The first epidemiological study of semaglutide (Ozempic / Wegovy) side effects has been published, and the results are not good. 👇
Researchers examined health-insurance claims for 16 million US patients and looked specifically at individuals prescribed semaglutide or liraglutide (a drug that works in the same way as semaglutide) between 2006 and 2020.
The evidence showed that, compared to another weight loos drug (bupropio-naltrexone), users of semaglutide and liraglutide had 9.09x higher risk of pancreatitis; 4.22 times the risk of bowel obstruction; and 3.67x the risk of gastroparesis, which is stomach paralysis.
The researchers calculate that hundreds of thousands of people will be affected by these conditions.
The manufacturers of semaglutide and liraglutide are already being hit with massive lawsuits from people who've suffered stomach paralysis as a result of using the drugs.
There's good reason to believe that Lisa-Marie Presley may have died as a result of using Ozempic or a similar drug. She died of a catastrophic bowel obstruction. She had had bariatric surgery, which can cause obstruction issues. Ozempic makes these even worse.
One thing the new study doesn't talk about is pulmonary aspiration. Patients on semaglutide are much more likely to inhale the contents of their own stomach during surgery, because the stomach can take weeks to empty properly. I've written about this for America Mind.
It's also unclear whether the risk of thyroid cancers identified in the rodent studies for GLP-1 agonists like semaglutide will materialise.
Emulsifiers ("E numbers"), used to improve shelf life and texture, are ubiquitous additives in processed food. A new study suggests that increased consumption of them is linked to increased risk of heart disease. 👇
I'll do more posts on emulsifiers in the coming weeks, but for now what you need to know is that they are used in virtually every kind of processed food. They include celluloses, mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids, modified starches, lecithins, carrageenans, phosphates & gums.
Both animal and human studies already suggest that consumption of emulsifiers is associated with gut dysbiosis, inflammation, metabolic problems and even cognitive dysfunction.
A new study suggests that exposure to gylphosate, the world's most widely used herbicide, may be associated with severe neurological symptoms including Alzheimer's. 👇
According to the study, exposure to glyphosate (orally, through inhalation or by dermal exposure) lowers cognitive function scores, and increases the likelihood of depression and impaired hearing.
At the end of last year, a study showed that glyphosate "infiltrates the brain" and increases inflammation.
It's well understood that depression in men is intimately related to circulating levels of androgens. 👇
Many varying studies have shown a clear association between circulating levels of testosterone and mood. Low testosterone is clearly associated with depression in males.
Depression is also associated with a variety of severe sexual symptoms, including erectile dysfunction, as we'd expect in the case of low circulating androgens.
I've called Vince Gironda the "Plato of bodybuilding" for his insistence that no music be played in his gym. Vince believed music was an unwanted distraction, and that may be so. But is there a hormonal reason to avoid it when working out too? 👇
In 2001, a Japanese endocrinologist published the results of a study he did with 70 students aged 19-25. Half were male, half were female. He got them to listen to different kinds of music, including music of their own choice, and then measured their salivary testosterone levels.
His findings were unexpected to say the least. Listening to music decreased the male subjects' testosterone across the board. Worst of all was the subjects' own favourite music. Least worse was Gregorian chanting. Silence had no effect.
One of the best things you can do to begin improving your health is to cut out processed food altogether. Here are three new studies that should help you understand why. 👇
1. CONSUMPTION IS ASSOCIATED WITH INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE (IBD) AND CROHN'S DISEASE.
A meta-study of over 4 million individuals in 20 studies shows that consumption of processed food is associated with significantly increased risk of IBD and Crohn's disease.
2. PHOSPHATE ADDITIVES ARE ASSOCIATED WITH DAMAGE TO THE KIDNEY AND HEART.
Processed food is full of all kinds of additives whose negative effects we are only just beginning to understand. Phosphates are used to preserve, stabilise and thicken processed foods, among other uses.
The causes of heart disease are being thoroughly re-evaluated after the 70-year disaster that was the lipid-heart hypothesis, which blamed cholesterol intake. Some are now pointing to insulin resistance, but I think the cause is just as likely to be endocrine disruptors. 👇
A region in Northern Italy with highly increased prevalence of hypertension and heart disease was revealed to be subject to large-scale contamination of drinking water by PFAS, a particularly unpleasant endocrine disruptor and obesogen.
Researchers decided to investigate whether PFAS might be causing this. They showed that PFAS exposure enhanced the body's synthesis of the hormone aldosterone, which helps regulate the body's blood pressure by managing levels of sodium and potassium in the blood.