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What Do Pickleball, GLP-1 Drugs, and Iron Deficiency Have in Common?
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Hi everyone!
The answer is... they are all included in my email blast this week!
🔴Let's first talk Pickleball….Some incredible parents of celiac kids have taken it upon themselves to create a pickleball tournament fundraiser with Beyond Celiac to raise awareness about celiac disease and fund celiac disease research.
🔴All proceeds go to Beyond Celiac, so get your shoes on, paddles out, and come join for a day of gluten-free fun! See flyer and link below.
🔴Keep reading beyond the pickleball flyer to learn about GLP-1s and the chatter about the potential benefits in autoimmune conditions. Then learn about the new numbers used to diagnose iron deficiency, which affects 1 in 3 people. Many of you may now be considered iron deficient, and supplementing may help you feel better!
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Can GLP-1s ( Ozempic, Zepbound, Wegovy) help decrease the symptoms of autoimmune conditions?
Social media has been buzzing for several months about microdosing GLP-1s to still promote weight loss while minimizing side effects. More recently, chatter has also begun about using GLP-1 microdosing as a way to help symptoms of autoimmune conditions, but are they really helpful, and could they cause more harm than good for those with autoimmune conditions? GLP-1s are anti-inflammatory, so a small dose could calm autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, lupus, or Hashimoto's, even for people who don't need to lose weight, but the specific claim about microdosing is well ahead of the evidence.
🔴GLP-1s do appear to have anti-inflammatory effects. In the STEP 1, 2, and 3 trials, overweight or obese people taking a GLP-1 had lower C-reactive protein (a common inflammation marker) than non-users. A review study of people with osteoarthritis or psoriatic disease showed slower disease progression, but large randomized trials are needed to truly understand the relationship between GLP-1's and autoimmune conditions.
🔴Caution should be taken when you see improvement in symptoms of autoimmune conditions when on a GLP-1 for the following reasons:
- The benefit may come from weight loss. The effect on autoimmune disease may be indirect, because obesity, insulin resistance, and chronic inflammation can all worsen immune regulation. Losing weight may be doing much of the work, which raises the question of whether a dose too low to cause weight loss would help much.
- The research used standard doses, not microdoses. No clinical trials have tested microdoses for autoimmune disease. Some people report improvements in pain, stiffness, and flares on low doses, but these are anecdotal observations, not controlled studies.
- The findings aren't all positive. Some large observational studies of patients have shown signals of increased autoimmune risk. Researchers caution against saying GLP-1s treat autoimmune disease directly because the immune system is so complex.
- Outside psoriatic disease, the evidence is thin. There's no comparable evidence yet for other autoimmune conditions.
- Many pages promoting this approach come from influencers, not health professionals, and often sell compounded GLP-1s. The research they cite is usually standard-dose research applied to microdosing.
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New guidelines for what it means to be iron deficient! This is huge!
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🔴Iron deficiency is common. The big news is that the numbers used to diagnose it have changed, and that means many people may now feel better if treated! Levels that used to be considered "normal" still caused fatigue/low energy. Now those same numbers will require treatment and, hopefully, improve low energy (only if the fatigue is due to low iron).
🔴 Ferritin is the lab we use to assess iron status. In integrative and functional medicine circles, recommendations for optimal ferritin have been 40-50 (20 in traditional circles) for some time, but now the American Society of Hematology has issued new recommendations closer to what integrative practitioners have been recommending.
🔴Many of my readers and patients have inflammatory conditions. The new cutoff for people with inflammatory conditions is 100. That is a long way from 20, the prior, traditional cutoff. Increasing your iron stores through supplementation could potentially result in less fatigue, mental clarity, and improved sleep, all symptoms of iron deficiency.
🔴A word of caution-DO NOT start iron supplementation without a discussion with your provider and an assessment of your current levels. Taking too much iron has risks. If you do end up needing iron, you can find my preferred iron supplements here.
🔴Because it is difficult for providers to keep up with all the news, if you want your provider to consider testing your ferritin levels, you may want to let them know about the new recommendations by printing them out or sending them the link.
Here's to everyone feeling a little more informed today, a little more energetic, and happy to play some pickleball!
Happy Fall🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁........ Dr. Burkhart
" When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use. When diet is correct, medicine is of no need" -Ayurvedic proverb
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