[Transcript] – A PILL That Mimics Exercise? Ozempic® Alternatives & How I Gained 11 lbs of MUSCLE: Solosode 474

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Transcripts

June 6, 2024

From podcast: https://bengreenfieldlife.com/podcast/qa-474/

[00:00:00] Introduction

[00:00:32] Ozempic, GLP-1, and other hunger suppressors

[00:18:10] Listener Question: Exercise mimetics like SLU-PP-322 (studies 1, 2)

[00:27:34] Fat-Free Max Index (FFMI) Calculator

[00:32:22] The presence of undeclared drugs in dietary supplements

[00:41:15] Listener Question: Question: Tips for healing spinal stenosis

[00:46:38] Closing the Podcast

[00:47:50] End of Podcast

[00:48:51] Legal Disclaimer

Ben:  In this episode of Ben Greenfield Life show.

Effective Ozempic alternatives, how to know how much muscle you can naturally gain, exercise and a pill, and a whole lot more.

Fitness, nutrition, biohacking, longevity, life optimization, spirituality and a whole lot more. Welcome to the Ben Greenfield Life show. Are you ready to hack your life? Let's do this.

Welcome to today's show. Shownotes, as usual, are going to be at BenGreenfieldLife.com/474. That's BenGreenfieldLife.com/474. And, boy, oh boy, I should probably jump right in because today, I am addressing Ozempic, GLP-1 agonists semaglutide sold as Ozempic or Wegovy, an liraglutide called as Victoza and Saxenda. Man, they made that one hard to pronounce. I get so many questions about these. So, what the heck? I figured we'll just jump right in. No long intro talking about my dog or my smoothie.

So anyways, these peptides, they are increasingly being used by Hollywood celebrities and Silicone Valley entrepreneurs and fashion models and increasingly what seems half your neighborhood walking around with Ozempic face. So, these things were originally designed as diabetes drugs and they mimic the effects of what is called glucagonlike peptide, which is a hormone normally released when you eat food. We're going to call it GLP-1 so I don't spend the entire podcast trying to pronounce glucagon-like peptide.

GLP-1 stimulates the release of insulin and inhibits the release of glucagon. The overall effect of this is that it slows down your gastric motility and the passage of food through your gut. That signals satiety and it makes you feel fuller longer. That's in a very, very brief slightly unscientific nutshell how it works. And, I first realized the power of these peptides when they were first getting popular. And, I went to dinner with a friend of mine who does enjoy food, maybe not a foodie, but they do enjoy food. I've eaten with them before. And, he had just dosed up that week. Admittedly, he had dosed up with a slightly higher dose than I think most people are recommended to start with the Ozempic. But, he sat there nauseous as most of his favorite foods that I ordered came out to the table. He ultimately nibbled half a deviled egg during an entire three-hour dinner and was completely satisfied drinking nothing more than a couple glasses of water and eating nothing more than half of a deviled egg. So, I'm like, “Holy cow, these things are powerful.”

And, do they work for losing weight? Well, absolutely. Probably more effectively than just about any drug that has ever been developed. Out of all the weight loss drugs the industry has pushed and tested and tried, these GLP-1 agonist actually help people to lose weight at really good rates up to 15% body fat loss over a couple of years compared to just 2% body fat loss in placebos. That's pretty massive, especially when you consider that these same drugs can reduce blood pressure, reduce major cardiovascular event risk, improve blood sugar balance. They are so effective, in fact, that I believe it was the “Diary of a CEO” podcast host, Steven Bartlett. He interviewed a guy who wrote a book called “The Magic Pill.” And, he talked about how airlines are needing to adjust their fuel usage predictions based on the fact that their passengers are getting so much lighter on average, and that the country, I believe it's the Netherlands where the pharmaceutical company that produces some of these GLP-1 agonist is located is growing increasingly wealthy, like richer and richer hand over fist from the huge surge in popularity of these drugs.

But, are there downsides? Well, yeah. I mean, there's no biological free pass to just about anything. I don't know. You can argue. Maybe that little cup of black coffee. That seems like a pretty darn tasty free pass. But anyways, once you start, you probably have to take them for life for them to be effective. That's not in all cases, but studies have shown that people who eventually get off the drug quickly regain most of their weight and lose almost all the other health benefits: blood sugar, blood lipids, blood pressure, et cetera. So, unlike let's say, I don't know, a PCSK9 inhibitor that would decrease APOB, adjust lipids, and possibly even cause a decrease in plaque formation in the heart, and you could stop using it. And, as long as you adhere to a proper diet and exercise and lifestyle program afterwards not see a rebound in those issues, you can't necessarily say the same thing for a GLP-1 agonist.

Now, the next thing that could be a downside to them is they increased the risk of what's called adipogenesis, the creation of new fat cells. Now, adipogenesis normally occurs in childhood. It's a major reason why childhood obesity is so hard to overcome and so often leads to adult obesity. Now, if you're not very careful with your diet, all those extra fat cells from when you were obese as a kid get easily filled back up when you're an adult. So, any of your parents listening in, this is a reason to make sure you educate your child about smart nutritional choices early on in life and make sure they're engaged in regular levels of physical activity and taking cold showers every day. Maybe not that last part. But, this means that weight gain can be much easier once you get off a GLP-1 agonist because of the adipogenesis, the creation of new fat cells that occurs when you're on the GLP-1 agonist.

Now, there are other issues like nausea, diarrhea and high heart rates and even risk of pancreatitis and a lot of other gut issues. But, I think another big concerning issue with GLP-1 agonist, even if you don't fall into a population who has a lot of those other side effects is the loss of muscle mass. And sure, you could mitigate that by going out of your way to eat adequate protein even when you're not hungry for it and lift weights. But, you have to do extra work and extra attention in those categories if you don't want to get skinny and gaunt and weak and fragile and lose all those benefits that I recently talked about with the muscle-centric medicine doctor, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon if you're on a GLP-1 Agonist.

Now, another journalist, in addition to this guy Steven Bartlett from Diary CEO, who interviewed this guy who wrote “The Magic Pill,” Johann Hari, I believe is his name, the “Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the Ozempic Drug.” You should definitely check out that book if you want to dive more into this. But, Tucker Carlson also did an interview with I believe it was Calley Means. I interviewed Casey Means on my podcast about blood sugar management last year. Well, Calley Means is someone who has been exposing the pharmaceutical industry's unethical push to profit from these drugs. At least an arguably and apparently unethical push, unveiling all these clever strategies that pay physicians to prescribe these massively profitable drugs to their patients. In my opinion, patients who would be better served by preventive tactics like eating more protein and fiber or walking or lifting weights. And, I'll link to the interview with Johann Hari that Steven Bartlett did. I'll also link to the episode in which Tucker Carlson interviews Calley Means in the shownotes of this podcast episode at BenGreenfieldLife.com/474.

But, the summary is this, GLP-1 agonists are one giant human experiment driven by profit with very little long-term safety data besides perhaps a diabetic population in which it has been studied for blood sugar management. So, anytime I see issues like this, I step back and I say, “Hey, could we achieve the same thing naturally or at least achieve close to the same thing naturally?” Meaning for blood sugar control instead of taking metformin. Could we look into berberine, bitter melon extract, cold thermogenesis, apple cider vinegar, Ceylon cinnamon, and other things that can cause similar blood glucose stabilizing effects as metformin or similarly back to statins or a PCSK9 inhibitor. Could we first look into or at least try the use of, let's say, nature statin, red yeast rice extract with niacin and CoQ10, vitamin E, vitamin K, and perhaps something to address nitric oxide precursors and arterial health, something that supports the so-called endothelial glycocalyx. Realize that's a big word.

What I'm saying is that there could be natural alternatives to heart disease risk and plaque management instead of a statin or an injectable. We could say the same thing for GLP-1. So for example, there are probiotics, particularly akkermansia and Bifidobacterium infantis strains and one called Clostridium butyricum. That can all stimulate GLP-1 via adjusting your gut biome. There is a company called Pendulum and they have developed a GLP-1 bacterial strain that acts as a hunger suppressant. I have not used Ozempic or any GLP-1 agonist, I will admit, but I did try this one from Pendulum. Took a couple capsules in the morning, kept doing it for two weeks. I literally had to force myself to suck down my morning smoothie that I normally look forward to for hours upon waking. And, it suppressed my appetite throughout, I would say, at least until lunch probably into the afternoon.

Another one that I tried, Calocurb. So, Calocurb is interesting. This is also a relatively new supplement. I'm going to do a podcast about this one because I'm very interested in it. It's an extract of bitter hops. They developed it over the past 13 years and had $30 million of funding on this stuff. They did clinical studies showing it reduces hunger by 30%, craving by 40% and calorie intake by 18%. And, it does so by stimulating GLP-1 and other appetite satiating compounds like one called cholecystokinin, CCK, another one called PYY. But basically, this Calocurb is another excellent option. I've also tried it multiple times because I have a bottle. I've taken it after lunch. And again, have to force-feed myself dinner because I don't even really feel like eating. For me as a guy with a really high metabolism who's naturally a lean gainer anyways with a very active lifestyle, I have to be careful with these because honestly, I'll waste away if I use them.

There are also peptides. In particular, peptide stacks that have been favored in the bodybuilding and the fitness community for years for suppressing appetite, for burning fat, and for building muscle. Now, many peptides have been cracked down on by the FDA even though interestingly you can still order them from companies like say Limitless Life peptides is one. You can get a lot of these peptides orally from another company called LVLUP Health. But, there are peptides specifically that can achieve something very similar to GLP-1 without the same concerns about side effects. One would be ipamorelin and CJC-1295, these growth hormone precursors. Another one would be tesamorelin. Another one would be 5-amino-1-MQ.

So, for example, IGF-1 LR3. I realize these peptides have long names, but that's a long-acting version of insulin-like growth factor. It's a potent anabolic peptide that works to increase muscle by stimulating what's called hyperplasia, which was an increase in muscle fiber number. And, that's an injectable peptide. A lot of people will use that pre-workout in the morning or with their first-morning meal. It's called IGF-1 LR3.

Another one is ipamorelin, I-P-A-M-O-R-E-L-I-N. That is a also very potent muscle-building and hunger-suppressing peptide. So, growth hormone has major effects on skeletal muscle and skeletal muscle function, which is why it's such a widely used and abused, I should say, sports performance drug. But, ipamorelin is safer than just using growth hormone. It's something that people will often take in a fasted state before dinner on an empty stomach before bedtime because the increase in growth hormone that it can contribute to helps with sleep and helps with the anabolic processes that can occur during sleep.

There is another peptide that many people will combine with ipamorelin. It's called CJC-1295. That functions as a growth hormone releasing hormone, a so-called GHRH. And, that also increases IGF-1, which helps promote fat loss and muscle protein synthesis and can also have hunger-suppressing effects. Many people will use CJC-1295 and combine it with ipamorelin for a one-two combo of growth hormone release.

I also mentioned one called tesamorelin. Tesamorelin acts very similar to ipamorelin. Meaning it works on growth hormone pathways. It stimulates IGF-1. It triggers the production of muscle protein and it's also been shown in large clinical trials to decrease visceral fat and reduce levels of triglycerides in the blood. That's also typically something that is used as an injectable. And again, whether it's the IGF-1 LR3, the ipamorelin or the tesamorelin, it's increasingly difficult to get those. I actually happen to have all three in my fridge. I got them from this Limitless Life peptides company. A few doctors still prescribe them, but the FDA is making it more difficult to get these injectable peptides. However, like I mentioned, some are oral.

One notable oral peptide to think about that is still pretty easy to find is 5-amino-1-MQ. That plays an instrumental role in the metabolism of fat. When I interviewed Ryan Smith back when he was working for Tailor Made Health, he's now with the blood testing company TruAge Diagnostics, he reported a massive increase in his vertical jump like several inches by just supplementing with 5-amino-1-MQ. And, this is a trained athlete with a pretty good athletic history. And so, I was impressed when he told me that. But later, I found out that 5-amino-1-MQ blocks an enzyme known as NNMT. So, not only when you supplement with it can keep your NAD levels elevated very, very well. And, a lot of people will supplement with NAD, but 5-amino-1-MQ will keep your body's own endogenous NAD production supported or keeps the NAD from getting broken down as quickly, but it's also associated with inhibiting that enzyme. And, that enzyme is associated with obesity and the storage of fat when dysregulated. So, that means 5-amino-1-MQ can contribute to reduction of body fat and facilitate weight loss and cause hunger suppression. I've used it before a fasted morning workout and it works exactly like that.

Now, that's a pretty big stack. If you were going to use say ipamorelin and CJC-1295 in the evening, something like tesamorelin in the morning, and then do 5-amino-1-MQ orally in the morning. A lot of people will use that as a stack. They'll do two 12-week cycles a year for muscle gain and fat loss in which they are going five days on, two days off of 5-amino-1-MQ in the morning and tesamorelin in the morning and then ipamorelin and CJC-1295 in the evening. So, that's a little bit more of an advanced stack, but I would say if anything, I mean look at something like Pendulum's GLP-1 or look at something like the bitter hops extract that is made by Calocurb as two pretty good options for alternatives to GLP-1. And, if a lot of these seem expensive or difficult to find for you, berberine, green tea or green tea extra, curcumin, Ceylon cinnamon, and Resveratrol are all easier-to-find supplements that can act a little bit like a GLP-1 agonist.

I will list all of these in the shownotes if you go to BenGreenfieldLife.com /474. And, I would be remiss not to also give a head nod to ketones. So, these drinkable ketone supplements, you can now get them from companies like Ketone IQ or Ketone Aid or deltaG. The ketone specifically beta-hydroxybutyrate and acetoacetate, these are typically made in the body during long periods of fasting and/or carbohydrate restriction. But, they have also been studied, and I'll link to the study in the shownotes, since 2018. Studies have appeared showing that they lower ghrelin, they stabilize appetite and they reduce hunger. So, ketones are something that are preferred fuel for the liver, for the heart, for the diaphragm, for the brain. I first got into them when I was doing lots of Ironman racing and training. And, I would use them to go for long periods of time without eating much food because I was honestly trying to stay skinny and maintain a good strength-to-power ratio. But, if you're looking to get the effects of GLP-1 agonist like Ozempic and you don't want to use Ozempic because of the side effects or you can't get a prescription for it or even though it's super easy to get your hands on now. It's the high school parking lot drug scene. You can use something like Calocurb with ketones or the GLP-1 agonist by Pendulum plus ketones. And, keep your appetite satiated for really long periods of time. And then, if you want to take on more of a pro stack approach, you could throw peptides into the mix like tesamorelin, ipamorelin, CJC-1295, or 5-amino-1-MQ, and also get really good effects.

So, those are my overall thoughts on GLP-1 agonist. And, whether I'd take them, no, but I do like the idea of using specific compounds to suppress hunger. It's just a matter of choosing those that aren't going to be harmful.

Now, there's also something that I would say falls into a similar category. And, I've actually had a podcast listener write in with the question and it's Patrice H. who writes in and says, “What are your thoughts about these new kind of exercise mimetics, specifically one called,” brace yourself folks, SLU-PP-332? Apparently, this is a newly studied compound that a lot of people are talking about, kind of like Ozempic because it can cause a response in the body that is very similar to what you'd get from exercising. Falls into the so-called exercise mimetic category. So, exercise mimetics mimic or potentiate the effects of exercise. They either make exercise more effective for things like mitochondrial proliferation or skeletal muscle building when you work out with them in your system or they can even, and I realize this sounds like a cheat code for people, simulate the effects of exercise even if you're sedentary.

Now, in many cases, you're not going to build bone density or burn a ton of calories but you can actually get a lot of the mitochondrial and muscle protective effects from these exercise mimetics. Some would include green tea, urolithin A, which I've done a podcast for in the past, and I'll link to that one in the shownotes. And then, supplements like ginseng or quercetin, resveratrol, which I already mentioned, is another NAD or nicotinamide riboside, NR. They would act similarly. There's a peptide called MOTS-c that is an exercise mimetic. I even got gene therapy down in Cabo. I got follistatin gene therapy from Dr. Adeel Khan at Eterna Health in Cabo. I did a podcast with him about it. That's a pretty potent injectable exercise mimetic.

But, this new one that everybody is talking about, I figured I'd look into it. Basically, it's called, like I mentioned, SLU-PP-332. So, this is a synthetically produced compound that works by activating specific proteins that are usually triggered by exercise. Now, what you need to know is that the majority of experience in this have been successful in rodent cells. And so, none of these breakthroughs might have much human application, yet it's interesting because when I looked into this, I was pretty impressed actually. The metabolic changes associated with exercise kick off with the activation of these proteins known as estrogen-related receptors or EERs.

Now, what these scientists developed was this compound, SLU-PP-332, that activates all three forms of those estrogen-related receptors. And, that means that it is regulating exercise-induced body adaptations and a lot of other important physiological processes within the muscles. In experiments with mice, they found it increased a fatigue-resistant type of muscle fiber without them doing any exercise. Meaning, it improved their endurance when they ran on a treadmill. But, leading up to that, they hadn't done any exercise or training for that. So, this could potentially be a super pill to trigger the effects of exercise.

Now, it's interesting because it's like, gosh, you could have your cake and eat it too. Well, the first thing to understand is that there's a lot more to exercise than just say burning calories or triggering a slowdown in your rate of muscle loss. There's character development. There's fun. There's socializing. There's bone density. There's grip strength. There's a lot more than just the mimetic effects of exercise. But, it is interesting that these actually have been looked into and found to have a pretty good effect in mouse models for obesity, for metabolic syndrome, for a lot of issues that people face if they have been sedentary for a long period of time or perhaps are just getting into exercise.

Now, anytime you're messing around with estrogen, it's important to understand that this is a hormone, these exercise mimetic, specifically this SLU one is triggering estrogen-related pathways. And, we don't exactly know what's going to go on in humans with long-term stimulation of those pathways. But, I couldn't find any deleterious side effects to this thing and all I found was literature review after literature review that was showing its effects on protecting muscle and on increasing endurance and on causing a lot of effects that were pretty impressive.

So, I'm going to keep my eye on this one. I'm waiting for more human research to come out. But, I'm glad that Patrice wrote in asking me about this exercise mimetic. And, just so you know, some of those others that I mentioned, they actually can work pretty effectively when combined with exercise. So, like I said, cocoa, green tea, urolithin A, another one would be berberine. I don't think I mentioned that. Quercetin, resveratrol, NAD or NR. There's another one called HMB, which protects against muscle loss even when you're sedentary. There's another fatty acid. Dr. Rhonda Patrick even did a big podcast about fish oil and its protective effect against muscle loss even while sedentary. There are even lifestyle practices like robust sauna therapy combined with cold. Not necessarily combined with cold, but sauna therapy on its own can increase levels of heat shock protein that have a muscle protective effect. But, the cold shock proteins you get from cold can also act similarly.

So, none of this is an endorsement of not exercising, not paying attention to how many calories you consume, not being careful with sugar intake, et cetera. But, when we look at some of those things that can mimic what Ozempic, GPL-1 agonist, or drugs like it can do and then we look at other things that can act as an exercise mimetic and even enhance the effects of the exercise that you are already doing, I think there's a case to be made for looking into these things.

Now, I also need to give a head nod to one compound that I got my hands on last month. And, I was very impressed on the research of this specific compound, acting very similar to an exercise mimetic and calorie restriction mimetic. So, an exercise mimic would mimic, as the name implies, a lot of the effects of exercise. A calorie restriction mimetic will mimic many of the effects of calorie restriction. You've kind of got exercise in a pill and then diet in a pill. Now, some things have been studied to have a calorie-mimetic effect. And, there's this company called Mimio, M-I-M-I-O. They've combined spermidine, which is made from the breakdown of amino acids in your body and has been shown to support mitochondrial health and cognition and healthy aging but has also a calorie restriction mimetic effect, nicotinamide, which is the precursor to NAD in the body, something called OEA, oleoylethanolamide, which is kind of a metabolic supercharger. It also helps to support healthy body composition, and then something called palmitoylethanolamide, PEA. That's a natural endocannabinoid that's produced by your body that can also act as a calorie restriction mimetic. So, they've combined spermine, nicotinamide, the OEA, and the PEA. And, some of the research and the results that they're getting out of this so-called biomimetic formula, hence its name Mimio, are pretty impressive.

I actually started experimenting with taking a couple of capsules each day. And, I have a lot going on right now as far as that gene therapy that I did. and me and my son's training for a Spartan Race, et cetera. But, I weigh right now, while I'm talking to you, 185 pounds and I'm 6% body fat. Ten weeks ago, I weighed 174 pounds at 6% body fat. I have put on 11 pounds of muscle in the past few months, actually in the past 10 weeks, which would be something that would be relatively unheard of unless it were assisted by science. I'm not taking steroids, Andro, anything like that. I take a small amount of testosterone in the morning and the evening using a cream, a [00:26:23] _____ applied cream. But, I was doing that already before and not gaining any appreciable amount of muscle. It's good for libido and motivation, et cetera. But, once I started to use some of these strategies that I just described to you paradoxically even though some of them act as calorie restriction mimetics, I've been putting on a lot of muscle. I think the main thing was the follistatin gene therapy that I did with Dr. Adeel Khan in Cabo. But nonetheless, these things are interesting, especially if you're already exercising and already dieting. I would look into some of these exercise mimetics when it comes to the exercise component. I would look into some of these calorie restriction mimetics when it comes to the dieting component. And, I do think that we can use a little bit of Better Living Through Science to enhance the effects of the hard work and the stoic approach to diet that we might already be following if body composition, as we get closer to the summer here, is something that you're interested in achieving.

So anyways, a lot there. That was a lot of deep science that we just jumped straight into the deep end, but I will put links to a lot more information to of these products, et cetera, if you go to the shownotes at BenGreenfieldLife.com/474.

And, while you're at it as you're going down this road of maybe losing fat, gaining muscle, I think it's important to also understand something called your FFMI. Now, I recently came across a fantastic, what is called FFMI calculator, so FFMI. If you haven't heard of it before, it stands for Fat-Free Mass Index. I know I'm throwing a lot of acronyms at you in today's show. Fat-Free Mass Index. That's a way to calculate the amount of muscle mass you have per unit of height. Okay, it's calculated by dividing your fat-free body mass, muscles, bone, et cetera, by your height. Okay, fat-free body mass is your total body weight minus the weight of your total body fat. Okay. So, the formula for FFMI is a little bit of a mouthful. Your fat-free mass is divided by your height squared, and then that's added to the figure 6.3 plus 1.8 minus height. So, I realize it's a lot, but there's calculators that do this online for you.

Now, this particular calculator lets you put in your values. Namely, the values that you put in are how much you weigh and then your sex, your body fat percentage, your desired body fat percentage, and then a few measurements like your wrist circumference, ankle circumference, et cetera. And then, it lets you calculate your potential for natural unassisted muscle mass as far as saying, “Okay, I want to gain X amount of muscle or what's the most amount of muscle I could have at X percent body fat.” So, what this calculator is based on is a book by a guy named Casey Butt, B-U-T-T. He did a whole bunch of research on maximum muscular potential in his book called appropriately enough, “Your Muscular Potential.”

Now, he then developed calculations that help you to determine how much muscle you could actually gain. And, these are based on these FFMI, these fat-free mass indices. And then, this calculator that I found online that I'm going to link to in the shownotes also has options that accurately assess a women's FFMI.

Now, when I did my own FFMI calculation, it turns out that according to these values, the maximum amount that I could get up to, based on my current body metrics and body fat, is 187 pounds if I wanted to maintain the same body fat. Once I get past 187 pounds, I theoretically would have to start increasing my body fat to put on even more muscle than that. But, it's interesting to know that theoretically, unassisted by supplements and things like that, I'm actually close to my maximum muscle mass potential. And, it's interesting to be able to calculate your genetic muscular potential. This FFMI calculator allows you to do just that, to calculate your natural potential. You can also use the calculator to look at a certain influencer or person you're following who's maybe giving you fitness advice. And, you can find out if they're natty or not, if they're natural or not. Like, is this person's weight and height realistic based on what it is that they're saying they weigh, what their body fat percentage is, or is this person who's, I don't know, 5 foot 6 and 215 pounds and 3% body fat basically a biological impossibility without the assistance of Better Living Through Science.

So, it's interesting that you can actually use this calculator to even kind of stalk your favorite influencer and find out if they're natural. So, if you want to find out if I'm natural, like I mentioned right now, I'm 6 foot 2, 185, 6% body fat, I would say I'm not natural, right? Because I use testosterone. I'm experimenting with all these different calorie restriction and exercise mimetics. I did the follistatin gene therapy. I've done stem cells. I use peptides, right? So yeah, I'm a little bit of a cyborg, but I feel great. I feel like I'm 16 years old. I'm not against a little bit of supplementation and Better Living Through Science if you calculate the risks. I'm not going to use GLP-1. I don't think it's worth the risk. I've looked into a PCSK9 for melting away plaque and I'm comfortable using a PCSK9 because I do have a high cardiovascular risk potential based on genetics. And so, that's something that I'm comfortable with. Metformin. I don't like the way it makes me feel. I don't like the fact that it could potentially inhibit some of the results of exercise. So, I instead use bitter melon extract and berberine to control my blood sugar along with hefty amounts of cold thermogenesis and cold showers.

And so, I always step back and look at the potential side effects of something, the efficacy of something, whether or not it needs to be taken for life. And then, I make my decision on whether or not I'm going to actually use that particular product or compound. 

Speaking of all these supplements, there's one other article that I wanted to pull your attention to. And, I found this in Examine. I'm constantly releasing the articles that I find, research studies that I come across. Usually, I put those out on Twitter or X as I suppose it's called now and my handle is Ben Greenfield on X. But, I talk about a few of those snippets that I found on this solosode podcast. And, one came from Examine, excellent resource, by the way. Examine is chock-full of these different study summaries and research primarily on foods and supplements, some amount of research on exercise. But they published on their main content feed a little article about whether or not your supplement could be tainted, whether or not your supplement could be tainted or if supplements are safe because they're not prescription pharmaceuticals. They're not as regulated.

And, in the past, they've written about how fish oil could slightly increase the risk of atrial fibrillation. If someone has pre-existing cardiovascular disease, how the supplement biotin could mess with a blood test and make certain lab tests unreliable if you're using biotin leading up to that lab test, how taking psyllium powder or fiber without water could result in an intestinal obstruction. And, by the way, that's a really good note for those of you who are taking a bunch of supplements at night and not drinking water with them because you don't want to wake up at night to pee and then you're getting constipation. That's probably why especially if those are fiber-containing supplements.  Always take anything designed as a cleansing or detoxing or fiber-based supplement with the recommended amount of water, but that's an aside.

Because what this article was actually about was the presence of undeclared drugs in dietary supplements, and whether or not you need to worry about that. Because in recent years, a variety of professional athletes have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and then they claim they unknowingly took a dietary supplement secretly adulterated with that drug. There was MMA fighter named Yoel Romero who sued a supplement company. He alleged that their product was responsible for his failed drug test and subsequent suspension from the sport. I think it was Goldstar Performance Products. I don't even recall what it is that they made in the product, but he claimed that it was tainted and that's why he failed the drug test. It's a convenient alibi, but there also might be some truth to it.

So, for example, recently in 2022, there was a review of 50 different studies that looked at more than 3,000 supplements analyzed and sourced from all over the world, the U.S., the UK, Italy, Germany, and China. And, the findings are pretty concerning, 28% of the tested supplements contained, you guessed it, undeclared drugs that were not listed on the supplement label. So, an example of that would be sibutramine.  Sibutramine was very popular for weight loss at a time until a large clinical trial found that it increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes. And, as a result, that drug got pulled from the market. Except, it really didn't disappear from commercial circulation and found its way instead into weight loss supplements, eventually becoming one of the most commonly detected adulterant in dietary supplements, sometimes in a lot higher doses than when the drug was prescribed.

Now, sibutramine is found in a lot of supplements marketed for weight loss. And, a lot of supplements marketed for weight loss have also been found to be adulterated with undeclared, isn't on the label, stimulants, laxatives, and even SSRIs, basically anti-depressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, which can be very dangerous for your neurotransmitter balance. And, maybe that's why one of the main reasons people go to the ER in responsive supplementation would be when they're using weight loss supplements. And, right there in that category, by the way, are erectile dysfunction supplements, so-called gas station dick pills, which often have very, very, very stimulating compounds in them combined with blood flow precursors like sildenafil, the active component in Viagra. And, that's a recipe for jittery sweaty palms, heart attack-style material.

So anyways, a variety of pre-workout supplements which I think would fall into that same category have also been found to have number of undeclared steroids and stimulants and what are called selective androgen receptor modulators, SARMs. Meaning they can act on your androgen receptors. For example, DMAA, 1,3-dimethylamylamine. That's a now widely banned supplement, but a variety of pre-workout supplements were found to contain it. Other frequently tainted supplements would be those for joint pain and cognitive function. I was on a call with a doctor this morning telling me that he was very concerned about ayurvedic herbs because so many of those in studies have been found to contain toxins or additional compounds that can harm the liver.

Now, the reason that supplement adulteration can be so common is that at least in the U.S., there's a certain way supplements are regulated. So, under the current guidelines in the U.S., supplement companies are not required to perform any tests about the quality of their products. So, when unapproved drugs are found in those supplements, the FDA will often warn the company that they should conduct what is called a voluntary recall. And, a lot of companies just ignore that warning. I mean frankly, this might be why even though I've seen the laboratory certificate of analysis and they're clean that some of the places I'm getting peptides from are still selling peptides even though the FDA cracked down on them. I guess, I'm just stocking up while the getting's good, I guess, on the stuff that I know is safe. But, the FDA can initiate a required recall when a supplement appears likely to cause harm but this doesn't always guarantee that the company is going to pull those supplements from the shelves or that GNC or the grocery store or super supplements or anyone else is going to actually pull that supplement from the shelf. It can remain for sale.

Now, it's interesting because the expression, “snake oil salesman,” which this article goes into, a term for a seller of fraudulent health products. That's actually derived from a case of supplement adulteration that goes all the way back to 1916 when it was reported that a popular line of snake oil liniment contained none of this from snakes, this serpentine oil, and instead, it was almost entirely mineral oil. So, the FDA issued the snake oil salesman who wasn't actually selling snake oil but was selling mineral oil a $20 fine. That would be equivalent to 500 bucks nowadays. So, regulation of supplements today has actually not changed a lot since then based on this fact that supplement companies are not required to perform any tests about the quality of their products. However, you can buy supplements that are certified by reputable third-party testers, meaning the supplement company sends their supplement off to a third party, an unbiased third party who test the supplement and make sure that the supplement has the amounts of what it says it has in it and also does not have any hidden ingredients.

So, some that you might be familiar with as third-party testing agencies would be Informed Choice, Informed Sport, NSF Certified for Sport. I own a supplements company, Kion, and all of our supplements are NSF Certified for Sport. Another one would be United States Pharmacopeia, Consumer Lab, LabDoor. LabDoor is great. They go through and they analyze a bunch of supplements. I interviewed them way back in the day. You can also go to the FDA supplement recall page. And, I'll link to this article in the shownotes that has an outbound link to the FDA supplement recall page, which is a good resource for supplement recall and safety alerts even though they're not all listed. It's a pretty good place to start. 

And honestly, I also use this website, Examine, to look at a lot of different supplement and see whether or not they've been tested, whether they're NSF Certified or third-party certified, whether any recalls have been placed on them. But, just understand when you hear a guy like me, a podcaster like me, talking about, “Oh, exercise mimetics and resveratrol and NR and green tea extract,” that doesn't mean just go Google or go to Amazon and find the lowest cost you can from the bargain band and order this stuff. You need to make sure ideally that everything you take is third-party certified, especially for the health of your liver, the health of your entire gastric system really, the health of your neurotransmitters, the health of your heart, the health of your nervous system.

A lot of people think that if it's a prescription, pharmaceutical, that it has more potential to be dangerous, that it has bigger firepower than a supplement. Well, even just some of the stuff I cited on calorie restriction mimetics and exercise mimetics earlier should convince you that that's not necessarily the case. But, in addition to that, supplements can indeed be just as powerful as a pharmaceutical. And, you just need to be aware of that and do your research accordingly, especially if you're listening to a podcast like this where obviously, even though this isn't the case for all of my shows, I'm talking about supplements a lot on this show, on this particular show, episode 474. So, things to think about.

Now, there was a question that I wanted to address in today's show. And, looking at the time — yeah, I'm going to have a little bit of time here to dig into it. It's a question on back pain. So, the question came from, let me look up this person's name, it was from Kevin. He says, I was just diagnosed with central disc protrusion, L4 and L5, resulting in spinal stenosis. I'd like to manage my symptoms. Do you have tips for healing this type of injury? 

He mentioned stem cells. I think with stem cells, you just need to be careful. It depends on the nature of the disc injury and the protrusion. There are good guys for backs. For example, doctor in Park City, Utah, Dr. Harry Adelson. He specializes in stem cells for backs. I've seen him. I like his work. He's at Docere Clinics or Docere Clinics in Park City, Utah. He'd be one guy to look into.

Another guy who I've actually seen in person standing there in the room doing a back surgery, if you want to call it that or injection with stem cells, was Dr. Adeel Khan in Cabo. They can do things in overseas clinics that a lot of times they can't do in the U.S. even though a guy Harry Adelson does pretty good work in the U.S. alone. There's a difference in terms of the type of stem cells they can use and the stem cell count. But ultimately, those are two guys I vouched for, Dr. Adeel Khan and Dr. Harry Adelson.

But, I also have, and I want to alert this to you and I'm going to link to both of these articles in the shownotes. I have two different articles that I've written about how to relieve back pain because it's something I've personally struggled with in the past. Hip flexor tightness, having a feeling a curtains tearing in my back when I bent down to do a deadlift, pain when sitting on an airplane for long periods of time. And, I've written and dug into this quite a bit as far as the type of things that can affect your pelvic alignment and the type of things that can cause disc issues like sitting or being sedentary. When a disc is herniated, something called the annulus fibrosis will break or tear, and that causes the nucleus pulposus, the liquid portion of the disc to be squeezed out. And, that fluid leaking from the disc can impact a variety of different nerves and cause pain. Well, if you look at something like an acute disc herniation during a deadlift, then we could see how sedentary time could cause that.

It's been shown that one hour of sedentary time, sitting around not doing anything, not allowing blood to flow can change the properties of the intervertebral discs in the lumbar spine. And, that can result in a sudden buckling in the lumbar spine when a load is applied suddenly to what's called the posterior lateral portion of the disc, the side of disc herniation. This means that if you're sedentary and then you go to the gym and start to lift objects without a proper warm-up, you get instability and the risk for herniation. But, that risk for herniation is increased the more sedentary that you are, particularly in a sitting position which affects your pelvic alignment in such a way that your hip flexors become short and your glutes are not activated. Perhaps this is why one of the most commonly recommended protocols for back pain is something that stabilizes the spine and helps with blood flow to all of those muscles and to the discs. And, that's Stu McGill‘s big three exercises. His opposite arm opposite leg extension. I think it's called a bird dog curl-up, which is kind of a crunch where you're pressing your low back into the ground with your legs bent or one leg bent. And, what's this third one? I do it all the time. It's the side plank where you're in a side plank position lowering the hip to the ground and then raising it back up. I actually do one set of each of those every afternoon just as a little movement snack, but also as a way to protect my back.

So anyways, what I did was I dug into a lot of other things that would possibly be called biohacks that I've also found to be very effective for low back pain. And, I'm going to link in the shownotes to what some of those techniques are. So, for example, I've got everything from the coil stretch that I learned from Dr. David Weck to inversion, to a special kind of belt called a back belt, to a red light therapy belt that you can wear around your back, a BetterBack device that you can attach to a chair that keeps you in an upright position, the use of a saddle chair, which actually is a chair that splits your pelvis in such a way. That sounds violent. Cause your pelvis to be aligned in such a way when you sit so that your hip flexors do not shorten excessively and your glutes stay activated. And, I just go through each of my different little hacks in these two articles and in the video that I produced along with that article all the way down to this device called the BrainTap, which is fascinating. Uses light sound stimulation to hypnotize you and help you to manage a lot of the nervous system dysfunction and guarding that can contribute even further to your low back pain or to low back immobility.

So, these are two articles that I've written in the past few years. One is called my “Top 10 Biohacks for Low Back Pain plus Fringe Low Back Remedies You've Probably Never Heard Of.” And, the other one is called “10 Ways to Biohack Back Pain and Why Your Back Gets Injured in the First Place.” So, I will link to both of those articles in the shownotes at BenGreenfieldLife.com/474. It's a great question about back pain. It took me an hour to go through everything in those articles. So instead, I'm just going to give you that resource. Go check it out. Great videos in there also that show you what to do.

So, that all being said, that's about all the time that we have for today's solosode. So, what'd you learn? Well, basically, GLP-1 agonists despite being effective have some downsides and there are better natural alternatives like Calocurb or Pendulum's GLP-1 Probiotic or peptides and/or ketones. You also learned that these exercise mimetics and calorie restriction mimetics seem to work. This new one, I would say, needs a little bit more human research behind it. The SLU, whatchamacallit, but these are things that can work and can be effective especially when combined with diet and exercise so long as, and you also learn this, you do your research and you only use supplements that have been certified by third-party independent laboratories. And then, finally, if you struggle with back pain or you want to kind of bulletproof your back, definitely check out those two articles I wrote on low back pain, which I'll link to in the shownotes if you go to BenGreenfieldLife.com/474.

And, in the meantime, thank you so much to everyone for listening in. I appreciate your support. You can go to the shownotes, leave your comments, your reviews, your questions. I read them all. And, leave this podcast a ranking wherever you listen in. And, thank you so much for listening in today. I'm Ben Greenfield, have an incredible week.

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Reading Time: 6 minutes

What I Discuss:  

-Ozempic®, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), and other hunger suppressors – 00:40 

–Listener question — exercise mimetics like SLU-PP-332 (studies 1, 2) – 18:10

-Fat-Free Mass Index (FFMI) Calculator – 27:35

-The presence of undeclared drugs in dietary supplements – 32:22

–Listener question — tips for healing spinal stenosis – 41:15

-And much more!

Are you curious about the shortcuts some celebrities and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are taking to shed pounds or bulk up?

In this episode, you'll discover safe alternatives to popular but potentially dangerous weight loss drugs like Ozempic® and other GLP-1 agonists. You'll also learn about cutting-edge exercise and calorie restriction mimetics that can enhance physical performance. I'll reveal how to calculate your maximum natural muscle potential and expose the truth about undeclared drugs in some supplements.

You'll also dive into the world of “exercise mimetics” — compounds that can mimic the effects of a workout or even simulate exercise while you're sedentary. I'll provide details on SLU-PP-332 and its potential for boosting endurance and building muscle without spending hours in the gym every day.

Additionally, I'll introduce you to “calorie restriction mimetics” like the novel supplement Mimio. I've started experimenting with this formula and have gained 11 pounds of muscle in just 10 weeks — a relatively unheard-of achievement unless assisted by science.

I'll also show you how to calculate your maximum natural muscular potential using the Fat-Free Mass Index. Plus, you'll get my top recommendations for the most trusted third-party testers to ensure your supplements are free of contaminants.

So get ready, because by the end of this episode, you'll be armed with a full arsenal of science-backed tactics to enhance your physical and mental performance — without resorting to any sketchy, potentially dangerous shortcuts.

Please Scroll Down for the Sponsors, Resources, and Transcript

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