Why 'Eat Right and Exercise' Isn't The Full Story with Dr. Tamar Lawful

Transcript

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I think that's the main question is what happens when you stop taking it, because is it truly designed for long-term use or is this just to get you going to get extra weight off, to then transition to a healthier weight management program?

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And I think maybe you, as a pharmacist, can you discuss some of the general side effects of these weight loss drugs?

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Welcome to Pivoting Pharmacy with Nutrigenomics.

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Part of the Pharmacy Podcast Network, a must-have resource for pharmacist entrepreneurs seeking to enhance patient care while enjoying career and life.

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Join us as we pivot into nutrigenomics, using pharmacy and nutrition for true patient-focused care.

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Explore how to improve chronic conditions rather than just manage them.

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Celebrate entrepreneurial triumphs and receive priceless advice.

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Align your values with a career that profoundly impacts patients.

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Together, we'll raise the script on health and pivot into a brighter future.

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Hello and welcome to Pivoting Pharmacy with Nutrigenomics.

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I'm Dr Tamar, lawful Doctor of Pharmacy and Certified Nutritional Genomics Specialist.

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You know the journey to wellness is never one size fits all, and that's why our focus today is on something that is profoundly misunderstood.

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We're taking a deep dive into why eat right and exercise is often an oversimplified mantra and nowhere close to the full story.

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At one point, you may have even given your all to well-accepted health guidance and still felt stuck.

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I've been there too.

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It's like a hamster on a wheel, running at a relentless pace but seemingly getting nowhere.

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It's demoralizing, draining and downright frustrating.

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Many have struggled with finding the perfect balance that their unique selves need, but today we are delving into something ripe with potential nutrigenomics and how it has the power to change your life.

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Today I share this with you in a candid interview I had on Veganish and All Things Healthy with Freya Magnusson.

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Listen in.

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And welcome to the broadcast of Veganish and All Things Healthy.

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And today I have with me special guest Tamara Lawful, who is a doctor in pharmacy.

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She got her training at Philadelphia School of Pharmacy right out of high school.

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For six years she did the program.

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She works as an inpatient pharmacist.

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Out of high school.

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For six years she did the program.

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She works as an inpatient pharmacist and along the way she got inspired to start a business blending the science of nutrition and genomics along with her pharmacy career to better serve her patients in the ambulatory care center environment.

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Welcome to the show.

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Thank you, freya, it's a pleasure to be here.

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Yeah.

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So let's start in.

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You're going through the program out of high school, six years, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy.

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You graduate, you get your job in the inpatient pharmacy.

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What was that like first off?

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Was it what you expected from school?

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Probably wasn't when I decided to become a pharmacist.

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I wanted to become a pharmacist because I wanted to help people who were sick.

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But I was completely terrified of actually being in the presence of someone who was sick, based off an experience I had with my grandmother.

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She was dying of lung cancer, so my mom had my brother and I go visit her in Jamaica.

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She was on her deathbed and she was just so frail and I felt so helpless.

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There was nothing I could do for my grandmother frail and I felt so helpless.

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There was nothing I could do for my grandmother.

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It was clear that she was going to die and it was in that moment where I made a decision that, whatever I do with my life, I'm going to help people get better or prevent them from becoming like my grandmother.

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But I was terrified.

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It was a very fearful experience to be in a room with someone who's dying, so I wanted to do it in a way where I wouldn't necessarily have to be right there.

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So I discovered pharmacy.

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So by the age of 14, 15, I knew I was going to be a pharmacist because I could just dispense medication.

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But it was totally different when I went to pharmacy school.

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Things changed.

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Now.

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Pharmacists are no longer just getting bachelors.

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You're going to graduate as a doctor of pharmacy, so with that it's more clinical, you're going to see patients.

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You're going to graduate as a doctor of pharmacy, so with that.

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It's more clinical.

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You're going to see patients, You're going to be more involved in their care and I was like, oh, that means I have to be in their room.

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Can you briefly describe the difference between a regular allopathic provider and what the pharmacy role is in an inpatient setting?

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Where do those boundaries intersect?

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There are so many options for pharmacists.

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So in an inpatient setting like a hospital that I work at, you can be what we call a clinical specialist, where you're more on hand.

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So like a doctor, like a nurse practitioner or physician's assistant, in a hospital setting, you are on the floor, you are going on rounds with the medical team, you are seeing patients, you are talking to them, you are reviewing their medications so that you're making sure there's no drug interactions, that it's safe or based on their kidney function, their heart.

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So you're very much involved in the medication therapy and we are trained.

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A lot of people don't realize that we're trained in more than just medications.

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We're trained to a certain extent as if we are medical students, to the point that when we are rounding with doctors as the medical team, if the medical resident or student doesn't know an answer, the attending is asking us and 10 out of 10 we know the answer, because that's how well-trained pharmacists are.

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A lot of people that don't realize that they still see pharmacists as the one that they go to at their local pharmacy better dispensing their medications and saying, oh, your insurance is not covering this, but that's the other side of pharmacy as well.

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So there is so much that pharmacists can do, and the retail and hospital are just two portions of it.

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And then would you say that they assign an inpatient setting a pharmacist for complex care only.

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I would guess if someone is having many, many multiple medications, it would be wise to reach out to the pharmacist to be part of the team.

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Yeah, that's a whole other sector of pharmacy and that's something I used to do.

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They call it transitions of care.

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So I started a service in my hospital where patients who were on a lot of medications 10 or more medications, they were elderly, they were on certain types of medications as well they would be assigned to me and I will be part of their care, their entire hospital stay and I will help them transition out of the hospital back home by working with the social workers and the rest of the medical team.

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And in doing that I created a program called Med2Bed where at discharge those that were on my service would get 30 days worth of their discharge medications at no cost.

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So for 30 days they walked out of the hospital with 30 days supply, didn't have to worry about going to the pharmacy.

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Those medications were on hand for them.

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So it depends on the hospital.

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Every hospital is different.

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My hospital had started this service that was more on hands for the more higher at-risk patients who are high risk for returning to the hospital because of how many medications they were on and the type of disease states they had.

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I've heard the program meds to beds before.

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I don't know if we use it, but it certainly, you know, makes the care focus more on the patient, not having to worry about getting all the details together with pharmacy.

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So that sounds wonderful.

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You have been doing this job for 20 years.

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This is your 20th year.

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Congratulations.

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As a pharmacist.

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And along your journey, you wanted to branch out and employ the skills and science of nutrition and genomics.

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And what inspired you to want to do that?

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You know it goes back to my role as transition of care pharmacist in that hospital setting.

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With that meds to bed program, I was able to really be on hand and see patients with a variety of chronic illnesses like diabetes, heart failure, high blood pressure, and although I would counsel them on how they should eat, the importance of exercise when they go home and taking their meds as prescribed, some of them still came back to the hospital and when they come back, what happens?

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They get put on more medications or higher doses of medications.

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So I wanted to do something that would actually prevent them from coming to the hospital and I realized that I needed more than 10 minutes with them.

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I need it to work with them outside in hospital.

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I need it to hold their hand a little bit better, guide them, keep them accountable, because as soon as they walk out those hospital doors they go back to their regular life.

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Everything I told them goes out the window or it's not as easy to implement because they don't have anyone there to support them.

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So that's what led me to my business, life Balance, where I decided to take on health coaching with a focus on nutrition.

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First, I started with ketogenic nutrition.

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I became a specialist in that, and my studies in ketogenic nutrition actually led me to what I do now, which is nutrigenomics, which is how food affects your genes.

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So by looking at your genetic blueprint, you can identify areas in your health that need to be focused on, prioritized, first in order to start getting health improvement.

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You get specific recommendations on the foods to eat to resolve those issues, lifestyle changes to make, like even down to types of exercise and supplements that you should consider.

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So I use it as a tool to guide my clients along their health journey and it's been very successful, because when people actually can see that this is what my genetics me, my body is telling me I need, they actually stick with it.

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That's wonderful, and I mean also just the trust that you're a pharmacist too, so you can intersect these populations pretty well.

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Yes, exactly so you are a CEO and founder of Life Balance L-Y-F-E.

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Do you want to explain what that acronym means?

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Yes, life Balance stands for love yourself first.

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Every day I sat down and really thought about this.

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I'm an overthinker.

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Join the overthinker club.

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Yeah, you know, we accomplish a lot of overthinkers.

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We do, it's exhausting.

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I realized that it stemmed from me.

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Another portion of why I started my company was because I had a lifestyle that I was not putting myself first.

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Every day I was not loving myself first.

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Every day I put everybody before me.

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I was on the board of three nonprofits at the same time.

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That's a very busy job.

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Plus, I was working full time.

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I was a new mom, newly married.

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I was very busy.

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I wasn't catering to my health anymore.

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So I identified that as the core issue that many, especially women, have is that they're not putting themselves first, they're not loving themselves first, because naturally we're caretakers, so we take care of everybody else and leave ourselves for last, if we ever get to ourselves.

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So my goal, my mission, with Life Balance, was to help women learn how to prioritize themselves by prioritizing their health and using nutrigenomics as a tool to help them do that easily.

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That is beautiful, and you have also come up with a health coaching program called In Her Glow.

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It's a kind of a play on words of inner glow, but you spell it I-N-H-E-R.

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In Her Glow.

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That's going to be registered trademark, so you're going to have a new name for this business.

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Yes, and it says it's empowered numerous working moms toward optimal health, reducing the need for medications.

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Can you talk to us more about that?

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Yes, indeed, thanks for asking about Inherglow.

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Inherglow is my 90-day health coaching program.

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Women come to me for various reasons.

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They're having issues with menopause, weight loss, they're pre-diabetic or they are diabetic and they need some help.

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They want to focus on their nutrition.

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And I got Interglow because once they start applying what they're learning in the health coaching program, making these changes in their life with how they're eating, how they're sleeping, how they manage stress, coming up with a self-care routine that's something I help them with they start to literally and physically glow externally.

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So I tell them you know you're getting healthy on the inside and now that health is just coming out of your pores and you are glowing and that's how I came up with the name Inner Glow, because my clients were.

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It was just happening and there was no better word to explain it.

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So I came up with Inner Glow in that way.

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That's wonderful.

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So you're also, by the way, a working mom, full-time working mom.

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Tell us, how was that to balance parenting?

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I don't know if it was after your education or during the process.

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Can you tell us how you were balancing that?

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Yeah, I didn't become a mom until way after I was a pharmacist.

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I was 38 years old.

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I became a mom.

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I'm going to be 44 in two weeks, so I was wondering what do they call us geriatric?

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I'm like oh, I have a gray hair on my head, why am I geriatric?

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I guess it is all considered geriatric because we're all supposedly living longer.

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So now is that normalized, maybe I don't know Exactly.

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So I was geriatric on pregnancy and at that time I didn't start my business until after my pregnancy.

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So balancing after I had my baby girl so she'll be six in June yeah, I was still working full time at the hospital and it's all about scheduling and taking time to really plan out what you want to do and how you're going to go about executing it.

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And the beauty of being an entrepreneur is it's all up to you.

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It's up to you how, what your schedule is going to be, how many clients you're going to see, how you're going to do your program.

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So I built it a way that worked for me at that time and it has since evolved.

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So now things are on automation.

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I meet my clients once a week, I do group coaching, so that's one hour a week and if I have multiple groups it might be three hours a week.

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But it's up to me how many clients I have and when I do it.

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And then a lot of things are automated.

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So the accountability aspect, you know.

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So it's still personalized because it is coming from me, but I've just programmed it ahead of time to keep communicating with them so that they can talk back to me and I can respond when they do talk back to me as well.

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So the balance evolved based on what my lifestyle was at the time.

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Yeah, I think what's such an interesting draw is your pharmaceutical experience and how you're merging this together.

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Can you provide some specific examples without reaching HIPAA of course, or success stories where your unique method effectively helped others in their health journey?

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Yeah.

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So I have one example I can think of is a patient who was pre-diabetic.

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She came to me because she wanted to lose weight, and I always say weight loss is a side effect.

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Just like medications have side effects, weight loss is actually a side effect of health.

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It's a sign that you're getting healthy, because a lot of people come into it thinking, oh, I need to lose weight so I can get healthy.

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No, no, no, you need to get healthy so you can lose weight.

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So she came to me wanting to lose weight and I said well, you need to get healthy first.

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You know, let's work on your pre-diabetic.

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You have high cholesterol, you know let's work on this, and the way we're going to do it is by following your genetic blueprint.

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So let's do the test, see what it says and I'm going to help you over the next 90 days to apply the recommendations in that test.

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So her hemoglobin A1C dropped, she was no longer considered pre-diabetic and, of course, her lipid panel improved as well.

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Energy she was sleeping like 12, 14 hours a day, freya.

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She started sleeping eight hours a day.

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That's good and had more energy than she did when she slept 12 to 14 hours a day.

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Believe me, yeah.

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So with healthier eating and mass stress management and getting an adequate amount of sleep, she's eventually started losing weight.

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So within eight weeks she was down about 15 pounds.

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And to her it was impressive because she's like I've been struggling to lose weight, I couldn't get any weight off and by making these simple changes I had such drastic and they're eating like.

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I don't do counting calories, I don't do restricted, it's just I teach you how to eat healthy and then you're following your genetic test recommendations as well and you get rapid results that are weight loss in a healthy way.

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And the unexpected side effect of her being part of the program was that her husband, who was diabetic.

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He lost about 18 pounds and he had to drop his insulin dose because he was bottoming it out.

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It was too much for him.

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So it was changing his eating habits as a result of his wife cooking differently.

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His blood sugars are more controlled, so he needed less insulin.

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That's wonderful.

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Any other case studies or patients that you've helped other than the diabetic realm?

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One of my first, my very, very first clients when I launched my service a few years ago.

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She came to me because she was having issues with menopause.

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She was having extreme hot flashes For her.

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She says says I've been trying to lose weight for three years, I haven't lost a pound.

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She tried acupuncture, she changed to a vegetarian diet and she was considering starting hormone pallet therapy.

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So she said before I do that, I heard about you, let's just see if you can help.

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So within two weeks hot flashes were gone.

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She lost three pounds.

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She wasn't able to lose anything in three years and in two weeks she was able to lose three pounds.

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Ultimately, you know she lost more than that.

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Staying in the program she was someone that really didn't need to lose a lot of weight.

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So I think ultimately she lost 10 pounds and that was a healthy weight loss for her.

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And I think it's four years now and she's still maintaining that weight and she's still not on any medications for menopause and she's doing well.

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So I know what the power of food and nutrition is and especially seeing results enhanced with genetics, knowing what your body is telling you you need.

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I already knew the potential benefits of that, but her as one of my first clients and actually seeing it firsthand in her happened so quickly and so successfully.

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That really solidified my confidence in wanting to help more people, help more women like her, whether it's menopause, weight loss, blood pressure, diabetes.

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Just being able to say, hey, I have a solution for you.

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That is not cookie cutter.

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This is based on your genetics.

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What is telling Mary is going to say something different for you.

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I think that's key, because you're really going off of the blueprint of your machine, your body.

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Yes.

00:18:18.255 --> 00:18:21.365
So let's talk about people that just want that quick fix.

00:18:21.365 --> 00:18:23.923
They want to just go on a Zempik if they can afford it.

00:18:23.923 --> 00:18:29.422
Manjaro Wagovi, what is your opinion about these weight loss drugs?

00:18:29.963 --> 00:18:31.007
That's a great question, Priya.

00:18:31.007 --> 00:18:32.861
My opinion is that they work.

00:18:32.861 --> 00:18:33.884
They're effective.

00:18:33.884 --> 00:18:36.983
They have side effects, just as any medication.

00:18:36.983 --> 00:18:44.739
I believe the decision and I tell my clients this the decision to start using them really is between you and your provider.

00:18:44.739 --> 00:18:52.867
I help them ask the right questions to really have the expectation, because a lot of providers will just say oh, your BMI is greater than 30.

00:18:52.867 --> 00:18:54.474
This is a new medication.

00:18:54.474 --> 00:18:55.859
It can help you lose weight.

00:18:55.859 --> 00:19:01.723
It's one injection each week and most of the time patients do not ask any questions whatsoever.

00:19:01.723 --> 00:19:04.596
If the doctor says, take it, they're going to take it.

00:19:04.596 --> 00:19:08.246
So I think it's important that they do ask the questions.

00:19:08.246 --> 00:19:19.186
They do have the right expectations of what to expect from the medication how much weight could I potentially lose, what are the side effects and what happens when I stop taking it?

00:19:19.474 --> 00:19:34.628
I think that's the main question is what happens when you stop taking it, because is it truly designed for long-term use or is this just to get you going to get extra weight off, to then transition to a healthier weight management program?

00:19:34.628 --> 00:19:40.005
And I think maybe you, as a pharmacist, can you discuss some of the general side effects of these weight loss drugs?

00:19:40.728 --> 00:19:46.363
Yeah, so the way that it's actually marketed is they want it to be used for long-term use.

00:19:46.363 --> 00:19:51.863
It's one of these newer medications, unlike the older ones, can be used long-term.

00:19:51.863 --> 00:19:54.537
The older ones are limited to 12 weeks or six months or so.

00:19:54.537 --> 00:19:56.280
These are saying long-term.

00:19:56.280 --> 00:19:56.701
They're new.

00:19:56.701 --> 00:19:58.185
We don't know what the long-term ultimately will do.

00:19:58.205 --> 00:20:01.403
Oh, and you're right, you know what I should correct myself, because you're right.

00:20:01.403 --> 00:20:04.423
There are some of these diabetic drugs that are not new.

00:20:04.423 --> 00:20:12.667
They've been around which are the ones that are pretty well-known by the industry, which are the longer ones that science is familiar with, and which are the ones that are new.

00:20:13.147 --> 00:20:23.020
So, like longer ones, we have like Phentermine, and now they've combined it as well with a medication that's typically used for seizures called Topiramate, and they work by ultimately just reducing your appetite.

00:20:23.020 --> 00:20:40.820
And so Phentermine is known for maybe like 7% of your initial body weight will be lost, you know, within a six month period of time when they combine it with Topiramate, it's about 7 to 11%, like maybe 10% of your body weight will be lost within a year.

00:20:40.820 --> 00:20:44.415
The side effects they have impact on your heart, you know.

00:20:44.415 --> 00:20:47.124
It can cause increase your blood pressure, your heart rate.

00:20:47.124 --> 00:20:47.965
Of course.

00:20:47.965 --> 00:20:53.655
The phentermine it's like sleeping you're going to have insomnia, it's going to be difficult to sleep, Constipation.

00:20:54.278 --> 00:20:56.784
And then you might be familiar with Orlistat.

00:20:56.784 --> 00:21:00.339
There is a lie, it's over-the-counter, it's a lie.

00:21:00.339 --> 00:21:05.219
And then prescription-wise it's called Orlistat, and the difference is just how much.

00:21:05.219 --> 00:21:10.788
Orlistat is 120 milligram capsule twice a day versus a lie.

00:21:10.788 --> 00:21:19.963
The over-the-counter one that you don't need a prescription for is 60 milligrams twice a day and that's associated with 10% loss of your initial body weight within six months.

00:21:19.963 --> 00:21:24.298
But the issue of Orlistat is it works by absorbing fat.

00:21:24.298 --> 00:21:27.366
So you eat fat, it's going to absorb it, so your body doesn't keep it.

00:21:27.366 --> 00:21:30.865
As a result, a major side effect is stomach cramps.

00:21:31.535 --> 00:21:36.303
When you're saying Orlistat, it almost reminds me of that Olestra, when they were putting that in potato chips.

00:21:36.303 --> 00:21:47.559
Remember there was, like it was, snack wells and olestra and those were like the two, like the snack wells were the cookies that obviously were full of sugar and then, um, the olestra, where that was that first fat.

00:21:47.559 --> 00:21:51.359
They said you could eat all the potato chips you want, not gain weight not gain weight.

00:21:51.441 --> 00:21:52.664
Maybe it was because of.

00:21:52.765 --> 00:21:59.226
Maybe it was that by that fat yeah, the idea was that your body couldn't absorb the fat, but then it would have all these awful side effects.

00:21:59.226 --> 00:22:00.419
So that makes sense.

00:22:00.419 --> 00:22:03.864
Yeah, I'm like that sounds very familiar to Alastra.

00:22:03.864 --> 00:22:06.080
And then what are the new?

00:22:06.080 --> 00:22:08.050
I mean, a Zempik is a new one, right?

00:22:08.534 --> 00:22:10.519
Yeah, so to clarify with the new ones.

00:22:10.519 --> 00:22:20.057
So when they first started out, they were merely for patients with diabetes, and then they noticed the ability for weight loss with these medications.

00:22:20.057 --> 00:22:30.502
So a Zempik is now marketed as a different medication that's only for weight loss, which is the Wagovi.

00:22:30.502 --> 00:22:41.063
So then there's Majaro, which is marketed for type two diabetes, but the exact same medication is now changed, is now marketed as ZetBound for weight loss only.

00:22:41.063 --> 00:22:54.336
So if a patient has type 2 diabetes, they're going to get prescribed Mojaro and they'll also benefit from the weight loss component that the medication provides, but if they don't have diabetes and only need weight loss, then it would be ZetBound.

00:22:55.038 --> 00:22:55.358
Oh, okay.

00:22:55.358 --> 00:22:59.807
So there's a differentiation there, and these are the families of what is known as semi-glutides.

00:22:59.827 --> 00:23:00.890
right weight loss then it would be Zet bound.

00:23:00.890 --> 00:23:03.255
Oh, okay, so there's a differentiation there, and these are the families of what is known as semi-glutides.

00:23:03.255 --> 00:23:08.602
Right, right, wigovi is actually called semi-glutide that's the other name for it and it's what they call a GLP-1 agonist.

00:23:08.602 --> 00:23:17.247
It's a glucose-dependent insulin agonist, so it actually increases insulin secretion and, as we know, insulin helps reduce the sugar in the blood.

00:23:17.247 --> 00:23:28.406
Yeah, so that's mainly how it works by managing that insulin secretion, and it's actually associated with a significant amount of weight loss, like 15% with Lugovie On average.

00:23:28.406 --> 00:23:31.938
In studies, participants lost about 35 pounds on average.

00:23:32.357 --> 00:23:45.652
And I've heard a lot of these drugs are not readily available because of improper use or the intention for what they were designed for, or being rather misused or co-opted by people that want to.

00:23:45.652 --> 00:23:51.642
There was even a commercial recently of like oh, you're going to have your red carpet night going on the Oscars.

00:23:51.642 --> 00:24:04.196
There was a very obese woman in the bus just looking very depressed because trying to raise awareness that that drug was not intended to be used for frivolous or vanity but actually for life-saving.

00:24:04.196 --> 00:24:05.839
Can you talk on that at all?

00:24:06.602 --> 00:24:15.044
I definitely can and yes, there's a shortage due to being used for weight loss, primarily versus diabetes.

00:24:15.044 --> 00:24:26.200
But manufacturers have, now that they have the medication specifically for weight loss versus indication for diabetes, that kind of helps a little bit, but there is still a shortage.

00:24:26.200 --> 00:24:41.740
The last time I checked, like last week, they expect that shortage to be cleared out by next month, by April, but I see people online complaining about it being used for weight loss versus diabetes when it could be used to save lives and diabetics, and I see the point there.

00:24:41.740 --> 00:24:46.666
But it reminded me of when Viagra first came out in the 90s.

00:24:46.666 --> 00:25:02.585
Viagra was initially being researched to treat blood pressure, like pulmonary hypertension a very deadly form of hypertension hypertension a very deadly form of hypertension but they realized that the effects it was having on men and decided to market it for erectile dysfunction instead.

00:25:02.585 --> 00:25:10.019
It wasn't until, I think, nine, seven or nine years later that they finally said, okay, let's start marketing for this disease state that can kill people.

00:25:10.019 --> 00:25:18.688
You know, I don't remember, you know the outreach then I don't know, but I feel like when it comes to issues that tend to affect women most, there's a lot of backlash.

00:25:18.688 --> 00:25:23.384
So at least diabetes, these medications were released for diabetes first.

00:25:23.384 --> 00:25:30.104
And they're out there, the physicians that are prescribing them for patients who really don't need it.

00:25:30.585 --> 00:25:32.989
For weight loss, it's supposed to be a BMI of 30.

00:25:32.989 --> 00:25:36.844
Some of these Hollywood stars they're already skinny.

00:25:36.844 --> 00:25:38.446
Why are you giving?

00:25:38.467 --> 00:25:47.606
that Well right, and I mean honestly, it could be also feeding, you know, body dysmorphia and this other kind of psychological disorder too.

00:25:47.626 --> 00:25:47.767
Exactly.

00:25:47.767 --> 00:26:01.163
And you know, I just spoke with a doctor last week who works for a weight loss clinic with the newer medications and they said, surprisingly, a lot of the people that come to them are people that are already healthy, they're already at a good weight.

00:26:01.163 --> 00:26:03.578
And I said so why do they want these medications?

00:26:03.578 --> 00:26:05.707
And he said, yeah, to fit this image.

00:26:05.707 --> 00:26:09.378
To fit this image that Hollywood is telling them that they should have.

00:26:09.398 --> 00:26:12.247
So it's kind of going back to like the 80s and the.

00:26:12.247 --> 00:26:16.545
You know the waif and that kind of these styles keep going back and back.

00:26:16.545 --> 00:26:17.587
That's unfortunate.

00:26:17.587 --> 00:26:21.781
Well, hopefully they'll put some sort of a restriction on that so that there is a cutoff point.

00:26:21.781 --> 00:26:24.584
You're not feeding into somebody's body dysmorphia.

00:26:24.584 --> 00:26:32.324
So switching gears here, aiming for a healthier lifestyle, can be overwhelming, especially when you're bombarded with conflicting information.

00:26:32.324 --> 00:26:43.067
What are your top three tips for pharmacists or other busy professionals to overcome the initial paralysis and take their first action steps toward a healthy, more balanced life?

00:26:43.694 --> 00:26:53.785
My first tip is something I go over with I spend two weeks with my clients on in my 90-day program is their mindset and the part of that mindset is their self-limiting beliefs.

00:26:54.426 --> 00:26:59.523
Ditching those, dropping it and really figuring out where it's stemming from.

00:26:59.523 --> 00:27:01.367
What's the root cause of that self-limiting belief?

00:27:01.367 --> 00:27:12.810
Because if you don't get rid of that, your efforts on your health journey are not going to be successful, because you're always going to revert to that baseline thinking of I can't do this or it's in my genes.

00:27:12.810 --> 00:27:20.375
Like my mom, my dad, my brother, my sister, they all have diabetes, they all have high blood pressure, so it's not going to be possible for me to make those changes.

00:27:20.375 --> 00:27:25.881
So, first, changing that mindset, getting rid of those self-limited beliefs, and then I would say sleep.

00:27:25.881 --> 00:27:37.631
Sleep is very important because a lot of chronic health conditions are related to poor sleep quality or not getting enough sleep and definitely staying active in their life.

00:27:37.631 --> 00:27:54.726
I have so many more, but those will be some of those top priorities because, especially when it comes to weight management and insulin regulation, blood sugar control, being able to exercise, exercising plays a huge role in being able to manage that naturally.

00:27:54.994 --> 00:27:55.737
Just a side note.

00:27:55.737 --> 00:28:04.907
I do maybe about a 30 to 40 minute walk every day and I sure notice when I don't have it it affects my sleep, specifically on the weekends.

00:28:04.907 --> 00:28:20.240
But when I'm doing, I gave up my cars to be able to force myself to walk more and to rely more on transit, just for stress overall, to not have to deal with the traffic and driving, the costs of the vehicles plus the health of being able to just do more exercise.

00:28:20.240 --> 00:28:26.380
And I sure notice when I'm not doing my 30 to 40 minute walk it's really hard for me to go to sleep.

00:28:26.380 --> 00:28:28.546
It'll be when the insomnia rears its head.

00:28:28.546 --> 00:28:32.981
And yet when I'm doing my walk it's like you get home lights out and I go right to sleep.

00:28:33.682 --> 00:28:35.185
And it's so easy to go back to sleep.

00:28:35.185 --> 00:28:43.682
Yeah, so those would be my three tips and something I want to touch back on with those weight loss medications, because we talked about the side effect of like, when you get off of it, the weight coming back.

00:28:43.914 --> 00:28:46.478
Yeah, I'm concerned about that, yeah.

00:28:46.499 --> 00:28:48.815
So it's important to definitely.

00:28:48.815 --> 00:28:54.422
Up to maybe 14% of that weight will come back and with some of these new medications, when you start getting off of it.

00:28:54.422 --> 00:28:58.672
And then there's been reports of cravings coming back stronger than they were before.

00:28:58.672 --> 00:29:09.843
So if you have cravings for certain foods prior to being on those medications, I've spoken to people who those cravings are enhanced, they're amplified after they come off those medications.

00:29:09.843 --> 00:29:16.539
So of course, you're going to eat more and put that weight back on, sometimes more so than you were before.

00:29:16.539 --> 00:29:29.991
So it's important that when you're on the medication, not just after you get off of it, that you are implementing healthy nutrition, healthy lifestyle habits, and that's what my program helps with.

00:29:29.991 --> 00:29:38.237
I've been enrolling people the past month that are on these medications and they're afraid of getting off of them because they don't want to gain the weight back.

00:29:38.815 --> 00:29:42.967
And I'm working with them over these 90 days to implement these habits.

00:29:43.468 --> 00:29:48.785
Do we know about any of the long-term side effects from the newer drugs, or is this still pretty experimental?

00:29:49.246 --> 00:29:57.172
All we know now is the side effects that they've had from the studies and because they slow digestion down so you have lower appetite, right.

00:29:57.172 --> 00:30:12.800
But because they're slowing the digestion down, depending what you eat, you're going to be nauseous, you're going to vomit, you might have diarrhea and definitely going to have constipation, because the food is just not moving through your stomach as fast as it normally would because it's slowed down.

00:30:12.800 --> 00:30:18.272
Um, of course, low blood sugar, because that has that effect and it's an injection.

00:30:18.272 --> 00:30:25.462
The newer meds are injections so you might have some reaction at the area that they inject it and heart rate can be increased.

00:30:25.462 --> 00:30:30.373
But they mention possibility of pancreatitis gallbladder issues.

00:30:30.660 --> 00:30:36.611
Gallbladder surgeries too right Removal Right, and then with the mengerotype, the ZetBound.

00:30:37.259 --> 00:30:42.952
They've been reporting the possibility of actually with both of them with suicidal thoughts.

00:30:43.361 --> 00:30:44.444
I just read about that.

00:30:44.444 --> 00:30:45.903
Yeah, last week they haven't.

00:30:45.942 --> 00:30:48.846
They're still looking into it, but it's enough that they had to report it.

00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:51.429
Yeah, yeah, and that's pretty recent, last week, right.

00:30:51.740 --> 00:30:54.568
Right, and then the risk of thyroid cancer as well.

00:30:54.990 --> 00:30:55.310
Oh, wow.

00:30:55.310 --> 00:30:57.586
So I mean what I've heard.

00:30:57.586 --> 00:31:06.794
I don't know if all of them affect this, but I've heard at least one silver lining is at least one of them can help with alcohol cravings.

00:31:06.794 --> 00:31:13.732
Can you talk to that at all, reducing out like it could be a therapeutic use for alcoholism?

00:31:14.161 --> 00:31:26.128
Yeah, I've heard reports that by drinking alcohol when you're on some of these medications it can cause an effect that's unwanted Like people will just feel it kind of like it enhanced.

00:31:26.148 --> 00:31:51.750
it's like you drank more than you did almost like nauseous and hangover okay right, so you're going to feel horrible and that's the like deterrent, right, right, oh, okay, but if you're off them, then it doesn't, then it goes right back, okay, yeah yeah, that's the thing I've really heard of in relation to that at this point, so I could see how well it could potentially help.

00:31:52.200 --> 00:31:55.267
Maybe you know very severe cases or life-threatening.

00:31:55.267 --> 00:32:04.012
You know the liver Right, so as you're, you know doing your inpatient and your ACC ambulatory care.

00:32:04.012 --> 00:32:20.914
I mean, I would imagine actually, rather, that you might have a lot of stigma with your fellow medical professional peers and I wanted to know if you could talk about any resistance, professionally skepticism, from your peers in the pharmaceutical industry about your holistic perspectives in patient care.

00:32:21.221 --> 00:32:24.228
Great question for you, you know, surprisingly, there is none.

00:32:24.228 --> 00:32:40.442
Great question for you, you know, surprisingly there is none Like pharmacists are at a place where they are ready for something different and they truly want to help their patients get better, and where the pharmacists that are in my circle, even at work, they're intrigued by what I'm doing for one.

00:32:40.442 --> 00:32:55.571
Then there are pharmacists out there that are interested in doing something similar to what I'm doing, and those are pharmacists that are aware that some of the medications, treatments that we have, especially for preventable illnesses and reversible illnesses, are more of a band-aid.

00:32:55.571 --> 00:33:01.361
They're not getting to the root cause of the problem, so they're there to really just maintain the illness.

00:33:01.361 --> 00:33:11.231
So, yeah, diabetes even if you go to the American Diabetes Association, you'll see it says it's reversible, but doctors are not telling their patients your diabetes is reversible.

00:33:11.231 --> 00:33:21.641
They are giving them, telling them you need to eat healthier, you need to exercise, but I don't think they're stressing enough why you do this.

00:33:21.661 --> 00:33:26.124
Yes, you can prevent diabetes progressing there, but also, if you have diabetes, especially in the early stages, you can reverse it.

00:33:26.124 --> 00:33:36.369
You can actually reverse it by really making these changes, and that's why I personally go out to physicians' offices and let them know what I do so that just the same thing I experienced in the hospital.

00:33:36.369 --> 00:33:38.391
Patients need more than 10 minutes.

00:33:38.391 --> 00:33:48.195
They need someone who's going to be there by their side to guide them over a period of time, because 10 minutes is not enough when they go home out of sight, out of mind, so they need someone there with them.

00:33:48.195 --> 00:33:50.917
Yeah, so my colleagues have been very supportive.

00:33:55.200 --> 00:33:55.580
That's great.

00:33:55.580 --> 00:33:58.229
Well, I actually am surprised to hear that, but I'm happy to hear that that's really great that they're at a place of receptivity.

00:33:58.229 --> 00:34:08.914
Going back to the weight loss drugs, I wanted just to ask if you know of any natural equivalents or natural options, maybe not equivalent.

00:34:08.914 --> 00:34:11.507
You know there's talk that berberine helps.

00:34:11.507 --> 00:34:15.126
I don't know if you know anything about berberine, maybe talk to that point.

00:34:15.126 --> 00:34:18.690
Other cinnamon can help with the blood sugar issues.

00:34:18.690 --> 00:34:22.369
Can you talk to any of those points from an herbal perspective?

00:34:22.811 --> 00:34:24.585
Yeah, so with berberine.

00:34:24.585 --> 00:34:35.349
It's funny because I was having some work done on my health and one of the guys working on it he asked me what I did, so I tell him, and he started talking about berberine.

00:34:35.349 --> 00:34:44.451
He was saying, oh, how he's used it and his diabetes went away and so he sold on it because his experience it actually helped him.

00:34:44.451 --> 00:34:48.342
He avoided medications, avoided the medications from big pharma.

00:34:48.342 --> 00:34:54.722
So, yeah, berberine can be used because it does have an effect on the blood sugar levels.

00:34:55.503 --> 00:35:04.471
You know, just like insulin would affect the blood sugar levels, and because it does that, that's why it's able to have an effect on weight loss as well.

00:35:04.471 --> 00:35:05.293
It does that.

00:35:05.293 --> 00:35:07.960
That's why it's able to have an effect on weight loss as well.

00:35:07.960 --> 00:35:14.329
When we have a high amount of sugar in our blood and it's not being cleared out, our insulin is being released because it's like hey, there's sugar in your blood.

00:35:14.329 --> 00:35:17.875
The pancreas wants to release insulin to pull that sugar up.

00:35:17.875 --> 00:35:28.842
But when you have insulin resistance, your body's not responding to the signals from insulin, so your tissues are not opening up to draw sugar out of that blood.

00:35:28.842 --> 00:35:31.492
As a result, you have more and more insulin being released.

00:35:31.492 --> 00:35:34.402
Insulin is involved in fat storage.

00:35:34.402 --> 00:35:36.706
When we store fat, we gain weight.

00:35:36.706 --> 00:35:41.721
So berberine and medications like that that can help lower our blood sugar.

00:35:41.721 --> 00:35:47.204
It's, in effect, lowering how much insulin our body is releasing blood sugar.

00:35:47.204 --> 00:35:52.088
It's, in effect, lowering how much insulin our body is releasing as a result, lowering the fat storage component, and that can definitely help with weight loss.

00:35:52.327 --> 00:35:55.389
And are there any negative side effects that you know of with berberine?

00:35:55.389 --> 00:35:58.771
And it's spelled B-E-R-B-E-R-I-N-E.

00:35:59.271 --> 00:36:00.793
Yeah, berberine yes.

00:36:04.034 --> 00:36:07.737
I could never be a pharmacist because I can't pronounce half of those medications.

00:36:07.737 --> 00:36:17.994
I mean, I look at them and I try to deliver meds and I'm like I'm going to go to the common name because 5,000 syllables I don't know as well.

00:36:18.139 --> 00:36:22.250
And the funny thing is, I'll remember the long chemical name before I remember the brand name.

00:36:22.690 --> 00:36:30.148
Wow, how do you develop just I'm nosy how do you develop the syntax to be able to like, break up those syllables, like how do you?

00:36:30.489 --> 00:36:33.387
You know, half the time I don't think we're pronouncing it right, Okay.

00:36:33.387 --> 00:36:40.489
I personally call the pharmaceutical companies because when you call their helpline they will say the name of the medication.

00:36:40.489 --> 00:36:49.708
So my colleagues and I have like a running joke because I like to say things differently, maybe because I'm from the East Coast and they're all from California, then I also have sometimes my Jamaican accent.

00:36:49.708 --> 00:36:53.990
So I'll call the pharmaceutical company and like how do you say this?

00:36:53.990 --> 00:36:55.586
I literally will ask them.

00:36:55.760 --> 00:36:56.922
I feel so much better now.

00:36:59.269 --> 00:36:59.952
Don't feel bad.

00:36:59.952 --> 00:37:01.306
Don't feel bad at all.

00:37:01.306 --> 00:37:03.925
But the funny thing is usually the brand names.

00:37:03.925 --> 00:37:06.271
We're not really sure how to pronounce the long chemical names.

00:37:06.271 --> 00:37:12.813

Why 'Eat Right and Exercise' Isn't The Full Story with Dr. Tamar Lawful

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