The Truth About Ozempic Nobody Is Telling Women

While aging is, uh, inevitable, decline doesn't have to be.

Oh, I love that. I will take that.

Yeah.

If you're tired of doing all the right things and still feeling exhausted, stuck in your body, and disconnected from God, this podcast is for you. I'm Dr. Tabatha Barber, a triple board-certified functional medicine physician, and I help women stop fighting their bodies and start healing them God's way. Let's get into it. Welcome back to the Fast of Faith podcast. Oh my goodness. Hello, beautiful.

Hi.

I like when we're on the couch together. I know, it's fun, isn't it? But I'm realizing I'm still dressed for winter and you're all summertime over here.

I know, literally. I feel like once it hits 50, I just I know, that's what I do.

I actually was gonna be springtime, but my clothes were wrinkled and I didn't have time to iron them, so.

And I ironed this morning and I just want you to know that's something I'd never do, so. I'm very proud of you. Sorry, Mom.

Thank you.

Yeah, you're welcome.

Oh my gosh, are you excited for today?

Honestly, I am pumped for today. Yeah, I really am. This is a topic that I think is a hot topic and there's so much misconception and I think we're gonna clear all that up today.

Yes, we absolutely are. So I cannot wait for you to know my dear friend Dr. Ryka. She is amazing and fabulous, and she drove all the way here from Chicago. Thank you, Ryka.

Thank you, Tabatha, Dr. Tabatha and Ashley, for having me here. I'm super excited to share my knowledge about peptides so that we can help all women live long, well.

Yes, exactly, because peptides are a hot topic and we really need to dive into it. But I didn't want to tackle this topic because we need an expert. This is new emerging science and Dr. Ryka is the gal. She's like the leading functional medicine physician in this space. She's an award-winning speaker. She's best-selling author of Energized: Feel Fantastic Forever. Hopefully you can see the book. You got to get the book. It will really surprise you to realize like your best days are not behind you. They're actually ahead. Cannot wait. She helps busy professional women reclaim their energy of their youth and break free from midlife symptoms that doctors dismiss as just part of aging. So I'm excited for this because peptides are not my specialty. I do want to learn more, but you guys have been asking me, so we're going to dive in today. Are you so excited?

I am really excited. I'm so passionate about it, and, um, there's so many misconceptions, as you know. So let's bust some myths.

Oh, I love that. Yes. And you are called the Energizer Bunny and the go-to doctor for doctors, right? Correct. What do you think that is? Why, why do doctors come to you for help?

You know, um, I never realized that this book had become a pattern that, you know, when I first got out into functional medicine, it was after my own personal journey, as many of us in this space, yourself included, um, that I kept going down the rabbit hole deeper and deeper and to really fine-tuned, utilizing a functional medicine approach, and then adding in anti-aging strategies like peptides. It's a long road. It's an expensive road for the training. It's a lot of hours and time. And that's why I wrote my book, because I'm like, what if I could teach everyone from the layperson to another doctor? And honestly, I just think it's because— and I love what you said about you're going to help people break free of these midlife symptoms, as I know at almost 58, you're supposed to say, wait, you're 58?

Yeah, I know, you look incredible.

Thank you. Is that I have more energy than I ever did in my 20s and 30s and 40s. And had I just accepted it as a normal part of aging, I really honestly don't even think I'd be alive today based on how serious some of my symptoms and reported diagnoses were. So, um, yeah, I think I'm called that because I got my own results by being the cornerstone of poor energy And then really just kept doing that layer upon layer of learning. And now I love educating everyone from the layperson to my patients to other doctors.

Yeah.

And I just love how, like, no offense, but you're a nerd. Like, you love the science. You are so good at just getting into the data, into the studies, and pulling out what is relevant and real. And, you know, that's not my passion. I, I'm the more touchy-feely kind of doctor. And so I think, you know, you and I have just meshed so well as friends because we see each other's point of view, and it just, it kind of enhances the part that we aren't focused on. So I always appreciate your perspective in, in so many spaces in functional medicine.

And I'll take that as a compliment, being nerdy.

Yes. Oh my gosh, I, I will say stuff to Ashley and she'll be like, how can you consume that much content and learn that much? Yeah, it's really a special gift that you have, Ryka.

Oh, well, thank you for that. And I always say, if you're— you really have to know these nerdy biochemical pathways to understand how anything we give to patients, whether it's a medication or a supplement or a peptide, how it works and how the downstream effect is. Otherwise, you can impart unintended side effects or effects onto someone.

Yes.

So let's talk about all of that.

Let's dive in. Oh my gosh. What is a peptide? Let's start with the basics.

Yeah, just basics.

I love the basics. And, you know, I named the clinic Simply Health Institute because if health isn't simple to either understand or implement, then people won't do it. Right.

Right.

And a peptide is an amino acid. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, and they signal to a cell what the cell should be doing. So it's a cellular messenger. And I always— the analogy I give is think of it like a text message. So when you— if you're— or it's a communication stream. So think about— actually, let's start with a phone call. If you call someone on the phone, you got to wait for them to pick up, or maybe listen to their voicemail. Or if you're like me, I never even listen to the voicemails because people know if they want to get a hold of me, they text me. Yeah, because that is—

amen, amen. I feel that so deep.

And, and it's— so that's what peptides are. They're like a biologic text message. They deliver that message right away to exert that effect. Versus having to wait to exert the effect until someone listens to the message. So that's the best thing. And they communicate with cells, in the case of GLP-1s, which we'll be talking about, to tell the pancreas to produce more insulin, to tell the body to repair itself, to tell the body to make more growth hormones. So there's a variety of ways that they communicate, and they're very specific. So not only are they a biologic text message, but they're very precise messages to the cell.

I love that.

Okay, so are peptides something that our bodies naturally make, or are they completely synthetic?

They're both, but our bodies do make over 7,000 peptides. And you guessed it, with aging, like everything else with aging, they decline in how much of them we're making. So they do go down in number. And you can just pick 40 as an average— doesn't everything kind of change at 40? Um, and but there are synthetic ones, so our body naturally makes GLP-1s in our gut, but they work for minutes, so shorter periods of time. So when they're synthetically crafted, they can be identical to the ones that our body produces, like bioidentical hormones, or they can be slightly varied to exert maybe a greater effect. So GLP-1s that are synthetic will exert their effects for days, so up to a week, and that's why they're dosed weekly.

Awesome. Well, I think let's talk about GLP-1s because we're getting a lot of patients and clients that are on them or they're considering them. And, you know, it's a whole new world out there. We were talking before we started recording that now we're starting to use them in children and it's just like rampant, right? You can go online and buy it. That scares me a little bit. Like, You don't want to be getting something from China or Mexico. You don't actually know what you're injecting, right?

Correct. And they just did a study. They, they tested some of these ones that are bought off these online sites, and you're exactly right. They either don't contain what they say they do, or they contain impurities. They have to be really careful, and one impurity would be an endotoxin. So that could be potentially very hazardous to our health. So Worst case scenario is you spend the money and you get no effect, or best case scenario, worst case is it makes you sick.

So, wow. Okay, so it's really important who you're getting it from and that somebody is knowledgeable about it. So let's at least share with the listeners, what is a GLP-1? What is it indicated for? Who should be taking it? Who should not be taking it? Um, all the things.

Yeah, so GLP-1 It works 3 ways. So the first way is it communicates up to the part of the brain that say, hey, you're satiated. So you feel satiated that you're not going to continue to eat. Secondly, it communicate— the GLP-1s communicate to the pancreas to release more insulin. So insulin will help break down glucose. And as people eat more and more sugary foods, the insulin levels get higher and higher and higher, and then they stop working as well. So help support the breakdown of glucose. And the third is it slows down our gut motility, and that's where we feel fuller quicker. So that's how they work. And who should be on them? I really think, you know, obviously they've been indicated for type 2 diabetics, probably first line for them because they are so effective. And type, you know, they're calling dementia diabetes of the brain. So you want to get that under control. And the biggest thing, I just saw a young diabetic patient. He was type 1 in this case, not type 2. And his A1C was 6.5. I said, "That's not normal. That's a setup to develop memory loss." And thankfully, he had made some changes before seeing me and he was down to 5.5. He had dropped a full point. And I said, "You're great. You're on your way. You're very close to optimal, which is 5.2." So, diabetics for sure. And I really think for weight loss, they should be considered only after you've optimized all the, what I call the terrain or the foundation. Lay that foundation, so they work how they're supposed to, you don't get the untoward side effects, because some of the statistics are really shocking about what happens while you're on them and after you get off of them.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's kind of what we've been saying all along is it's a little bit of Band-Aid medicine, you know, you are helping in ways you're regulating your insulin, making it more sensitive, you're getting your blood sugar under control, But if you go off of it, you'll go back to the mess you had before, but probably a little bit worse, right?

So correct, correct, because the weight regain is 50 to 67% of the weight will be regained in one year. And the majority of that weight regain is going to be fat mass. And then couple that with the muscle mass loss that's seen unless you do things to prevent it while you're on it. Muscle mass loss can be 25 to 40%. You can lose that much muscle mass. So you're shooting your metabolism in the foot when you lose that muscle. So not only did you lower how quickly you burn calories, but now you've put on more fat and you're worse than when you started. So you really want to know how to use them effectively, um, when you're on them, and then what to do about when you get off of them. Hopefully by laying that foundation Yeah, I love—

that's such a great point because that's what people, they think it's a quick fix and that's why they go on them, but they didn't fix anything else, right?

And now you either have to pay for that the rest of your life or you have to figure out how to get off of it and do it right the next time. So, and we're talking about like Ozempic, semaglutide, tirzepatide. Can you explain the differences and why there's so many of these? GLP-1s?

Well, like anything that comes out, so the first, you know, 1.0 was the, even there was, there were others before semaglutide that I'd utilize, and I've even forgotten their names because we don't even rely on them. And actually, I don't use semaglutide. It does, in my humble opinion, carry the most GI side effects.

Okay.

And so I've gone mostly to tirzepatide, and there is one that's, you know, being researched now, retatrutide. Which will come out. So I can come back on again when that's released officially. It is, you know, for sale all over the internet, but I would say wait and get a reputable source of that. That's actually showing a lot of promise. And so it may negate some of the muscle loss we're seeing. And so there's so many of them because some of them, it's just a different name. So you're using the generic versus the different brand name. Some of it is they've gone from 1.0 to 2.0, and now soon it'll be 3.0 with the retatrutide.

Okay, so they're just trying to, to keep the benefits but mitigate the side effects and lessen them. But correct. Let's talk about this GI motility issue, because that's what we're seeing with our clients and patients is they have been on the GLP-1. They didn't really change their diet. They weren't even hungry or eating most of the time, but they are coming in with such dysbiosis and sometimes small intestinal bacterial overgrowth or SIBO because their stomach motility has slowed down so much, right?

Yeah, correct. And I say the patients who have the most GI side effects from a GLP-1 are the ones that don't have a foundationally well-laned GI terrain. And so what do I mean by that? So they're not, you know, think about to modern society is that we're rushing off, we don't rest to digest our foods, we're not seated at a table, we don't chew our food thoroughly. These are some of the basics. We're relying on ultra-processed foods and you're not eating the whole food, so you're not feeding your microbiome. So you can guarantee that most people coming through your doors, especially if they're not familiar with lifestyle medicine, functional medicine, that they're going to be imbalanced. Their gut bacteria is not going to be the right milieu to make— to promote GLP-1 production. So GLP-1s— our gut is actually the original pharmacy of GLP-1s because we make it in our small intestine and in our colon. And it's influenced by our bacteria. So you can make your own. So you want to be supporting that initially. You may not even need a GLP-1, but it slows that gut motility. And so if you're already not going— and how many people come through our doors and they don't even eliminate or go poop? Let's not be fearful to talk about poop, ladies. But they're not going even once a day. But they're not educated on how, how to support that if it comes up. And then because you're fuller longer, you're not emptying your stomach as quickly, you're getting reflux symptoms at night, keeping these women up. And so it's really that the foundation is not laid through the diet, through our lifestyle, how we eat, through mitigating that stress response. So anyone who's stressed out, you can guarantee they're probably not making enough stomach acid. To break down the protein that they need to maintain our muscles, right? So those are some of the, the background things. And as I said earlier, is that the ones who have the most side effects, that's your tip-off. That's, that should be their symptom or their signal that you need to work with a doctor and restore your gut health, because you're going to be the one that's going to rebound and be twofold worse, or to develop that SIBO. So yeah, um, after you've been on them, I know it breaks my heart.

These women are spending an exorbitant amount of money to lose weight and feel better, and then they gotta go and do all this healing work after the fact. It's like, oh my gosh, if you could just do it together, that would make such a huge difference, right?

Yep. I always say that. I mean, if you're gonna do these fancy measures, if you don't lay that foundation, and I call it the 3D protocol, I say it's diet, digestion, detox, the right steps in the right order to support the foundation along with balancing hormones. And when I talk about hormones, I talk about the stress hormones, I talk about the sex hormones, the thyroid hormone. It's not just the, the sex hormones— estrogen, progesterone, testosterone. Um, and so if you lay that foundation, then it— you can do it in conjunction. You never have to delay, but if you're doing it in conjunction, you're going to maximize the benefit. And they released a study, I don't know if you saw, is that women who are postmenopausal and not on hormones actually lose weight less readily on the GLP-1s. So that's what I mean about laying the foundation. And so You know, I've put people on them before and they don't change their diet, and they're the ones who will plateau the quickest on the weight loss, or they'll have very little weight loss, which is shocking because they are pretty effective, uh, drugs if weight loss is your only goal. But hopefully that's not the only goal.

No, but I think that's a really important point. Like, if you are on a GLP-1 and you're not getting the results that you're expecting, like, you have to start to investigate investigate and dig deeper and assume that, yeah, I have some root cause stuff to deal with, right?

Yeah, for sure, for sure.

Oh my goodness, I love that. Okay, so let's take a minute and listen about Metabolift because some people watching, they haven't started the GLP-1s, they're, they're curious but they want that benefit. And like Dr. Rika is saying, your body makes GLP-1s and there are things you can take to help actually support that process And so Metabolift is a natural herbal supplement to help support that, and it's just been a game changer for so many women. It has. Real quick, I just want to interrupt this conversation for something super important. Even though we need to take care of ourselves spiritually, emotionally, and physically, we do have to take care of ourselves at a cellular level. And that is why I have my Fast2Face supplement line. So let's just take a minute to hear about something that might be the game changer that you need in this season.

Here's one of the things that the GLP-1 drugs don't do. They don't increase your metabolism, and they don't also increase your body's natural production of GLP-1. What Metabolife will do is it's a combination of plant extracts, so it's lemon verbena and hibiscus. Now those two have been researched, studied, and patented together as a duo to increase GLP-1 about 55% in the body. It's doing it naturally. It's going to naturally help you lower cravings and you're going to feel a little bit fuller. In the clinical trials, they studied obese and overweight patients. The obese patients lost an average 10 pounds over 2 months. And overweight, it was 8 pounds over 2 months. So this isn't gonna get you to the point where you don't ever want to eat. You're just not going to feel as hungry. You're just mildly full, but you're still going to be, you know, consuming food and then also increasing your metabolism as well.

So we've talked a lot about gut motility, and I feel like we talk about gut all the time on every single episode that we do, but what other, um, things happen when women are on these GLP-1s.

Yeah, all women should know that the average, um, weight loss is actually 25 to 40% of that weight loss is lean muscle mass.

That is wild.

That's huge.

You're not losing fat, you're losing your muscle, which is necessary for high metabolic rate to break down your calories at rest.

And that is unless you prioritize two things: protein and strength training. And the other loss that you get that I don't think I've heard talked about much is that if a woman's losing weight rapidly, so over 14% in 3 months or so, you'll get rapid bone loss. And so we're already at risk as we age of— we lose bone. And, you know, I have a woman who came in with a DEXA scan, and she's been getting them repeatedly. She has access to do them as however often she wants. And even though she's in the normal we— I saw that steady decline. So it's really like, how do you support that? So you don't want to shoot yourself in the foot by not only losing muscle but then losing bone. And, you know, hip fractures are a huge source for what we call bad outcomes when it comes to end of life.

Yeah, I mean, if you want to increase your mortality risk, have a hip fracture or any major fracture. Oh my gosh, we just saw a patient the other day, or I guess I did your coaching her, but she was advised to get off of her estrogen because she turned 60. Like, ladies, this is bad information. Please, that— there's no data supporting that you have got to go off your hormones after a certain time period or at a certain age. That is a myth. That is a lie. And this woman's bone loss just accelerated after she stopped her estrogen. Like, her T-score was -5.1 in her lumbar spine. I was like, "Are you sure they read that right? Minus 5?" Yeah. Like, minus 2 is extreme. So it is really important. And then this kind of stuff is not being looked at from these clinics online that are handing out these GLP-1s. So I can only imagine the damage that it's causing to go with— through these clinics that are not taking a comprehensive approach. And that is why I appreciate your clinic so much, because you're like, no, we need to look foundationally at everything. So I'm assuming you are following that, right?

100%. And that's what I— the third thing is, so we talked about gut motility, we talked about the unintended losses, but the real issue with GLP-1s is that the root causes are never addressed when you're going to these online clinics, or if you're just getting it from your primary care doctor. I had a woman that was getting it from her doctor, but I had optimized her. But I said, oh well, how often is she doing check-ins? She's like, oh, she's not. I'm like, what?

Oh, it's so frustrating. We're hearing the same thing. Someone locally that takes care of me is on it. Um, she, you know, does my beauty regimen, and she didn't know the plan. I said, how long are you supposed to be on this? What dose? I don't know, I'm just supposed to like keep going every month and getting an increased dose. There's no plan. And there's no plan to wean off of it. So that's something I think we definitely need to talk about, is, okay, if you've actually lost the weight, you've hit your goal, or if you really are struggling with side effects and you need to come off of it, what does that look like? Can women just stop it cold turkey, or should they come down on their doses?

Yeah, that's a great question. So obviously, if you're having such untoward side effects, you may have to stop it abruptly, but that's not ideal. So we'll talk about If a woman really is committed to not being on them, I would first gradually reduce the dose. And hopefully no woman, when it comes to terzepatide, is on more than 10. Okay. The studies show no more benefit at 10 than they do anything higher.

Okay.

And maybe even 7.5. So there's that sweet spot. More is not always better. So say they're on 10, coming down to 7.5 for a couple weeks. And everyone's going to be different because you don't all of a sudden want to go from 0 to 360. And, um, and then gradually lowering it. And then you can space out the dosing, and then we can talk about maybe there's an indication to continue at a smaller dose, you know, ongoing. So that is an option for women. We call that microdosing.

Yeah, I, I want to hear about microdosing because I have autoimmune conditions and I hear it's good for inflammation, and we have clients now asking about it. So yeah, I think that'd be huge. What is microdosing?

So it's utilizing the GLP-1 at a fraction of the dose. Some people will go down to a 10th or a quarter. And I'd say, let's take tirzepatide, for example. The starting dose is 2.5, and I'll commonly use just 0.5 or 1 milligram. So it's a fraction of those, 20 to 40% of the original dose. And the benefits are real clear. Like you said, they're very anti-inflammatory. And they think that's why when it comes to heart disease, which is the number one killer of women, it reduces the risk of a heart attack by 15%. So that may not sound like a lot, but it's something. And then if you look into how it protects our brain health, they found in type 2 diabetics it can reduce the risk of dementia between 33 and 45%.

Wow.

So that's huge. That's huge. Um, and then they looked at what about people who have all these other neurodegenerative diseases, and they found that it improves both cognitive function and motor skills in people who have Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and possibly MS. So they have all these other benefits, and it is, as you said, anti-inflammatory. So I have the people who have osteoarthritis or autoimmune arthritis, and they're finding benefit at these lower doses, um, because it's cardioprotective, neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory. And when it comes to the brain, it not only squashes down neuroinflammation but helps insulin get into our brain. Remember, we just said dementia is considered diabetes of the brain. And it stops a, um, a process in the brain called oxidative stress. And I love simply defining that as when you cut an apple open and it turns brown, it's being destroyed, right? That's oxidative stress. And when we have exposures to toxins— and we didn't even touch upon like the things that can inhibit weight loss, and that's one of them, but it will suppress that. And I always say control oxidative stress, uh, fuel your mitochondria, which my book is all about, how to prevent mitochondrial dysfunction. That's why my energy is so high. And it— we've got all these added benefits at a lower dose without all the side effects. So it should be a discussion. Is it for everyone? Maybe, maybe not. And— but it's a discussion, and that's what I love about having collaborative relationships with my patients, and I know you do too.

Yeah. Oh my gosh, I love this. Well, here's a question. So women are always asking me, how long do I need to be on HRT? And I say, as long as you want the benefits. When you go off, you stop receiving the benefits. And so, yeah, forever. Is that the same with these microdosing?

I would— it's similar, yes, of course. So, but you're on a fraction of the dose, and hopefully you're not needing it for weight loss because someone's jumped in and they've laid the foundation so that your diet is optimism, your optimized, your digestive tract is optimized, that you're not chock full of toxins which make you inflamed and store weight. Remember, when we're exposed to toxins, our body tries to protect us, sticks those toxins right in those fat cells, and your body is doing everything possible not to release them because they're harmful. You got to be able to clear them out of the body, and there's a safe way to do it, of course. But yeah, I love that you say that about hormones. I do too. I'm like, well, how long do you want to age well? Well, you want to age well until the last day you're here. I want to be able to get up off my chair. I don't want to end up in long-term care. And the stats are, are shocking. 1 in 2 women will need it after the age of 65. And because we live longer than men, on average, it's approaching almost 4 years in long-term care. So, oh my gosh. Wow.

Yeah, I will be staying on my hormones.

Me too. Me too. All of them.

Oh my gosh, that's amazing. So I, I've always looked to you because you have done so much work in the chronic health condition space of like Long COVID and mold and Lyme and all those complex diseases. But really, truly, what you're saying is like the terrain is what matters, the foundation, the detox pathways. It doesn't matter if you're dealing with these chronic illnesses or something new is coming up and you, you realizing, hey, I just cannot shed this weight. It could be something as simple as your fat cells are storing all these toxins, right? So can you just dive into that a little bit more? Because I, I'm hearing somebody's listening right now and they're just like, wait, our fat cells store toxins?

Yeah. So when we're— it's not a toxic exposure once in a lifetime. It happens gradually over our lives. And I've been measuring toxic loads in patients over the last 10+ years, and a lot of them can wreak havoc on our hormones. And so when we're exposed to a toxin, we have to break it down into a chemical product that's actually worse for us. We call it— it's a— the active metabolite. So it can make you very sick, and then you have to make it water-loving, and you have to attach a molecule to be able to poop, pee, or sweat it out. And if you don't— and in order to do that second phase, you need amino acids, which comes from protein. And how many women don't eat enough protein? And you also need your B vitamins. And so, um, as we get stressed, we're going to deplete our magnesium and our B vitamins. And then we have low protein, so the body has no other choice but to say, what else are we going to do with this? It can wreak havoc. And it's like I said, not one exposure, it's over a lifetime. It can come from air pollution. I always say it's filter your water, filter your air, eat as clean as you can with the whole foods. And then be very mindful. I say purge your products, you know, make sure everything you use on your face, body, and home— and even men are exposed— and where you're, you're surrounding yourself. So, you know, we, we talk a lot about the women, but one of the shocking statistics I give before men is that men's testosterone levels have dropped 30% over the last decade. And atrazine, in the PubMed studies, has been shown to chemically castrate male frogs. So if it's gonna feminize male frogs, what does it do? It's going to give us estrogen dominance in women. And so it's— and that's going to make it harder for us not only to shed the weight but then feel in balance. We're going to feel off, have more PMS, painful periods, heavy periods, etc. But that's how they play the role, is that they— it's unassuming. And I say the younger you are when you develop symptoms like I was, you can bet your bottom dollar that your genetics— and we didn't even dive into that, maybe that's another episode, Tabatha.

Yes, absolutely, because you are a master at genetics. And you know, it's not everything, but it is part of the puzzle for sure. And I personally have terrible genetics, and so I don't detoxify well. I can feel the overwhelm of that toxic burden so easily. We were just talking on our last episode how when we fly, like, it's rough the next day because we have like taken on all those chemicals and that recirculation inflated air and all those toxins, and our poor little bodies are like, help!

Yeah, help!

Um, do you do genetic testing with every patient that comes in, or is that something that you are looking for certain things that you want to do it?

I would love to do it on everyone, but we, we say, you know, we have 3 levels of programs. The first one lays the foundation, and that gets people most of what they need, and that's going to hit, I don't know, at least half your population. And then the second step is leverage the genetics, and the step is live long, well with these peptide protocols. But leveraging the genetics, I say the people who absolutely need it are those high performers who want to stay high performing because their genetic predispositions to burnout. And how many high performers come in and say, I don't feel stressed, and then the next week they're in your office flat out, laid out on the couch, disabled from their fatigue? And it didn't happen overnight, but they see it as happening overnight. And those that have either symptoms earlier in life, so like you and I, right? And you, you said Um, I'd love to share one story about the flying, if I may.

Yes.

So before I got into— I got into functional medicine as a result of one of the antioxidants our bodies makes called glutathione. I read this article, it happened to be by Dr. Mark Hyman in 2011, a long time ago now, and I said, wow, this explains every fatigued woman that I couldn't explain why they were fatigued. And I had no idea this was my whole issue with some of my genetic variations and how I made and recycled glutathione. And my manifestation— we lived a long way away— was that my jet lag went from 1 week to 2 weeks to 3 weeks by the time I hit mid-40s. And, um, I was at my first functional medicine conference, came upon the booth that was, uh, selling glutathione, and he said, you must be excited to fly all that way back to see your kids, you must be missing them, they're really young. I said, I am, but I'm not looking for the jet lag. And he said, here, take this glutathione starting now, because I was leaving like the next day. Within 3 days, jet lag was gone, and I had no clue. It took me a long time to figure out that that was my, my insult. So younger people, high performers, or anyone who wants to mitigate the ill effects of, of aging— because while aging is, uh, inevitable, decline doesn't have to be.

Oh, I love that. I will take that. Yeah, and I need to refill my glutathione because I I really just took my last one yesterday. It helps so much. You're absolutely right. So that is the major antioxidant our body makes that is preventing our apple from turning brown, right?

Correct, correct.

I love it.

So good. Oh my gosh, did you get all your questions answered about GLP-1s and peptides?

Yeah, I think so. I think that this is probably gonna be one of those episodes where women are gonna have to listen to it 2 or times to really get it. You always say that glassed-over look I get, um, and there is a lot coming at, uh, I am not the doctor in the group, and so, but there's a lot of information and a lot to unpack. But I, I think it goes back to the basics, like you've got to fix your gut. And if you're a high performer and you're listening to this, catch it younger. I mean, I'm in the same boat, like I struggled really young, and there are a lot of women who say to me, you're so fortunate that you caught it so early. And I, I don't take that for granted that we did that. Yeah, I sat in front of you and you told me like, get your life together, girlfriend.

Oh my gosh. Is there anything that we didn't touch on that you just feel compelled to share still?

Um, just a brief overview, and maybe it'll have to be a whole nother episode, is that there are so many more peptides that are important for longevity or could be important that can influence our cognitive health, our brain health, our metabolic health. And I'll share one. So we talked about getting off of them, and there are some peptides I'll use to help promote lean muscle mass, um, and those are the ones that support our own formation of growth hormone. It helps us lean out and preserves our muscle mass, helps people recover quicker. And then also sleep better at night. Some have reported a blip in libido. So that's an important one to think about when you're coming off of them, the ones that support growth hormone. The second one would be the mitochondrial peptides, because one in particular supports insulin sensitivity. So that's what I'm doing now with a patient who had gotten off and said, hey, I'm starting to regain the weight. So we revisited and talked about the foundation, made sure that was laid, did some labs, made sure she looked good, and said, hey, let's start these two. And see how you do. And so, um, that's what I've commonly been doing, is segueing into that next phase of layering in the peptide. But there's so, so many more that we can—

oh, I love that. Is the growth hormone peptide— what's that one called?

There's a few on the market. Um, my top two are CJC-1295, ipamorelin, and tesamorelin. And you'll hear some— just so your listeners know, they're on this Category 2 list. It just means Be careful. That's what the government's saying. But the recent announcement was that they're going to be moving them off in the near future to Category 1 because most peptides are safe. You just need to know how to use them, how to dose them, how to cycle them, know any of the ill or untoward effects. You know, even the GLP-1 says don't use it in someone who's had thyroid medullary cancer. There are some warnings with some of them, and you want to be counseled appropriately. Yeah.

Um, last question. Do they have to be the injectables? Because now I'm seeing the oral GLP-1 commercials. I saw Charles Barkley doing one the other night. I was like, dude's getting old.

Yeah, I don't have enough information on those. I'd be really curious. So there are a lot of the peptides that use in the office are range from oral. So there's a lot of effective oral. You have to just make sure it doesn't get degraded in by the stomach acid is probably the big thing. It's delivered out to the periphery. And so, uh, there are a lot that we use orally, nasally, injectably. Um, I still think at the moment that's a TBD. I'm not certain on that one.

That's what I was thinking. Okay, cool. So you definitely only want to work with someone who's extremely knowledgeable, who has experience in this and understands the foundational aspect of it. I love that you shared you have 3 different levels how clients can work with you, right? And you're based out of Chicago, correct? Share with my listeners where else you're licensed in case they want to work with you.

Yes, I'm licensed in Massachusetts, Washington, and California, so we can provide telehealth in those states. And if someone travels to see us— so we have at least 20 to 25% of our population will hear me speak and they fly in from all over the United States and sometimes world. And then the remainder of the visits for that year can be telehealth. So they'll travel once a year to see me. And, you know, I always say find a practitioner that you can resonate with, that you can have a collaborative relationship. We could probably do a whole episode on how to find a good practitioner, right? Uh, that's someone that's trained and certified, and you want to be able to teach it. So we say if you can teach others— and I know you're teaching practitioners— then and, you know, you're, you're probably pretty well skilled at it. And just that passion. I mean, I want to age well, so it's a little bit of a selfish motivation to, to be in this space.

Yeah, I love that so much. You are practicing what you preach, and I think that is the doctor that you need to go to, because if they're giving you advice telling you to do things they themselves are not doing, you know, if they're overweight, they're not eating well, they're not moving their body Yeah, you can find yourself another provider, right?

You absolutely can.

Oh my goodness, what a good episode! And I'm just excited that we're gonna go have lunch now because Dr. Ryka came all the way from Chicago, so we're gonna go do that. But yes, let's plan another episode to dive deep into genetics because I think sometimes we can do all of this foundational work and then we get thrown off with travel, or a sickness takes us out, and we're like, why are we so sensitive? Or, I thought I was fixed. And that can be the missing piece, right?

Yeah, 100%. Awesome.

Thank you so much for this. This was awesome.

Thank you for having me. What an honor to help women, uh, serve at their highest for their families and God.

Thank you for your time today. I'm going to leave you with one scripture to meditate on. It Proverbs 3:7-8. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.

Dang, that's good. That's a good scripture for this.

I know, right? Get it?

Yeah.

Oh my gosh.

Oh my gosh.

Yes. Do not be wise in your own eyes. It is essentially what I say I stole from my mentor, JJ. You cannot see the picture when you're in the frame. So get a licensed professional who knows what they're talking about and can walk you through this journey. If you've connected with Dr. Rika, everything's in the show notes. Get her book Energized. It's going to help you get unstuck. Until next week.

Love you.

Bye, guys.

Bye.

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