Latest / Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease / 124 // Hashimoto's and weight loss drugs like Semaglutide, Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Tirzepatide, and Zepbound

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124 // Hashimoto's and weight loss drugs like Semaglutide, Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Tirzepatide, and Zepbound · Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

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Hey, welcome to the Health with Hashimoto's podcast. This is the podcast where
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you are going to learn simple and sustainable things that you can do to impact
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your overall health, and specifically your immune health for your Hashimoto's, your thyroid health,
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everything that is impacted by Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
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My name is Esther. I'm a registered nurse, and it is my honor to bring this
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podcast to you every single week.
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Now in December, I'm doing something I don't think I've ever done on the podcast,
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and we are doing some replays.
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I looked at 2024 and the most popular three episodes. We're going to do those
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again in December for everybody who hasn't listened to all of them,
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or because they are so popular, maybe you want a refresher.
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And one thing you should know is that towards the very end of the year,
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I switched us from an app, a standalone app to the school communities.
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So now you can join the Health with Hashimoto's community on school,
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S-K-O-O-L dot com, and you will find the Health with Hashimoto's community there.
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You can also find it down in the show notes.
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All right, the most popular episode of 2024 was episode number 79,
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where I started talking about GLP-1 medications and Hashimoto's and weight loss.
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It did spin off four series or four episode series later. episode 114,
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115, 116, and 117 are all about GLP-1. I talked more about the drugs.
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I talked about natural ways to increase your GLP-1. I talked about a new system
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that activates your own GLP-1.
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Your body's producing it. It actually produces 140% more, which is huge.
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That's very, very significant.
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And then we did an interview with Jenny Crane about using this new system.
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So you can head over to those episodes if you want more information.
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I believe in the episode that you're going to hear, I did say the pluses might outweigh the cons.
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You know, you're always weighing benefits versus benefits.
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Potential side effects, I no longer believe that, especially since there are
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a lot of other options now on the market.
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But medications like semaglutide, Ozempic, Monjaro,
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all of these things, I no longer believe that the benefits outweigh the risks
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because number one, we've learned more about the risks since I initially recorded
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this episode back in January of 2024.
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So there are more risks that are now known. And the second thing is,
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like I said, now there are some more natural alternatives.
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You can skip ahead to episode 117 if you want to know the best option.
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But for now, let's dive into episode 79 about semaglutide and Ozempic and Hashimoto's.
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Well, today's episode comes out of another struggle to want to understand something.
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And I have been studying for this podcast episode for about a month.
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I have been reading and listening to other podcast episodes,
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reading the research, reading the drug books.
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Today we're going to talk about the weight loss drugs. You might have heard
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them by brand name, you might have heard of them by their like generic name.
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Some of the names that might ring a bell, semaglutide, ozempic.
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Wagovi, monjoro, terzepatide, and zepbound.
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I don't know if I'm saying those last couple correctly, but they are the medications
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that were originally designed to help people with type 2 diabetes and in the
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trials they discovered oh when we help people with type 2 diabetes with these
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medications people lose weight and so some of them have been rebranded for weight loss.
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We're going to talk about all of this in regards to Hashimoto's and hypothyroid
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because when your thyroid is not working optimally when it is hypo that means
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things are generally slowing down in the body whether that's your hair growth.
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Whether that's your energy overall, whether it's your metabolism, things slow down.
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And when your metabolism slows
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down, it means you tend to gain weight and it's very hard to get it off.
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And this is what drives people to look to weight loss medications.
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I am specifically talking about people who have tried doing things the quote
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right way, adjusting your diet, making sure that you're exercising,
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making sure that you're strength training, like doing all the quote right things.
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I am not talking about the people who turn to these weight loss drugs because
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they want to continue eating and living their normal lifestyle,
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not make any changes. They just want something to lose weight.
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I'm not talking about those like Hollywood people. I'm talking about you.
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I am talking about the average woman who is trying so hard and not seeing success.
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Somebody like Chris, she says, no matter how little I ate and following the
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right diet for over 10 years, exercising, no matter what I did,
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the harder I tried, I never lost.
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And I began gaining weight.
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I could not shed even a pound. I could not get below 200 pounds.
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So she did turn to weight loss medications and she has seen success.
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Now there's other people who have turned to the weight loss medications and
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they have seen side effects.
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So let's go over all of it so that you know what you need to know to make at
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least the start of an informed decision.
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Now, in a 20-ish minute podcast, I am not going to be able to give you all of
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the information possible for you to make a completely informed decision.
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But what I hope to do is to get you started and to help you see,
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is this something that I want to pursue or not?
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So I already gave you the very basics of what are the names of the medications.
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Let's talk about how they work.
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All of these different medications, they work by...
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In essence, stabilizing your blood sugar and slowing down your stomach.
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That's kind of what they do. They increase your insulin release.
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They decrease how much sugar that you create. If you listened to the coffee
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episode, I think it's episode 67.
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I talk about when you're under stress, your body actually makes sugar.
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It releases sugar. So you can wake up in the morning and your blood sugar,
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the actual sugar in your bloodstream can go up even if you don't eat anything
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just due to the stressors of life.
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That is one thing that these medications control.
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They decrease how much sugar your body is making.
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The medications also delay gastric emptying.
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That's just a fancy way to say that your stomach doesn't allow food to go through
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as quickly and they decrease appetite.
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There's other research that says that they increase your specific hormone that
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indicates that you're full.
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Ghrelin and leptin are the two different things that you need in your body to
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feel full and to feel not hungry. So it works on those.
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These medications work with peptides and I am a fan of using what's natural in the body.
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You know that I talk about activators, activating your body's own ability to
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produce more antioxidants.
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Side note, I need to do an episode soon about COVID.
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I just heard there's one really good study that said when you have more glutathione
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production endogenous, like your body making its own, that decreased everything,
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all of your risks for COVID.
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And when you create your own antioxidants, glutathione is one of the biggest ones.
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And so I'm a really big fan of activating your own body's responses and your
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own body's ability to do different things.
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And using peptides really ties into that.
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However, these medications are not asking your body to look around,
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evaluate what's going on and get back to how you were earlier.
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Instead, these medications are asking your body to change things.
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And when you mess around with the whole digestive system, there are going to
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be consequences and it is the consequences that really have people talking.
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For one thing, what it does in the body is it can mimic food poisoning.
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So think of all of the side effects or how you feel when you have food poisoning.
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Those are the side effects that a lot of people have when they're on these weight loss medications.
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So, you know, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, things like that, stomach cramping,
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increased bloating, lots of gas, whether it's burping or farting.
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These are some of the side effects.
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Also, because of that delayed stomach emptying, some people actually have gastric paralysis.
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So paresis, gastric paresis, means it's slowing the stomach emptying.
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Paralysis means that your stomach actually isn't working. And that one's a really bad side effect.
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So if you're taking these medications, you do need to be aware of the side effects.
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Other side effects would be people feeling tired, headaches, dizzy.
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And then also, when you are messing with the whole digestive system,
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you have to remember that our gut is our, it's called our second brain.
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We have so many neurotransmitters that are created in our gut and also receptors in our gut.
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So when you're working with these medications, you really have to be aware of
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how it's affecting you emotionally and spiritually because it could have an effect.
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In fact, one other person said, and she
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was talking about a friend she said her friend had major mood swings
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she became violently angry it was a
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nightmare and she didn't believe anyone until she almost hit somebody that she
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loved so do be aware and help have somebody else like to help you track your
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symptoms so that you're not having any of these dangerous ones the most common
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thing though is that people feel really full and then they don't want to eat,
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which is one of the things that it's supposed to do, but it's also a side effect
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because it can be too much.
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This is especially true for protein.
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So let's talk quick about what burns calories, what burns energy in our body.
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We have muscles, we have white fat, and we have brown fat. Those are like.
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Basically it, right? So our muscles are obviously the biggest burners of calories.
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They need the most energy to be able to work every single second of every single
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day. Your heart is working.
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It's a really hardworking muscle. It needs calories, right? So our muscles are
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always burning calories.
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And as you lose muscle, then you're losing the biggest calorie burners.
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As you lose muscle, then your metabolism is going to slow down.
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Whether or not we're talking about these medications, I'm just talking about muscle right now.
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You need muscle in order to burn calories.
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You need muscle in order to drive your metabolism.
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Now, the different types of fat, there's white fat and there's brown fat.
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White fat is kind of the storage fat and then brown fat is a little bit different.
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It's more energy dense and it's easier for your body to burn.
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So when you're looking at those things, you really want muscles and you want
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more brown fat than white fat.
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And when you're losing weight, you want it to go in reverse order.
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You want to lose the white fat and you still want to like have a lot of brown
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fat because that's constantly burning and you really want to save your muscles.
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What they have found with these weight loss medications is that people do lose
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weight. It is very effective.
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People lose weight. Sometimes they lose weight too quickly. The people who have
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more long-term lasting weight loss lose weight slower. So they'll have like
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very small medication amounts so that it's gradual.
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Also, you want small medication amounts so that you don't have as severe side
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effects because who wants to have all that nausea, vomiting,
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and all of those? Yeah, not me, not you either.
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So we want to lose the white fat.
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We don't really want to lose the brown fat. We want to continue burning that.
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We want to convert our white fat to brown fat, and we really don't want to lose our muscle mass.
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But in this weight loss from the medications, people are generally.
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They are losing more muscle.
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Than fat. And we don't want that because then when you stop the weight loss
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medications, then what's left to burn your energy? You don't have as much muscle.
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If you are going to use these medications, and I'm not villainizing them overall,
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I'm not going to give you, you know, a slap answer on everything.
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I want you to look at the facts and figure out what's going to work for you.
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But you do need to know that if you're taking these medications,
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then you really need to prioritize eating protein and doing strength training
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because you need to maintain your muscle mass.
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These medications are not lifelong medications. I know some doctors will say
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that maybe they are, but for one thing, they're a thousand dollars a month and
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that is not sustainable for anybody whose insurance is not paying.
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And then another reason is because you need your body to work naturally and
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you don't want to interfere with things and slow your whole gut down for the rest of your life.
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This is a tool in your weight loss.
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It is a tool to supplement changing your diet, having a healthy diet,
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implementing those things, and then also having an active lifestyle,
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making sure that you're walking, getting your steps in.
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I'm not saying you have to do like a HIIT class. I'm saying do the gentle walking
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and do some strength training to maintain the muscle mass.
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Once you do stop the weight loss medications, the research says that most people
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gain it all back and they're getting it back as fat, not muscle.
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So we really want to make sure that you're maintaining your muscle mass while
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you're taking these medications.
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And then when you do stop them, that you're stopping them, number one,
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gradually so that your body can remember like how it has to function when it's not on the medications.
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And then that you can implement or continue
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to strengthen your healthy eating lifestyle and
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your maintain like your exercise and your strength because I don't want you
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to go through all of this work of weekly injections and all of the side effects
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if you had any and then at the end have you know less muscle and just the same
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amount of weight as you did before that is just not what the outcome that anybody wants.
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So that is one caution is make sure that you are maintaining your muscle mass.
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Another caution is in the animal studies for these medications,
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they found an increase of thyroid cancer.
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So if you have a history of thyroid cancer, this is not indicated for you.
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And it's just something that people need to be aware of that they're watching.
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They have not seen it in any humans yet, at least not that I found. However.
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You know, we're just early on into these medications. They've only been out
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in use, really, for a couple years.
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And, you know, humans are the biggest guinea pig. We did it on animals,
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and now it's out in public, and we're going to start seeing other things down the road.
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That's just how pharmaceuticals work.
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They do a little bit of study, and then they put it out to the masses.
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And then a couple years later, they'll be like, oh, yeah, we're not going to
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do that one because the side effects outweigh the benefits.
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But anyway, thyroid stuff. You need to be watching out for cancer.
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We don't think that's a risk for humans, but it should be noted.
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However, monitoring your labs and monitoring your energy and all of that is
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very important because again, as I talked about in the coffee episode,
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one reason you don't have coffee with your thyroid medications is because it
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changes how quickly your medications go through your gut.
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And so it changes how they absorb.
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Well, it's the same thing with this weight loss medication, except it's going to slow it down.
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It's going to change how quickly your medications are absorbed,
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which means it's going to change how much is getting into your bloodstream.
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And that means that you need to be really on top of things, especially with
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your doctor, to monitor how much levothyroxine or or other thyroid medications you're taking.
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Make sure that you're on the right dose for you at this right time.
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And then if you are losing weight, which you probably will on these medications,
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then that can change how much medication you need as well.
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So yes, I did say that some people might need an increase in their dose and
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some people might need a decrease in their dose.
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Really being aware of what's working for you and what's going on for you is key in everything.
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The biggest caution I have about these medications though is not any of those physical side effects.
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The biggest caution I have about them is the mindset.
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It is the mindset that if I take this medication, I'm going to lose weight and
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I don't have to do anything else.
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And I was telling my husband yesterday, I was like, if there is a medication
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that I could take that would just give me muscles and I didn't have to strength
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train, I can see how tempting that would be because I don't like to do strength
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training. I would much prefer to walk or run.
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I don't like to do strength training, even though I know it's important.
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So I get it. I get the appeal of just taking a medication, even a shot.
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People are willing to do that if they can lose weight.
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And that's where you see the like celebrities and the Hollywood type people
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taking this medication so they can lose weight.
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Now, I'm not saying that they're not doing the healthy diet because I don't
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know, but I'm saying that that's the vibe I get from them is they just want
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to do the quick fixes, not necessarily the lifestyle stuff.
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And you know my thoughts on that. I talk about it almost every single week because
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we need to be looking long term.
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We can't just put band-aids on chronic problems and we need to be looking for real fixes.
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So I see these weight loss medications as a possible tool that can help some
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people. Can it help you? I don't know.
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That is up to you to look at with your doctor.
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But here are some things that you might want to look at before you turn to weight loss medications.
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Obviously, looking at a healthy diet. Diet that is full of real foods,
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fruits and vegetables and proteins.
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I am not going to tell you to do like one specific diet, paleo or keto or anything.
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Do what is right for you. Look at what works for your lifestyle.
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You can go back to the diet episodes I have done.
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I will link them below in the show notes, but you have to do what's right for
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you. And what's right for most everybody is real food.
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Decrease the processed foods, decrease the sugars, and increase your veggies and your protein.
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That is going to help pretty much everybody.
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The other thing is making sure that you're building muscle.
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If you are eating a healthy diet and you're already building muscle,
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Then maybe look into berberine.
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Now berberine is an herb and it helps control blood sugar.
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It's really useful for, according to the research that I read, up to about 90 days.
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So you can try berberine for about three months and see if that helps.
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People say that they do lose weight because it helps balance their blood sugar.
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And I have used berberine before.
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I did not notice anything in myself. Again, this is for you to evaluate what's working for you.
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And there's some other products on the market that are really intriguing.
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And I tend to look at the products from the companies who have long been in the health space.
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They're not in the fads. They're not trying to make money off of how you look.
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They are deep into the health and wellness first.
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They didn't start because of losing weight. They started based on long-term weight.
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Wellness. Those are the companies that intrigue me the most when they come out
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with a product that is geared toward fat.
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You have heard me talk about the company LifeVantage before.
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That's where I get those activators to activate my own antioxidant production
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and the mitochondria, which are the energy production of the cell.
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I've talked about those two in depth before.
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They have another product and it is called Fatburn. And what it does,
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again, is working with your own body to do what your body can do best.
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And it converts some of that white fat into beige fat or brown fat.
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And like I said before, it's easier for your body to burn that fat.
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With this fat burn supplement, it is supporting your body's natural fat burning process.
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So it's not changing things, it's supporting you, it's supporting your healthy
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weight management, and it increases your energy expenditure by 181 calories per day.
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And so that's like your metabolism going up a little bit.
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And over a 16-week study that they did, people lost about 5.2% of their fat.
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So that was about four pounds over 16 weeks, and they didn't change anything else.
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This was just their body being supported in their metabolism.
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But the thing about that is those four pounds, over half Half of that was in their waist and hips.
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So when I was talking about the weight loss medications, people tended to lose
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more muscle than fat. And then that's detrimental.
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Well, with this fat burn, they
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tend to lose it in their waist and hips and they lose the fat, not fat.
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The muscle. So that is really key. I would look for something like that.
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And there are other companies that have it.
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I have looked at at least four different like metabolism or fat burning products
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over the last month while I've been doing this research.
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And like I said, I look at the companies who value health first,
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who have always valued your health first.
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And this is the one that I settled on. This is the one that I bought for my husband.
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I am not using anything related to metabolism right now, but my husband has
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been working on losing weight. He has cleaned up his diet.
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He has been working out really faithfully. He has been building his muscle.
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He's been doing all the right things, and yet he's having a hard time.
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So this is the one that I purchased for him after looking at all of the options.
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Look at the options out there. I am not, you know, diagnosing,
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treating, recommending, prescribing, anything like that.
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What I am doing is I am sharing what I have been learning and hoping that it
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will help you on your journey to better wellness as well.
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Down in the show notes, I will put a link to this fat burn. I'm going to put
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a link to it where it's stacked with the other activators so that you're producing
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more antioxidants and you're increasing the energy of the cells, the mitochondria.
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I do not personally feel like it is beneficial to add the fat loss products
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if you're not supporting the basics.
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You have to be supporting your antioxidant production, increasing that,
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and you have to be supporting your mitochondria.
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Those two things are foundational. So the stack, like they're bundled together
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so that you save a little money.
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The stack is called the Metabolism Essentials Stack. It's got a really nice
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name, right? I will put that link down in the show notes.
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Obviously, if you're on subscription, you're going to save and it is an affiliate link.
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And I thank you in advance for using my affiliate link. And if you do order
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anything, you will get a text from me, at least if I'm staying on top of things,
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you'll get a text from me and it says, this is Esther.
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It actually is me. It's not a robot. I don't have like an automatic texting thing.
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It's actually me texting you, asking how I can help and thanking you for purchasing
23:42
something through my affiliate link.
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Overall, though, I would love to know your experience. I would love to know
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your experience with what you're doing to lose weight or to improve your health with Hashimoto's.
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Drop me a comment in Instagram. You can send me a message or you can comment on a post.
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I am at esthery.rn. And I want to share one thing that one of my personal friends
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said when I asked about these weight loss medications.
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She is taking them. And for one thing, she says that she's not embarrassed about it.
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Some people are embarrassed to admit that they're taking it and she's not.
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She says this, I've noticed increased energy and better sleep.
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I don't really feel like I've lost a lot of muscle, but maybe that's because
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I've lost weight slowly.
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The weight has not fallen off as I see advertised or posted on social media.
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I really have been trying to get more protein in and that's also what my body craves.
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For me, it's been a great tool.
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And really, that's what I want to leave you with.
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You are an individual. What works for somebody else might not be right for you.
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And what works for you might not be what somebody else needs.
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We are each unique and we each get to look at the whole picture.
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Body, mind, spirit, diet, environment.
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Hey, thanks for joining me on this replay, I do have an update to my friend's story.
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Sometime during the year, her insurance stopped paying for her weight loss medication,
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the GLP-1, and she had to go off of it. She could no longer afford the GLP-1 agonist.
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She ended up gaining back all of the weight. She was super frustrated despite
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trying to do her best to increase or improve her lifestyle and all of her diet
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and everything and use this as a kickstart.
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It ended up not working. She did regain all of her weight.
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So I wanted to give that update to the story. Head over to episodes 114 to 117
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for more info on GLP-1, natural ways to do it, and sustained weight loss.
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This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.
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Please discuss any concerns and plans with your trusted healthcare professional.
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If you found this episode helpful, will you please share it with a friend?
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I'll see you next week on the Health with a...
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Music.