjaro, also known as Terzapatide. Over the past six months, I’ve shared insights about these medications on various podcasts, but today I felt it was necessary to devote an entire solo episode to them.

Why? Well, because I have firsthand experience with one of these medications, which is the Tirzepatide, having used it myself for nearly two months. In fact, I’ve even established a very dedicated group coaching program for women who are on these peptides, and I have clients in my on-track group and private coaching who are also taking them. And I receive numerous direct messages, emails, and calls from family and friends seeking information about these medications and their safety. Often they express concerns based on hearsay, sharing alarming stories that they’ve heard on social media. This is precisely why I felt compelled to do today’s podcast, to provide all of you with comprehensive, with a comprehensive overview of the pros and cons of them. And please rest assured, I am committed to offering an unbiased, I’m going to try to be very unbiased. Try is the word there. Only because I’m biased, I think, because I’m just seeing such amazing results with them. I am using them myself. I’ve got a program about them, but I am going to be very unbiased when it comes to the truth about them. I’m going to give you the facts. I’m going to give you both sides of the story.

So I promise you that. I think you’re going to be able to tell by today’s show that I’m in support of them. So there’s where maybe the unbiased doesn’t come from, where it does come from. But I believe that presenting you with a very balanced view and, you know, letting you know about the advantages and disadvantages of these, I think it’s going to be very important. And I don’t think that these medications are for everybody. And I’m going to discuss that in detail. So let’s start first, a quick overview of what these drugs are. And we’re going to be talking about Ozempic, which also is Osemeglotide and Monjaro-Trizepotide. Ozempic is a type of drug called glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist, often called GLP-1s for short, and I will call them that often in this show. Monjaro is a combination drug that acts on the GLP-1 receptor along with another receptor in the brain called glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide. What the heck does that mean? Well, they are actually hormones.

Yep, Karen’s favourite. They are called incretin hormones. Incretin hormones are gut peptides. We have different types of hormones in the body. There are lipid-deprived hormones, which I talk about the most. These hormones are derived from cholesterol, lipid meaning fatty acids. These include estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, and cortisol. There are amino acid-derived hormones. These are made from tryptophan and tyrosine and include melatonin, epinephrine, thyroxine, and others. Then we have peptide and protein hormones. Protein hormones consist of more than 50 amino acids and include hormones like growth hormone and insulin. Peptide hormones are shorter chain amino acids that are shorter than protein hormones, less than 50.

These include oxytocin and our incretin hormones, GLP-1s and GIPs. These incretin hormones are secreted from cells into the blood within minutes after you eat. Now, GLP has various effects on the body, influencing different organs and systems. One significant effect is its ability to stimulate the pancreas to release additional insulin. Insulin plays a crucial role as a facilitator for cells, guiding the entry of sugar from the bloodstream into the body’s cells. When insulin is insufficient or its action is compromised, such as in type 2 diabetes, elevated levels of sugar can persist in the bloodstream.

Now, apart from its impact on insulin secretion, GLP-1 also targets the brainstem and hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is responsible for regulating various bodily functions, including appetite. By binding two specific receptors in the hypothalamus, GLP-1 can help suppress appetite, leading to a reduced desire to eat. I want you to really understand this because most people believe that these medications help you to lose weight simply through its effect on appetite suppression and increasing insulin sensitivity, but they affect the brain too. Imagine your brain as a complex restaurant with different areas responsible for different things. One important guest in this restaurant is a substance called glucagon-like peptide, GLP-1, which has the power to affect your eating habits and body weight. However, scientists are still trying to exactly understand how GLP-1 works in the brain.

Think of GLP-1 as a special chef who is mainly produced in a special kitchen area called the nucleus of the solitary tract in the back of your brain. But interestingly, this chef has fans all over the restaurant, including areas known as the ventral tegmental area, VTA, and the nucleus accumbens, NAC, which are part of the brain’s reward system. These areas of the brain are well known for regulating reward consumption, learning memory, and addiction behaviors through mediating dopamine release. To investigate how GLP-1 influences your food intake and weight, scientists examined these areas in the brain’s restaurant. They used a method called double immunohistochemistry, which is like using a special dye to see where certain ingredients come from. They discovered that the GLP-1 chef sends direct messages to the VTA, the NAC core, and the NAC shell areas, sort of like having a direct phone line to these specific regions. When they activated the GLP-1 receptors in the VTA, NAC core, and NAC shell, it had a powerful effect. It was as if the GLP-1 chef had cooked up something magical that made you eat less, especially when it came to tasty foods that you find hard to resist. Not only that, but it also helped in managing your body weight. On the flip side, when scientists blocked the natural GLP-1 signals in the VTA and NAC core, something interesting happened. It was as if the chef had taken a break and suddenly you felt a strong urge to eat more.

This research tells us that these specific areas in the Brain’s restaurant, the VTA and NAC, are like hidden gems for the GLP-1 chefs’ influence on your eating habits and body weight. They play a crucial role in controlling how much you eat and maintain a healthy weight. Furthermore, GLP-1 affects the stomach by reducing the production of stomach acid and slowing down the movement of food from the stomach to the intestines. This delay in gastric emptying results in a prolonged feeling of fullness. Just as anyone who has experienced the satiating effects of a hearty meal can attest, feeling full can discourage further eating. As you can see, there are many mechanisms at play here that help you to effortlessly lose weight on these medications.

You can think of them similar to bioidentical hormones. The difference is the medication is synthetic. It contains 39 amino acids compared to the one we make naturally, which is 42 amino acids. They have the same mechanism of action. What did the studies show? First off, ozempic semaglutide has been studied since 2012, so over 10 years. Terzepotide since 2016, so eight years. When we look at the meta analysis of semaglutide, in simple terms, a meta analysis is a way of looking at a bunch of different research studies on the same topic and combining their results to get a big picture summary of what all the studies say. It helps researchers to see if there are any patterns or common findings across all the studies. So when they looked at the meta analysis of semaglutide, results revealed the weight loss in semaglutide ranged from 5.16 to 16.40% average body weight lost, while the placebo ranged from 0.38 to 5.7. Now up until these medications, if a weight loss drug showed a 5% weight reduction, it was considered top notch. So to see 5 to 16 is huge and better than anything that had come to market previously. And a small percentage, a small percentage of these people actually lost up to 20%.

Terzepotide, on the other hand, showed a 5 to 20% weight reduction. That’s not all. In one study, people who took semaglutide had a much lower chance, a 26% less risk of experiencing serious heart problems like heart related death, heart attacks or strokes compared to those who didn’t take it in the placebo. Number one killer of women is heart disease. So that is pretty freaking good, a 26% less risk of developing heart disease. It has also been shown to help improve fatty liver disease, which makes sense because that’s driven by sugar. Researchers have studied the effects of GLP-1 receptor agonists on Alzheimer’s disease. In animal studies of Alzheimer’s disease, GLP-1s have been shown to reduce the level of these abnormal substances in the brain and improve memory. They also protect brain cells from damage caused by factors like glutamate, iron and lack of oxygen. GLP-1s may have a positive effect on calcium regulation in neurons, which is important for their function and survival. Studies have looked at GLP-1s and found that they can help prevent memory problems, reduce brain cell loss and decrease inflammation in Alzheimer’s disease models.

These medications have been shown, to have have even been shown potential to reverse some of the key features of late stage Alzheimer’s disease in mice. The results are promising and they suggest that GLP-1s could be a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Gee, then you know what ladies, you combine that with a little bit of estradiol replacement and we got ourselves a pretty good duo for helping to prevent Alzheimer’s, which is always a very big concern for me because I’ve got the genetic predisposition for it. So I like that. Overall GLP-1s have shown significant research potential in the field of Alzheimer’s treatment, but further studies are of course going to be needed. Parkinson’s disease, this was interesting. Parkinson’s disease is a chronic brain disease that affects movement and cognitive function. It is caused by the loss of dopamine producing neurons in the brain. GLP-1s such as some anglotide have shown promising effects in animal models of Parkinson’s disease, protecting dopaminergic neurons and improving motor activity and cognitive function. These medications may work by promoting the formation of new neurons, reducing inflammation, protecting mitochondria, the cell’s energy source, and enhancing neuroplasticity. Some studies have also suggested that GLP-1 analogs could lower the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease in people with diabetes.

Okay, what next? It just never ends here. GLP drugs have shown promise in reducing the occurrence of stroke and protecting the brain in both animal and human studies. They have been found to reduce brain damage, inflammation, and cell death after stroke. They may work by increasing certain substances in the brain that promote healing and growth. They could potentially be used to improve outcomes and promote recovery in stroke patients. They have shown potential in reducing chronic pain without causing serious adverse effects. They can reduce pain and inflammation by activating certain pathways in the body. Some studies have also found that GLP-1s may promote the release of natural pain relieving substances. While more research is needed, it could be a promising alternative for chronic pain treatment. GLP such as some anglotide have been found to reduce the progression of atherosclerosis by regulating inflammation, improving blood lipid profile, and enhancing endothelial function.

They may also affect the behavior of immune cells and promote the conversion of macrophages to an anti-inflammatory state. GLPs have shown potential in preventing the formation of atherosclerotic plaques and stabilizing existing plaques. Hypertension, another risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, can be improved with GLP-1s which have been found to lower blood pressure potentially through stimulation of arterial, natural, I can’t even pronounce it, natriuretic peptide secretion. They may also have beneficial effects on vascular smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells by reducing proliferation and oxidative stress. They’ve also been shown promising effects on the endocrine metabolism, hormone metabolism. They have potential to improve insulin levels, regulate sex hormone levels, enhance blood lipid profile, increase adiponectin levels which is a fat-burning hormone, regulate autophagy, a process that removes damaged cellular components, inhibit liver glucose production, reduce liver fat content, lower plasma liver enzyme levels, and alleviate liver statosis.

These effects make GLPs potential candidates for preventing and treating various endocrine disorders and metabolic conditions such as polycystic ovarian syndrome, obesity, and non-fatty liver disease. The meta-analysis of clinical studies mentioned in the passage suggests that the treatment with GLP-1s in obese patients with type 2 diabetes does not increase the risk of breast tumors, acute pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer, and overall tumor neoplasia. Another study indicated that GLP-1s may not increase the risk of new thyroid tumors in patients with type 2 diabetes. Several studies have reported potential anti-cancer effects of GLP-1s in various types of cancers. They have been found to limit the growth of prostate cancer and demonstrated an inhibitory effect on the growth of breast and cervical cancer as well. In some cases, combining GLP-1s with anti-cancer drugs has shown increased effectiveness particularly in advanced cancer cases. Regarding the safety concerns of GLP-1s, some studies have raised concerns about the increased risk of acute pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer associated with their use. However, other studies including systemic reviews and meta-analysis have not found an increase in incidence of severe hypoglycemia, pancreatitis, or pancreatic cancer in patients treated with GLP-1s. Some studies even suggest that GLP-1s may have a protective effect against pancreatic cancer.

However, more research including long-term and large clinical trials is needed to fully evaluate the casual relationship between GLP-1 and the development and progression of various cancers. In conclusion, there is no clear evidence suggesting tumor genetic effect of GLP-1s. Numerous studies have indicated their potential in inhibiting the growth of certain cancers such as the ovarian, breast, prostate, and pancreatic cancer. But we need more information on that. And okay, you’ve just heard all of these amazing benefits, but do you guys, are you starting to see a pattern? All of these diseases, I think, well, not all of them, but majority of them are all driven by sugar, right? Like, we know cancer is driven by sugar. We know heart disease driven by sugar. We know fatty liver disease is driven by sugar. We know Alzheimer’s and dementia driven by sugar. It’s called type 3 diabetes. So all of these main killers of humans, this is how we typically we die of usually one of these things, all driven by sugar. So it’s no doubt that these medications can really help reduce these risks because it’s reducing our insulin resistance and making us more insulin sensitive and helping us to process our sugars better. So it just all makes sense to me. Now that we’ve discussed all the benefits, let’s talk about their downfalls, as well as some of the myths about these drugs that many of you think are downfalls.

And let me first start by saying, there’s a lot of crap out there on these medications. I think that a lot of medical professionals and nutritionists are going to slam them because these medications are so because these medications are the easy way out. And a lot of people will abuse these medications who haven’t put the time or effort into cleaning up their diet and working on the fundamental pieces of weight loss and health in general. So I can totally understand that. And I agree, I think that those foundational pieces are a must.

But there are a lot also a lot of influencers out there on social media media who are spreading complete misinformation on these medications. So let’s just go through some of these. The most talked about which is, you will gain the weight back when you stop using them. I recently saw a post by Joel Green, who I’ve actually had on my show, and I’ve got his book and he’s very, very knowledgeable about weight loss in general. And I’ve got lots of respect for Joel and he posted recently on his Instagram in regards to GLP ones. He’s actually done several posts, but this one in particular that I actually commented on, he put, the biggest I told you so in history is coming. The rebound is inevitable. Bookmark this post, date it, come back to it in a few years. It will be like I had a crystal ball. 100% guaranteed. I told you so. Sorry folks, but he is not telling you anything that has not been made very clear by these drug companies and anyone who is knowledgeable in the use of them. If you take away the drugs, the drug, its effects stop working. I think that’s common sense. We wish it wasn’t the case, of course, and that we could take the drug for a short period of time. It would cure us of a lifetime of weight loss, resistance, obesity, and food addiction. But we are not there yet, my friends.

Obesity is a disease. And if you have suffered with this disease, then yes, you would almost guaranteed would regain the weight if you completely stopped it. I’m also adding in weight loss resistance, which no one is considering using these drugs for, except me, I think. I mean, I’m sure there’s others, for sure there is, but I’m really honed in on that. And you guys know because I’ve had a lot of weight loss resistance in my time. It’s what I specialize in. And I have worked with thousands of women with weight loss resistance. So I am putting weight loss resistance in there. And it’s just not a recognized disease. You can’t look that up. You can’t go to your doctor and be like, diagnose me with weight loss resistance. It’s not out there yet, but I know it’s a real thing. Many of you know it’s a real thing. I think it should be recognized as a disease. I can’t tell you how many women develop weight loss resistance from hormone imbalance and loss, especially in perimenopause and menopause. I mean, countless women, women doing everything right and still pack on 30 pounds of weight in their forties.

Now, not everyone will regain the weight. There are some that don’t, which I will discuss. So what happens? You lose all the weight from taking the drugs. You don’t have diabetes, say, so you don’t want to stay on these drugs forever. What we are seeing in clinical practice is that if a person loses the weight and immediately comes off the medication, the weight comes back on in amounts of different timing, depending on the individual. I have seen a 10 pound regain within months with one member, only one, but it happened. I have seen three months post GLP-1s and the weight starting to very slowly creep up by a couple pounds. I’ve seen that several times now. Here’s the thing. Our body, if it has not been able to stay at the current weight for very long, it will kick in its survival mechanism of weight regain. We all have a weight set point, which is the weight your body has been being at for a long period of time or was at for a long period of time for menopause hit. Our body will see the sudden weight loss as a threat and begin employing all of its survival mechanisms to get back to that set point. It will raise hunger. It will make you go out there and start binge eating and it will rapidly come back on. Not a good thing, but this happens with all diets in most cases, quick fix diets anyways. If you’re going to quickly lose weight, you go into an extreme caloric deficit, we all know what happens. You stop or a month goes by and suddenly all of these backup mechanisms kick in. You start obsessing about food and then all you want to do is eat, eat, eat and not healthy food. You just want nothing but high calorie foods. It’s your body’s brain telling you, get out there and eat. You’re losing weight. This is dangerous. This will happen no matter what, whatever extreme diet you’re doing. I think that these medications can be considered a bit of an extreme way to lose weight because it happens very quickly. I personally in seven weeks have lost 11 pounds. It would take me like two, I’m not even kidding, like two years to lose 11 pounds. I’m working really hard at it too. So you can kind of think about it like this.

When you’re on these medications, it’s like it’s tricking your brain because your brain is not being told that you’re eating less. It’s not kicking in all of those backup mechanisms because it’s not getting that message. It’s like something’s blocking it. It’s in the dark. So while you’re on the medications, you feel amazing. You’re not craving food. You’re not regaining the weight. It’s crazy how you feel and how easily the weight comes off and that you don’t want to eat everything in sight. But when you take that medication away and those receptors are no longer getting that feedback from that GLP-1 peptide, and it suddenly sees that, oh wait, it’s like we unveil. Like, oh what? We’ve just went from 150 down to 120 pounds. How the heck did that happen? Quick, employ all of the backup mechanisms. Let’s get the weight back on. Let’s pick up appetite, etc. So there’s ways to come off this. And in my weight loss group, we coach you on how to come off these medications or how to reduce the dose because you really need to set in that new weight set point and there’s ways that you can do that. Now if you are someone, for example, that’s always been, let’s say, 125 pounds through, let’s say, your 30s, then in your 40s, thanks to hormonal loss, you gain 10 pounds. You eat well, you exercise, you sleep, and you’ve replaced your missing hormones, and you still can’t lose weight no matter what you try. And you go on a GLP-1 medication, drop that 10 pounds in a month, lower the dosage or frequency, and maintain that loss for a few months, then wean off completely. There’s a really great chance you’ll maintain that loss. If you have always struggled with weight loss, you have an overeating problem. You’ve been on enough diets your whole life and you are always, typically, unless you’re extreme dieting, 50 plus pounds overweight. And this has just been that life long struggle that just, oh, it’s so tough. You can go on these medications, lose that weight, adjust your eating habits, start exercising, learn how to prioritize nutrition and protein because these medications can really help with that. Then you can slowly wean down on your dose and find what’s going to work for you. But you will likely be somebody that may have to stay on this for the rest of your life because your obesity is a disease and it’s been a lifelong struggle. So you have to prepare yourself. I think you have to prepare yourself no matter what going into this, that you may be on a maintenance dose for the rest of your life to maintain the weight loss.

Another common thing I’m asked about is the shortage of these medications and how people should not be using them for weight loss. Well, I disagree. One, Ozempic has been approved for weight loss, so we’re allowed to take it for that. And trisempitide is soon going to be as well. It’s just a matter of time. If this can help prevent developing diabetes, then should we not be catching it before it becomes full blown? Preventative medicine, ladies. Not only that, but it can help prevent the number one causes of death like heart disease and Alzheimer’s. It’s like not giving a person heart medication when they have heart disease. And you say, no, let’s not take that medication away from people who have already had the heart attack. We’re not going to give it to you even though you’ve got the first stages of heart disease because we want to save this medication for the people that have had the heart attack. We would never do that in the medical world. We have how many preventative medications that when people start getting disease, we give them medication. Well, being overweight, being obese is leading you down the road of metabolic disease. And you may already be there. You may already be in a state of depression. You may already be in a state of depression. There, you may already have the type two diabetes, the heart disease, et cetera. I mean, then you can rightfully go and have these medications. But if we are overweight, then that is setting ourselves up for possibly going down the road of any number of these things. So why are we not preventing it by helping people to lose weight now? Not when they’re full blown diabetic. So that’s my take on it. Now in my program, we don’t use Ozempic or Monjaro.

Those are the pharmaceutical brand drugs. They’re very expensive. And unless you have type two diabetes or obesity for Ozempic, you won’t get them you won’t get them covered by your insurance. We use compounded semaglutide from a compounding pharmacy, as well as we do trisepatide and semaglutide from a great source, a great peptide company that we’re working with. So we are not taking the Monjaro and we’re not taking the Ozempic. We are getting all of ours either through a compounding pharmacy or through the peptide company.

Okay, one of the biggest worst of the side effects of these medications, mostly semaglutide is gastrointestinal issues. And this is just like 100% true. Since it slows gastric emptying, this can cause constipation, nausea, actual vomiting, even projectile vomiting, diarrhea and heartburn. I have never had anybody actually vomit so far in my group. We’ve got probably about 75 between my two groups and my private coaching and friends and family. I probably have to vote a hundred people now somewhere in there that are all on this. Nobody I know of it actually vomited yet. I know though that it happens to a small subset of people. I almost vomited when I was on semaglutide. Like I ran to the toilet thinking it was coming and it never did. And then maybe some people just aren’t telling me. But nausea, I definitely hear a lot about that.

Constipation, hear a lot about that. I’ve had two people that got diarrhea and I’ve had several people get heartburn when they first started them. Trisepatide, I don’t think I’ve ever heard that it caused nausea or vomiting in anybody yet. And it is really important to eat clean and healthy as that seems to really help with these gastrointestinal issues for sure. In our group, we do have a ton of tricks up our sleeve to help women remedy these side effects. So there is solutions plus they tend to go away within month one. But like I said, that is really mostly the semaglutide. I have heard like I said, trisepatide a little bit more on the heartburn side of things and constipation, but not the nausea. Fatigue, once again seems to be just semaglutide. I have not heard it about trisepatide and I personally, I’ve had a lot more energy since I started using it. So it seems to be semaglutide and a very small set. I think we’ve had three or four women say that they were so tired, like really, really tired. Couldn’t do anything, couldn’t exercise. They were just like, oh my God, I’m so tired. But once again, it was temporary and it goes away for everybody so far. Pancreatic cancer. Now I did mention this before. So the potential association between these drugs and acute pancreatitis or pancreatic cancer, it’s been a concern. However, no clear signal linking these medications to these pancreatic events has been identified so far.

The FDA and the EMA recommend considering pancreatitis as a potential risk with in-creten medications until further data becomes available. So what does that mean? Well, some studies have reported mild and dose-dependent increases in serum, lipase and amylase levels with in-creten based therapies, including semaglutide. In clinical trials, mild acute pancreatitis occurred in a small percentage of participants treated with semaglutide compared to those on placebo. However, a longer cardiovascular outcome trial semaglutide for type 2 diabetes did not reveal any signals for pancreatic adverse events. A meta-analysis combining data from cardiovascular outcome trials of GLP-1 receptor agonists, including non-semaglutide medications, also did not show significant increase in the risk of acute pancreatitis or pancreatic carcinoma. It’s important to note that pancreatic adverse events are rare and the trials may not have been adequately powered to detect them.

Additionally, the duration of the trials might not have been long enough to capture the development of pancreatic cancer, which typically takes many years. In the specific case of semaglutide, mild acute pancreatitis occurred in 0.2% of participants treated with semaglutide in the step one trial compared to 0% of placebo treated participants. It’s important to note that this percentage refers to the participants in that particular trial and may not represent the overall occurrence rate of pancreatitis with semaglutide or other GLP-1 receptor agonists. The incidence of pancreatitis with semaglutide or other GLP-1 receptor agonists, the incidence of pancreatitis can vary depending on various factors, including individual patient characteristics and the specific population being studied. Okay, so we’re kind of getting a little bit of both like that there’s been studies that showed no relation at all. There’s definitely been no increase in pancreatic cancer, but there has been some studies that showed a 0.2% risk for semaglutide users to develop pancreatitis.

So a little of both, you know, but still pretty minor 0.2%. So GLP-1 receptor agonists have been associated with a 28% increased risk of gallstones. In the step one trial, 2.6% of participants receiving semaglutide and 1.2% of those receiving a placebo reported gallbladder-related disorders. Now rapid weight loss, you guys, which occurs with these medications, can contribute to whether it’s with these medications or because you’re just on an extreme weight loss program. When you lose a ton of weight very quickly, that it is a common risk that you can develop gallstones. I have had one person that she believes she was passing a gallstone. So that could be, I recently passed a gallstone, but it was before I was on the trisapatite. So it was in between when I did the semaglutide and I only did semaglutide for three weeks.

And then like a month later, I got a gallstone attack and then I started trisapatite like whatever a month or two months after that. So, and I haven’t had any problems since, but I definitely noticed that I don’t digest fat very well. So I have to be very careful. And I think that most people should be very careful about that. When they’re on these medications is high fat foods is not a good idea. Okay. So, semaglutide like other GOP medications carries a warning, a black box warning about the risk of thyroid cell tumors, specifically medullary thyroid carcinoma, and is not recommended for individuals with a personal or family history of this type of cancer or multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type two. This warning is based on studies conducted on rodents, which showed that semaglutide can cause thyroid C cell tumors when given in high doses and for long duration. And these were really high dose, like way higher than we would ever give humans. However, these findings in the 10 years this megatide has been around and eight years that trisembatide has been around has not ever been seen in humans. Ever. So that’s pretty good. There’s people that are like doctors that are trying to get them to take this warning off the label. I’ve also heard, and I have not looked this up to verify it, but I heard from, oh, where did I get this from? It’s never, okay, so never been repeating humans, but also that these rodents, that these, this type of rat, it’s common for them to die of this type of thyroid cancer. So I’ve heard that somewhere, don’t know where it would have been from. I would think a doctor because most of the information that I’ve gathered about these peptides have all come from legitimate sources or they’re from, you know, somebody that knows a lot about them. So I think that that’s very interesting.

So now if I had a history of that type of cancer, would I go on these medications? Probably not. Just to lean on the side of safety, I don’t think I would. So that’s, you know, of course up to you and you’re going to want to work with your doctor if you do have a history of medullary thyroid carcinoma. Okay, next up, ozempic face. There’s been a lot about ozempic face lately on social media, which I think is just like, it’s so funny that people are like, have you heard that you can get ozempic face? Okay, number one, ozempic face, you guys, is just a thin sagging face because you’ve lost so much fat that if you had a chubby face or you had, you know, some fat in your face, which typically you will if you’re overweight, I did, you’re going to lose fat in your face.

And we know, at least I know, that as we age and we wrinkle, having a little plumpness in the old face can be very beneficial to hide some of those fine lines. So if you suddenly lose a bunch of weight, you’re going to get a little bit of saggier skin because it’s not so plump anymore and you might look a little more wrinkled and a little more gaunt, let’s say. Now, this would happen if you lost weight, no matter what you did. So why they’re like pinning it on ozempic is I don’t understand. Like, nobody’s talking about this. But like, you don’t see the world up in arms about this when it just comes to regular old weight loss. Anytime I’ve ever lost weight, I’ve thought that like, oh, my face, it looks a little bit more wrinkly. It’s not so plump anymore. Really does that? I don’t know. I don’t know that. I guess it could bother some people. And this is like, would you rather be overweight so that you don’t have ozempic face? Or would you rather be thin and maybe just have to start doing something to help with facial tightening? So there are things I’m going to have somebody on the show soon, at some point, probably not soon, actually, I got a ton of interviews in my backlog. Some point this year, I’m going to have somebody to come on to talk about, you know, anti-aging stuff off the face.

Oh, no, yeah, mostly the face, but the body too. There’s things that you can do. There’s like, you know, you can fillers, Botox, thread, threading, I think it’s called. There’s laser stuff. There’s many different things that you can do to help tighten your skin that are out there nowadays. So if worst case scenario, I’m sure that there’s probably a solution to your ozempic face. It’s just like, I just think that that’s just the, gotta be the worst name. Like, oh, I’ve got a bad case of the ozempic face. Oh, and I don’t want that. Like, I don’t want to get super gaunt in my face. Not at all. Will I do fillers? No, I don’t personally like that look, unless it’s just a tiny bit, you know? I think it’s safe. I don’t think it’s bad for you from what I’ve, from my understanding.

But there’s other things. There’s like the fat matrix. It’s got a name to it, but where they take like fat out of your body, other parts of your body, and then they put it into the face. So it’s like a filler, but it’s not actual. I don’t even know what do they use for filler again, like hyaluronic acid or something. But no, they’re just, they’re using your fat. So they put it in, and then it’s permanent and it can help. But that just freaks me out. Like, what if they, what if I, you know, they inject my cheekbones so much and I look like a client, oh, messed up and weird, and then you can’t get it out? That scares me too much. So what am I going to do? I don’t think I’ll do anything. I think I have, my skin looks pretty good. And you can see that I’ve lost weight for sure in my face. Like everybody keeps saying that, oh, your face, I can see it in your face. Cause I really put weight on in my face when I gain weight. It’s like my breasts and my face really put a lot of weight on. So my boobs have shrunk, my face has shrunk, it seems like. Is it ugly? No, not at all. I don’t think so. So there’s that, the ozempic face. Now the other big massive controversy is muscle loss. And this is the last of them. Sarcopenia. So no matter what, number one, no matter what weight loss program you’re going to do, just like ozempic face, you will lose muscle tissue in most cases. If you are in a caloric deficit, losing weight, there is almost always guaranteed you will lose muscle. If you are familiar with bodybuilders and how they eat, when they are bulking and they are lifting weights and putting muscle on, they eat copious amounts of calories to build their muscle.

And then when it comes time to shrink and to lean up, they reduce their calorie intake substantially and they just try to maintain that muscle while they lean out. So you have to eat to build muscle. And when you’re not eating, you’re not fueling that muscle build, you will lose muscle tissue. Personally, I definitely think I’ve lost some muscle during the last seven weeks that I’ve been on it. I have consistently, though, worked out. I have remained lifting the same weight, but I have not been able to increase that weight. And it has gotten a little bit harder to lift that same weight. So I know that I have lost some muscle tissue. I’m looking at it as this is my weight loss phase. As soon as I get to my target weight loss, then I will go to a maintenance dose and I will begin the bulking process, not just muscle building. I will begin the muscle building. I will put in the testosterone. I will start lifting heavier. I’ll start eating more, maybe do the growth hormones for a little bit. And that’s something that you can do too. Like we talked to the women about this in the group, there’s things that you can do while you’re taking these medications to preserve your muscle tissue.

You still have to prioritize protein and you got to do it with shakes. You got to maybe take some amino acids. There’s many things that you can do to help preserve. There’s other peptides you can take because we don’t want to lose our muscle. I don’t want to lose my muscle. I’ve worked very hard for the muscle that I have right now and it can actually help you to build muscle. If you are making sure that you’re eating enough protein, these drugs, because they make it so that you are more sensitive to insulin and glucose, your body can actually build muscle faster and you can get stronger. So I interviewed Caleb Greer about this and he takes body scans like the Dexa scans and stuff of all of his clients. And he’s like, it’s so funny because we’ll see that they’ve lost some muscle tissue, but oddly enough they get stronger. He didn’t explain why I don’t think if I remember correctly, but I was think that it just has something to do with like less inflammation, just more energy, things like that. So there are things that you can do to avoid this. If however, you hop on these medications, you eat like an asshole, like Pam says, you don’t lift weights, you don’t exercise, and you sit back on your butt and you just eat whatever you want and take the drug, yep, you’ll lose weight and you will lose a ton of muscle. It’s that simple. So there’s ways to avoid it. You can, I think, always expect a little bit to go down, but there are, you know, maybe a little bit of a trade-off or just a short period of time where you get the weight down.

You could also kind of go on and off of them so that you can build up the muscle, then lose some fat on them, build up the muscle. I’ve seen actually somebody do that who is a big trainer and she went on the trisapatides, she got her weight down, and then she went off of them for three months and really upped her testosterone, like really upped it in the gym and went nutso. And she said it was great because she had more muscle like to show than she’s ever had before because she didn’t have the fat on top of it. And she feels amazing. And then she said three months or so and she noticed that she could tell by her waist and everything that maybe she had put on a few pounds. So she went back on the trisapatides for a little bit. Or maybe she just did one shot actually. I think she maybe just did one shot and then was going to see what that did. So there’s different ways that you can help prevent that. Okay, so those are the cons. So that and then of course last actually that I will talk about is price point. It’s not cheap. It’s not cheap. You have to look at it as a short-term investment. As a Canadian, the trisapatide is pretty darn expensive. The trisapatide definitely works better, faster, more weight loss, less side effects, but probably twice the amount of money, if not more than that. So I’m doing that one right now. It’s costing me about $500 a month as a Canadian to get it here. If I have to increase, then it’s going to go up even higher. I don’t think I will though because I don’t have much more to lose. So in the United States, it’s a lot cheaper because it’s in US dollar. It starts at $165 a month and then it’ll usually go up by a month, two or three.

You’re going to be having to double that. So then you’re looking at just over $300 a month for trisapatide. And then some aglutide, looking around, once you get up to the full dose, you’re looking at about $250 or 200, maybe two, between two and 250 a month for that. So a month. And then that can vary because these can go up higher. Some people need to go higher because they adjust to the medications really quickly. Other people, they can adjust to the medications really quickly. Other people, they can stay at a low dose and keep losing and feeling amazing with appetite suppression for many months on the same dose. The owner of the peptide company that we work with, he said his wife has been at 6.5 milligrams and has never had to move up from there and is losing weight. No problem. I’ve heard from several people that they haven’t had to go beyond five milligrams of trisapatide. Some aglutide, you can go between, usually the final dose is between one and two milligrams a week. So price point is to be considered. And then once you’ve lost the weight, this is the good thing. You can go, okay, I’m going to put six months aside or whatever it’s going to take to get the weight off. And you average about one to two pounds a week. So you can kind of calculate, okay, how long is this going to take me? And you’ll have some stalls in there. I definitely did. I stalled for a week, maybe two weeks. Well, in one week I didn’t lose anything. And then another week, I only lost like half a pound. So you can kind of go, okay, anywhere between a half pound to two pounds a week.

And you can calculate, okay, what would that, how long is it going to take me to lose this weight? And then you look at it as an investment in your health. Because once the weight is down, then you can move to one of the maintenance doses and it’s going to be a lot less expensive because people will do a shot. Some people do a shot every two weeks. Some people do a shot every six weeks. Some people are doing shots every three months. So then it gets to be a lot less, which is very, that makes it feel a lot better, I think to the pocketbook. And you think about all the money that we’d spent trying to lose weight in the next 10 years and you eat a lot less. So you save money on food. That’s for sure. Cause you can just like, Oh my gosh, that’s you eat a third of what you normally would. So it’s, you definitely will save money on that. Okay. What else? Let me just like really helps to, so my experience on it, like I said, I’ve lost 11 pounds, seven weeks. I feel really good. Like my energy has been amazing. My workouts have been great. I’ve been doing, I’m working out consistently. No nausea, constipation a little bit for sure, but I can remedy that. And the times that I ate too much of a fatty meal, I was in a lot of pain. So that was kind of like, I didn’t like that part of it. Besides that, the benefit, like what’s been the biggest joy is it’s summertime. I just went to the beach in my bikini yesterday and all these people were telling me how amazing I looked. I was like, Oh, I felt so, it feels so good to walk around in a bikini. I’m super confident. I mean, I do not look like a supermodel or anything.

Don’t get me wrong. I still got my cellulite. Still got my rolls here or there, but all in all, I feel really good. I like being able to go to the clothing store and just kind of pick out whatever I want. I went shopping with my 16 year old teenager to one of her little stores that I would never have been able to find anything to wear in them. And I was able to buy two little kind of tummy, like they showed just the bottom of my stomach tank tops, which I haven’t had to, I can’t even remember the last time I bought something like that. Probably when I was in my early twenties. So that’s, you know, that’s very exciting. I do really like that part of it, like clothing, being able to fit the stuff that I like, not that I’m trying to hide stuff on my body. I’ve got like a grad thing to go to this weekend. So I bought a brand new dress in a small, so it was like, woohoo, this feels so good. So very exciting. Talking with all the women in my group, it’s like, you know, the outcomes have been awesome. I’ve definitely had some people that have had some bad side effects, fatigue, the constipation, things like that. So they’re kind of waiting that out to in, and it’ll get better. It always does. As for our weight loss group, how does it work? It is a monthly fee of $19 a month. That does not include the peptide. So I’ve aligned myself with a very reputable peptide company where you can have to, you have to privately register for my dashboard because you can’t order them online through them. You have to go through a private dashboard. So my members have access to this dashboard. And that is where they order their peptides. And we don’t include it with that PISA. We can also do doctor assisted, um, some megalotide.

So we have doctor assisted some megalotide, which is great for people that, um, just want that, you know, a doctor to take care of it. They do blood work. You see the doctor, that includes the program. It includes, um, everything in all the, all the medication. Um, and it’s a 12 month payment plan of two 50, um, U S a month. So that’s really great. It’s a very affordable, um, like I said, the trisapatides, a lot more expensive, uh, but less side effects and faster. So kind of can choose between which one you would want to do. Um, but that’s how it works in the group. And then we have monthly group coaching calls, um, and really supportive community. Everybody’s chatting on there all the time, talking about their experience, getting the help that they need, because it can be very confusing. And if you just go through your doctor, you’re not going to get the help. It’ll be, here’s your prescription. See you later. Um, so I really think like seeing how much we’re helping these women, um, with the process, I see the need for it. I’m like, Oh wow. It’s good thing we’re here. Good thing we’ve, we’ve put this together. Um, so I’m very glad that I did that because there’s a lot of questions, a lot of back and forth and a lot of just like, Oh, this is happening. Is this normal? Or, you know, what can I do if this happens? Um, how should I eat? We’ve got an exercise plan in it with Pam. We’ve got lots of exercise videos that people can look at the supplements, recommendations, how to remedy the side effects, how to come off. Like there’s everything that you’re going to need is inside of there. And then like I said, you can just order your own peptides so that you can manage the dose on your own. Um, and we share with you how to do that. So if you’re interested, I’ll link to it in the show notes and you can always email me Karen at karenmartel.com.

If you have any questions in regards to the weight loss peptide group, but first head over to the, to our website and read all about it. There’s tons of information on there, um, about the process. Um, so you’ll get everything you need on there. All right, ladies, that is it for today’s show. Thank you so much for tuning in and thank you once again for making this a million past a million downloads. Uh, I really appreciate you and, uh, keep listening. All right. Have a wonderful day wherever you are in the world and I’ll see you next week.