What if We're Using GLP-1 Medications All Wrong?

Drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro are transforming the landscape of medical weight loss, but could their side effects be a sign that we’re not harnessing their full therapeutic potential?

In this eye-opening conversation, Dr. Ben Bikman, metabolic health researcher and professor at BYU, joins Dr. Bret Scher to explore a powerful new framework: using GLP-1 medications at low doses and for short durations to help curb carbohydrate cravings, break addictive eating cycles, and support long-term metabolic health.

Rather than prescribing high doses indefinitely, Dr. Bikman proposes a more targeted approach:

• Microdosing GLP-1s to enhance satiety and reduce cravings for processed carbs
• Using the medication as a temporary metabolic tool to support transitions to lower-carb diets
• Reducing long-term risks such as muscle loss, mood changes, and diminishing effectiveness
• Emphasizing the importance of habit change, insulin regulation, and muscle preservation

This conversation reimagines GLP-1s not as a lifelong solution, but as a catalyst for sustainable, low-insulin lifestyles, aligned with ketogenic and metabolic therapies.

📌 Could a 90-day microdosing protocol replace years of medication?

Learn how this metabolic-first strategy could empower patients to reclaim their health, without becoming dependent on medication for life.

Expert Featured:

• Dr. Benjamin Bikman
• https://x.com/BenBikmanPhD
• benbikman.com
• insuliniq.com

Papers/Articles Mentioned:

-https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/may/27/microdosing-glp-1-drugs-could-solve-americas-carbohydrate-crisis/

-https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8984033/

Follow our channel for more information and education from Bret Scher, MD, FACC, including interviews with leading experts in Metabolic Psychiatry.

Learn more about metabolic psychiatry and find helpful resources at https://metabolicmind.org/

Did you know that your blood sugar spikes differ from everyone else's? Even with the same food!

A new study in Nature Medicine supports what many have long suspected: there is no one-size-fits-all diet. The foods that spike your blood sugar might not affect someone else the same way, and your unique metabolic profile could be the reason why.

In this episode of the Metabolic Mind podcast, Baszucki Group Neuroscience Program Officer Dr. Cristina Nigro joins Dr. Bret Scher to break down the study “Individual variations in glycemic responses to carbohydrates and underlying metabolic physiology.” This research used continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) to track how different individuals respond to carbohydrate-rich foods, and the results are eye-opening.

📌 In this conversation, you’ll learn:

• Which carb-containing foods were tested in the study.
• Why some people were labeled “potato spikers” or “grape spikers.”
• The importance of insulin sensitivity and resistance in mitigating glucose responses.
• How fiber, fat, and protein consumed before a meal can blunt sugar spikes—for some people.
• The role of CGMs in personalizing treatments for chronic diseases, including severe mental illness.
• How this data could inform future dietary guidelines and chronic disease treatment.

It’s time to recognize that we are all unique individuals down to the cellular level and our differences mean there may be unique requirements for each of us to maintain and improve health. Tools like CGMs offer powerful insight into how your body truly responds to food, and that information can be pivotal for tailoring interventions in chronic diseases, including serious mental illnesses. We are hopeful that research like this will lead to better treatment protocols and dietary guidelines.

Expert Featured:

• Cristina Nigro
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristina-nigro-19394127/

Resources Mentioned:

Individual variations in glycemic responses to carbohydrates and underlying metabolic physiology

• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-025-03719-2#Sec2

CMEs Mentioned:

Managing Major Mental Illness with Dietary Change: The New Science of Hope

• https://www.mycme.com/courses/managing-major-mental-illness-with-dietary-change-9616

Brain Energy: The Metabolic Theory of Mental Illness

• https://www.mycme.com/courses/brain-energy-the-metabolic-theory-of-mental-illness-9615

Follow our channel for more information and education from Bret Scher, MD, FACC, including interviews with leading experts in Metabolic Psychiatry.

Learn more about metabolic psychiatry and find helpful resources at https://metabolicmind.org/

Can ketogenic therapy help treat multiple mental health disorders at once? In this video, we explore a dramatic case report where ketogenic therapy put bipolar depression, binge eating disorder, anxiety, PTSD, and ADHD into remission.

Clinical psychologist Dr. Erin Louise Bellamy joins Dr. Bret Scher to discuss her recently published case report of a 38-year-old woman whose life went from “a mind shattered now restored” in just 12 weeks on a medically supervised ketogenic therapy program. Results so impressive that it forced other practitioners to dismiss the results as being “clinically improbable.”

In this interview, we cover:

- How achieving higher therapeutic ketone levels impacted her mental health symptoms

- How they tailored her diet to achieve a level of ketosis that kept her symptoms in remission

- Why ketogenic therapy may target shared mechanisms across psychiatric diagnoses

- The concept of trans-diagnostic remission and treating root causes, not just symptoms

- The role of dietary compliance, food addiction awareness, and tailored guidance

- How ketogenic therapy can work alongside medications or as a primary intervention for some patients

While the results from this case report may seem out of this world, again and again we are seeing ketogenic therapy provide impressive levels of relief for individuals who are really struggling with mental illness. We hope that these stories will reset the expectations for what is possible in psychiatric care.

#MetabolicMind #KetogenicTherapy #MentalHealth #Psychiatry #BipolarDisorder #PTSD #ADHD #Anxiety #BingeEatingDisorder #NutritionAndMentalHealth

Expert Featured:

- Dr. Erin Louise Bellamy

- Website: ikrt.org

- X: https://x.com/erinlbellamy

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erinlouisebellamy/?hl=en

Resources Mentioned:

Transdiagnostic remission of psychiatric comorbidity in post-traumatic stress disorder, ADHD, and binge-eating disorder using ketogenic metabolic therapy: a retrospective case report

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/392930410_Transdiagnostic_remission_of_psychiatric_comorbidity_in_post-traumatic_stress_disorder_ADHD_and_binge-eating_disorder_using_ketogenic_metabolic_therapy_a_retrospective_case_report

Follow our channel for more information and education from Bret Scher, MD, FACC, including interviews with leading experts in Metabolic Psychiatry.

Learn more about metabolic psychiatry and find helpful resources at https://metabolicmind.org/