I would like to provide a few updates and opportunities to promote healthspan focusing on fat loss.
Many are asking about the latest drug, branded as Wegovy, being touted as the first ever FDA-approved for weight loss (“chronic weight management in adults with obesity”). The drug, a GLP-1 agonist generically named, semaglutide, and also branded as Ozempic and similar to another drug, tirzepatide, and branded as Mounjaro, is an injectable medication administered just under the skin weekly has been shown to reduce body weight very significantly without much effort. Semaglutide was approved for treatment of diabetes in 2017 and therefore has an established record of use that includes safety, efficacy, and few potential side effects. I have begun prescribing semaglutide for diabetes and weight loss since the beginning of 2022, and have witnessed considerable improvements in health with its use with the only noted side effect being some nausea if one started at too high a dose or advanced the dosing too quickly.
Because of its success as an effective weight loss tool, there is a Nationwide shortage of the brand-named drugs. Even where available, the brands are quite expensive. Our compounder, Empower Pharmacy, provides semaglutide at less than $100/month. Anyone interested in a trial of semaglutide for weight loss or to replace existing blood sugar lowering medications is welcome to contact us to consider starting a course of semaglutide treatment.
App Release
For those interested in determining where one stands in terms of “Biological Age” (BA) versus “Chronological Age”(CA), with the help of a team of very bright mathematicians, programmers and developers, I have developed an App, “The Death Clock” to help not only determine one’s effective real age, but to measure the differences made to one’s BA as a result of changes made to one’s life – including medical, supplemental, exercise, nutrition, sleep and other modifiable factors and interventions – to improve one’s healthspan (healthy longevity).
We are simply waiting for Apple’s final approval before you will see it available for download from the Apple App store, literally any day now. Within the App (but also directly through our office, if you prefer) one can enter data linked to BA and healthspan ranging from basic demographics and history, to laboratory assays, to more extensive testing and evaluations including telomere length and DNA methylation measurements.
With regards to healthy nutrition as well as efforts toward fat loss, not included in my book, but for those who ask about these food options, we have finally launched our first offering – a “Coconut Cashew” bar - in the nutritional food space using the functional sweetener, allulose. Our brand is called, Taste and Bliss, and we will follow this initial offering with more bars as well as drink mixes similar to “Crystal Light” but containing not only allulose but additional nutritious ingredients designed to optimize cognition and activation of the parasympathetic nervous system (the calming state that promotes regeneration).
Hindsight on COVID:
Of note recently is an article published in the British medical journal, The Lancet, that provides a systematic review and meta-analysis of 65 studies from 19 different countries demonstrating that those with natural immunity to COVID conferred by infection with the SARS CoV-2 virus had equal immunity and protection against reinfection equal to those vaccinated with two doses of the mRNA COVID vaccines. Good news for those previously infected with the virus as well as some vindication for those who drafted the Great Barrington Declaration and perhaps enough evidence to stifle mandates to be vaccinated if one has already been infected.
Lastly, I would like to remind you that my book, Cheating Death, The New Science of Living Longer and Better was released March 7th and is now available for purchase. Thank you to those who have already purchased a copy and contributed to its “Best Seller” status in Barnes and Noble and Amazon stores. I hope its contents will be informative and useful, and will promote conversation in our future consultations and communications about the opportunities we have available to increase our healthspan.
Best in health,
Rand McClain, D.O.