💪 Long term side effects of weight loss drugs revealed

Popular diabetes drugs, like Ozempic, are GLP-1 agonists.

In short, GLP-1 agonist improve insulin production, slow down digestion and reduce appetite. The effect is better blood sugar level control.

However, GLP-1 agonists have been increasingly used for weight loss.

These medications are effective for weight loss, but can also cause significant loss of muscle mass.

Loss in muscle mass is due to the rapid nature of weight loss and can vary between 25% to 39% of lost weight over 36–72 weeks.

In comparison, calorie restriction diets lead to a muscle loss of 10-30% of lost weight.

This means that the muscle lost as a result of GLP-1 agonists is significantly higher than that from calorie restriction diets.

And several times greater than expected muscle loss due to ageing (e.g. 0.8% per year between 40 - 70 years).

🥊 Punchline

The long term use (and abuse) of GLP-1 agonists for weight loss can lead to significant losses in muscle mass. This can affect overall metabolic health and wellbeing, and could jeopardise healthy ageing.

🥛 Why do commercial probiotics fail to colonize the human gut?

With the recent explosion of gut health services and supplements, we started to pay more attention to probiotics.

And recent sales figures show that interest in probiotics (both supplements and enriched foods) has skyrocketed.

But, doubts remain on the limitations of probiotics supplements and enriched foods.

“Why do commercial probiotics fail to colonize the human gut”?

There are 3 reasons why:

1. Non-native strains. Many probiotic strains are not native to the human gut and therefore haven't evolved the specific genetic traits that allow them to survive and thrive in the gut environment. These traits resistance to stomach acid and ability to stick to the gut lining

2. Niche availability and competition. The gut is a complex ecosystem with limited space and resources. For a probiotic strain to colonize, it needs to find an available niche. Past research found that a specific strain of Bifidobacterium longum had more success colonizing in individuals who didn't already have native B. longum strains. This suggests that when a niche is already filled by a similar species, it's harder for the probiotic strain to establish itself

3. The "familiarity" principle. probiotic strains have a better chance of colonizing when there are already related species present in the gut microbiome. This means that a similar microbial environment may be more hospitable to the incoming probiotic strain, and the presence of related species might indicate that the gut environment is suitable for a particular type of microbe.

This complexity explains how many probiotics fail to colonise and thrive in the gut due to the significant challenges they face in the gut ecosystem.

🥊 Punchline

Successful colonization of the gut by a probiotic strain depends on 1) whether it's native to the human gut, 2) the availability of a suitable niche and 3) the existing microbial community in the gut. Contrary to popular belief, it's not a matter of concentration.

🦠 Turning spirulina into a superfood with vitamin B12 fortification

Vegetarians and vegans are at risk of vitamin B12 deficiency, especially older adults due to their reduced appetite.

Vitamin B12 is almost exclusively found in foods of animal origin, with the exception of few plant sources.

A company is looking to add vitamin B12 to spirulina to enhance its nutritional profile and make it an all-in-one supplement option for vegetarian and vegan diets.

In a way that matches the amount and bioavailability of vitamin B12 in beef.

The company wants to go as far as using spirulina enriched with active vitamin B12 into everyday foods like bread, cereals, and plant-based milk alternatives to enhance the nutritional value of staple products.

The beauty of fortification of algae like spirulina is that it’s very cost-effective.

It uses no arable land, pesticides or herbicides, minimal fertiliser use and significantly less fresh water than conventional farming practices.

Fortified spirulina could be particularly beneficial in areas where traditional food sources are limited or where the local diet is predominantly plant-based.

🥊 Punchline

This is welcome progress given the widespread deficiency of Vitam in B12 worldwide (6% of older adults in the UK are vitamin B12 deficient). Not only vitamin B12 enriched spirulina can mimick how much beef can provide, but remains an inclusive source for all because plant based. Likely next steps will be evaluation of bioavailability and health outcomes in humans and commercial scalability.