Topic
Metabolic health
Insulin, glucose, body composition, and the incretin revolution — the metabolic systems at the center of modern longevity medicine.
Metabolic health sits at the core of both chronic disease and the current wave of weight and glucose therapeutics. This hub tracks the science and the market around insulin signaling, glucose regulation, body composition, and the incretin drugs reshaping the field.
Publications on this topic
Incretins: GLP-1 and GIP
Incretins are hormones the gut releases after a meal to amplify the pancreas's insulin response. This explainer covers the incretin effect and how it is measured, the two incretin hormones GLP-1 and GIP, why their insulin action is glucose-dependent, how they differ, why an enzyme destroys them within minutes, and why the effect is blunted in type 2 diabetes.
Muscle Is a Metabolic Organ
Skeletal muscle does far more than move you: it absorbs most of the glucose in your blood after a meal, secretes hormone-like myokines, and serves as the body's amino-acid reserve. This explainer covers muscle's metabolic jobs, why losing it with age matters, what the GLP-1 lean-mass debate does and does not show, and which exercise evidence is strong enough to stand on.
Semaglutide
Semaglutide is a re-engineered gut-hormone drug taken once a week — the same molecule behind Ozempic, Wegovy, and the oral tablet Rybelsus. This explainer traces what it is, how it works, and what the pivotal trials demonstrate on weight, blood sugar, the heart, the kidney, and the liver, with the side effects and open questions kept beside the benefits.
What Is Tirzepatide?
Tirzepatide is a single engineered molecule that activates two gut-hormone receptors at once. This explainer traces the dual-agonist idea, the verified weight, glucose, and sleep-apnea results, the head-to-head win over semaglutide, and the cardiovascular claim it has not yet earned.
What Is Insulin Resistance?
Insulin resistance is a reduced response of the body's tissues to insulin. This explainer covers what it is, the ectopic-fat mechanism behind it, how it is measured, why it precedes diabetes by years, what it predicts, and what has been shown to improve it.
What Is GLP-1 and How Does It Work?
GLP-1 is a hormone your gut releases after a meal. This explainer traces what it is, how its signaling lowers blood sugar and appetite, why the natural hormone had to be re-engineered into a drug, and what the pivotal trials — and their limits — actually demonstrate.
What Is Metabolic Health?
Metabolic health is not one test result but a cluster — how the body manages glucose, insulin, blood fats, blood pressure, and where it stores fat. This explainer covers what the cluster is, how it is measured, why it matters, and how much of it is modifiable.
After the Weight Comes Off
A systematic, evidence-graded study of the second- and third-order effects of GLP-1 medicines across nineteen industries and the culture itself — grading, honestly, which consequences are real, which are exaggerated, and which are not yet proven.
From the Lab to the Feed
A South Beach Longevity intelligence report separating the peptide phenomenon into four distinct movements — a pharmaceutical revolution, a scientific field, a gray online marketplace, and a wellness subculture — and testing whether the boom is as broad as it looks.