Dr. Ben Bikman

But when you vilify protein because of mTOR,

You ought to vilify insulin because insulin activates mTOR much higher than even the most anabolic amino acids like leucine does, and it keeps it active.

One dose of insulin can activate mTOR for up to 24 hours, whereas leucine, the most anabolic of the amino acids, will only activate mTOR for about an hour or two.

And so if mTOR matters for longevity, and I know I've sort of contorted the whole thing about longevity here, all the more reason to come back to these kind of metabolic first principles.

And so looking at insulin sensitivity and glucose control, and I would just say the same thing with GLP-1.

While we may find that GLP-1 has a direct effect of, say, activating autophagy,

Maybe it could, and that could be a mechanism whereby it promotes longevity.

At the same time, I don't have to go that far because I could just say, does it improve insulin sensitivity?

Okay, good.

Then it's probably going to correlate and predict and even cause improved longevity because of the evidence we have in that realm.

It's at least low-hanging fruit.

Yeah.

And in fact, 70 percent in the U.S., 70 percent of Americans get off the drug at two years, either because of cost or nausea or whatever.

70 percent stop taking it.

And like you said, when they stop taking it, if habits haven't changed, maybe that's an important caveat.

They gain it all back.

Not to mention those who stay on the drug, a paper was published within the past six months.

I think it was within the past six months, definitely within the past year.

The risk of suicidal behavior doubles and the risk of major depression triples in people who were on the drug for up to two years.

On the currently used Wigovi dose, which is the higher dose, which is common.