Hidden Effects of GLP-1 Drugs No One is Talking About

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]A lot of you are on the GLP1 drugs and you're getting great results with it.

[00:00:04]And I and I'm not here to discredit the results because millions of people are losing weight and improving their metabolic health with it. And I also want to bring forward when we start to see that there are some side effects that might not being dis being presented to you or discussed. I think it's really important that we fill in where these GLP1s may be creating some health consequences beyond just, you know, obviously the scale loss is phenomenal. The A1C going down is incredible, but there's a few health things that we need to look at.

[00:00:44]And there's some new evidence that the GLP1s are really hard on bone density. I want to talk about some of the information that is coming forward. So, if you're on those drugs, you're able to course correct so we don't lose that bo bone density. And keep in mind that if you want to get off the drugs or you don't want to be on the these GLP-1 drugs, then I've done a lot of videos on how you can use fasting and food to actually repair the microbes that make GLP-1. So, I'll leave those those links in here so you can dive into those videos if that's helpful. But here's the information um that we are seeing that basically and it was presented at at an orthopedic conference which is really it was it was uh basically what the research was presented at one of the our country in America's top orthopedic surgery conf conferences and it came out with this declaration that GLP1s may be increasing the risk of osteoporosis bone softening and fractures.

[00:01:55]But the good news is you if you know this, you can course correct and add some things in. At the end of this video, I'm going to give you five ways you can prevent this from happening if you're on the drugs. So what was happening at this conference and what is the research saying? So Dr. John Hornf, a orthopedic surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania, started really looking at what was happening in the muscular skeletal system with his patients that were on GLP1s.

[00:02:27]And he had a a suspicion that these drugs were affecting bone and connect connective tissue. And he looked specifically at the semiglutides. So ompic and wgo and the laglutides like vtor vtosa and saxenda.

[00:02:46]So he looked at both of them. If you're a GLP1 expert and his team analyzed five years of medical records from more than 146,000 adults, this is a lot. who had both obesity and type 2 diabetes.

[00:03:05]And what he found and and stick with me through these stats because I found them interesting. They found that 4.1% of GLP-1 users developed osteoporosis.

[00:03:21]Now, that's in comparison to 3.2% 2% of non-users, which doesn't seem like a huge percentage increase, but it's a 30% increased risk of osteoporosis.

[00:03:37]Specifically, he saw that it was contributing to osteomalacia, which is a softening of the bone. He saw increases in gout, which is doesn't surprise me because as you're losing that much weight, all of a sudden you're getting a lot of uric acid crystals that are going to go into your system as your body drops weight. I've seen this even with fasting. And so we gout can increase from that toxic dump from fat being burned so so uh proficiently. and the gout rates were increased at a 12% increase. Now what he said this doctor at this orthopedic conference and I just want to point out to you is that this is observational research which means that it's by association not causation. So when you observe findings like this you're not saying that this is actually the causing it. you're just saying we see a trend here and we might want to look out for the trend. What they really need to do is now dive deeper into to and and really study this in isolation.

[00:04:49]The other interesting thing that I think we need to talk about is that there there is a study in the journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism that linked GLP1s to higher fracture rates in adults. So, we're we're I mean, it's enough I don't know about you, but it's enough information for me to want to do a video on it and for me to want to advise you to do some lifestyle steps that will make sure you hold on to bone.

[00:05:21]So, first I just want to point out like what would be the mechanism behind why these weight loss drugs would weaken your bones. And there's two theories that the experts are going off of.

[00:05:35]Theory number one is that you're not getting enough nutrients in. So, vitamin D, vitamin D is really brought in through fatty fish. So, this is going to be one of my recommendations to you is if you are on these drugs, let's make sure that you're getting enough vitamin D uh when you're eating. And if fatty fish doesn't feel good to you, um I would recommend some vitamin D supplementation. Catyplex D is my favorite by standard process. I'll leave links for that in the notes. But you also what they're seeing is you're not people on these drugs aren't getting enough calcium. They're not getting enough protein and they're not giving getting enough collagen. This orthopedic surgeon surgeon Dr. Hornoff said people are taking these medications and there's a tremendous amount an upside but with that they start to decrease their food and nutrient intake. So you have to be very intentional with each meal. Think about your protein, think about collagen, think about vitamin D. Like everything you put in your mouth needs to have be intentional or the consequences will start to appear.

[00:06:44]Theory number two uh is that when you carry less weight, you've dropped all this weight, there's not as much strain on your bones. So your bones have no reason to be have hold vitamin D and calcium inside them. So they have no reason to be strong to keep themselves strong. And Hornf's analogy is that he says when astronauts come back from space with they come back often with low bone density there's nothing forcing those bones to hold on to calcium and so the skeleton starts to weaken. Well, when you when you don't have carry as much weight, you also have that problem.

[00:07:25]So, you might think about adding a wrecking vest when you go for a hike um to keep those bones, put a little bit of added weight to because you've lost weight to be able to keep those bones strong. Um, and additionally for women, I just want to point out that there's a 2016 review in nature reviews disease that bone density in women declines rapidly through menopause. I think we all know that because of estrogen loss.

[00:07:53]Um, and it's particularly in the first five to 10 years of your post-menopausal experience that we see that rapid do uh density go down. So if you are combining menopause with these GLP drugs, you may actually find that you lose bone density even quicker than the average person. So this becomes so much more important for menopausal women because you could put yourself you're already I mean I know I have osteoporosis in my family. I'm postmenopausal. I'm doing everything I can to keep that bones density up. Um, and so if you add that with these GLP drugs, you may weaken your bones and then you've got an osteoporosis problem.

[00:08:42]So something that we just need to bring to the GLP1 conversation. Here are the five things you can start to do if you are on these drugs and you don't want to lose bone density. Here they are. Number one is you get a DEXA scan. So know your baseline before you go on the drug. Your your GP can do that. Your o your OB hopefully can do that. But let's get a a a baseline because bone density is not easy to measure. It's not easy easy to figure out. So I want to make sure you have a baseline before you get on the drug. Okay? And this is especially important for women over 40 because you are going to lose bone density as you lose estrogen. Number two, and this may be the most important one, lift weights.

[00:09:32]When you lift weights, what you're doing is you're actually putting more strain on the bone. A bone has to pull in more calcium and more phosphorus into your into your body, it when you are when it has more muscle. Now, for our menopausal women, that's hard because you're not building as much much muscle. you're losing muscle as you age. So, lifting weights, specifically heavy weights, um if you're menopausal and you're on these drugs, we need to weightlift. We need to get those get muscle on those bones. And so, there's an a Dr. Christopher McGawan, a gastroenterenterologist who runs a weight loss clinic and he know and he uses these GLP1s and he he is saying that we should combine all GOP P1 prescriptions with structured exercise and he says that lifestyle factors will play an incredible role.

[00:10:34]So, we got to make sure that we don't go on these drugs and just assume everything's going to be beautiful and incredible, but that we actually are aware of where we need to backfill in with our lifestyle. And weight loss is one of those places that we need to backfill in. Okay. Number three, I want you to think about eating enough collagen and enough protein. Um, this one's hard because your appetite is low, but we've got to get some protein and we've got to get some collagen in. Now, good news, you can actually put collagen peptides in your coffee. You can put in a smoothie. And the research shows that collagen peptides that you'll you'll see in protein powder powders are really popular and you can get them at your natural health food store. And here's the research on them. It was a 2018 study done in nutrients gave 131 post-menopausal women. They there were two groups. So one group got five grams of collagen peptides daily and the other group was a placebo group and they they did this for a year and the collagen group the people that got the collagen peptide showed an increased bone mineral density and improved bone formation.

[00:11:55]whereas the placebo group didn't have that same effect. So it collagen is not just for your skin, it's for your bone.

[00:12:06]And if you're on these weight loss drugs, put put a scoop of collagen peptides in your coffee every single morning. Have it in your protein drink.

[00:12:16]You got to make every meal count.

[00:12:19]Now number number four, the fourth thing you can do is supplement with vitamin D.

[00:12:25]So remember, vitamin D is really helpful in the formation of bones. I've done a whole video on vitamin D, how it's a pro hormone. People who carry extra weight, that fat in their belly around their body actually becomes a repository for vitamin D. Therefore, there's less vitamin D circulating in the system. So as you lose weight, you should become more sensitive to vitamin D. Your body should know how to use vitamin D better because it's not storing vitamin D. So actually a vitamin D supplement becomes even more potent as you start to lose weight. And specifically when you are doing vitamin D and I just want to point out a couple interesting studies because a 2011 study in the Journal of Nutrition and Research found 42% of Americans are already clinically deficient. And so, and we know vit their vitamin D like food sources are not that great. I mean, they're like fatty fish.

[00:13:30]So, that's great, but those what I've heard from a lot of people who are using these drugs is that their appetite even when they do eat is just not spectacular. So, I don't think most people are going to crave sardines. So, we've got to look at adding in vitamin D. Number five, add in magnesium and vitamin K2.

[00:13:54]Now, this is uber important because when we start to look at exogenous nutrients where we are adding in different nutrients, sometimes these nutrients work in synergy. So, vitamin D and K2 work together. Magnesium um and K2 work together. And there was a meta 22 meta analysis that pulled 16 clinical trials with over 6,400 women and found that vitamin K2 significantly improved lumbar bone density. That's your low back. So, and it was specifically in post-menopausal women, over 6,000 of them. And interesting enough, the food re source that has the best vitamin K in it is something called natto. It's a fermented soy food. It has a tremendous amount of vitamin or K2. So, you might actually try to add that into your food. Um, I personally take uh magnesium every single night. My favorite to take right now that I'm loving is standard process is easy mag because it's whole foods based. And I like to just try to get everything in through food. And this is just food put into a supplement. There's no synthetic ingredients. So again, I'll leave links at the bottom here for you.

[00:15:19]But I think there's something that we just need to bring forward that yeah, weight loss drugs are working incredible. Yeah, you can make your own GLP-1. I've taught you in many videos here how to do that. And if we're going to be on these GLP one drugs, we need to not just see the upside. We need to use our lifestyle to deal with some of these consequences that can filter in. So, let me know if you're on a weight loss drug.

[00:15:48]I'd love to know if you are experiencing or you've had been it's been reported that you have low bone density. Um, if you are really using your lifestyle to improve your bone density, put in the comments so we can all share it together. Um, but I'm I'm always a believer that that we use lifestyle first and if lifestyle doesn't fix a problem, then we go to medication. I'm also a believer that if we're on a medication, we shouldn't think of it as a free pass. That we need to look at, okay, now I'm on this medication to solve this problem. What can I do to bring in my lifestyle so that I'm back filling in any consequence from any medication, but specifically the GLP ones because the whole world is in love with them. And I just keep thinking like, oh my god, when are people going to start to see that these consequences if they are not addressed are going to be big hurdles in your health? So, let me know if that's helpful. Um, and I'll put videos in here because I really want you to see that you can make your own GLP ones. But those of you who are on it, I you know, I'm not trying to to steal your enthusiasm for it. I'm just trying to help you understand that there may be some other pieces that you need to incorporate. So, as always, I hope that helps. If you like this video, you're definitely going to want to check out the next