By Jeremy Faust
Source Inside Medicine
A recent New York Times story described a new fad: “microdosing” GLP-1 anti-obesity drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound. I was asked to discuss the topic on CBS News last night, which gave me a chance to look into this topic more deeply. I’d like to share my read on this with you.
The short answer.
There’s no evidence that microdosing—taking very small doses of a GLP-1 in hopes of harnessing the benefits without the side effects—will work for most people. There’s a chance that lower-than-standard doses might help a subset of patients, but if true, it’s likely that the doses would be among the lower doses already tested by the drug companies; that is, lower doses but not truly “micro” doses. Keep in mind, low doses (4-5% of the eventual highest doses now used) failed to show benefits in early trials. However, it’s worth saying that low (but not “micro”) doses could help a select few people who have unusually strong responses to these drugs. Yet, it seems like the microdoses people are taking as part of this fad are a small fraction of even the lowest doses that the drug companies already tested carefully last decade.
Read more https://insidemedicine.substack.com/p/a-new-fad-microdosing-ozempic-why