# 650. Quick Fixes: GLP-1s and The Beauty Shot: A Little Too Close?

An episode of [The Thyroid (and Hormone) Fixer Podcast: Thyropause, Menopause, Metabolism and How to Fix It](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1529800263), 24 Jul 2026, 23 min.

Audio: https://episode.flightcast.com/zxhhtsqnb7knrv1l9ugu0ocv.mp3

GLP-1 medications continue to dominate conversations about weight loss and metabolic health, but I think it's time for a more thoughtful discussion. In this episode, I step back from the headlines and explore both the promise and the uncertainty surrounding these medications. Using an unexpected comparison from the FX series The Beauty, I talk about why it's worth asking hard questions whenever a new treatment gains widespread popularity. We discuss what we know so far, what we don't know yet, and why it's important to weigh both the benefits and the unknowns before making personal health decisions. What you’ll learn: • Why a fictional TV series sparked a conversation about real-world medical decision making • The difference between what current research supports and what remains unknown • When GLP-1 medications appear to provide the greatest benefit • Questions worth asking before trying the newest weight loss medications • Why dosage and lifestyle may influence both results and side effects • How I personally think about balancing potential risks with potential benefits • Why long-term data matters more than short-term success stories • The role of nutrition, movement, and metabolic support alongside any medication If you're trying to decide whether a GLP-1 is the right fit for you, or simply want a balanced perspective that acknowledges both the evidence and the unanswered questions, I hope you'll join me for this conversation. Grab your Thyroid Fixer here: https://betterlifedoctor.com/ New here? Use code LISTEN20 for 20% off your first order Returning customers can use code LISTEN10 for 10% off SHOP DR. AMIE’S FIXXR® SUPPLEMENTS: betterlifedoctor.com LET'S GET YOUR LIFE BACK...Connect with Dr. Amie Hornaman Book a free thyroid and hormone solution call: https://dramiehornaman.com/pages/book-a-call CHECK OUT MY FREEBIES... JUST CLICK BELOW Thyroid Optimization Guide: https://health.dramie.com/thyropause 7 Day Thyroid Healing Kickstarter: https://fixyourthyroid.com/7daykickstarter Thyroid on Trial: https://health.dramie.com/thyroid-on-trial-optin RATE, REVIEW AND FOLLOW ON APPLE PODCASTS Show your love for Dr. Amie and The Thyroid Fixer Podcast! If you’re enjoying our journey together, I’d be thrilled if you could take a moment to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts. Your support helps me reach and help more people just like you, guiding them towards their optimal selves! Just click HERE, scroll all the way down, give us those 5 stars, and share what you enjoy about my episodes in a review. Haven’t subscribed yet? Make sure to follow The Thyroid Fixer Podcast to catch all the new episodes that come out every week. Follow HERE and never miss out on a moment of the journey! CONNECT WITH ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Join my exclusive Facebook Group and get questions answered LIVE weekly, Just Fix Your Thyroid, for a Community of HOPE and SUPPORT in your thyroid journey. https://www.facebook.com/groups/dramie/ Like me on Facebook: Amie Hornaman Nutrition and Functional Medicine Subscribe on YouTube: Dr. Amie Hornaman Follow me on Instagram: @dramiehornaman

## Transcript

[0:00] It's brand freaking new. And not that we need the FDA approval because we don't. However, common sense, it's going to roll back to 2020 and 2021 right now. Common sense says when something has just been developed and not thoroughly tested on the human population, maybe we should avoid it. Maybe we should just think twice about it. Maybe we don't want to be the first.
[0:29] I just want to say thank you. The fact that you're here means that you have trusted me with something so valuable these days, your time.
[0:38] And I do not take that lightly at all. So if you're listening because you're exhausted, you're gaining weight for no reason, losing your hair, getting really frustrated, or you've been told that everything looks normal, when you know deep down something isn't right, I want you to know that I see you. I've been where you are. And that's exactly why I created this podcast. My mission is super simple, to give you the information, the hope and the tools that I wish someone had given me years ago.
[1:08] So my goal is you get to stop wondering what's wrong with your body and finally start getting your life back. So if these episodes have helped you at all, would you do me one small favor? Take just a few seconds to follow the show, the little button in the upper corner, and then leave a review.
[1:28] Every follow and every review helps this podcast reach another person who's lying there awake at night wondering why they don't even recognize themselves anymore when they look in the mirror. Wondering what's happened to this amazing, energized, full of life person they used to be. You're helping them. And not only that.
[1:47] When you follow the show, you'll be notified about the hottest episodes everyone is listening to and everyone's downloading, along with any bonus episodes I drop throughout the month. Think of it as your insider pass. So thank you for letting me be part of your journey and thank you for your time. Now let's get into today's episode. So.
[2:09] You know, I feel like anytime I do a podcast on GLPs, I always have to preface this with I am not anti-GLP because my gosh, the addiction is real out there, right? I guess the benefits are real and the addiction is real as well. But as I always do, I continuously, as we all should be doing, I continuously look at both sides. I look at the pros. I look at the cons. I look at the studies. I look at the anecdotal evidence that is coming out.
[2:38] And I look at our patients. I look at how I respond. I listen to other stories of people. I dissect it. So if you hear a horror story, you step back and you go, oh, well, were they taking, you know, like 10 or 15 milligrams? And that's why they got that side effect of gastroparesis. Or what's the deal? So you have to look at everything. You have to break it down and look at it through a very, very clear lens. But you also can't, we can't put our head in the sand
[3:08] and pretend like there might not be some things popping up that we just don't know. So here's the reality. GLPs haven't been out that long. So as we know with any drug, I paused there because I was thinking back to 2020. As we know with any drug, there can be side effects that don't show up for a few years, that only show up because of the accumulation of years of use,
[3:36] versus using something for a short period of time. So the reality is that we really don't know. What I wanted to do today and what kind of popped into my head was I was thinking about this show, and I don't know if all of you have seen this or not, but it's on FX, and FX is like a little bit of a wild channel, so they have some really crazy shows out there, but it's called The Beauty.
[4:01] It's very, very good, by the way. Ashton Kutcher, a couple other people that you'll recognize. But it's called The Beauty. And I watched it, obviously, for entertainment. But then when I got to the end, it made me pause and think about the parallels of GLPs right now. So in a nutshell, and I won't give it away because you'll have to watch the show. But in a nutshell, this billionaire, played by Ashton Kutcher, develops a shot, a shot, an injection, right?
[4:27] that makes everyone beautiful. So no matter what health condition, what size they are, what their face looks like, what their body looks like, you take this shot and you immediately turn into this beautiful model. But there's a catch. It turns out that the shot is a little bit unstable in what it does to your DNA. And you spontaneously explode from overheating, usually within two to three years of the shot.
[4:57] And then it turns out as the shot was out longer and longer, there were various mutations. Like it would turn a 40-year-old into a nine-year-old. Or it would turn people into a skinless monster. You know, some pretty wild side effects.
[5:14] But they pushed it. They pushed it for the money. He wanted that shot out. He wanted to control it. He took over social media. He took over the news stations. He made a commercial so that every single person, including teenagers and college students, looking at their phone would be pulled in. They want this beauty shot for money, for money, for money, for money. And
[5:38] Again, I won't tell you how the show ends. I won't tell you how the show ends. Hopefully there's a season two, but it made me step back and think about the GLPs, the shot, and what are the side effects that we don't know yet? What are the side effects that are going to come up
[5:54] three to four years down the road. There's things that we just don't know. And there are times where, you know, it is big pharma. It is Lilly. It is Novo. What are we not being told? What are we not being told? So again, I don't want to talk about cons or scare the bejesus out of anyone until we talk about the pros. So what are we seeing with the pros? And I'll recap this.
[6:17] If you haven't listened to any of my other GLP episodes, I will recap this once again. What do we know right now? Okay. So if you are obese and you are carrying around excess body fat, that really is detrimental to your health. So if you are one that qualifies for the use of a GLP because you are a type 2 diabetic and your A1C is well above a 5.6 and you are carrying around excess adipose tissue, i.e. fat, that's right.
[6:46] then yes, GLPs are changing lives because your risk of all-cause mortality, basically everything that can possibly kill you, increases significantly when you carry around excess body fat. It creates inflammation. It increases your risk of cardiovascular disease.
[7:02] It feeds cancer because cancer feeds on sugar. So walking around with high glucose, high A1C, high insulin, you're feeding cancer cells. You're risking neuropathy. You're risking the loss of eyesight, of fingers, of toes, of limbs. I mean, the list goes on and on and on as it cascades.
[7:21] As obesity continues and that inflammation continues in the body, a host of various conditions that can kill you start to appear. Alzheimer's has been called type 3 diabetes for years now because we know the association between the plaque formation of the brain and the inflammation.
[7:37] and high blood sugar, high glucose. So now we have a shot that comes along and really, I mean, just kicks all of the other diabetic medications to the curb because it works and it works fast. And people are losing weight for the first time in their life when they haven't been able to before. People who have had gastric bypass surgeries that really, I mean, come on, sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, sometimes just leaves you miserable.
[8:03] are now having their gastric bypasses reversed because they can control their weight and lose the weight with a GLP. We're seeing improvements in fatty liver. We're seeing improvements in lipid panels.
[8:15] As I've said before in a previous episode, and as I state in the Thyroid Fix, if you haven't picked up the book yet, I have a special chapter on GLPs. We're seeing some individuals needing less and less thyroid medication. So that's fantastic. And again, not that the gold star is to be on the lowest dose of thyroid medication. That's not the point. But if you can reduce it, then okay, then that works because you're reducing the inflammation in your body.
[8:42] So there are pros that we are seeing. Oh, an additional pro, mood. A lot of people are experiencing an improvement in their mood when the GLP is used appropriately for you, when it's used at a dose that is appropriate for you. That's usually a microdose. It's usually not a macrodose or a standard dose that we use for a type 2 diabetic. But when used appropriately, we are seeing these things.
[9:10] Now, the other side, the reality, some women are losing hair. Many people are losing muscle. Some are losing facial fat and looking older. Again, I have said this in another video. We can even link it below. I have a multitude of videos on GLPs, a multitude of episodes on GLPs. We have the dark side of GLPs. We have the pros of GLPs. We have my interview with Tina Moore where we talk about microdosing GLPs. We talk about this a lot because, listen, it's a hot topic.
[9:35] And again, what did I say in the very beginning? This is new. This is still new. I don't care the GLPs have been out for four or five years. It's still new. It's a new drug. It is a new class of drugs. Red at TruTide, people are buying it left and right from research facilities, research peptide websites. They're buying it from compounding pharmacies that really shouldn't be compounding it because it's not FDA approved yet.
[10:02] It's brand freaking new. And not that we need the FDA approval because we don't. However, common sense, going to roll back to 2020 and 2021 right now. Common sense says when something has just been developed and not thoroughly tested on the human population, maybe we should avoid it. Maybe we should just think twice about it. Maybe we don't want to be the first.
[10:30] Don't want to be the first to get that beauty shot, right? And then spontaneously explode. So what do we do? Well, number one, I know. I mean, listen, you can go on Instagram. You can go on TikTok right now and see picture after picture of these lean bodies saying, I take Reddit True Tide.
[10:48] I shared with you, the girl that washed my hair at the salon told me that she knows that the research only website that she got her retta from is valid because, you know, the TikTok influencer that was promoting it is skinny. You don't know what's in that. You don't know. So number one, I would say, I'm sorry. Go ahead and burn me at the stake like a Salem witch. I'm going to say to avoid retta because you just don't really know yet, do you?
[11:16] Okay, at least Terza and Sema have been out for a few years. So we have a lot more data on those two drugs. If you want to use Reda, go ahead, use it at your own pace, at your own risk, whatever, and just realize it's a little bit newer. But Sema and Terza being out for the four or five, however many years they have been out, we at least have a lot more data on that. Because since it is FDA approved and it is in the form of a pharmaceutical, which Reda will soon be, yes,
[11:44] We have more people using it. We just do. I mean, those are just the common sense stats. If a person can't get it from their doctor, can't really get it legally from a compiling pharmacy, and they have to order it from the black market, there's going to be less people using black market than there is using...
[12:01] real approved compounded medication. So we have more data. We have more data on some Ventura. Not that we have enough because we don't. And that's just the reality. And really, the point of this is to say, when we, and I'm putting myself into this category, I'm right there with you. When we use GLPs, we have to realize that we're taking a risk.
[12:25] We just are. Now you could sit back and go, well, Dr. Amy, isn't it risky to take thyroid medication or hormones? Not really. They've been around for like over a century or at least for 70 years. So, you know, NDTs were 1800s. T3 was approved in the 60s.
[12:45] 50s, 60s, something like that. 40s, 50s, 60s. And then T4 was approved, 70s, 80s. I'd have to look at my stats. I wasn't really prepared with when thyroid medic, I don't have it memorized, when it was released and approved by the FDA. However, they've been out for a really long time. This is new. These are news. The new class of drugs.
[13:05] Miraculous? Yeah, possibly. Could be our next answer. And maybe 5-10 years from now, we will see that there's like a 0.5% of the population that has the side effects and 99.5% experience fantastic life-saving, life-changing, life-altering, mind-blowing results.
[13:29] Or we're going to hear in five to 10 years, oops, sorry, turns out that these GLPs increase your risk of cancer instead of decrease it. Turns out that you might spontaneously combust. No, I'm just kidding. We might. And that's just the reality. I think, again, we would literally be sticking our head in the sand if we said to ourselves, oh, no.
[13:52] There's no problem here. Don't you know that Eli Lilly and Pfizer and Novo have our best interests at heart? They would never put a drug out that could harm the human population. I can't even say that with a straight face. So what's the point, Dr. Amy? What's the point? My point in coming on here is to just help you think.
[14:17] It's just for you to step back and evaluate. And I will tell you straight up, even with this thought, even with the full acknowledgement that five years from now, we might find something, something that we went, ah, shit, didn't see that coming. I'm still going to use it. I'm still going to use my trizapatite at a microdose.
[14:41] because of the beneficial side effects that I have experienced thus far. But I'm going to do so with open eyes. And I'm going to pay attention to every minuscule thing that my body does as I use the GLPs. And I'm going to make sure, as I have been for decades, that I'm taking care of myself. And that my body doesn't rely on...
[15:06] on a GLP. I'm going to do things that actually do increase my metabolism. Like I add in T2 because GLPs don't increase your metabolism. I had another podcast on that. I'm going to add in T2 to make sure that my metabolism is running where the microdose of GLP keeps my inflammation down
[15:23] And helps to keep naturally my insulin and glucose down, although I do that mainly through diet, exercise, sun, sun exposure, grounding, stress reduction. All of that helps your glucose and your A1C naturally. Remember back in the day when we had to do it naturally, I still had imberberine because that's amazing for anti-cancer. It's amazing for prevention of Alzheimer's. So I still do the other things. I don't throw the baby out with the bathwater and say, all I'm going to do is GLP and call it a day.
[15:52] I'm still doing all the other things to support my body and support my metabolism. And I'm going into or continuing my GLP use with eyes wide open. Now, the other factor here that I bring up every single time I talk about GLPs is cost. Well, cost, there's two things. There's cost and there's the are they going to be accessible? Because as we know, and every single time we talk about GLPs, we have to mention this. As we know, Lily, Novo, they're trying their hardest to,
[16:19] to make sure that you have to get a prescription from them, that those dollars aren't being shuttled to the local compiling pharmacy that makes Tersavitide. They want it all. And that level of greed makes me scratch my head as to why. Why do you want us using your drug? What you got in it? What else you got in it? We already tried population control one time.
[16:44] couple years ago. Is this another attempt? Why can't we use compounding, Lily? Hmm. Another pause and think moment. Just food for thought. Just food for thought. This is not a podcast where I'm standing on a pedestal. I'm not trying to move you one way or another. This is actually one episode where I'm just putting out my thoughts and,
[17:08] And I'm kind of hashing this out with you. If we were sitting here having coffee, we'd have a back and forth conversation. I would listen to your opinion. I would listen to the thoughts that you have that pop into your head through a conversation. And we would have an educated, fun discussion about it.
[17:25] With neither one of us dying on a hill, I don't have a hill to die on with GLPs. I really don't. As I've said many, many, many times, I believe it's the wildest Jekyll and Hyde drug that has ever hit the market because we literally don't know whether it's good or bad. We're experiencing the good right now. We're seeing some bad. We're experiencing some good. A lot of it is dependent on the dose that you use.
[17:50] And whether or not you change your lifestyle habits while you're using it and after and during, yes, while you're using it. I want to give you just food for thought. So you can take this and even though you and I can't have a conversation, which I would love to, you can take this and have a conversation with your girlfriend that's using a GLP-2. And ask her about the side effects. Ask if she's experienced anything weird. Has she lost her hair? Has she lost her facial fat? Has she lost any muscle, does she think? And then do a self-inventory yourself.
[18:19] We don't know. One other thing I've been hesitating this entire episode to say, but I'm just going to say it. Talking to a friend of mine. She mentioned this because she sees it in her chiropractic practice.
[18:32] And ironically, many of you know that I had cancer last year, uterine cancer. She says, I have seen now six cases of uterine cancer in the last year on women using GLPs. And yes, I was using a GLP prior to my uterine cancer diagnosis. I did another podcast a while ago, a while ago, last year, last year.
[18:54] Because it's been a year since my diagnosis and since my hysterectomy. I did a podcast last year on, I think, I know what caused my cancer. That's actually the title of it. You can go look for it. I don't know what number it was. And I mentioned that I believed because of the fact that uterine cancer is an older person's diagnosis, meaning we normally see it in women in their 70s and 80s, not in their 40s and 50s like we're seeing right now.
[19:21] And even my oncologist said, you know, this is a cancer that we normally don't see in someone your age, especially someone that's healthy. So what is it? Is it that I had COVID? Is it that I had a man-made virus like many of us did? And that changed my DNA and tweaked my immune system so that my surveillance system was down and didn't detect those cancer cells like it normally would? Or was it the microdosing of the GLP?
[19:44] Or was it the macro reducing of the GLP that I did in the very, very, very, very beginning when Manjaro came out? I already shared my horror story with that of absolutely losing muscle, losing facial fat, all the things, the nausea, the fatigue, dose dependent, dose dependent. I don't know. I don't know.
[20:03] So take all of this information, swirl it around in your mind. Sorry to just confuse you. I know you just listened to this podcast hoping and praying that I was going to be screaming from the rooftops how amazing GLPs are. Yeah, we prescribe them in our program because there's positives.
[20:19] We're not not going to prescribe them because we don't know yet. This is an individual decision. It's a decision to be made with your practitioner, with your prescriber. It's a collaborative decision. We respect everyone's decision. Somebody says, I don't want to use it. I'm like, okay, don't use it.
[20:36] Here, use metabolism fixer instead if you got the food noise. It's a natural way to control your appetite. And oh, by the way, the T2 and it's going to boost your metabolism, which GOPs don't do. We'll use that instead. We'll use black cumin seed oil for inflammation. We'll use LDN for inflammation. There are other things that we can do.
[20:55] If you're not comfortable using a GLP, I might move that way entirely eventually here. I don't know. I'll keep you updated. I'll always be honest with you. You know that. You know I won't bullshit you because I am anti-bullshit, especially on social media. There's too much of that out there. Do you agree? Yeah.
[21:13] Yeah, I'm not going to push you into a program. I'm not going to try to sell you anything that you're not comfortable with. I'm going to give you all the data, the information, the anecdotal evidence that I possibly can. And ultimately, I'm going to let you decide because you're a smart human being. That's why you're listening to the show. You're gathering information. You're trying to make decisions.
[21:33] But go ahead and just go watch FX. Go watch The Beauty. It's entertaining. If you love series, you know I love, I call it my Netflix time and my Netflix snack. That's how I downregulate at the end of the day. It turns off my brain because I focus on a show. My brain's always going. Type A's, ADD, entrepreneurs, you're just always driven people. You're always going. You know who you are. Your brain's always going. So that's why I watch series to shut it down.
[22:00] at the end of the day. So, you know, binge it. Go ahead and binge it. And then I want you to DM me on Facebook or Instagram or join my Just Fix Your Thyroid Facebook group, which is an amazing freaking group anyways, and post them there. Be like, Dr. Amy, I watched the beauty. Holy shit, so entertaining. And I saw the parallels. I see, yeah, okay, it's making sense now. I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying.
[22:26] Oh my goodness, I love you all. Thanks for watching. Let me know what you think. Food for thought, right? Let me know what you think. We'll see you next time. Share the episode too, because you know your girlfriend or your neighbors taking a GLP.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.