From the Now + Then Podcast with Dr. Bart Precourt and Callie Michaelis
Here is an uncomfortable question to start your week: what if a big chunk of the health research you are reading was paid for by the companies that benefit from the results?
That is where we opened this week’s episode of the Now + Then Podcast, and it set the tone for everything that followed. Ozempic and hair loss. Artificial sweeteners and your gut. Methylene blue, the blue drink taking over your feed. And the difference between “natural” and “synthetic” that almost nobody gets right.
If you have ever felt like health advice contradicts itself every single week, this episode is for you. Here is what we covered and what actually works.
Is the Research Bought and Paid For?
The claim making the rounds is that more than half of published research may be compromised by who funded it, and nutrition research gets hit hardest. When a company sells the product and pays for the study, there is an agenda baked in before the first data point is collected. Can we really call that science?
Our take: this is why you need to understand who is actually talking to you. There are scientists collecting data in labs. There are clinicians seeing real patients every day and observing what works over decades. And then there is a third category that never existed before: influencers, who often have neither the lab nor the clinic, just a headline and a hook.
A scientist can tell you the data. A clinician can tell you what happens in real bodies in the real world. As we like to say on the show, any researcher will tell you a thousand calories of Oreos and a thousand calories of kale are the same energy. No clinician with an ounce of common sense will tell you they do the same thing to your body.
The takeaway is not “trust nothing.” It is this: use common sense, be careful with headlines that tell you exactly what you want to hear, and remember that you are your own best data source. What works for someone on Instagram is a study of one person, and that person is not you.
Ozempic and Hair Loss: Is the Drug Really to Blame?
New headlines this week connected GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Mounjaro to increased hair loss, especially along the hairline. So is the drug attacking your hair?
Probably not directly. In our clinical experience, the real driver is rapid weight loss combined with a lack of nutrients. Your hair is protein, and it is not essential to survival. When your body is under stress and underfed, it stops spending resources on things it can live without. Hair goes first. We saw the same pattern during COVID when high stress sent people’s hair falling out in handfuls.
Here is the part most people miss: these medications reduce your desire to eat. If you were already eating twice a day and the medication cuts that further, you are simply not getting the protein and nutrients your body needs. Zinc deficiencies, iron deficiencies, and crashing B12 levels follow, and the hair loss is just the symptom you can see in the mirror.
In our practice, anyone we support on a GLP-1 gets a protein target, digestive support, and regular body composition testing. If someone is losing too much muscle mass, we pause. Losing weight while losing your strength is not a win. And that raises the bigger question we posed on the show: if losing weight this fast is making your hair fall out, what is it doing to the parts you cannot see?
Artificial Sweeteners and Your Gut
A new study tested 39 different sweeteners, and some of them may be quietly starving the good bacteria in your gut. That matters because once the microbiome gets disrupted, almost anything can follow: skin issues, anxiety, fatigue, mood changes, digestive problems.
But here is the reframe we want you to walk away with. The goal was never to find a better sweetener. The goal is to need less sweetness. When you get back to whole foods, your taste buds recalibrate. You were born with five taste receptors in balance: sweet, savory, sour, bitter, and umami. Feed only the sweet one and it takes over while the others fade. Feed all five with real food and the sugar cravings genuinely quiet down.
And if you truly need something sweet once in a while? Honestly, a little old fashioned cane sugar and a walk beats a lab-made zero calorie compound your gut bacteria have never met.
Methylene Blue: Biohack or Hype?
The blue drink is everywhere right now, and it has one of the strangest resumes in medicine: a 150 year old fabric dye that became the first man made medication, used against malaria, now trending as a cognitive biohack.
Here is the honest breakdown. Methylene blue works as an electron carrier that supports the mitochondria, the energy factories in your cells. That mechanism is real, and Dr. Bart uses it himself on long clinic days, fasted, for mental sharpness. But dose is everything. Too much of anything, even vitamin D or iron, becomes toxic. More is not better.
One serious caution: if you take an SSRI or any medication that affects serotonin, methylene blue is likely not for you. The combination can be dangerous. Talk to your doctor before you even consider it. This is one tool in a big toolbox, not a magic potion, and it does not replace the foundations: eat right, move right, sleep, sunlight.
“Natural” Does Not Mean Safe, and “Synthetic” Does Not Mean Toxic
This week’s myth ties it all together. The word “natural” on the front of a package is marketing. The truth is on the back, in the ingredients. Peanut butter labeled natural can still carry added sugar and palm oil. Meanwhile, some synthetic compounds like methylene blue have a century of safety data behind them.
Our simple rule: your food should have one ingredient. If it comes from a root, plant, or tree, walks in a garden, or swims in the sea, eat it. A bag of carrots says carrots. Ground beef says beef. The further you get from that, the more marketing you are eating.
The same thinking applies to supplements. Ascorbic acid alone is not the same as vitamin C the way nature builds it, with all its cofactors. That is why long term use of isolated synthetic vitamins can actually create deficiencies, and why we always start with whole foods first and use targeted, high quality supplementation with a purpose, not a shelf full of expensive urine.
What Actually Works
Every topic this week came back to the same place. Question the headlines. Read the back of the label, not the front. Protect your muscle and your protein intake, especially if you are on a GLP-1. Feed your gut real food. And before you chase any biohack, get the foundations right, because they are still free: real food, movement, sleep, and sunlight.
Want to go further? If you are ready to stop guessing about your health, Dr. Bart and Callie offer one on one health consultations, in person at Balance Health Studio on 30A or virtually anywhere. We can review your labs or help you get new ones, and map out a personalized plan built on what actually works. Schedule your health consult here: https://momence.com/appointments/appointment-reservation/70712?boardId=76851
Listen to the full episode of the Now + Then Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts. New episodes every week: what’s timeless, what’s trending, and what actually works.
