Episode 97
Dr Tami Meraglia:
Reframing 'Fine': Unearthing the True Meaning of Health with Dr. Tami Meraglia
In this engaging podcast episode, we talk to Dr. Tami Meraglia about resilience, hormones, holistic health, and the use of semaglutide for weight management and anti-aging. We discuss the limitations of traditional Western medicine and the need for a more comprehensive approach. Also explored the roles of hormones in women's health, and the importance of self-care and lifestyle changes for overall well-being.
First Aired on: Jul 24, 2023
Episode 97
Dr Tami Meraglia:
Reframing 'Fine': Unearthing the True Meaning of Health with Dr. Tami Meraglia
In this engaging podcast episode, we talk to Dr. Tami Meraglia about resilience, hormones, holistic health, and the use of semaglutide for weight management and anti-aging. We discuss the limitations of traditional Western medicine and the need for a more comprehensive approach. Also explored the roles of hormones in women's health, and the importance of self-care and lifestyle changes for overall well-being.
First Aired on: Jul 24, 2023
Table of Contents:
In this episode:
Introduction and Background:
- Dr. Tami Meraglia's journey to becoming a practitioner in integrative medicine
- Importance of individuals taking control of their own health
- The concept of "fine" as a four-letter word in relation to well-being
"Fine" and Personal Healing Experiences:
- The various meanings of "fine"
- Personal healing experiences including stem cell medicine
- Importance of personalized approaches to healthcare and lifestyle changes
Philosophy of Health and Self-care:
- The three pillars of health: structure, chemicals, and frequency/energy
- Importance of addressing all three pillars for optimal health
- Role of toxins in our environment and the need for self-care practices
Women and Testosterone:
- Overlooked importance of testosterone in women's health
- Dr. Tami's experience with low testosterone and natural boosting methods
- Debunking the one-size-fits-all notion in supplements and hormone therapy
Libido, Hormones, and Testosterone's Role:
- Role of libido in procreation and its natural decrease post childbearing years
- Importance of optimizing hormones for women's overall well-being
- Role of testosterone in energy levels, brain fog, bone health, and body composition
- The relevance of semaglutide for weight loss
Benefits of Semaglutide:
- Semaglutide as a tool for muscle protection while losing weight
- Benefits of Semaglutide: reducing inflammation, converting white fat to brown, etc.
- Comparison with other drugs like Metformin and low dose naltrexone
Medication and Lifestyle Changes:
- Role of medication for long-term health and weight loss
- Importance of finding balance in food choices, reducing food cravings
- Medication as part of a comprehensive approach to health and wellness
Semaglutide and Appetite:
- Effects of semaglutide on appetite and cravings
- Cost of semaglutide and availability of generic form from compounding pharmacies
Responsible Medication Use and the Right Doctor:
- Identifying who is not a suitable candidate for semaglutide
- The controversial use of medication in children
- Importance of counseling, nutrition, and exercise along with medication use
Science, Holistic Health, and Meditation:
- The intersection of science and holistic health practices
- Importance and benefits of meditation
- Information about Dr. Tami's clinic and resources for listeners
Key Takeaways:
- Our health should be focused on promoting overall wellness, not just treating diseases.
- The three pillars of resilience - structure, chemicals, and frequency - play a crucial role in our well-being.
- Hormone therapy can have positive effects on energy, cognition, and body composition.
- Semaglutide offers various health benefits but should be used with caution and under medical supervision.
- Medication can serve as a helpful tool, but lifestyle changes are essential for long-term health.
Other Resources:
Connect with Dr Tami Meraglia
Episode Transcript
Julie Michelson: [Page//00:00:00] Welcome back to The Inspired Living with Autoimmunity podcast. I'm your host, Julie Michelson, and today, Dr. Tami Meraglia joins us and we have some fun hot topics to discuss. Dr. Tami is the producer of the docuseries, the Healing Secret. The author of the nationally bestselling book, the Hormone Secret, and the C e O of Vitality Hormone Clinic in [Page//00:01:00] Seattle, Biorenati stem cell and regenerative Center in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and the Seattle Stem Cell Center.
In today's conversation, we talk about getting rid of the four letter word fine, and also the three pillars that are essential for resilience. Dr. Tami highlights the importance of an often overlooked hormone for women, and we answer many questions about the use of semaglutide for weight management and anti-aging.
Dr. Tami, welcome to the podcast.
Tami Meraglia: Thanks for having me. I'm so excited.
Julie Michelson: So looking forward to our conversation, and I just had to cut us off and say, wait, I should hit record because I wanted to dive in. I got a little ahead of myself, so I would love to, for listeners that aren't familiar with you, have you share a little bit of your story of how you got to be practicing this kind of medicine, because I feel like most of the things, if not [Page//00:02:00] all of the things that you do, are cutting edge and definitely right up my alley.
Tami Meraglia: Well, the good thing about going to medical school when you're older is that you do not swallow all the Kool-Aid. And so I did not believe everything that I was told in traditional Western Medical School. So I danced professionally in a ballet company for many years, and then I went to undergraduate and thought, oh, I'll be a physical therapist.
That was the only profession I had ever been introduced to.
Julie Michelson: Interesting.
Tami Meraglia: Yes. And I got, you know, frustrated with that. Uh, as I explored it, I thought, oh gosh, I, I really want to, to have a bigger impact. And, uh, so anyway, long story short, you go to undergraduate and when you love anatomy and when you love chemistry and you end up with a pre-med degree, and [Page//00:03:00] so, Long path to med school, and I chose traditional medicine and I love the science.
I love the cynicism, I love the statistics, I love the data. But all along, I had been interested in. Um, herbs and nutrition and, you know, keeping our bodies healthy on our own. I believe we can be the c e o of our own health and should be, and that doctors and practitioners work for us. And so as soon as I finished, I went in and studied and got certified in naturopathic medicine as well.
And so, It was really because my patients kept coming to me over and over and over again and they'd say, you know, I don't feel well. I don't have my energy and things aren't as joyful and I'm not sleeping as well, and I have, you know, 15 to 50 pounds that we just won't budge. I'm using the same tricks that I used to.
I would run the [Page//00:04:00] usual test, right. You know, thyroid and check for anemia if they're tired, and I would tell them they were fine. And that's when I realized that fine is a four letter word and nobody wakes up in the morning and says, gosh, today I wanna feel fine. I wanna feel fabulous. So looking at the blood work and looking at how traditional medicine was set up, it's really designed to treat diseases and conditions and even our wellness.
Appointments are designed to find diseases and conditions at early stages. It has nothing to do with wellness, nothing.
Julie Michelson: True.
Tami Meraglia: my motivation to dive into what we now call functional medicine, which I think of as a blending of Western and Eastern and naturopathic medicine. So I have my foot on what is needed for the patient because they're the epicenter.
Julie Michelson: I love that. That [Page//00:05:00] is amazing. And I also love that fine, the word fine is banned in my home. It is a four letter F word, and so it's like, no. We're all educated, we can find a different word to actually express what we mean. Cuz fine can be good, you know, it can be, I'm, you know, I'm pretty good at least you know, or fine could mean, you know, I'm terrible and I just don't wanna burden you with that.
So, no, not allowed. Be
Tami Meraglia: Awesome.
Julie Michelson: Yeah,
Tami Meraglia: great.
Julie Michelson: I love that. So, You mentioned, I, I'm just curious, I don't know this part of your story, but you, you mentioned, you know, from the ballet background and you had the, the, pretty much you were, which is a good thing that, you know, physical therapy, it makes sense that that would, you would have. Probably plenty of experience with physical therapy.
Um, [Page//00:06:00] were there, was there any piece of kind of your own healing journey that, that, aside from just the general interest in, hey, the body can heal and wellness is a thing, um, that, that you weren't finding in western medicine.
Tami Meraglia: Well, two stories. One is, um, my father was diagnosed with C O P D emphysema and, um, When he got oxygen, uh, that's the beginning of the last chapter. There is no more. So I dove into the research, like I just, you know, so the brain of a doctor and the dedication of a daughter. So that's a really intense
Julie Michelson: I have. Goosebumps. Yeah. Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: And I kept bumping into stem cells over and over and over, and over and over. And, uh, long story short, I was so blessed to, um, be able to participate in stem cell medicine [Page//00:07:00] and now I get to help patients with the holistic part of their program, the hormones, inflammatory markers when they go to a clinic in port of I rta.
But my dad was able to get off oxygen and,
Julie Michelson: what?
Tami Meraglia: yeah.
Julie Michelson: Right. The body can heal. So how come nobody gets off oxygen once they're
Tami Meraglia: Well, you know, stem cells are like everything else in medicine. They don't always work for every person every time. We don't even know why, but an aspirin doesn't either. Um, and there's definitely need for, you know, rigorous clinical work. And so I'm excited to see the future and I'm excited that. Places like our, the clinic in Port Vallarta, it's called Biona, that I get to be a part of that.
And I believe that stem cells are like seeds and our bodies are like soil. And so I get to play in the soil, in the sandbox with everybody and up level that [Page//00:08:00] quality, you just have to plant a seed in the sand versus, you know, a rich. Pop soil full of worms, kind of dirt, and you can see the outcome is quite different.
Um, so that was one aspect of like, oh my gosh, that is
Julie Michelson: It's a whole nother world. Yeah. I, I,
Tami Meraglia: sorry, go ahead.
Julie Michelson: I just, and I, I wanna get to the second, the second story too, but, but I love, and you mentioned, and not everything works for everybody. We are, you know, we are unique. We are all unique. Um, as somebody who has had stem cell treatment for. The, the kind of little remainder autoimmune symptoms that I had had.
Um, my results were remarkable. I had done all of that work, the cleaning it up, the lifestyle, the hormones, the all of the things. And so I really love that you, you're [Page//00:09:00] highlighting, you know, there's no ma there is no magic. Everybody wants that magic cure, um, or solution, but, but, That I love that you're bringing I the necessary piece because I would imagine doing a stem stem cell treatment on somebody who has a, I'll call it a dirty lifestyle, probably isn't going to do much.
It would be like planting a seed in the sand, I would think.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah. You know, I tell my patients, That if they're not willing to like quit smoking or give up alcohol or change their diet and they wanna spend the money. Now granted when you go to Mexico to this private hospital, it's a lot less than you would spend here. And um, you get way more, but it's still a lot of money, right?
Julie Michelson: Right, right.
Tami Meraglia: you wanna waste that much money, you could just donate it and you can help somebody else.
Julie Michelson: Right.
Tami Meraglia: Causes just not, you're not into this.
So yeah, you, you've got to it all, it all works together in my, [Page//00:10:00] so my philosophy of health is that we have really three pillars and one pillar is structure. And I think that stem cells represent a, a unique potential for fixing structure and problems without turning to drugging and cutting First.
We don't know why it works. We don't know when it works. We don't know a lot, but I think it's really exciting. The second thing is chemicals and our hormones are chemicals, and our nutrition is chemicals. And if you think of that on our outside of our body, there's a lot of toxins and chemicals outside, like pesticides and things like that as well.
And the third thing that I don't think is talked enough about. Either in naturopathic medicine or at all in traditional medicine is frequency, energy, and every cell in your body has an electrical current. And if you can [Page//00:11:00] change the electrical current, you change the environment of the cell and you change the function of this.
You change what it is and isn't doing easily, and so if you have all three pillars, you are resilient, right? That is our absolute goal is resilient. We don't want to be strong like an oak tree, and then when a big storm comes, we crack. We want to be able to shift and respond. If you only have two, then it only takes.
A job loss, a relationship loss, or a worldwide pandemic to have you feeling sick or actually even get a disease or diagnosis. And if you only have one pillar intact, you probably already have a disease or diagnosis. And so we approach all of our patients from this three pillar way of health to optimize, not look for just [Page//00:12:00] problems, but how can we optimize it?
If you don't have gut problems, I still wanna know what's going on in your gut microbiome. It's going to take a while, accumulate at the cell it as a symptom. So why don't we find it earlier? Well, if you don't look, you don't know. So that's, that's my journey. And you know, people will say, oh, you're a very strange md.
You're talking about meditation all the time. And you know, and my colleagues, they say like, you practiced in a parallel universe, like an alternative universe. I'm like, thank you.
Julie Michelson: You are what we call ahead of the curve. I would say.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: I, you know, I, there's. You've never shocked me other than, um, that you're just already to, you know, doing it all so well. Like you're normalizing what we really need to be, to be [Page//00:13:00] addressing. And I, I love that. Um,
Tami Meraglia: it, it needs to be normalized, but it also needs to be prioritized. I tell patients, if your meditation doesn't have an appointment time, On your calendar and you tell me it's a priority. I'm gonna say liar, liar, pants on fire. Everything that's important is scheduled. You can't just wait until you have enough time, energy, or whatever is done.
Julie Michelson: that's the time part's gonna be when you're down cuz you're sick. Energy, maybe not, but you know, it, it is amazing. And so I, I diverted you away from, you said you had a second, another kind of story that brought you in this direction to
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, so I was, um, older when I went to residency having danced, you know, in a ballet company for a long time. So I was, uh, pregnant in my first year of residency, and then I had [Page//00:14:00] my s I was pregnant with my second child in third year residency.
Julie Michelson: Oh my goodness.
Tami Meraglia: And I, and after that, when my babies were born and you know, I was so tired, I literally would lay down on the floor between patients.
I was exhausted and I thought, oh, of course I'm exhausted. I have a toddler, I have a baby, I'm a doctor, I'm a resident. You know, don't, don't women do that a lot. Like
Julie Michelson: Well, and doctors. Doctors do it a lot. Of course, you're
Tami Meraglia: two women.
Julie Michelson: you're a new mom. Like, no. We know the difference of, you know, I have to lay on the floor and boy, I really need to get a better night's sleep tonight. They're not the same.
Tami Meraglia: Not at all. Not at all. So I ran my own blood tests and hormones and, you know, I had been enough of time [Page//00:15:00] not pregnant to, to have quote unquote, normal hormones and, and everything came back. Fine. I had run, I know, right? I had run the usual estradiol, progesterone, thyroid, iron, you know, C, B, C, liver, all of that stuff.
But I hadn't run testosterone,
Julie Michelson: Ooh. Because that would've been weird.
Tami Meraglia: Right, right. Why would you know that's, that's for guys? Like why would I need or want to even take testosterone? That's scary. I'll get hairy and angry and big mouth yucky. Anyways, I ended up, for some reason, I just decided to dive into the research again and find out about testosterone and what I learned is that women actually.
Have a small amount of testosterone in our bodies. Um, it's actually more than you think, but that's another story. Um, but it has an outsized role in how [Page//00:16:00] we look, feel, and function. And so when I tested it, and it's really important to make sure you test your free testosterone cuz your total testosterone is like how much hormone is.
So if you're going to make a house, You need workers and total testosterone is checking How many workers are in the truck? Are they
Julie Michelson: I like that.
Tami Meraglia: No, they're not working free. Testosterone workers is free. Testosterone is checking the workers that are in the house with a hammer moving around doing
Julie Michelson: the ones on the payroll,
Tami Meraglia: Right,
Julie Michelson: the ones actually
Tami Meraglia: exactly.
So my free testosterone was undetectable.
Julie Michelson: Oh,
no wonder you were laying on the floor.
Tami Meraglia: And so I researched all the ways that I could reboot my own biology to get my own body to make its testosterone, and it worked a little bit. But what I found is that [Page//00:17:00] because of my age and because of my lifestyle at that time, I was in such severe adrenal fatigue. And my adrenal glands were responsible for making the majority of my hormones.
You know, cuz Mother Nature was inviting me to exit stage left and the reproductive theater hit her. And uh, I decided, okay, I'm gonna take. One milligram of topical bioidentical testosterone, and
Julie Michelson: Life
Tami Meraglia: it was like within a week.
Julie Michelson: It's one of my most favorite things about hormone therapy is it's not like, oh, we'll know in a few months, like if this is working or where, when you're optimal. Um, and so I love, I love this whole conversation. I'm so excited because you touched on in, in your own journey. This. I get it all the time. You know, women are afraid of testosterone.
[Page//00:18:00] We just have been trained that that's a male hormone, and you know, then I don't know, I grew up. I went to high school in the eighties. So, you know, I think of, you know, guys in the gym, you know, dosing themselves, doping, you know, that's not, that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about, you know, d intentional controlled medical dosages.
Tami Meraglia: Well and customized, right
Julie Michelson: yeah. Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: you, and one size absolutely does not fit all. It's one of my biggest issues with the influencers. I love that the conversation is coming up on social media and YouTube and all of that, and I hate that. There's this perception that one size fits all and one supplement is great for longevity and one supplement is great for whatever it isn't.
We don't look alike because we are not alike. And yes, we [Page//00:19:00] have a lot of similarities, but in ayin saves many people's lives and it can kill some people. Like it's, there's such a difference. So this personalized approach. It's interesting that, uh, we've also been taught, or I think the perception is, is that testosterone's main thing is libido.
And I would like to, um, with love and from my heart, gather up every man. And women that is out there telling women who are in their fifties and sixties and seventies, that they should have a high libido and you aren't healthy and your hormones aren't healthy if you don't have a high libido. What's the purpose of libido is to stimulate procreation.
That's it. We're [Page//00:20:00] not complicated. We're animals.
Julie Michelson: Wait, we are,
Tami Meraglia: We are complicated in
Julie Michelson: we are complicated animals, but
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, there we go. But that is the purpose of your libido. Mother. Nature actually doesn't care about pleasure. It's there. It's lovely, but. It's not going to be, I want to gather all those people in, all the women who've been listening to them and feeling bad because they don't have a high libido and say, it's okay.
You're libido. It may stay high, but it's absolutely natural that it goes down after childbearing years. Now does that
Julie Michelson: women are even more complicated animals, right? And so
Tami Meraglia: sure.
Julie Michelson: for the most part, and we're all different, if you optimize a man's hormones, he's, and again, different, his [Page//00:21:00] procreation years are way longer, too long maybe. Um,
Tami Meraglia: I just asked some of the stars these days.
Julie Michelson: they're pretty, I know, that's what I was just thinking about.
They're pretty easy. Right. And, and the doctor I work with all the time says that to, to people, you know, like, yeah. With a guy, we can tweak hormones and we pretty much know what we're gonna get. But with a woman, how's the relationship? How are your stress levels? How is your nutrition? How is it's, you know, and how's your sleep?
How's, how's your, all of it? Um, and, and so, and you're right, we're no longer need to be making babies, so, um,
but I,
Tami Meraglia: that sex shouldn't be great.
Julie Michelson: it should be great,
Tami Meraglia: should be great. It shouldn't hurt. Hormones can help.
Julie Michelson: energy, which is what I think of when I think of testosterone. How are you gonna have a high libido when you can't get off the floor?
Tami Meraglia: Exactly, and energy is the [Page//00:22:00] number one
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: symptom that improves when women restore their testosterone. It's also involved in brain fog. It also stimulates your bones. It also has everything to do with your fat muscle ratio. You know, there's a lot of semaglutide ozempic or govi manjaro, and we have a nationwide telehealth weight loss with semaglutide, and so I get it.
But I always tell my patients, you're not going to have as much success and you're not gonna love the body you're left with if you don't optimize your hormones, including testosterone. No matter if you're a male or a woman, if you don't prioritize protein and if you don't move your body.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. You don't wanna lose muscle. I mean, all of those that, that's, people think they wanna lose weight and, and you know, and let's dive into that, um, because this is, has become such a hot topic, the semaglutide [Page//00:23:00] topic. Um, so I'd love to pick your brain cuz I'm sure listeners have, have questions or I'm, you know, I think at this point everybody's heard of.
Whether it's Ozempic or one of the, the pharmaceutical brands or the peptide world, the semaglutide, um, let, let's talk about that a little bit because we were talking before about, you know, number people are focused on numbers on a scale, and if you're overweight and, and you're not focusing on those things that you just mentioned, then you're gonna be losing muscle
too.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah. It's a
Julie Michelson: wants that.
Tami Meraglia: weight loss
Julie Michelson: Right. It's not a
Tami Meraglia: It's not a fat loss. Exactly.
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: So you have to do something to protect your muscle. And when you lose 20, 30, 40, a hundred pounds, you don't wanna look like you were in the hospital when you, you know, when you're done, you wanna look fabulous and you wanna feel [Page//00:24:00] fabulous and they're using this.
These medications are amazing tools, honestly. I have never seen a medication with so much success. Never, never in my entire, you know, 25 plus years, never been. And I think it, it will never be FDA approved for anti-aging. But there's some really interesting and profound observations in the, the research.
Uh, a decrease in inflammation. A conversion of your white fat to brown fat and brown fats. The scrumptious fat, it's the one with the OR mitochondria, A decrease in the risk of heart attack and stroke. That was F D A approved for diabetics. A decrease in the risk of Alzheimer's because of the neuroprotection.
A decrease in blood glucose. We know decrease in blood pressure, decrease in [Page//00:25:00] cholesterol. There's so many so. Things that are, are really interesting. I think that, you know, in my opinion, based on what I know now, I would lump it into that Metformin, low dose naltrexone. Um, there's also rapamycin, but I, I'm, I'm a very cautious doctor.
I don't prescribe things that have yet to have clinical studies in humans. I'm old enough to remember thalidomide. I don't ever wanna be the doctor that prescribed something new that hasn't had some long term, and that's the beautiful part about semaglutide. It's been around forever.
Julie Michelson: right and people think it's new. Um, and let's talk about that. You, you touched on it already. This is, it's not, it's not a weight loss medication. This isn't, it's not fen like this is it? It it was [Page//00:26:00] first f d a approved
Tami Meraglia: It was used in the diabetic world.
Julie Michelson: Okay.
Tami Meraglia: And uh, and then as things happen, you know, Botox was never actually. Used for cosmetic purposes. It was used for a condition called tic deru, which is a very trigeminal neuralgia of the other name. So it's a nerve pain and it's excruciatingly painful. It's called the suicide condition.
People are in such pain that they literally want to die, and a gust of wind can actually make. Their pain start and this Botox injections used to help the pain and it's almost always on one side, not bilateral. And the Caruthers, Dr. Caruthers up in Vancouver, British Columbia, is looking at these patients that had the tic DeRoo in their face and getting Botox and went. [Page//00:27:00] See? Huh? Fast forward, we studied it. Same as the lash stuff. How is it cosmetic purpose? It's a glaucoma
Julie Michelson: happy, it's a happy side effect.
Tami Meraglia: This medication was being given to diabetics. And all of a sudden there's this notice that they're losing weight. Now everybody's like, well, every diabetic when they get treated loses weight. No. If you take insulin, you don't necessarily lose weight. You might actually gain weight. Metformin may or may not get you.
The gide. All the, I mean, there's so many medications and it wasn't associated with its weight loss. So that did start an FDA-approved clinical trial for one brand that did this. Of the medication, the brand, the generic active medication is called [Page//00:28:00] Semaglutide, but the one brand did do a weight loss study and they found that 88% of patients lost, uh, I think it's 15% of their body weight.
And unfortunately they didn't do, you know, make sure you eat protein and optimize your testosterone and all of that. It was weight loss.
Julie Michelson: Right.
Tami Meraglia: so yeah, you're right. It's a weight loss medication, but be careful.
Julie Michelson: it. Right, right. And, and so because it is such a craze, um, I think, and, um, it, it does have so many potentially positive benefits and uses, I'd love to talk about, you know, who's not a good candidate or, um, You know, I guess my, my, I have seen it used what I think is properly with remarkable [Page//00:29:00] results, um, to help somebody's long-term health and and wellness. But I'm always afraid of, you know, the people that aren't going to change lifestyle. And, and that's the, you know, first it was this big, like everybody loved it and then it was like, oh, but be careful cuz if you stop, you put the weight back on. And it's like, well
if you
Tami Meraglia: pause there?
Julie Michelson: Change. Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: Can we just pause there? Duh.
Julie Michelson: Right,
Tami Meraglia: you go on and eating Bon, of course. Not a medication failure. It's a user failure, not a medication failure. But
Julie Michelson: Failure for, yeah. Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: I, it's, there's so many doctors write a prescription, they, you know, there is a list of contraindications and then off you go and call them if you have any problems at our clinic.
You get your labs and [Page//00:30:00] hormones evaluated. You have a scheduled appointment every month, and unlimited support, meaning if you wanted an appointment every day, you could have it. There's no extra charge. So the support and the education and the, uh, the coaching and telling people how to lose weight.
Healthfully is not always being done with this medication. You're,
Julie Michelson: And that's the goal. To me, the medication is a tool to help people make those changes more easily and, and have them be sustainable. And then I think like, wow, again, the best of both worlds, right?
Tami Meraglia: Yeah. And the cool thing is, is that that that phrase that you just used, it's a tool is perfect because the mechanism of action is that it makes you feel full longer. How does it do that? Well, it slows the gastric empty, so you literally are full. Or longer. Um, and if you try and eat more, you'll feel sick.
But it [Page//00:31:00] also acts in the society center of our brain and it makes us feel satisfied. And if you think about it, we always have times in our life when we eat because we're not satisfied, but we are full Thanksgiving. How full are you? And then there's pumpkin pie. And it's
because you
Julie Michelson: Paleo. No, I'm
Tami Meraglia: well, you know, pecan press, so having that society center feels satisfied.
I mean, my patients say, can I take this forever? This is the first time I'm in charge. The food chatter that,
Julie Michelson: that's a big one,
Tami Meraglia: yeah, it goes away or it gets so quiet that you can tell it Sh.
Julie Michelson: right?
Tami Meraglia: You're not in charge
you, but no thank you. And so then when you've got, you [Page//00:32:00] know, a cookie or some protein in front of you, you can choose the protein.
Now I'm of the 80 20 rule. I feel like if 80% of what goes in our mouth feeds our cells, 20% can feed our satisfaction. And probably because I have such a sweet tooth.
Julie Michelson: Well, and, and I, I say this all the time, like I don't, the deprivation is not the, the key to long-term happiness or success. So,
Tami Meraglia: It's like holding your breath.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. What happens when you change lifestyle? I think that 80 and 20 cross over, right? Then you find the paleo pumpkin pie instead of the like. There are ways to still make something nourish yourselves and make you feel like you had a treat for
Tami Meraglia: Well, and if you stop eating all the processed foods, a tomato actually starts to taste different.
Julie Michelson: Yes. I had a, I had a client ask me, I'm not kidding. I couldn't make it up, and she was serious. [Page//00:33:00] Did strawberries always used to be this sweet, like yes, they're supposed to be dessert.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: They're, yeah, it's, it's so fun.
Tami Meraglia: It's a great tool. I kind of feel like it's a little bit like the nicotine patch for people who are trying to quit smoking. You know, you take away that, that nicotine cellular craving. So the semaglutide is taking away the, the appetite and that craving. Craving for sweets, craving for food, craving for alcohol, believe it or not.
Julie Michelson: Yes. Which is, is tremendous. And I think, and kind of, you know, an, a happy side effect to the happy side effect is like this trickle down. Um, I've heard it in so many ways from people who rarely drink and now don't drink to people who would drink often, and they're just not interested.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah. It's remarkable. I bet you they're gonna study that and get it approved.
Julie Michelson: need to,
Tami Meraglia: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: [Page//00:34:00] yeah.
Yeah, it, it is. It's remarkable.
Tami Meraglia: So it's a great tool. I think that used in the right hands. Um, you know, if you go to a pharmacy with a prescription and your insurance doesn't pay for it, and let's face it, insurance doesn't pay for it unless you're sick. So if you're a diabetic and if you're heavy enough to be a candidate for Bipa, you know your gastric.
Surgery, then it'll probably cover it. But if you're trying to be healthier and lose some weight, so you don't get diabetes?
Julie Michelson: Right. Prevent preventative.
Tami Meraglia: No. No. They only pay for conditions and diseases that exist that have a cd. ICD 10 Code and Wellness doesn't have a code, so you'll go to the pharmacy and you'll pay anywhere from a thousand to $1,800 for a one month supply.
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: And the beautiful thing is, is that this medication is available in its generic form from compounding pharmacies
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: for [Page//00:35:00] a fraction of the price. Like our patients pay three $89 a month for their medication, and they pay $99 for unlimited medical support and monthly appointments,
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: it doesn't have to break the bank.
Julie Michelson: Well, and the beauty with, one of the things I like about that again, is that individuality. So you're not getting a uni dose pen or a, you know, when, when you're getting it compounded, you know, we have people work up and you, whatever your effective do, like, stop there. You don't have, there's no goal,
Tami Meraglia: No. Right. Well, it's to the pharmacies or the pharmaceutical companies advantage to have a 2.4 milligram preloaded. Pen and the vast majority of my patients are on one milligram, and if we need to, we go
Julie Michelson: you have room to bomb,
Tami Meraglia: But why would you use more if you don't have to?
Julie Michelson: but
Tami Meraglia: Just as lining the pharmacy
Julie Michelson: Happen to be wearing a green shirt [Page//00:36:00] today. I don't know. Is that the answer?
Tami Meraglia: maybe. Maybe it's pink.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, no, it, it is, um, it's, and some, uh, the way the system still is right now, sometimes we have to step out of that model and, and find the other option. And this is one where it's, it's a, I think it's a better option because it puts the control.
Into our hands, a as far as, you know, we can find that optimal lowest dose and, and not just go through as much so they can make more and make more money.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, and it's important, um, not all compounding pharmacies are created equal, but as soon as a compounding pharmacy is able to dispense a sterile injectable medication, um, they have to have a special certification. And it's called pcab, and it's, it's a similar certification to a regular pharmacy. So it's not this random
Julie Michelson: It's not some guy in a [Page//00:37:00] garage.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, so PAB certification is something that you can. You can ask, you can check, um, and make sure that you're getting the stuff from some, from a company that is holding themselves to the highest standard, and a doctor who will only prescribe at pab
Julie Michelson: right.
Tami Meraglia: pharmacies.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. Yeah. And that's again, falls to us to, you know, find those providers we trust. And, and you know, I, I always say, you know, we were trained back then since I remember thalidomide as well, um, you know, trained to be respectful and listen to the doctor. No, like, trust your gut if you don't have the right doctor, find the right doctor.
And, and, um, but
Tami Meraglia: Fire. You can fire your doctor.
Julie Michelson: Absolutely. Absolutely. So you touched on some of it, but, but who is not, in your opinion, who is not a good candidate[Page//00:38:00]
Tami Meraglia: So there's a list of very clearly defined, um, that, you know, if you just look on the
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah. That are contraindicated, um, you know,
Julie Michelson: and then,
Tami Meraglia: Thyroid cancer and some medications that you can't. But, um, pancreatitis, a history of pancreatitis. We have a, um, personal, our rule is that if you are planning to get pregnant within the next six months, that you can't take this if you're breastfeeding.
And the reason is, is cuz we don't know.
Julie Michelson: Right, and that's.
Tami Meraglia: so the answer is no unless we know.
Julie Michelson: I like that. I like that. I that, that's, that's amazing. And you did touch on the, it, I, I would imagine it's back to the, the soil. I idea, like if your whole goal is to just get back on the couch eating your bon bonds, this is not the answer for you.
Tami Meraglia: No, and, [Page//00:39:00] and with a monthly appointment and you get your labs and your hormones analyzed. You know, a lot of our patients are in perimenopause and menopause. Um, of course this medication is actually approved for 14 and up. Did you know that
Julie Michelson: I did not know that. That's amazing. Wow.
Tami Meraglia: So there's a lot of controversy about kids using this medication, and again, I think that with counseling added and nutrition and exercise,
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: Um, that this can be, uh, a leg up for these kids to not become diabetic, to not become insulin resistant, to have confidence in, in how they they look and how they move and to be able to exercise more.
So I don't prescribe it quickly. Um, but, but you can as young as 14. What we don't do is we don't [Page//00:40:00] prescribe. The patients that are size six, so they can be a size four.
Julie Michelson: I'm glad you hit on that because that that's part of this whole kind of influencer craze as well. Um, and, and so yeah, this is not, you know, oh, you know, I, I had, I was on vacation now I, I wanna, you know, get back
Tami Meraglia: The morning after pill
Julie Michelson: Yeah. This is not the morning after pill for a bad decision
Tami Meraglia: for dieting.
Julie Michelson: I love that.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, so I'm experimenting myself. Like I said, I'm not a, a super, um, courageous doctor. I don't prescribe things that haven't been around for a while. But this medication has, and given all the anti-aging benefits, I do not need, I'm genetically tall and thin, so I would not need to use this for weight loss, but I use it in a [Page//00:41:00] micro dose once a month.
Do I know that I will get the same positive benefits that have been found when people are using it at a therapeutic dose every week? No. But do I know that taking a lower dose less often is safe? Yeah.
Julie Michelson: Right.
Tami Meraglia: Unless I get side effects. So, um, there's lots of ways to use this.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, I'm excited and I think we're ju that we're, this is like the tip of the iceberg. I, I really do think it is gonna follow that similar path to like a Metformin or l d n, um, you know, I would say metformin's further ahead on the curve than l d n some D, you know, people, anyway, that's a whole, that's a whole nother episode.
Tami Meraglia: Right.
Julie Michelson: I would like to publicly on air invite you back because I really want to talk about [Page//00:42:00] frequency and energy and, and, and I think that needs its own episode. And so, and we have witnesses. I would love for you to come back and,
Tami Meraglia: I would be honored and we, there's a lot to dive into. And guess what? There's a lot of research now. It's not woo anymore.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. Yeah. No, and it, it, I love that everything that used to seem so woowoo is really just science and, and we've known it. People have known we per, not personally, but humans have known these things for thousands of years. And we've circled back to like, ah, so please, please come share with us.
Tami Meraglia: Thank you.
Julie Michelson: So before I give you your day back, I would love to know one step that listeners can take.
Today to start to move the needle to improve their health.
Tami Meraglia: Well, this is a great segue into our next episode because the most powerful tool that you have, [Page//00:43:00] regardless of a prescription, a doctor, a health coach, or yourself, the most powerful tool that you can have to move the needle in your own health, in your own life. Is to meditate when
Julie Michelson: gonna ask you a follow up because you did the one thing everybody has trouble doing. One thing they'll say and, but my follow up. Is, is there a particular way or kind or amount when you say meditation?
Tami Meraglia: Yes. The one you'll do?
Julie Michelson: Yes. Good answer. I didn't even, I didn't even plant that one.
Tami Meraglia: Yes. Sometimes, and you should have more than one at your, in your tickle trunk, you know? Yeah. Sometimes my brain just will not shut up and I have to do a guided meditation. Other times, the guided meditation voice, I just wanna throw it across the room, so it's like exercise. What's the best exercise?
The one you'll do.[Page//00:44:00]
Julie Michelson: Yeah. I love that. Uh, Dr. Tami, before we wrap up, wrap up, where's the best place for listeners to find you? If they're, uh, you know, I listen on the go and that's why I throw this question in there cuz I don't always, I'm not always good at checking show notes.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, I'd be honored to talk to anyone. We are accepting new patients at my clinic called Bio Thrive for hormone optimization functional Medicine, and our weight loss. The website is biothrivelife.com and you can email email us at support@drTami.com.
Julie Michelson: amazing. So, Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. Incredible gold. And obviously I have so much more I wanna ask, so hopefully we'll get it done soon.
Tami Meraglia: Well, thank you for having me. It was a real pleasure. Have a beautiful day.
Julie Michelson: You as well. And for everyone listening, remember, you can get the transcripts and show notes by visiting inspired living.show. [Page//00:45:00] I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. Have a great day. See you next week.
In today's conversation, we talk about getting rid of the four letter word fine, and also the three pillars that are essential for resilience. Dr. Tami highlights the importance of an often overlooked hormone for women, and we answer many questions about the use of semaglutide for weight management and anti-aging.
Dr. Tami, welcome to the podcast.
Tami Meraglia: Thanks for having me. I'm so excited.
Julie Michelson: So looking forward to our conversation, and I just had to cut us off and say, wait, I should hit record because I wanted to dive in. I got a little ahead of myself, so I would love to, for listeners that aren't familiar with you, have you share a little bit of your story of how you got to be practicing this kind of medicine, because I feel like most of the things, if not [Page//00:02:00] all of the things that you do, are cutting edge and definitely right up my alley.
Tami Meraglia: Well, the good thing about going to medical school when you're older is that you do not swallow all the Kool-Aid. And so I did not believe everything that I was told in traditional Western Medical School. So I danced professionally in a ballet company for many years, and then I went to undergraduate and thought, oh, I'll be a physical therapist.
That was the only profession I had ever been introduced to.
Julie Michelson: Interesting.
Tami Meraglia: Yes. And I got, you know, frustrated with that. Uh, as I explored it, I thought, oh gosh, I, I really want to, to have a bigger impact. And, uh, so anyway, long story short, you go to undergraduate and when you love anatomy and when you love chemistry and you end up with a pre-med degree, and [Page//00:03:00] so, Long path to med school, and I chose traditional medicine and I love the science.
I love the cynicism, I love the statistics, I love the data. But all along, I had been interested in. Um, herbs and nutrition and, you know, keeping our bodies healthy on our own. I believe we can be the c e o of our own health and should be, and that doctors and practitioners work for us. And so as soon as I finished, I went in and studied and got certified in naturopathic medicine as well.
And so, It was really because my patients kept coming to me over and over and over again and they'd say, you know, I don't feel well. I don't have my energy and things aren't as joyful and I'm not sleeping as well, and I have, you know, 15 to 50 pounds that we just won't budge. I'm using the same tricks that I used to.
I would run the [Page//00:04:00] usual test, right. You know, thyroid and check for anemia if they're tired, and I would tell them they were fine. And that's when I realized that fine is a four letter word and nobody wakes up in the morning and says, gosh, today I wanna feel fine. I wanna feel fabulous. So looking at the blood work and looking at how traditional medicine was set up, it's really designed to treat diseases and conditions and even our wellness.
Appointments are designed to find diseases and conditions at early stages. It has nothing to do with wellness, nothing.
Julie Michelson: True.
Tami Meraglia: my motivation to dive into what we now call functional medicine, which I think of as a blending of Western and Eastern and naturopathic medicine. So I have my foot on what is needed for the patient because they're the epicenter.
Julie Michelson: I love that. That [Page//00:05:00] is amazing. And I also love that fine, the word fine is banned in my home. It is a four letter F word, and so it's like, no. We're all educated, we can find a different word to actually express what we mean. Cuz fine can be good, you know, it can be, I'm, you know, I'm pretty good at least you know, or fine could mean, you know, I'm terrible and I just don't wanna burden you with that.
So, no, not allowed. Be
Tami Meraglia: Awesome.
Julie Michelson: Yeah,
Tami Meraglia: great.
Julie Michelson: I love that. So, You mentioned, I, I'm just curious, I don't know this part of your story, but you, you mentioned, you know, from the ballet background and you had the, the, pretty much you were, which is a good thing that, you know, physical therapy, it makes sense that that would, you would have. Probably plenty of experience with physical therapy.
Um, [Page//00:06:00] were there, was there any piece of kind of your own healing journey that, that, aside from just the general interest in, hey, the body can heal and wellness is a thing, um, that, that you weren't finding in western medicine.
Tami Meraglia: Well, two stories. One is, um, my father was diagnosed with C O P D emphysema and, um, When he got oxygen, uh, that's the beginning of the last chapter. There is no more. So I dove into the research, like I just, you know, so the brain of a doctor and the dedication of a daughter. So that's a really intense
Julie Michelson: I have. Goosebumps. Yeah. Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: And I kept bumping into stem cells over and over and over, and over and over. And, uh, long story short, I was so blessed to, um, be able to participate in stem cell medicine [Page//00:07:00] and now I get to help patients with the holistic part of their program, the hormones, inflammatory markers when they go to a clinic in port of I rta.
But my dad was able to get off oxygen and,
Julie Michelson: what?
Tami Meraglia: yeah.
Julie Michelson: Right. The body can heal. So how come nobody gets off oxygen once they're
Tami Meraglia: Well, you know, stem cells are like everything else in medicine. They don't always work for every person every time. We don't even know why, but an aspirin doesn't either. Um, and there's definitely need for, you know, rigorous clinical work. And so I'm excited to see the future and I'm excited that. Places like our, the clinic in Port Vallarta, it's called Biona, that I get to be a part of that.
And I believe that stem cells are like seeds and our bodies are like soil. And so I get to play in the soil, in the sandbox with everybody and up level that [Page//00:08:00] quality, you just have to plant a seed in the sand versus, you know, a rich. Pop soil full of worms, kind of dirt, and you can see the outcome is quite different.
Um, so that was one aspect of like, oh my gosh, that is
Julie Michelson: It's a whole nother world. Yeah. I, I,
Tami Meraglia: sorry, go ahead.
Julie Michelson: I just, and I, I wanna get to the second, the second story too, but, but I love, and you mentioned, and not everything works for everybody. We are, you know, we are unique. We are all unique. Um, as somebody who has had stem cell treatment for. The, the kind of little remainder autoimmune symptoms that I had had.
Um, my results were remarkable. I had done all of that work, the cleaning it up, the lifestyle, the hormones, the all of the things. And so I really love that you, you're [Page//00:09:00] highlighting, you know, there's no ma there is no magic. Everybody wants that magic cure, um, or solution, but, but, That I love that you're bringing I the necessary piece because I would imagine doing a stem stem cell treatment on somebody who has a, I'll call it a dirty lifestyle, probably isn't going to do much.
It would be like planting a seed in the sand, I would think.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah. You know, I tell my patients, That if they're not willing to like quit smoking or give up alcohol or change their diet and they wanna spend the money. Now granted when you go to Mexico to this private hospital, it's a lot less than you would spend here. And um, you get way more, but it's still a lot of money, right?
Julie Michelson: Right, right.
Tami Meraglia: you wanna waste that much money, you could just donate it and you can help somebody else.
Julie Michelson: Right.
Tami Meraglia: Causes just not, you're not into this.
So yeah, you, you've got to it all, it all works together in my, [Page//00:10:00] so my philosophy of health is that we have really three pillars and one pillar is structure. And I think that stem cells represent a, a unique potential for fixing structure and problems without turning to drugging and cutting First.
We don't know why it works. We don't know when it works. We don't know a lot, but I think it's really exciting. The second thing is chemicals and our hormones are chemicals, and our nutrition is chemicals. And if you think of that on our outside of our body, there's a lot of toxins and chemicals outside, like pesticides and things like that as well.
And the third thing that I don't think is talked enough about. Either in naturopathic medicine or at all in traditional medicine is frequency, energy, and every cell in your body has an electrical current. And if you can [Page//00:11:00] change the electrical current, you change the environment of the cell and you change the function of this.
You change what it is and isn't doing easily, and so if you have all three pillars, you are resilient, right? That is our absolute goal is resilient. We don't want to be strong like an oak tree, and then when a big storm comes, we crack. We want to be able to shift and respond. If you only have two, then it only takes.
A job loss, a relationship loss, or a worldwide pandemic to have you feeling sick or actually even get a disease or diagnosis. And if you only have one pillar intact, you probably already have a disease or diagnosis. And so we approach all of our patients from this three pillar way of health to optimize, not look for just [Page//00:12:00] problems, but how can we optimize it?
If you don't have gut problems, I still wanna know what's going on in your gut microbiome. It's going to take a while, accumulate at the cell it as a symptom. So why don't we find it earlier? Well, if you don't look, you don't know. So that's, that's my journey. And you know, people will say, oh, you're a very strange md.
You're talking about meditation all the time. And you know, and my colleagues, they say like, you practiced in a parallel universe, like an alternative universe. I'm like, thank you.
Julie Michelson: You are what we call ahead of the curve. I would say.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: I, you know, I, there's. You've never shocked me other than, um, that you're just already to, you know, doing it all so well. Like you're normalizing what we really need to be, to be [Page//00:13:00] addressing. And I, I love that. Um,
Tami Meraglia: it, it needs to be normalized, but it also needs to be prioritized. I tell patients, if your meditation doesn't have an appointment time, On your calendar and you tell me it's a priority. I'm gonna say liar, liar, pants on fire. Everything that's important is scheduled. You can't just wait until you have enough time, energy, or whatever is done.
Julie Michelson: that's the time part's gonna be when you're down cuz you're sick. Energy, maybe not, but you know, it, it is amazing. And so I, I diverted you away from, you said you had a second, another kind of story that brought you in this direction to
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, so I was, um, older when I went to residency having danced, you know, in a ballet company for a long time. So I was, uh, pregnant in my first year of residency, and then I had [Page//00:14:00] my s I was pregnant with my second child in third year residency.
Julie Michelson: Oh my goodness.
Tami Meraglia: And I, and after that, when my babies were born and you know, I was so tired, I literally would lay down on the floor between patients.
I was exhausted and I thought, oh, of course I'm exhausted. I have a toddler, I have a baby, I'm a doctor, I'm a resident. You know, don't, don't women do that a lot. Like
Julie Michelson: Well, and doctors. Doctors do it a lot. Of course, you're
Tami Meraglia: two women.
Julie Michelson: you're a new mom. Like, no. We know the difference of, you know, I have to lay on the floor and boy, I really need to get a better night's sleep tonight. They're not the same.
Tami Meraglia: Not at all. Not at all. So I ran my own blood tests and hormones and, you know, I had been enough of time [Page//00:15:00] not pregnant to, to have quote unquote, normal hormones and, and everything came back. Fine. I had run, I know, right? I had run the usual estradiol, progesterone, thyroid, iron, you know, C, B, C, liver, all of that stuff.
But I hadn't run testosterone,
Julie Michelson: Ooh. Because that would've been weird.
Tami Meraglia: Right, right. Why would you know that's, that's for guys? Like why would I need or want to even take testosterone? That's scary. I'll get hairy and angry and big mouth yucky. Anyways, I ended up, for some reason, I just decided to dive into the research again and find out about testosterone and what I learned is that women actually.
Have a small amount of testosterone in our bodies. Um, it's actually more than you think, but that's another story. Um, but it has an outsized role in how [Page//00:16:00] we look, feel, and function. And so when I tested it, and it's really important to make sure you test your free testosterone cuz your total testosterone is like how much hormone is.
So if you're going to make a house, You need workers and total testosterone is checking How many workers are in the truck? Are they
Julie Michelson: I like that.
Tami Meraglia: No, they're not working free. Testosterone workers is free. Testosterone is checking the workers that are in the house with a hammer moving around doing
Julie Michelson: the ones on the payroll,
Tami Meraglia: Right,
Julie Michelson: the ones actually
Tami Meraglia: exactly.
So my free testosterone was undetectable.
Julie Michelson: Oh,
no wonder you were laying on the floor.
Tami Meraglia: And so I researched all the ways that I could reboot my own biology to get my own body to make its testosterone, and it worked a little bit. But what I found is that [Page//00:17:00] because of my age and because of my lifestyle at that time, I was in such severe adrenal fatigue. And my adrenal glands were responsible for making the majority of my hormones.
You know, cuz Mother Nature was inviting me to exit stage left and the reproductive theater hit her. And uh, I decided, okay, I'm gonna take. One milligram of topical bioidentical testosterone, and
Julie Michelson: Life
Tami Meraglia: it was like within a week.
Julie Michelson: It's one of my most favorite things about hormone therapy is it's not like, oh, we'll know in a few months, like if this is working or where, when you're optimal. Um, and so I love, I love this whole conversation. I'm so excited because you touched on in, in your own journey. This. I get it all the time. You know, women are afraid of testosterone.
[Page//00:18:00] We just have been trained that that's a male hormone, and you know, then I don't know, I grew up. I went to high school in the eighties. So, you know, I think of, you know, guys in the gym, you know, dosing themselves, doping, you know, that's not, that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about, you know, d intentional controlled medical dosages.
Tami Meraglia: Well and customized, right
Julie Michelson: yeah. Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: you, and one size absolutely does not fit all. It's one of my biggest issues with the influencers. I love that the conversation is coming up on social media and YouTube and all of that, and I hate that. There's this perception that one size fits all and one supplement is great for longevity and one supplement is great for whatever it isn't.
We don't look alike because we are not alike. And yes, we [Page//00:19:00] have a lot of similarities, but in ayin saves many people's lives and it can kill some people. Like it's, there's such a difference. So this personalized approach. It's interesting that, uh, we've also been taught, or I think the perception is, is that testosterone's main thing is libido.
And I would like to, um, with love and from my heart, gather up every man. And women that is out there telling women who are in their fifties and sixties and seventies, that they should have a high libido and you aren't healthy and your hormones aren't healthy if you don't have a high libido. What's the purpose of libido is to stimulate procreation.
That's it. We're [Page//00:20:00] not complicated. We're animals.
Julie Michelson: Wait, we are,
Tami Meraglia: We are complicated in
Julie Michelson: we are complicated animals, but
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, there we go. But that is the purpose of your libido. Mother. Nature actually doesn't care about pleasure. It's there. It's lovely, but. It's not going to be, I want to gather all those people in, all the women who've been listening to them and feeling bad because they don't have a high libido and say, it's okay.
You're libido. It may stay high, but it's absolutely natural that it goes down after childbearing years. Now does that
Julie Michelson: women are even more complicated animals, right? And so
Tami Meraglia: sure.
Julie Michelson: for the most part, and we're all different, if you optimize a man's hormones, he's, and again, different, his [Page//00:21:00] procreation years are way longer, too long maybe. Um,
Tami Meraglia: I just asked some of the stars these days.
Julie Michelson: they're pretty, I know, that's what I was just thinking about.
They're pretty easy. Right. And, and the doctor I work with all the time says that to, to people, you know, like, yeah. With a guy, we can tweak hormones and we pretty much know what we're gonna get. But with a woman, how's the relationship? How are your stress levels? How is your nutrition? How is it's, you know, and how's your sleep?
How's, how's your, all of it? Um, and, and so, and you're right, we're no longer need to be making babies, so, um,
but I,
Tami Meraglia: that sex shouldn't be great.
Julie Michelson: it should be great,
Tami Meraglia: should be great. It shouldn't hurt. Hormones can help.
Julie Michelson: energy, which is what I think of when I think of testosterone. How are you gonna have a high libido when you can't get off the floor?
Tami Meraglia: Exactly, and energy is the [Page//00:22:00] number one
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: symptom that improves when women restore their testosterone. It's also involved in brain fog. It also stimulates your bones. It also has everything to do with your fat muscle ratio. You know, there's a lot of semaglutide ozempic or govi manjaro, and we have a nationwide telehealth weight loss with semaglutide, and so I get it.
But I always tell my patients, you're not going to have as much success and you're not gonna love the body you're left with if you don't optimize your hormones, including testosterone. No matter if you're a male or a woman, if you don't prioritize protein and if you don't move your body.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. You don't wanna lose muscle. I mean, all of those that, that's, people think they wanna lose weight and, and you know, and let's dive into that, um, because this is, has become such a hot topic, the semaglutide [Page//00:23:00] topic. Um, so I'd love to pick your brain cuz I'm sure listeners have, have questions or I'm, you know, I think at this point everybody's heard of.
Whether it's Ozempic or one of the, the pharmaceutical brands or the peptide world, the semaglutide, um, let, let's talk about that a little bit because we were talking before about, you know, number people are focused on numbers on a scale, and if you're overweight and, and you're not focusing on those things that you just mentioned, then you're gonna be losing muscle
too.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah. It's a
Julie Michelson: wants that.
Tami Meraglia: weight loss
Julie Michelson: Right. It's not a
Tami Meraglia: It's not a fat loss. Exactly.
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: So you have to do something to protect your muscle. And when you lose 20, 30, 40, a hundred pounds, you don't wanna look like you were in the hospital when you, you know, when you're done, you wanna look fabulous and you wanna feel [Page//00:24:00] fabulous and they're using this.
These medications are amazing tools, honestly. I have never seen a medication with so much success. Never, never in my entire, you know, 25 plus years, never been. And I think it, it will never be FDA approved for anti-aging. But there's some really interesting and profound observations in the, the research.
Uh, a decrease in inflammation. A conversion of your white fat to brown fat and brown fats. The scrumptious fat, it's the one with the OR mitochondria, A decrease in the risk of heart attack and stroke. That was F D A approved for diabetics. A decrease in the risk of Alzheimer's because of the neuroprotection.
A decrease in blood glucose. We know decrease in blood pressure, decrease in [Page//00:25:00] cholesterol. There's so many so. Things that are, are really interesting. I think that, you know, in my opinion, based on what I know now, I would lump it into that Metformin, low dose naltrexone. Um, there's also rapamycin, but I, I'm, I'm a very cautious doctor.
I don't prescribe things that have yet to have clinical studies in humans. I'm old enough to remember thalidomide. I don't ever wanna be the doctor that prescribed something new that hasn't had some long term, and that's the beautiful part about semaglutide. It's been around forever.
Julie Michelson: right and people think it's new. Um, and let's talk about that. You, you touched on it already. This is, it's not, it's not a weight loss medication. This isn't, it's not fen like this is it? It it was [Page//00:26:00] first f d a approved
Tami Meraglia: It was used in the diabetic world.
Julie Michelson: Okay.
Tami Meraglia: And uh, and then as things happen, you know, Botox was never actually. Used for cosmetic purposes. It was used for a condition called tic deru, which is a very trigeminal neuralgia of the other name. So it's a nerve pain and it's excruciatingly painful. It's called the suicide condition.
People are in such pain that they literally want to die, and a gust of wind can actually make. Their pain start and this Botox injections used to help the pain and it's almost always on one side, not bilateral. And the Caruthers, Dr. Caruthers up in Vancouver, British Columbia, is looking at these patients that had the tic DeRoo in their face and getting Botox and went. [Page//00:27:00] See? Huh? Fast forward, we studied it. Same as the lash stuff. How is it cosmetic purpose? It's a glaucoma
Julie Michelson: happy, it's a happy side effect.
Tami Meraglia: This medication was being given to diabetics. And all of a sudden there's this notice that they're losing weight. Now everybody's like, well, every diabetic when they get treated loses weight. No. If you take insulin, you don't necessarily lose weight. You might actually gain weight. Metformin may or may not get you.
The gide. All the, I mean, there's so many medications and it wasn't associated with its weight loss. So that did start an FDA-approved clinical trial for one brand that did this. Of the medication, the brand, the generic active medication is called [Page//00:28:00] Semaglutide, but the one brand did do a weight loss study and they found that 88% of patients lost, uh, I think it's 15% of their body weight.
And unfortunately they didn't do, you know, make sure you eat protein and optimize your testosterone and all of that. It was weight loss.
Julie Michelson: Right.
Tami Meraglia: so yeah, you're right. It's a weight loss medication, but be careful.
Julie Michelson: it. Right, right. And, and so because it is such a craze, um, I think, and, um, it, it does have so many potentially positive benefits and uses, I'd love to talk about, you know, who's not a good candidate or, um, You know, I guess my, my, I have seen it used what I think is properly with remarkable [Page//00:29:00] results, um, to help somebody's long-term health and and wellness. But I'm always afraid of, you know, the people that aren't going to change lifestyle. And, and that's the, you know, first it was this big, like everybody loved it and then it was like, oh, but be careful cuz if you stop, you put the weight back on. And it's like, well
if you
Tami Meraglia: pause there?
Julie Michelson: Change. Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: Can we just pause there? Duh.
Julie Michelson: Right,
Tami Meraglia: you go on and eating Bon, of course. Not a medication failure. It's a user failure, not a medication failure. But
Julie Michelson: Failure for, yeah. Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: I, it's, there's so many doctors write a prescription, they, you know, there is a list of contraindications and then off you go and call them if you have any problems at our clinic.
You get your labs and [Page//00:30:00] hormones evaluated. You have a scheduled appointment every month, and unlimited support, meaning if you wanted an appointment every day, you could have it. There's no extra charge. So the support and the education and the, uh, the coaching and telling people how to lose weight.
Healthfully is not always being done with this medication. You're,
Julie Michelson: And that's the goal. To me, the medication is a tool to help people make those changes more easily and, and have them be sustainable. And then I think like, wow, again, the best of both worlds, right?
Tami Meraglia: Yeah. And the cool thing is, is that that that phrase that you just used, it's a tool is perfect because the mechanism of action is that it makes you feel full longer. How does it do that? Well, it slows the gastric empty, so you literally are full. Or longer. Um, and if you try and eat more, you'll feel sick.
But it [Page//00:31:00] also acts in the society center of our brain and it makes us feel satisfied. And if you think about it, we always have times in our life when we eat because we're not satisfied, but we are full Thanksgiving. How full are you? And then there's pumpkin pie. And it's
because you
Julie Michelson: Paleo. No, I'm
Tami Meraglia: well, you know, pecan press, so having that society center feels satisfied.
I mean, my patients say, can I take this forever? This is the first time I'm in charge. The food chatter that,
Julie Michelson: that's a big one,
Tami Meraglia: yeah, it goes away or it gets so quiet that you can tell it Sh.
Julie Michelson: right?
Tami Meraglia: You're not in charge
you, but no thank you. And so then when you've got, you [Page//00:32:00] know, a cookie or some protein in front of you, you can choose the protein.
Now I'm of the 80 20 rule. I feel like if 80% of what goes in our mouth feeds our cells, 20% can feed our satisfaction. And probably because I have such a sweet tooth.
Julie Michelson: Well, and, and I, I say this all the time, like I don't, the deprivation is not the, the key to long-term happiness or success. So,
Tami Meraglia: It's like holding your breath.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. What happens when you change lifestyle? I think that 80 and 20 cross over, right? Then you find the paleo pumpkin pie instead of the like. There are ways to still make something nourish yourselves and make you feel like you had a treat for
Tami Meraglia: Well, and if you stop eating all the processed foods, a tomato actually starts to taste different.
Julie Michelson: Yes. I had a, I had a client ask me, I'm not kidding. I couldn't make it up, and she was serious. [Page//00:33:00] Did strawberries always used to be this sweet, like yes, they're supposed to be dessert.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: They're, yeah, it's, it's so fun.
Tami Meraglia: It's a great tool. I kind of feel like it's a little bit like the nicotine patch for people who are trying to quit smoking. You know, you take away that, that nicotine cellular craving. So the semaglutide is taking away the, the appetite and that craving. Craving for sweets, craving for food, craving for alcohol, believe it or not.
Julie Michelson: Yes. Which is, is tremendous. And I think, and kind of, you know, an, a happy side effect to the happy side effect is like this trickle down. Um, I've heard it in so many ways from people who rarely drink and now don't drink to people who would drink often, and they're just not interested.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah. It's remarkable. I bet you they're gonna study that and get it approved.
Julie Michelson: need to,
Tami Meraglia: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: [Page//00:34:00] yeah.
Yeah, it, it is. It's remarkable.
Tami Meraglia: So it's a great tool. I think that used in the right hands. Um, you know, if you go to a pharmacy with a prescription and your insurance doesn't pay for it, and let's face it, insurance doesn't pay for it unless you're sick. So if you're a diabetic and if you're heavy enough to be a candidate for Bipa, you know your gastric.
Surgery, then it'll probably cover it. But if you're trying to be healthier and lose some weight, so you don't get diabetes?
Julie Michelson: Right. Prevent preventative.
Tami Meraglia: No. No. They only pay for conditions and diseases that exist that have a cd. ICD 10 Code and Wellness doesn't have a code, so you'll go to the pharmacy and you'll pay anywhere from a thousand to $1,800 for a one month supply.
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: And the beautiful thing is, is that this medication is available in its generic form from compounding pharmacies
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: for [Page//00:35:00] a fraction of the price. Like our patients pay three $89 a month for their medication, and they pay $99 for unlimited medical support and monthly appointments,
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: it doesn't have to break the bank.
Julie Michelson: Well, and the beauty with, one of the things I like about that again, is that individuality. So you're not getting a uni dose pen or a, you know, when, when you're getting it compounded, you know, we have people work up and you, whatever your effective do, like, stop there. You don't have, there's no goal,
Tami Meraglia: No. Right. Well, it's to the pharmacies or the pharmaceutical companies advantage to have a 2.4 milligram preloaded. Pen and the vast majority of my patients are on one milligram, and if we need to, we go
Julie Michelson: you have room to bomb,
Tami Meraglia: But why would you use more if you don't have to?
Julie Michelson: but
Tami Meraglia: Just as lining the pharmacy
Julie Michelson: Happen to be wearing a green shirt [Page//00:36:00] today. I don't know. Is that the answer?
Tami Meraglia: maybe. Maybe it's pink.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, no, it, it is, um, it's, and some, uh, the way the system still is right now, sometimes we have to step out of that model and, and find the other option. And this is one where it's, it's a, I think it's a better option because it puts the control.
Into our hands, a as far as, you know, we can find that optimal lowest dose and, and not just go through as much so they can make more and make more money.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, and it's important, um, not all compounding pharmacies are created equal, but as soon as a compounding pharmacy is able to dispense a sterile injectable medication, um, they have to have a special certification. And it's called pcab, and it's, it's a similar certification to a regular pharmacy. So it's not this random
Julie Michelson: It's not some guy in a [Page//00:37:00] garage.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, so PAB certification is something that you can. You can ask, you can check, um, and make sure that you're getting the stuff from some, from a company that is holding themselves to the highest standard, and a doctor who will only prescribe at pab
Julie Michelson: right.
Tami Meraglia: pharmacies.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. Yeah. And that's again, falls to us to, you know, find those providers we trust. And, and you know, I, I always say, you know, we were trained back then since I remember thalidomide as well, um, you know, trained to be respectful and listen to the doctor. No, like, trust your gut if you don't have the right doctor, find the right doctor.
And, and, um, but
Tami Meraglia: Fire. You can fire your doctor.
Julie Michelson: Absolutely. Absolutely. So you touched on some of it, but, but who is not, in your opinion, who is not a good candidate[Page//00:38:00]
Tami Meraglia: So there's a list of very clearly defined, um, that, you know, if you just look on the
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah. That are contraindicated, um, you know,
Julie Michelson: and then,
Tami Meraglia: Thyroid cancer and some medications that you can't. But, um, pancreatitis, a history of pancreatitis. We have a, um, personal, our rule is that if you are planning to get pregnant within the next six months, that you can't take this if you're breastfeeding.
And the reason is, is cuz we don't know.
Julie Michelson: Right, and that's.
Tami Meraglia: so the answer is no unless we know.
Julie Michelson: I like that. I like that. I that, that's, that's amazing. And you did touch on the, it, I, I would imagine it's back to the, the soil. I idea, like if your whole goal is to just get back on the couch eating your bon bonds, this is not the answer for you.
Tami Meraglia: No, and, [Page//00:39:00] and with a monthly appointment and you get your labs and your hormones analyzed. You know, a lot of our patients are in perimenopause and menopause. Um, of course this medication is actually approved for 14 and up. Did you know that
Julie Michelson: I did not know that. That's amazing. Wow.
Tami Meraglia: So there's a lot of controversy about kids using this medication, and again, I think that with counseling added and nutrition and exercise,
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: Um, that this can be, uh, a leg up for these kids to not become diabetic, to not become insulin resistant, to have confidence in, in how they they look and how they move and to be able to exercise more.
So I don't prescribe it quickly. Um, but, but you can as young as 14. What we don't do is we don't [Page//00:40:00] prescribe. The patients that are size six, so they can be a size four.
Julie Michelson: I'm glad you hit on that because that that's part of this whole kind of influencer craze as well. Um, and, and so yeah, this is not, you know, oh, you know, I, I had, I was on vacation now I, I wanna, you know, get back
Tami Meraglia: The morning after pill
Julie Michelson: Yeah. This is not the morning after pill for a bad decision
Tami Meraglia: for dieting.
Julie Michelson: I love that.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, so I'm experimenting myself. Like I said, I'm not a, a super, um, courageous doctor. I don't prescribe things that haven't been around for a while. But this medication has, and given all the anti-aging benefits, I do not need, I'm genetically tall and thin, so I would not need to use this for weight loss, but I use it in a [Page//00:41:00] micro dose once a month.
Do I know that I will get the same positive benefits that have been found when people are using it at a therapeutic dose every week? No. But do I know that taking a lower dose less often is safe? Yeah.
Julie Michelson: Right.
Tami Meraglia: Unless I get side effects. So, um, there's lots of ways to use this.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, I'm excited and I think we're ju that we're, this is like the tip of the iceberg. I, I really do think it is gonna follow that similar path to like a Metformin or l d n, um, you know, I would say metformin's further ahead on the curve than l d n some D, you know, people, anyway, that's a whole, that's a whole nother episode.
Tami Meraglia: Right.
Julie Michelson: I would like to publicly on air invite you back because I really want to talk about [Page//00:42:00] frequency and energy and, and, and I think that needs its own episode. And so, and we have witnesses. I would love for you to come back and,
Tami Meraglia: I would be honored and we, there's a lot to dive into. And guess what? There's a lot of research now. It's not woo anymore.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. Yeah. No, and it, it, I love that everything that used to seem so woowoo is really just science and, and we've known it. People have known we per, not personally, but humans have known these things for thousands of years. And we've circled back to like, ah, so please, please come share with us.
Tami Meraglia: Thank you.
Julie Michelson: So before I give you your day back, I would love to know one step that listeners can take.
Today to start to move the needle to improve their health.
Tami Meraglia: Well, this is a great segue into our next episode because the most powerful tool that you have, [Page//00:43:00] regardless of a prescription, a doctor, a health coach, or yourself, the most powerful tool that you can have to move the needle in your own health, in your own life. Is to meditate when
Julie Michelson: gonna ask you a follow up because you did the one thing everybody has trouble doing. One thing they'll say and, but my follow up. Is, is there a particular way or kind or amount when you say meditation?
Tami Meraglia: Yes. The one you'll do?
Julie Michelson: Yes. Good answer. I didn't even, I didn't even plant that one.
Tami Meraglia: Yes. Sometimes, and you should have more than one at your, in your tickle trunk, you know? Yeah. Sometimes my brain just will not shut up and I have to do a guided meditation. Other times, the guided meditation voice, I just wanna throw it across the room, so it's like exercise. What's the best exercise?
The one you'll do.[Page//00:44:00]
Julie Michelson: Yeah. I love that. Uh, Dr. Tami, before we wrap up, wrap up, where's the best place for listeners to find you? If they're, uh, you know, I listen on the go and that's why I throw this question in there cuz I don't always, I'm not always good at checking show notes.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, I'd be honored to talk to anyone. We are accepting new patients at my clinic called Bio Thrive for hormone optimization functional Medicine, and our weight loss. The website is biothrivelife.com and you can email email us at support@drTami.com.
Julie Michelson: amazing. So, Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. Incredible gold. And obviously I have so much more I wanna ask, so hopefully we'll get it done soon.
Tami Meraglia: Well, thank you for having me. It was a real pleasure. Have a beautiful day.
Julie Michelson: You as well. And for everyone listening, remember, you can get the transcripts and show notes by visiting inspired living.show. [Page//00:45:00] I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. Have a great day. See you next week.
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Dr Tami Meraglia
Dr. Tami MD is the producer of the docuseries The Healing Secret, the author of The Nationally Best Selling book The Hormone Secret and the CEO Vitality Hormone Clinic in Seattle, Bio-Renati Stem Cell and Regenerative Center in Puerto Vallarta Mexico and the Seattle Stem Cell Center Dr. Tami is key note speaker for the American Academy of Anti-aging and conferences in the US, Canada, Asia and Dubai. She has appeared on Good Morning America, Fox National News, NBC, ABC and has hosted multiple radio shows.
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