Ziyad Al-Aly, a physician-scientist from Washington University in St. Louis, co-authored a paper exploring the groundbreaking effects of GLP-1 drugs. The conversation highlights how these drugs extend beyond diabetes treatment, potentially aiding in reducing risks for substance abuse, neurocognitive disorders, and even conditions like Alzheimer's. Al-Aly discusses the implications of these findings on our understanding of free will and behavior. He also calls for more research to fully unlock the transformative potential of GLP-1 medications.
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Penicillin Discovery
In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin by accident when mold contaminated his petri dish.
It killed the bacteria, but developing penicillin for human use took years.
insights INSIGHT
GLP-1: Another Accidental Discovery
GLP-1 drugs, like penicillin, were discovered accidentally while studying Gila monster saliva.
These drugs, initially for diabetes, also cause significant weight loss.
insights INSIGHT
Need for Comprehensive Study
Existing GLP-1 studies focus on specific benefits, lacking a comprehensive view.
This new study analyzes all possible health outcomes in veterans using GLP-1 drugs.
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In this book, Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler present a contrarian view that the future is brighter than commonly perceived. They document how exponential technologies, DIY innovators, technophilanthropists, and the rising billion (the world's poor empowered by modern communication technology) are conspiring to solve global problems such as access to clean water, food, energy, healthcare, education, and freedom. The authors provide examples and strategic roadmaps for governments, industries, and entrepreneurs to address these challenges, offering a optimistic outlook on the potential for technological innovation to improve human living standards[2][4][5].
In the past few years, we've learned that GLP-1 drugs don’t just help with diabetes or increase people’s feelings of fullness to help them lose weight. They have broad effects on substance abuse and behavior. They even seem to help with otherwise incurable illnesses, like Alzheimer's and schizophrenia. This month, a team of scientists studying 2 million patients in the Veterans Affairs medical system found that GLP-1s were associated with “a reduced risk of substance use and psychotic disorders, seizures, neurocognitive disorders (including Alzheimer’s disease and dementia), coagulation disorders (clotting), cardiometabolic disorders (like strokes and heart attacks), infectious illnesses and several respiratory conditions.”
Today’s guest is a coauthor on the paper, Ziyad Al-Aly. He is a physician-scientist at Washington University in St. Louis. We talk about his new paper, the steps he took to make sure his findings were trustworthy, why GLP-1 drugs might work so well, what they’re teaching us about the brain and body, how they’re scrambling our sense of where volition begins and where free will ends, and what scientists should do next with the revelation that these drugs have effects that go far beyond obesity and diabetes.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.
Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: Ziyad Al-Aly
Producer: Devon Baroldi
Links:
Al-Aly et al. on the effectiveness and risks of GLP-1 drugs [link]
Plain English with Derek Thompson 