Wellness Unmasked Weekly Rundown: The Future of Weight Loss Drugs and Why Healthcare Innovation Matters

Dr. Nicole Saphier reflects on her inspiring experience at the Fox Nation Patriot Awards and shares insights on the power of personal innovation. She then dives into the latest developments surrounding GLP-1 medications—game-changing drugs for weight loss and diabetes management that remain out of reach for many Americans. Dr. Saphier discusses the growing obesity crisis, the urgent need to make these treatments affordable and accessible, and offers practical advice for maintaining health while policy and pricing catch up to medical innovation. Wellness Unmasked is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Tuesday & Friday.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi everyone, I'm doctor Nicole Safire and this is your
weekly rundown. Now, before we jump into some big healthcare news,
I want to tell you about my night last night.
I was at the Fox Nation Patrion Awards. It was
incredibly inspiring. I almost would say magical. We had Erica
Kirk there, the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth was there,
and Milania Trump, our beautiful first Lady. She closed out

(00:24):
the night and she had some incredibly inspiring words talking
about innovation, and one of the things that she said
was personal innovation or individual innovation is not selfish. It's
like the heartbeat of civilization. Now I saw her exact words.
It was something along those lines. It was a late night.
I have it written down somewhere, but it was very

(00:44):
inspiring in the sense that, you know, we talk a
lot about collaboration and big business collaboration, but sometimes it
really does just start with the individual. And she was
really empowering people to look at yourself, what can you
do to bring to the table. And as a mother
who's constantly trying to motivate my children, I found her
speech to be incredibly inspiring. But I'm going to switch

(01:06):
gears from Fox Nation Patriot Awards and talk about some
big healthcare news that happened this week out of the
White House. There is a big deal to lower the
cost of some of the most in demand drugs in
America right now. Well, what's the most in demand drug
for America right now? That's right, the GLP ones, you know,
the weight loss medication also for diabetes like ozambic, Wagovi, Manjaro,

(01:29):
all of those glp ones. And why this is a
big deal is because for most people who take these medications,
it's about fifteen hundred dollars a month. For some people
who have diabetes or who have morbid obesity and a
pre existing condition like cardiovascular disease, sleep apnea, and others,
insurances may cover it, but I'll be honest, they do

(01:51):
not like covering this medication because of how expensive it is.
But as we find ourselves in the midst of this
obesity crisis that is like this downward spiral of inflammation,
autoimmune disease, cancer, all these other chronic comorbidities that come
with obesity, the question is what can we do to
combat it? Yes, we need to make sure that people

(02:14):
have access to healthy food, get rid of some of
those disgusting ultra processed foods from our diet. Make sure
people are able to exercise, and that they have the
information and the ability to exercise. But we would be
remiss if we ignore the fact that we have these
medications that people are seeing drastic results in. That's right.

(02:36):
Some people are losing twenty pounds on these GLP ones.
Some people are losing two hundred pounds now. I was
actually talking to some people last night at the Patriot
Awards who are on the medication and they love it.
And I like having these conversations because on one hand,
you have people saying it's the easy way out. You
shouldn't be taking it. Everyone just needs to change their
diet and exercise. Well, it's not always that easy. In fact,

(03:00):
a lot of what comes with obesity is metabolic and
it has nothing to do necessarily with what you're eating. Now,
is that a big part of it. Absolutely, And anyone
who's on these GLP medications should be changing their diet,
they should be working out more. But for some people,
they really need these medications and they could be life
saving for them. But they have to make sure that

(03:21):
they're taking these medications smartly. You can't just take this
injection and go on with your life, because really what
this medication is, it's putting your body into a starvation mode.
And with that starvation mode comes muscle weight wasting, and
then comes bone loss, and this can lead to other
things osteoporosis, spine fractures, even dementia. So I was giving

(03:43):
a little bit of, you know, off the cuff healthcare
advice for these people on chronic GLP ones, and one
of the things I talk about is making sure that
you are exercising, maintaining that muscle mass. Also taking creatine.
I've never been someone who's been for those protein shakes,
but creatine five miss especially in women. Not only does
it help keep your muscle mass, which then protects your

(04:05):
bones because as we get older women we like to
poke holes in our bones. Our body naturally does that.
But also if you take a certain amount of creating
five milligrams, it's being shown to help with the brain
and not just making you feel more clarity during the day,
but decreasing your risk of dementia later on. So all
good things, but very excited about this because the President

(04:29):
is now saying he's working with these two big major
drug makers Eli Lilly nordoskit I always say that wrong.
It's kind of a tongue twister. They should consider changing it.
What they're going to do is they're going to make
these medications more affordable because for years these GLP ones
have been life changing, but really just for people who
can afford it, and in the world of equity, that's

(04:51):
not a good thing, especially because the people who can't
afford these medications probably would benefit the most from them.
So the plan looks like this. The cash prices for
these medications, because a lot of insurances won't pay for them,
it's going to go from about fifteen hundred a month
three hundred and fifty a month. Medicare and Medicaid users

(05:11):
could see prices around two hundred and forty five a month,
and other people on government insurance might even pay as
little as fifty dollars per month once the rebates and
all the negotiations kick in. Now there is always a butt.
This is going to take some time. You can't go
online right now and get some cheap GLP ones. Some
of the oral versions aren't even FDA approved yet. They're

(05:32):
working on it, and not every insurance plan or state
medicaid program is on board. So while the headlines sound great,
and they are because we're on our way, at least
we're seeing some progress, the real world effects an impact
could still be months, maybe years away. So if you're
someone who's considering getting on a GLP one but you
can't afford it, good news. Help us on the way.

(05:54):
In the meantime, make sure you're changing your diet, exercise,
get your body as healthy as possible so when these
medications are affordable, which I'm going to say three to
six months hopefully, then you might benefit from them the most.
Thanks so much for listening. This has been your weekly rundown.
I'm doctor Nicole Saffire. Make sure to listen to Wellness
on MASS on iHeartRadio wherever you get your podcasts, and

(06:16):
we'll see you next time.