The Bite Size Podcast with Lorayne Michaels

Is MAHA really the answer?

• Lorayne • Season 2 • Episode 52

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After years of navigating the maze of traditional Western medicine, I've discovered a path that resonates with a more holistic approach to health and wellness. Join me, Lorayne Michaels, as I share my transformative journey into the world of functional medicine and the role GLP-1 medications like Ozempic have played in it. This episode promises to enlighten you on how addressing root health issues—such as hormonal imbalances and insulin resistance—can complement the rapid weight management results these medications offer. Through my personal battle with PCOS, I highlight the significance of embracing functional medicine and nutrition, showcasing how peptides and supplements have become essential parts of my wellness toolkit.

Curious about the potential pitfalls of relying solely on GLP-1s for weight loss? I discuss the critical importance of maintaining optimal nutrition to counteract possible nutrient deficiencies, advocating for a diet rich in protein and healthy fats. By focusing on understanding and addressing stress, inflammation, and gut health, we can pave the way for a comprehensive approach to becoming the healthiest versions of ourselves. I'm excited to engage in open discussions about the evolving landscape of functional medicine, especially with the increasing momentum seen alongside RFK's election. Whether you're a seasoned user of GLP-1s or just exploring your options, this episode offers valuable insights to guide your wellness journey.

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Speaker 1:

Hey, it's Lorraine. As you know, it's my joy and passion to teach and encourage others through this podcast, but my heart is actually at live events. Currently, I'm available for booking, so if you're organizing a live event, I'd love to share my story. Your audience will walk away with tangible tools on how to overcome limiting beliefs, break down obstacles and discover their gifts, talents and abilities in order to live a life that God created them to live. It's not the size of the audience that's important. It's the connection and impact that I will bring. For more information, email me at lorraine at theboldbeginningscom. What's up friends, welcome back to the Bite Size Podcast. I'm your friendly, fantastic host, lorraine Michaels, and if you're watching this, I apologize for my crazy hair If you're not distracted by it. I will try not to be distracted by it, but it is very distracting. Anyways, just keeping it funky fresh for you.

Speaker 1:

Today we are going to dive into you guessed it GLP-1s, functional medicine, functional nutrition. It is the hot topic, with RFK getting elected, praise be and with all the movement, with Maha, and just really focusing on health and getting all this crap out of our system. I'm not here to fear monger. I'm not here to shove my opinion or my thoughts and feelings down your throat. I am here to present facts. Do with it as you will. And so, friends, today I want to talk about the truth behind GLP-1s and why functional medicine is the real solution. Do I feel like GLP-1s have a place for certain patients? Yes, possibly as a last-stitch effort, because there is a growing amount of evidence, and when you look at functional nutrition and functional medicine, you will find that your body naturally produces it. It is a peptide. So I'm not going to dive into all the details right now because it's going to sidetrack me, but I just want to let you know that I am here for you and I am here to present to you the evidence and information that I have so that you can make your own educated decision. Glp-1s are something that are on the rise. They are extremely easy to get a hold of and to start GLP-1 medications like Ozempic, wygovy Trizipatide. They are very easy and expensive and they work. But there's a lot of information out there that is not being talked about, and so today I want to break down the truth and why functional nutrition is the real and lasting solution. So the hype versus reality. Why is everyone talking about GLP-1s, from celebrities to influencers. It is so popular right now, and for the simple fact is it works. It does People drop weight and the ease of getting it makes it even more attractive.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to tell you that I started down my own health journey because I wanted to start adding in different things to my health routine. That included peptides, that included supplements and things that were just not over the counter, but actually diving deep into what is really going on in my body. And that meant getting lab work done, seeing a physician, but a functional medicine physician. And at first I started with telehealth and a peptide company. Little did I know how easy it really was to get a hold of these medications and these peptides. I had no idea, and that was to my own ignorance. Maybe I didn't look further into it, maybe I just believed what I read and was given at face value. So, yes, I should have dove deeper into it, but I started taking a peptide that I did not know was a GLP-1. And again, no excuses, no shame, but I should have looked further into it and it was very easy.

Speaker 1:

And you might, if you know me, you might say Lorraine, you don't, you don't, you're not overweight, you're not obese? Why would you even do that? Well, here's the simple truth of the matter. Is there was, uh, an extra amount of weight that I was carrying and to someone on the outside looking at me, you would say that I was fine, but the numbers didn't add up and I was not. At given my height, my age, my frame, I was carrying too much weight, I was carrying too much body fat, and so I went about it and I got my blood work done. I've always struggled with hormonal imbalances and I've always struggled with a higher fat percentage than I feel that is a healthy fat percentage that I should be carrying.

Speaker 1:

So I wanted to go about it and I have been in the fitness and nutrition and that health and wellness space for 20 years, 20 plus years and I did not know what else to do. So I figured peptides and functional medicine was going to be the answer. And because, going to a Western medicine physician when I was trying to regulate my hormones and figure all that out, they just wanted to give me medication. They just threw, you know, metformin at me, birth control at me. They were throwing all these medications at me. That was not getting to the root cause. So I took my health into my own hands. At me, that was not getting to the root cause.

Speaker 1:

So I took my health into my own hands and so when I started with this peptide company, my concern and the things that I wanted to address was my hormonal imbalance, dropping my body fat and maintaining muscle mass, as well as I wanted to help the quality of my skin. So adding in peptides that's going to help with collagen production, that's going to help with. You know, I wanted to make sure my gut microbiome was acting and performing as it should, and so it was well. It wasn't great. It was very difficult with this company. I would not recommend it and basically I did my blood work, saw what was out of whack and they not prescribed but gave me a plan and peptides and medications that they suggested for me and for my desire outcome that I was wanting.

Speaker 1:

One of them was trizipatide or terzipatide, and so I started taking it and I dropped the 10 pounds that I was looking to drop, which was great, and my muscle mass did drop. My fat did drop. It wasn't the muscle mass to fat percentage wasn't great, meaning that it wasn't a whole lot of muscle mass that I dropped. It's because I have the knowledge and I know how to work out, and I know what I needed to do, because I knew that if I was going to be losing weight, that it was going to be muscle and it was going to be fat. And in order for that to be more fat, less muscle, that means I needed to work out more and be very intentional with my nutrition, my protein intake and how I was working out. I know that Not everybody else knows that, and so my concern is with people that are wanting to drop weight and they go down this road of starting a GLP-1.

Speaker 1:

It's so easy, and if you're going about it with a telehealth or a med spa or some online clinic, they are not going to educate you on the risks and benefits so that you can make an educated decision. And so how do these drugs actually work? Well, it suppresses your appetite, it slows down your digestion and it regulates your blood sugar. And so often these GLP-1s are actually prescribed for people with diabetes. And now it's being prescribed for anyone and everyone and anyone that wants it. Ie me being a perfect example. My blood work did show that I was approaching pre-diabetic and pre-diabetes, but that is because my hormones were out of balance. So if you're not working with someone that's taking the time to dive into your whole medical history and look at you as a whole and not just compartmentalize you, you know, if they were going to look at my hormones, my blood sugar, my glucose, all these things and me wanting to lose weight and balance my hormones, prescribing a GLP-1 is not the answer. I need to get my hormones. The risks with starting this, if it, if it suppresses your appetite.

Speaker 1:

Let me back up here the downsides that no one is talking about You're creating when you start a GLP-1, you have muscle loss instead of fat loss or, in my case, it was fat loss and muscle loss. But most people don't realize and don't understand. They're just like oh my gosh, I lost so much weight, but did you do a bone density scan? Did you do? I know I don't know how much it is, but a DEXA scan shows the mass, your muscle mass, your bone density. You're seeing everything that's happening. So, or um, if there's a scan that you can get on, most gyms have them. Um, I can't remember the name of it, but it's. It's a scale. It does electromagnetic um measuring. You stand on these plates, you hold these little levers on the side. It measures your weight, your water weight, your muscle mass, down to the amount of each trunk, each limb, your trunk, how much muscle, how much water, how much fat. All of this it's fantastic. I do it, I do it all the time and you are able to see how much you are losing and where you are losing it.

Speaker 1:

And so, with taking the GLP-1, and it is suppressing your appetite, now you are going to experience nutrient deficiencies, which is going to cause long-term health issues. So, when you're suppressing your appetite, again I have the education and the knowledge and to know that, if my appetite is going to be suppressed by taking this medication, I need to make sure I am getting optimal nutrition. So I am increasing my protein, I am increasing my fat. As a woman, we need fat, healthy fat avocados, nuts, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, salmon. These are healthy fats that we need to be including in our diet. We need to have organic meat. So red meat is so important. It has these essential nutrients that you can't get from supplements, you can't get from pills or injections. The meat has your red meat. Organic red meat has these enzymes that our body absolutely needs, these macro and micronutrients that our body needs, you know, such as creatine. If you are a woman and you are over 30, you have to be taking creatine. It is such an important essential nutrient that we need. And so another downside that no one is talking about is the regain of weight after stopping these medications.

Speaker 1:

So when I learned that the medication that I was on was not just an essential nutrient or a peptide that was adding to my routine, it was actually a GLP-1, I had to start researching. How am I going to get off of this? Can I stop right away? What is the rebound going to be? How has it affected my hormones? Because that's what I was trying to fix and regulate. And again, no fault of anyone but my own for not researching in depth what I was putting into my body and not just the flyer that I received from the company about all the benefits of what I was going to be taking. So make sure that you, if you are going to start a GLP-1, make sure you are researching it. And I would strongly suggest, if you are not obese and you have not tried everything, everything, make that a last stitch effort. And so, also, what is the real problem? A GLP-1 does not fix the root cause.

Speaker 1:

So this is where I want to talk about functional medicine and functional medicine's approach. What we do is we get to the root cause of what's going on. What is functional nutrition? We are not treating the symptoms. Functional nutrition looks at the why.

Speaker 1:

So why is a weight gain happening in the first place? Why are your hormones in unbalanced in the first place? Why are your hormones unbalanced in the first place? So let's talk about what the real root causes of weight gain are Blood sugar imbalances, insulin resistance, sugar crashes and cravings. So for me, I wasn't having a weight gain. I just couldn't get rid of the extra body fat and the extra weight that my body was not needing and was not healthy for me, and the insulin resistance that is coupled with the PCOS. And so why do I have PCOS?

Speaker 1:

Well, now, because I'm in functional medicine and functional nutrition, I am learning the root causes of that and how PCOS is not just an insulin resistance issue, but also it is caused by stress, and so I had to go back and think about my entire life. When did this start? And think about my entire life. When did this start? I was put on birth control at the age of 15, not because I was having sex, but because I did not have a period and my Western medicine physician thought that I needed to regulate my hormones by giving me hormones so that my period would come regularly. I was on birth control from the age of 15, well into my 20s. So by the time I got married, when I was 24, 26 and I tried to have babies, it didn't work because my hormones were so jacked up and because no one took the time to figure out the root cause.

Speaker 1:

Stress, imbalances of sugar there was a slew of things that were going on that nobody looked at. The second thing was inflammation. Chronic stress on the body leads to stubborn weight gain or stubborn weight steadiness. You're not going to lose it because your body is in this constant state of inflammation. Another thing is gut health.

Speaker 1:

Your microbiome is so important and it affects your metabolism and your cravings. It all starts in the gut. Your metabolism and your cravings, it all starts in the gut. And so if your gut is not healthy and it is not running as it should, then no matter what you put into it no supplements, no nutrients, nothing is going to work as it should your gut microbiome. Think of it as it's these tight if you're watching this on I don't know YouTube, or if it's on my Instagram or any of my socials. So your gut microbiome it has these tight junctions and everything is linked together and it has these little villa, these little hair-like tentacles, if you will, all along in your intestines, and they are moving like so, if you can see my fingers I'm moving my fingers like twinkle fingers and those are the little villa that are in your intestines, moving everything along. And when you eat things like processed foods, seed oils, sugar, any dyes, anything that is not natural and it's not supposed to be in our body, it breaks down those tight junctions and they start to loosen up. In my hands I'm moving my hands apart, so now they're not all together and things like toxins, the seed oils, the processed foods, the sugars, all the bad things now are leaking through your intestines, into your bloodstream, into your body, causing havoc.

Speaker 1:

Think of when I'm just picturing like an invader that's getting past the guards and your body's going womp, womp, womp, intrusion, intrusion, and it goes into protection mode. It goes into inflammation and nothing's working correctly because it's trying to protect you but it doesn't know what's going on because it has this foreign body object and your body goes into chaos. This is all starting in the gut. This is all everything that we're ingesting and that's where it starts. So we have to feed our body what it needs so that it can operate optimally, so that when you put in the things, your body does what it was created to do. So why? That was okay. So that's the gut.

Speaker 1:

Now that also can induce hormonal imbalances, and this was the case for me. The hormonal imbalances, your cortisol, your thyroid, your sex hormones all of that impacts your weight. Your pituitary gland is where it all starts, and your adrenals are also affecting your hormone production, and so if you're stressed and you're loading your body with caffeine and energy drinks and all these things, your adrenals are on fire. They are out of whack. Have you ever heard of adrenal fatigue? A lot of clients are coming to me with the same symptoms stressed, tired, this constant brain fog and fatigue. Your body feels tired, but your mind is awake, all of these things. So your cortisol is through the roof and you're not going to shut down and relax. Sleep is so important. If you are not getting optimal sleep, again, your hormones are going to be out of whack. And so all of these things lead to weight gain.

Speaker 1:

All of these things, if not addressed from a functional, holistic, root cause approach, it's not going to heal. And then if you add the GLP-1, you're not addressing the issue. So why is muscle the key to metabolism? Here's the other thing that really like ah red flag alerted me with the GLP-1s is this you're losing muscle mass, but what is the key to metabolism? Muscle, the mitochondria in your muscle is what drives metabolism. So the more muscle you have, the more your metabolism is going. And no one says you have to look like the Hulk, come on. I mean, women can't even put on. I really hate it when they're like, oh, you're gonna look like a dude if you're lifting all that way, structurally, physically it is impossible, unless if you're taking steroids or some type of supplement and growth hormone. You're not gonna get big. We are just not built that way. But your muscles and the mitochondria in your muscles are your building blocks for metabolism. And GLP-1 drugs cause muscle loss, making metabolism worse. So when you get off the GLP-1s you are going to have to work so hard to gain the muscle so that your metabolism can keep up and keep going. So this is why it is so important to incorporate resistance training.

Speaker 1:

It's so important to make sure your protein intake is on point. You should be at minimal. You should be taking in one gram of protein per body weight. So if you weigh 100 pounds, you should be eating 100 grams of protein throughout your day. That's really not a lot. And now, if you want to gain more muscle mass but increase your metabolism and burn more fat, you have to increase that protein amount. So what are the hot topics out there right now? Metabolic flexibility. What is that? That's training your body to switch between burning carbs and burning fat efficiently, and that is so hard to do when you're taking a GLP-1. Another thing gut health and weight loss loss. If you are taking a GLP-1 and it's slowing down your appetite, it's slowing down your gut microbiome, the motility of your gut. It is going to be hard to maintain this healthy lifestyle, because here's the simple fact you don't want to be on this medication for the rest of your life. It's not how we were designed.

Speaker 1:

So, friends, I hope this episode ruffled your feathers. I hope this episode gave you some insight, some information and some knowledge about GLP-1s. I hope this encouraged you to do a little more research, because I was a prime example of that. I thought I took the time and effort and energy to look into things and I didn't look into it deep enough. And now I know, and now I'm looking into it even more, and now this has fired me up even more to get that knowledge and education and those right pieces of information out there for you to help you.

Speaker 1:

If this episode has helped you in any way, please share, please leave a comment, wherever you're seeing it or hearing it, and let me know. Let me know your thoughts, let me know if you have some pushback. I would love to have a discussion with you. I'm not going to argue with you. I'm not going to tell you you're seeing it or hearing it and let me know. Let me know your thoughts. Let me know if you have some pushback. I would love to have a discussion with you. I'm not going to argue with you. I'm not going to tell you you're wrong and you shouldn't be on it. If you're on it and it's great for you and you haven't lost muscle mass but you've lost fat and you're able to keep the muscle mass up, please let me know. I want to talk to you. I would love to have you on my podcast so we can have this discussion about it, because I don't want to lead people down the wrong road, and I am here to help you live optimally. I am here to help you become the best version, the healthiest version of yourself, naturally, holistically, so that your body is working as it should.

Speaker 1:

Functional nutrition has changed my life. Functional medicine has changed my life, and I'm so glad that RFK is elected and that this movement in functional medicine and functional nutrition is just gaining momentum. It is so exciting. So I'm Lorraine. I am your functional nutrition, health and wellness coach. I would love to help you along your journey, shed that unwanted weight, get to the root cause of what is going on. I would love to come talk to you, your company, your group, your conference, whatever it may be. This is something that I am so on fire and passionate about, and I can't wait to see you on the other side. Remember, guys, you were divinely created for divine purpose and there was no mistake in you.