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Dr. Meenal Agarwal & Associates

Home » Ep 17 – Medications, Vitamins, and Supplements with Serina Hanlon – Transcript

Ep 17 – Medications, Vitamins, and Supplements with Serina Hanlon – Transcript

Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.

00:00

There’s different levels of quality. You may be able to find a B vitamin, but if you don’t have that background knowledge, it would be hard to tell the difference between one that your body would absorb more versus one that doesn’t.

00:20

This is Dr. Meenal and welcome to Uncover Your Eyes, where we uncover reality. As a mom and eye doctor, I wanna know it all. Medications. Sometimes we are too quick to take medications that might not be right for us. And other times we are not quick enough to take medications that might improve our quality of life or even save our life. Today I have with us

00:48

Serina Hanlon. Serina is a compounding pharmacist and owner of The Pharmacy Lab in Toronto, a wellness-focused pharmacy. She specializes in hormones and offers holistic guidance to her patients with medical, non-medicinal, and customized treatment approaches. Welcome, Serina. Thank you, Serina, for being on today. Really, really appreciate it. It’s a pleasure. Lovely to be on your podcast.

01:17

Thank you. So, you know, I know you’re a compounding pharmacist. So tell me a little bit about, is there a difference between, you know, patients going to big chain pharmacies versus more independent or smaller ones? Yeah, first of all, for compounding pharmacies, you’re unlikely to find a big chain pharmacy that will provide that type of a service. But in general, there’s pros and cons to both. For big chain pharmacies,

01:43

I’ve worked in both the world of a big chain pharmacy and now an independent small pharmacy. Big chains, they do protocolize most of how things work. So people come and go, but they follow steps that are set out by the company. They have long hours, so from a convenience point of view for a patient, that might be a good thing. However, they set things like targets and metrics, and that’s been in the news more recently.

02:13

From my experience, the big chains put a lot of pressure on their teams and on their staff. So as a result, that translates to sometimes more stressed personnel and I would say lower patient care and quality of the service. They’re a bit more rushed. They’re stressed, so they’re unable to spend the time with the patients and really listen to their patients. Small independent

02:43

you’re going to, we’re going to obviously care a lot more about the service that we provide. And so that translates to hopefully better patient care. Absolutely. So, you know, I know that obviously with medicines or medications, you know, there’s a lot of regulation around medications for approvals and things like that. You know, talk to me a little bit about supplements and, you know, regulation around there because I know some supplements.

03:10

you know, are better absorbed by our body versus not as absorbed by our body. So is there regulation around supplements and how much should be absorbed? And how does that work? In Canada, our regulations are a bit more stringent than, say, in the US. So there are regulations about what a supplement can claim. So drugs can only make these claims, you know, will lower your blood pressure because they have the studies to prove that and to show the effects. Whereas with supplements,

03:40

if they didn’t have this regulation, sometimes the claims would be really bold. And so when you read the labeling on supplements, it will say, can help with contribute to a healthier lifestyle. It cannot be as direct about what it’s claiming. And so those type of supplements that are approved in Canada is regulated and they will have a NHP number to indicate that it’s one of our approved supplements.

04:09

However, when you’re looking at the potency, how much is absorbed, that’s on the onus of the company. So it’s not required by Health Canada for them to test the potency of the final product that you’re getting. So it’s possible, probably not likely, but it’s possible you can get one bottle that may have a small percentage of what it claims on the bottle and some that don’t. And so you have to…

04:35

look for companies that are willing to do their own testing that will go over and above because that’s not required. Right. So how do patients, like when I go into the pharmacy and I see, I don’t know, six vitamin Ds or whatever Omega is or any product, how do I know which one is of a good company and which one’s not of a good company or which one’s better absorbed by my body, I guess, or are they all equal? Well, there’s different levels of…

05:02

quality, you may be able to find a B vitamin. But you know, as a if you don’t have that background knowledge, it would be hard to tell the difference between one that your body would absorb more versus one that doesn’t. And so that takes a bit of expertise, you should ask a pharmacist who can give you that recommendation, the ones that are better absorbed might cost a bit more, you know, for me, I’m just thinking off the top of my head, you know,

05:26

be complex. Some are methylated, so they absorb better and they also help you detox a bit better, whereas some are not, and that might cost a bit less. For some vitamins, in Canada, there is good manufacturing practices. I’m not saying those big brands that are at the drugstore, that they don’t contain what they claim, but they don’t show it. So it’s hard to prove. You would have to try it.

05:55

Health Canada wants to ensure that it won’t cause you harm though. So, right, right, right. They don’t have any ingredients that will cause harm. So we have some protections in Canada, but hard to say. There’s a reason a lot of people will take vitamins and they will, or supplements and they won’t find any difference. You just don’t know for sure. You don’t know if it’s absorbed. But you’re right. I guess asking your pharmacist is the best way to go because

06:20

with some of these supplements, there’s hidden words or, you know, like the word you used for the B complex. Like I didn’t know that word, right? So certain words where it’s better absorbed. So that’s important. And I know you have more of a holistic approach, I want to say, where, you know, you’re not a pharmacist that’s always just pushing, you know, medications, but sometimes there are vitamins or supplements that can help as well with the medications.

06:49

guideline that you kind of think or your go-to of vitamins that adults should be taking or like 40 plus, you know, I’m thinking, are there certain vitamins that you feel that we all lack in our bodies, whether it’s men or women or something different? I wouldn’t make a blanket statement for everyone, but there are certain supplements that I recommend to a lot of people because there’s a huge tendency to be deficient.

07:17

You know, some of the examples that I think off the top of my head, vitamin D, because we live in Canada, we don’t see a lot of sun for half the year. And so, and it’s a very important vitamin. So that’s one that I think a lot of people should be taking. I don’t say everyone, because there are some people who will have a medical condition or take certain medications that contraindicate it. So everyone should, everything should be personalized, but a lot of people, well, a lot of people will need that. A magnesium is another one.

07:46

For a lot of people having something for their gut health, it’s not going to cause harm. So I recommend that just because it won’t cause harm, but it just depends if you want to spend money on a supplement like a probiotic or if you can get it from your diet. If you can get these things naturally, it’s always ideal to get these nutrients naturally. It’s just with our lifestyles today, it’s getting harder and harder. Absolutely.

08:13

Are there supplements that you recommend for kids? Like I know for my kids, you know, I just give them the vitamin D gummy. But like, are there certain supplements where everyone should know that, I mean, I know it’s personalized, like you said, you have to ask your pediatrician and whatnot, but are there supplements that you find a lot of kids should be taking like generic vitamins or just vitamin D? Yeah, I don’t necessarily think a…

08:39

multivitamin is necessary unless they’re really picky eaters. So if the child is a picky eater, why not have a multivitamin? Vitamin D is a good idea. It’s good for their immune system. When you go into school, lots of kids pass around viruses. So making sure that they have enough vitamin D will help with keeping their immune system strong. It’s tied in with immune health. And for kids, I think that omega-3 is a good idea. Unless your family has a lot of

09:09

fish and seafood in the diet. If not, then it’s a crucial component for brain development. So I think that’s really important for children. Interesting. Okay, great. No, and vitamin D, I want to touch on that a little bit because vitamin D is not only for certain aspects, but there’s so many things that vitamin D does for us. Do you mind just off the top of your head running through a few benefits that it has? Yeah, absolutely.

09:38

In the past, I think a lot of us knew that vitamin D was involved with bone metabolism, so it helps the calcium get into your bones. But over time, it became more and more popular, I think, more recently. We know it’s a sunshine vitamin, and we see that it’s involved more like a hormone, actually, than some of the other vitamins. It acts like a hormone, a prohormone, and it’s involved with our immune system.

10:06

It’s involved with mood. If you look at several smaller studies, some studies even show that it’s involved with pain perception, so it’s really interesting. You find that it’s part of the metabolism of serotonin, and so as a result, you sort of see the correlation in the winter when we’re not seeing the sun, we have less vitamin D, and there’s more seasonal affective disorder because of that correlation with its…

10:34

it’s involvement with serotonin, which is the happy hormone. Right. So, yeah, lots of reasons. What about weight loss? I’ve heard something about vitamin D helping with sleep and weight loss. Is that correct? I haven’t seen it. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of like a study about that, but it could be if it relates with your serotonin. Hormones, yeah. Yeah. You know, if it’s involved with your serotonin metabolism, serotonin,

11:04

helps with your sleep and your mood can then be tied into your weight. Like if you’re not getting sleep, you won’t be getting weight. And so for this reason, I approach things holistically because it’s all tied in together. It’s not, nothing works in isolation. Yeah. Absolutely. So, you know, you mentioned magnesium at the beginning and I know there is different types of magnesium I want to say. Some are…

11:28

you know, better absorbed and some people tolerate better. Like I think there’s two or three different types of magnesium. Do you mind touching on the magnesium details? Yeah, so the different types of magnesium are different salts. And so most of the regular drugstore ones you’ll find will be magnesium citrates or magnesium oxides. Those tend to cost a bit less. And then there’s magnesium glycinate and magnesium L3-enate. Those ones are absorbed a bit more.

11:56

or a bit better and they tend to cost a bit more when you purchase them at the health food store or at the drugstore. Magnesium citrate is, because it’s less absorbed, it’s more likely to cause diarrhea as a side effect. Same with magnesium oxide. You’ll see milk of magnesium is a type of magnesium. It’s an antacid, but it also causes diarrhea and that is…

12:25

because it’s the type of magnesium that doesn’t really absorb and yet it runs right through you. That can be beneficial if the problem for a patient is constipation, so that might be the magnesium of choice. In general, magnesium can be helpful for the bones as well, but the ones that are better absorbed then can help with other things once it’s in your system, so it can help you with your sleep.

12:49

can help a little bit with anxiety and it also relaxes smooth muscles. So it can also be recommended for people with migraines or if they’ve been working out for, you know, recovery of the muscles. So lots of uses. Another thing with magnesium is that we’re getting less of it in our diet now. So as a result, a lot more people are short of magnesium. When you’re stressed, you also deplete more magnesium and you know, feel like our society is more stressed.

13:17

And so it’s a good supplement to take. Yeah. And I think as, I mean, I was recently maybe over the last year told to take it. I had no idea. And I’m not deficient in the sense that I knew I was deficient or I know I, I don’t even know if I am deficient, but I think as healthcare providers, we are all like very stressed out in life, work, COVID. And, um, I’ll tell you when I started taking magnesium, I noticed better sleep. So that was huge for me. So I’m glad you touched on that. But.

13:47

you’re right, it kind of relaxes you or may calm down anxiety or your mood and so you sleep better. So that was huge for me and I think a lot of us don’t know that magnesium is something that we might need. So that’s important. Yeah, I think about 50% of people are now deficient in magnesium. The food that we eat is just not as rich in magnesium. The soils are a bit more depleted, so there’s a lot of reasons for it. Wow.

14:16

So, you know, I think another common one is like, a lot of people are anemic or have anemia and there’s an iron deficiency and sometimes they can’t tolerate the pills. I think that’s quite common, I wanna say. Are there other options, I get a compounding pharmacy for people who can’t tolerate the pills? Yeah, so we compound an iron cream. This can be absorbed through the skin. So it’s an option for patients. Yeah, so instead of taking it by mouth,

14:44

that supply through the skin and it goes into your bloodstream. So you don’t have to deal with the constipation and the nausea with iron. It’s quite difficult to take because it doesn’t absorb very well when it’s taken with food. And so you ask people to take it on an empty stomach, but then it’s hard on your stomach. So then it’s like one problem. Either you take it with food and you don’t absorb it or you take an empty stomach and you get nauseated. So you don’t like taking it. So that’s one of the hard things. And the other thing is just

15:12

gut permeability. Some people might have inflamed gut, so it’s not getting absorbed because of that. So you get to bypass it when you apply it as a cream. It is available as an infusion. It’s just that a lot of people don’t want to have to go to hospital and have iron infused. No. Yeah. Yeah. So tell me about this cream. Okay. So I’ve never heard of this. So where are we applying this cream? How much? And like it just goes into your skin, I guess?

15:38

Yeah, so we compounded in a concentration of 70 milligrams per gram. It could be changed with compounding. What compounding means is that the pharmacist is making that to order. So we can make it a certain concentration or we can make it stronger. It just depends on the need of that patient and what the prescriber requests. It doesn’t actually need a prescription, so we have a typical concentration of spherosulfate.

16:06

It’s applied to the large, to a large muscle area like your thigh. And so you’d rub it in. And we actually would recommend for people to change sites because if you keep applying to one spot, it eventually can cause a bit of a stain on your skin because iron itself is dark. So it would be, it would be like a temporary tattoo, not a stain that’s permanent, but you know, we don’t want you to keep applying to the same spot because of that one spot would get darker and darker.

16:34

Oh, okay. So you rub it on and then you leave it for the day and it naturally absorbs and then you can take a shower in the afternoon kind of thing. Yeah, exactly. It’s just like a transdermal absorption. So instead of going absorbing through your guts, absorbing through your skin. So once you’ve rubbed it in, it’s starting to absorb already. And over time as you apply, you’ll continue to build up, similar like taking the pill, you would build up your levels gradually over time.

17:02

So are there other supplements that can be taken as creams versus like I have a hard time swallowing pills. So, you know, I tend to get a lot of nausea and whatnot. So is iron the only one that can be compounded into a cream or there are so many other ones that people don’t know about? Well, that’s one that we do because it’s notorious for being so difficult to absorb. Like morally, so difficult, but not every supplement. Some supplements.

17:29

might be too large to pass through the skin. Okay. We do a 12 one and that one’s for eczema, but that’s not necessarily for supplementation. For some of the supplements, it might not be very efficient to have it absorbed through your skin. Okay, so iron is probably one of the main ones. You touched on omega-3s a little bit earlier for kids, I think you mentioned.

17:54

So we obviously as eye care professionals recommend Omega-3s for eyes, dryness. So tell me a little bit about why you would recommend it for children. I know you mentioned brain health and any other reasons that you would recommend it for children? Well, for children, it’s an essential fatty acid, right? So it helps with building the brain, but it’s also essential for other body functions.

18:22

beneficial for skin as well. It just helps with the dryness. It helps with mood regulation as well. So those are the main things for children. We used to say for adults, it’s good for cardiovascular health, but sometimes the evidence is mixed with that. So I don’t say that routinely. Okay. No, that’s great. So tell me, what is your…

18:48

multivitamin supplement. Like what does Serena take in the mornings? I use myself as a guinea pig. And because I am, you know, I’m a mom and I’m running a business and time is so stressful. So I want to just make sure I cover my bases. I try to eat healthy, but sometimes I don’t get enough nutrients in my opinion. And so I just layer on, I keep layering new things on.

19:16

I take everything at night and after dinner because I, for me, I find that supplements, if I take them on an empty stomach, I’ll get nauseated. And so I just take everything after dinner. For me, so I take an Omega-3, I take a magnesium, so I do practice what I preach. I take a B complex, so that will help with the stress, the methylation, just to help me detox. It gives you energy if you’re low. I just don’t need that many.

19:44

Like I don’t eat that many carbs and so you get carbs are, you know, bread, pasta, things like that are good source of B vitamins, but I find that they bother my gut. So I avoid it. And so I take a B supplement for that. I take probiotics and postbiotics for just overall gut health. I think that gut working on your gut health is so important. When your gut is off, I feel, well, when my gut’s off, I feel really inflamed. And so I just have that in there.

20:14

good prebiotic foods as well in my diet, but I’m covering my bases. And I take an NAC supplement, N-acetylcysteine, and that helps production of glutathione, which is a free radical scavenger. So it helps with, you know, assaults of like the environmental toxins, also helps with mucosal health in the lungs because I have asthma. I’m trying to think if there’s anything else that I…

20:44

Vitamin D, you didn’t mention Vitamin D. Do you take Vitamin D? I take a Vitamin D, but for that I just take my kids’ gummies. That’s like the candy. That’s what I do. Oh, and I also use ashwagandha. Oh, wow. Okay. That’s an adaptogen, and it helps you with stress. Yeah. That’s a lot. Yeah. And I think so many of us as healthcare providers don’t…

21:12

take anything, if anything, one or two things. I just myself over the last year started taking supplements, but it’s such an important thing that you’re saying, and listing that for others is important because we neglect our own health, right? While taking care of others, we’re neglecting kind of what we may need as supplements just because there’s not always blood tests to show that we need all these things for gut health and whatnot, but sometimes.

21:36

We have to listen to our body. So if we feel inflamed, like you were saying, or we feel mood disorders, or we’re feeling tired, exhausted, fatigued, we have to start looking into our vitamins and seeing if that will help, of course. But you mentioned probiotic, okay, probiotic, postbiotic, you mentioned. Can we touch on that? Because I’ll tell you, I recently took an antibiotic for being sick and I took a…

22:05

a probiotic and you’re probably going to be very mad at me, but what I ended up doing, because I have a feeling this is not right, but I bought the yogurts that are probiotic yogurts and I took it 15, 20 minutes before I took my antibiotics daily, because it was one of those ones that hurts your stomach. And I took it for the seven to 10 days that my antibiotic was supposed to be on for, and then I stopped after that and I was fine. But

22:28

I have a feeling I’m supposed to be taking something before I start the antibiotic and more after because you mentioned pre and post and whatnot. So can you explain that to us? Do you want me to assess how what you did or do you want me to tell you more about pre or post? That’s not a big problem. You can say it all. I know I did it wrong so it’s fine. I mean like the yogurts have a bit of probiotics in them so that’s live bacteria, live good bacteria.

22:57

However, if you’re on an antibiotic, if you’re taking 15 minutes before antibiotic, it’s in your gut around the same time as that antibiotic. So the antibiotics meant to kill bacteria, it probably will kill a lot of that probiotic and so it’s not there to do much. If you… Okay. And to add to that with the type of probiotics that are in yogurts, it just depends which type you get. There are some that are… have a really high amount and they’re marketed as probiotics.

23:26

But there’s the ones that are in the regular food yogurt section where it might have a little bit. It probably would make a huge difference. And most of it would be degraded by the time it gets to your gut. So it’s probably null. It doesn’t do a whole lot. When you’re on a course of antibiotics, it will impact your gut health. And it’s nice that there’s so many studies out now that you can look at what happens from a microscopic level when someone eats.

23:54

when they evaluate the actual contents of the gut. And so they see that the microbiome, which is the type of good bacteria that live in your gut that you need to help you digest food, is changed after a course of antibiotics for up to six months afterwards. And so I would recommend to take an antibiotic during the course of the antibiotic. You don’t have to take it before because you don’t know when you’re gonna get sick. I need an antibiotic.

24:22

But you could take it during the course of the antibiotics. And most of the time while you’re on the antibiotic, I recommend a different type of probiotic, one that is yeast-based so that antibiotic doesn’t wipe it out. And then once you’re done that course of antibiotics, you continue on a regular probiotic for three to six months afterwards to sort of help you build that back up. But you can…

24:46

could build it up with your diet as well and your lifestyle choices. So if you already eat a really healthy diet full of a lot of different vegetables, then you likely will just build that up on your own. It just takes time. And now with more evidence showing the importance of gut health, I think it’s important to focus on it a bit more. So the difference between pre-pro,

25:13

and post-biotics, there’s so many kinds now it’s confusing. Probiotics are the healthy microorganisms, healthy bacteria that you’re introducing or that already live in your gut and that helps you digest food. It also helps you with regulation and production of several hormones that are made in your gut. So it can affect you in more ways than just stomach related or gut related, but it could also affect your mood.

25:42

and the prebiotics are the types of food for the probiotics. It’s food for the bacteria. So those good bacteria, they like to eat lots of fibers and insoluble fibers and soluble fibers. And so you can get that from a host of vegetables. You don’t necessarily need to take that in a supplement. They sell fibers containing prebiotics, but you need so much of it. You might as well just get it from your diet.

26:12

and you would get a better variety. Post-biotics, that’s the part, you know, they’re bacteria, they will go through a life cycle. The leftover dead parts of the probiotic bacteria, they are still valuable. They are able to signal and help with their gut health. It’s still part of what is needed. And so post-biotics is introducing like dead parts of the bacteria into your gut.

26:42

which will still be beneficial. And it doesn’t, you don’t have to worry about it being killed by the acid in your stomach on its way down. Sometimes with probiotics, if it’s not properly formulated, it doesn’t make it all the way down to your gut where it needs to be. Wow, that is like confusing, right? And I don’t know how I would like.

27:05

know which one I’m taking and what I’m supposed to take. But I think that’s an important thing for our listeners is just to know that you have to ask your doctor or your pharmacist to know what you should be taking pre, post, you know what, during probiotics in general, and if you should be taking them regularly. Yeah, if you have gut issues, you can consider taking either pro or post-biotics. You could be on both.

27:34

I wouldn’t say the same people who would need a probiotic, they could benefit from a postbiotic. There’s no harm in it. Right. Yeah. Right. It’s just cost, whether or not you want to spend that money on it or you want to try to build it through diet. Through diet. Yeah. You know, you mentioned earlier something about B12, I want to say, and I think you’ve said something about it being for eczema and that kind of hit me that I’ve never heard of that.

28:04

So, you know, we never think of B12 for eczema or I don’t know if it’s known for that, but do you mind touching on that a little bit? Yeah, so as a compounding pharmacist, we have access to therapies that you wouldn’t be able to come across from when, well, I never came across it when I worked in the regular large chain pharmacy. But when I went into the studies, I was able to see, there are some studies for eczema

28:34

are for children and that’s not steroid. A lot of people don’t want their children to be on steroid creams. So B12 was studied in a concentration of 0.07% in a cream and applied to the skin twice a day for six weeks and it showed significant improvement for eczema. And the studies were done on babies and children. So it’s a great option to have knowing that active ingredient is…

29:03

It’s just vitamin B12. And when it’s absorbed, you’re just supplementing them with a water soluble vitamin. Excess amounts often are excreted through the urine anyways. So it’s not one that you can worry, you really have to worry about toxicity. You don’t have to worry about the fitting of the skin that you get from the typical steroid treatments that would be the first go-to item that would be prescribed. So a lot of people don’t want their kids or even adults. Right, cause a lot of- Yeah.

29:33

Yeah, on steroids. So that’s huge. Yeah. Also, because eczema is such a chronic condition, it’s nice to have an option to give you a break even if you do use steroids every so often. Right. Yeah, I never heard of that. So that’s very, very cool because there’s a lot of

29:52

you know, children with eczema and even adults, but children especially, you know, we worry about our children and steroids. So that’s huge that there’s an alternative. And if you’re visiting a compounding pharmacy like yourselves, they can, you know, compound it into a B12 cream. So that’s that’s that’s huge, I think. Yeah, we’ve, we’ve actually had a lot of patients on it. And we’ve heard a lot of positive feedback anecdotally from our patients. Amazing. So

30:22

You know, I know there’s a lot of buzz right now, so I’m going to definitely have to talk about the diabetes medications because I don’t know, a lot of people are posting, a lot of celebrities are posting about these medications. You know, for example, Ozempic, right? You know, being deemed as a, I want to say they said like a longevity drug or something. You know, can you touch on that? Like what are they talking about and how? Okay, well, Ozempic.

30:51

is sort of flying off the shelves. It was completely unavailable last year because so many people were on it and I feel like we see so many, yeah we see it feels like every other patient is on Ozempic these days to be honest. It’s very popular but for with good reason it it works for a lot of people and so if weight the weight is caused by an excess of calories so it will help with weight loss.

31:20

But it’s not for everyone. So there’s pros and cons. It will cause weight loss if obesity is a significant medical condition with lots of negative effects. So treating it with a medication seems warranted. What it does is it helps reduce the appetite and so people don’t want to eat. It also slows gut motility. So the food that you do eat doesn’t move along as quickly. So you just feel…

31:49

full all the time. Some of the downsides of that though is like the you might feel a bit nauseated because food’s not moving along or it also causes sometimes mood changes. So some there are some reports of depression because you don’t get that joy of eating because you don’t crave it, you don’t feel like eating. So that’s the feeling of being on Ozempic. But for some people that’s very welcome. They’re like, oh, I don’t want to have to like crave food all the time. I’m always hungry. So it helps with that.

32:19

So if the initial weight is caused by too many calories, it causes more of a deficit. But if the weight gain is unrelated to calories, you know, I see patients who eat not a lot of calories and they eat really healthy, they exercise, but they’ve been gaining weight. In that situation, it might be hormonal and Ozempig doesn’t really make a difference for those type of patients.

32:42

Yeah, because we’re seeing Ozempic as, sorry, I said longevity drug, but I meant more of like a weight, that’s more for metformin, I think is being deemed as that. But it meant a weight loss hit, you know, I want to say people are, you know, saying, people are transforming, there’s a lot of celebrities that are transforming losing weight and people are like, oh my god, this is a weight loss hit. So they’re really talking about Ozempic. But metformin as well sort of is more of a longevity drug, I think now being

33:10

that’s also a diabetes medication. So how is that being also deemed as, you know, a great drug to be on? I guess it’s, yeah, I guess it’s confusing because metformin is also a diabetes drug, right? It’s an old diabetes drug. And it works by causing less, like more insulin sensitivity so that people are less insulin resistant. The way that metformin helps for longevity is not really known. It’s just being studied a lot.

33:40

And so there’s some, it’s more like hypothesized right now. It may help with mitochondrial health. And so that’s why it helps with longevity. We know that it’s helping with longevity though, that’s for sure. It helps with reducing neurodegenerative disease and it reduces the inflammation to some extent. So that’s what I’ve seen in the literature. Just interesting, it’s a sort of blossoming.

34:08

I made a video about it as an option because I’ve seen it a lot with people who are more biohackers or the people who are already quite healthy and they want to be even healthier and find ways to live longer. I rarely will see a patient who’s got a lot of other medical conditions wanting to use metformin just for longevity. It would be the type of people who are already doing everything that they can to…

34:35

be healthy. And so in that situation, you know, they could get it as a cream as well, instead of a pill to avoid some of the the stomach related side effects. It’s just something that’s starting to blossom because of all the information that we have access to now like podcasts like yours, and you know, lots of social media showing the different options are out there. But it’s one that we that’s been around for a long time. So we know that the safety profile of it.

35:04

Ozempic’s still newer, right? So you don’t know how it will be in a couple of years. Metformin’s been around for a long, long time. But it’s almost like people want to be on the drug, not even being diabetic, you know? People just are not sometimes, like you said, people who are super healthy still want to be on these drugs because it is…

35:21

you know, thought of as a longevity drug or Ozempic as a weight loss drug. So even if you’re not obese or overweight for those reasons, they still want to be on Ozempic because it’s just being marketed almost as that through through celebrities and social media. So it’s so interesting, though, how they’re both diabetes drugs and being marketed as a very pro thing. Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, Ozempic, I wouldn’t use that for a longevity drug.

35:50

It’s not been around long enough to know how it will affect aging. And it’s also very expensive and people who are diabetic, they need it. There’s sometimes drug supply issues. Metformin, it’s been around long enough that we know that it’s a very safe drug. So if someone wants to use it for longevity, I see no harm really. It increases your insulin sensitivity. Yeah. No, absolutely.

36:17

Yeah, like, so I think there’s a lot of things that people have to start, you know, asking their pharmacist questions or knowing what their options are. Right. So sometimes patients will stop taking drugs like iron or supplements like iron, um, because they can’t tolerate it or metformin because they can’t tolerate it. So to know that, you know, there are creams available or other options available, I think that’s important. And people don’t, um,

36:43

utilize the knowledge of their pharmacist enough. So, you know, thank you, Serena, for this. I’m sure our listeners, viewers want to know where they can find you, you know, if they do want to visit your pharmacy. Do you mind sharing your information? Yeah, absolutely. So I’m at the pharmacy lab. We’re located in Toronto. The address is 1101 Queen Street East in the

37:12

If you want to come check us out on our website, it’s ThePharmacyLab.CA. If you’re on Instagram, we’re just The Pharmacy Lab there. And then you can watch some of the videos that I come up with from time to time. Absolutely. And they’re great, by the way, because I do follow them. So thank you for that. And thank you, Serina, for being on today. Really appreciate your time. Thanks for chatting with me, Dr. Meenal. Lovely speaking with you. Thank you, listeners and viewers, for tuning in.

37:41

If you want to catch more episodes of Uncover Your Eyes, make sure to follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and on YouTube. To learn more about me, follow me on Instagram @Dr.MeenalAgarwal. Until next time, keep those eyes uncovered.