Lifelong Learning

GLP-1s (it’s kind of a mess)

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“But the real question is what is the quality of the weight regain and what is the shift in people’s metabolism, and it seems to be very bad,” she said. “Ongoing studies that haven’t been published yet suggest that hypertension comes back. All the inflammatory markers come back, and lipids go up. And if you have diabetes, it gets worse. Overall, it’s kind of a mess…As these studies and others showed, most people regain the weight. Whether or not they regain all the weight depends in part on diabetes and insulin and many other factors, but people will likely regain most of their weight.”

“But the message isn’t that you regain the weight. The message is that you may be less healthy when you regain the weight. That’s why we need to couple the drugs with lifestyle interventions. And it’s why people who just want to lose 5 or 10 pounds really need to consider that lifestyle change, hard as it is, is the better way to do it.”

Anne Peters, MD, professor Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California

Less Weight Regain, More Health Loss after Stopping GLP-1s? – Medscape – March 05, 2026 – https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/less-weight-regain-more-health-loss-after-stopping-glp-1s-2026a10006rv?

I never envisioned developing an obsession with pharmaceuticals. And after many years of endless blogging into the void I learned I could link to previous posts like this: https://lifeunderwriter.net/tag/glp-1-receptor-agonist/

The learning never stops.

The Nutritional Challenges of Advanced Age

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The study focused exclusively on adults 80 and older, a group with very different dietary requirements than younger adults. As people age, the body goes through significant physiological changes. Energy expenditure decreases, and losses in muscle mass, bone density, and appetite are common. Together, these changes increase the risk of malnutrition and frailty.

Most evidence for the health benefits of diets that exclude meat comes from studies of younger adults rather than frail older populations. Some research suggests older non-meat eaters face a higher risk of fractures due to lower calcium and protein intake.

In later life, nutritional priorities shift. Rather than focusing on preventing long-term diseases, the goal becomes maintaining muscle mass, preventing weight loss and ensuring every mouthful delivers plenty of nutrients. Study finds vegetarians over 80 less likely to reach 100 -The Conversation. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260225081214.htm “Study finds vegetarians over 80 less likely to reach 100.” ScienceDaily. (accessed February 27, 2026).

Story Source:

Materials provided by The Conversation. Original written by Chloe Casey, Lecturer in Nutrition and Behaviour, Bournemouth University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

The Edge

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The Edge

My takeaways:

The first takeaway is about the mindset. Winning requires staying in the present. When you lose nearly half the points you play, the past offers no help. Dwelling on past mistakes only distracts from the real goal, which is to win the match. We cannot change what has happened, and we cannot control what comes next. Stay present, follow the process, and let the result take care of itself…The idea of edge applies directly to our lives. Life is made up of thousands of decisions taken over decades. A small edge in how we make those decisions quietly stacks the odds in our favor.

Take health. Lifting weights a few times a week, walking a few miles a day, eating reasonably well, and sleeping enough each give us a small edge. We are not competing with anyone else here. We are competing against chronic diseases. These habits do not guarantee outcomes, but they help us avoid most of the problems that are within our control, and leave the rest to chance. None of these decisions matter much on their own. Taken together over years they matter a lot.

Nice article, wonderful insights. Now go read the entire article.

Keep Moving

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Physical activity consistently emerges as the most important factor influencing both absolute physical capacity and the rate of age-related decline. Our longitudinal data are consistent with previous studies showing that regular physical activity can attenuate the decline in physical performance [17, 32–37]. Individuals who were physically active in their leisure time at age 16 maintained higher aerobic capacity, muscular endurance and muscle power throughout the observation period. This emphasizes the importance of early intervention to establish positive exercise habits in adolescence and early adulthood, as these patterns appear to have long-term benefits for physical function. Encouragingly, our results show that transitioning from physical inactivity to activity at any age significantly improves performance in all fitness modalities studied. These findings contradict the assumption that early inactivity irreversibly impairs physical performance. Rather, taking up regular physical activity leads to measurable improvements in performance even in later decades of life. This finding is of particular importance for clinical practice, as physical activity is still the only evidence-based intervention to reduce the risk of sarcopenia [2, 38]. Recent large population studies also show that an active lifestyle is beneficial at any age [13, 39, 40]. Rise and Fall of Physical Capacity in a General Population: A 47-Year Longitudinal Study – https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcsm.70134

Text above in bold are my highlights.

Despite the documented limitations this is a very strong study.

I’ve been doing my home based virtual physical therapy for nearly a year. I’m trying to get to the gym at least twice a week. I don’t walk as much as I used to but…

Keep moving.

My Statin Comes From India

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According to the USP, the bulk of the APIs come from India. That country is responsible for 50% of the active pharmaceutic ingredients. China is not far behind at 32%. The European Union supplies 10%. That’s a big change since 2000. Back then, European countries like France, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark supplied 42% of the APIs. Drug Recalls From India – Can You Trust Foreign-Made Generics? – https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/articles/more-drug-recalls-from-india-do-you-trust-foreign-made-generics

Dozens of companies received approval from the FDA over the years to sell metoprolol and bupropion in the U.S. Yet from 2018 to 2024, the agency reported running only 2 tests on metoprolol and 7 on bupropion through its quality surveillance program — in each case, by pulling a sample from a single drug maker. In many of those years, the drugs weren’t tested at all, FDA records show. Those that were assessed received passing results. The FDA Often Doesn’t Test Generic Drugs for Quality Concerns, So ProPublica Did – https://www.propublica.org/article/fda-generic-drug-testing

ClinCalc DrugStats Database – https://clincalc.com/DrugStats/

Both articles are long reads but worth your time.

Yikes.

Think Again About Outsourcing Your Thinking 2.0 (if you can)

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Michael Gerlich, head of the Centre for Strategic Corporate Foresight and Sustainability at SBS Swiss Business School, began studying the impact of generative AI on critical thinking because he noticed the quality of classroom discussions decline. Sometimes he’d set his students a group exercise, and rather than talk to one another they continued to sit in silence, consulting their laptops. He spoke to other lecturers, who had noticed something similar. Gerlich recently conducted a study, involving 666 people of various ages, and found those who used AI more frequently scored lower on critical thinking. (As he notes, to date his work only provides evidence for a correlation between the two: it’s possible that people with lower critical thinking abilities are more likely to trust AI, for example.) Like many researchers, Gerlich believes that, used in the right way, AI can make us cleverer and more creative – but the way most people use it produces bland, unimaginative, factually questionable work. Are we living in a golden age of stupidity? – https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/18/are-we-living-in-a-golden-age-of-stupidity-technology

Yikes.

Scary Charts 10.11.25

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Here in the US not bad when compared to South Korea – https://www.statista.com/chart/4101/where-is-pensioner-poverty-the-most-prevalent/

Our World in Data compared causes of death in the United States against how much those causes are covered by the New York Times, Washington Post, and Fox News. The results are about what you would expect, based on coverage data from Media Cloud.

Rarer events, like homicide and drug overdose, are reported more heavily, whereas everyday causes, like cancer and heart disease, are reported less.

Another lesson in not believing everything you read – https://flowingdata.com/2025/10/08/mortality-in-the-news-vs-what-we-usually-die-from/