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you

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Hey everyone, it's Mikki here. You're listening to Mini Mikkipedia on a Monday. And today I want to chat about this phenomenon that is GLP-1 and the imitations that are coming along for the ride. I've been talking about it. So many, see it everywhere. Loads of people are on them. The GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, which has obviously just hit New Zealand and Monjaro, which is

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to Zepatide, it works both GLP and GIP. These are really taking the health world by storm. But if I suppose cultural phenomenon because their effects on appetite and weight loss are like none we've ever seen before, even with the older generation weight loss drugs. So just to remind you, GLP-1, which I did a deep dive with on Wikipedia with Dr. Spencer Nadolski, it stands for glucagon-like peptide.

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This is a hormone your body naturally makes after you eat, and its job is partly metabolic, slowing down how quickly food leaves your stomach, nudging your pancreas to release insulin, and helping control blood sugar. But it also has a powerful effect on appetite regulation. GLP-1 receptors exist both in the gut and in the brain, and when they're activated, people feel fuller, more satisfied, and, maybe most importantly, their cravings drop.

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dramatically. Of course, this isn't just cravings for food. There's been reports on alcohol, smoking, shopping. Any of these potentially addictive patterns of behavior can be suppressed by, or people report they can be suppressed by, by GLP-1 type drugs. And if we take it back to food, this is where the phrase food noise comes in. And I've got to say, I've never seen so many posts about food noise in the last year as I have with this sort of

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entering the public or the social media space. Everyone is talking about food noise. It's not like it was never there before, but maybe people just didn't have another name for it. Anyway, food noise refers to those constant intrusive thoughts about food, thinking about what you eat next, feeling pulled towards snacks, even if you're not hungry, cravings hitting hard, even if you've just eaten. For many people on GLP-1 agonists, which is what these medications are, one of the

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biggest life changing effects is that that chatter just quiets down. The mental background hum around food fades into silence. And that's a profound shift if food has been running your mental bandwidth for years. And truly, I think that if unless you've experienced food noise, you just wouldn't know what it is like. I haven't. Of course I've been hungry. Of course I think about my next meal, you know, but it's not this ever pervasive intrusive thoughts about food.

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So it's no surprise then that obviously the popularity of these drugs have exploded. They're way more available now, appears, particularly in North America. Albeit they are expensive, there have been some supply issues which have been resolved now and they can carry side effects like nausea, diarrhea and other gastrointestinal issues if they haven't been dosed properly. But they do work and the science is robust.

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dozens of randomized controlled trials, years of follow-up, and there are meaningful impacts, not just on weight, but on cardiovascular outcomes, and that's huge, given that cardiovascular disease is one of the biggest causes of death in the Western world. So when there's success, there's also, of course, imitation and products that are riding on the coattails. And this brings us to the new wave of products trying to surf the GLP-1 craze.

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could not believe this when I saw it, the GLP-1 patches. They're a bit of a social media darling. Now, unfortunately, I clicked on one of these and now everywhere in my feed is GLP-1 patches. You'll see it. You probably will see it now after listening to this actually. Influences peeling a little patch off a shiny backing and pressing it on their arm, promising all of the benefits of GLP-1 drugs such as appetite control, weight loss, quieted cravings, without the needles, prescriptions,

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or that cost. And of course, if you think that sounds too good to be true, you know, it really is actually. So these patches do not contain semaglutide or tuzepatide. Instead, the ingredient list reads like a greatest hits of supplement trends. You'll see green tea extract. You'll see Garcinia cambogia. You'll see guarana, bitter orange, L-carnitine, L-glutamine, pomegranate, cinnamon, vitamin B, chromium.

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Resveratrol, there's also curcumin, capsicum, bitter melon, herbamate, there are fiber blends, I've seen berberine, and all of these have some evidence to suggest they may be helpful for weight loss in the context of a calorie deficit diet, of really good exercise habits, but they are there to support behavior and in of themselves will not do anything, will not do anything.

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the that they are claiming. If you are interested in supplements that, you know, the fat burning type supplements that are supposed to work, Brandon on Chasing Clarity, he's been on this show several times. He did a great deep dive, I think with Dr. Scott Stevenson on the fat burners and how and if they work, but certainly putting them on as a patch is never gonna do the job. And I think you probably know that. However, you cannot believe how easy it is to see something

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and then just immediately buy it on social. And it is just designed for you to click and purchase, particularly at the price. But regardless of how cheap they are, you are still wasting your money. For any ingredient to work in a patch, it actually has to cross that skin barrier in meaningful amounts. And that's not easy. Nicotine works as a patch because it's small, lycophylic molecule. Estradiol can as well, obviously. But bigger polar compounds like berberine or 5-HTP,

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They're not designed for skin absorption. There've been no published studies to show that these ingredients actually reach the bloodstream when delivered this way. And then of course you've got the dosing issue. The labels might say 30 milligrams of berberine or 50 milligrams of garcinia, but is that actually the amount that's in the patch or the amount that supposedly makes it from the patch to your body? And then also what about a clinically meaningful amount

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that may have been shown in a clinical trial. We just don't know this. For context, effective oral doses of berberine are more like 500 milligrams, taken two to three times a day. And even if the patch did deliver a few milligrams, which is unproven, it wouldn't come close to being meaningful or to make a meaningful difference. Importantly, there are no clinical trials, none. No pharmacokinetic data, no human randomized controlled trials, not even pilot studies measuring blood levels after.

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So, I mean, it really is just this big black hole of what a waste of money. So at best, people are buying an expensive placebo sticker. At worst, a patch with stimulant ingredients like sinophrine or guarana that might cause jitters or raise heart rate, which would bring with it some not serious complications at all, but you know, just a little bit of discomfort, but will do nothing for appetite. But this is why those patches are best described.

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is something you might wear for fun, honestly, like the promise of a pharma effect, but with none of the science to back it up. So absolutely save your money. Now, Kallocurb, Dr. Nadolski and I did speak about Kallocurb very briefly on the podcast I did with him. This is a different kind of approach because it is another product riding that GLP-1 wave. It's a little bit more interesting. It doesn't pretend to be a GLP-1 drug, but instead it uses a compound called Amasate.

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which is an extract from bitter hops to tap into the body's natural appetite regulation system. So your gut is lined with bitter taste receptors called T2Rs. They've evolved to detect plant toxins in bitter compounds as a kind of early warning system. And when activated, these receptors send a message up the vagus nerve and trigger the release of satiety hormones, GLP-1, peptide YY, and CCK. It's your body's way of saying, slow down.

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food might not be great in high doses, eat less. it acts as an appetite suppressant. KaloKurb packages this extract in a capsule designed to be released in the small intestine where those receptors are abundant. So what does the evidence show? know, Spencer was pretty dismissive of it. In small randomized controlled trials, KaloKurb increases GLP-1 levels up to six-fold within a couple of hours. That might seem like a lot, but

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Actually the GLP-1 drugs, they raised GLP-1 levels by 200. Hunger ratings dropped by about 30%. Cravings fell by about 40%. In test meals, people ate 14 to 18 % fewer calories after taking CaloCurb compared to placebo. In fasting studies, men have reported up to 80 % less hunger and women up to 100 % less hunger, i.e. just not hungry, and calorie intake dropped

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by around 14%. So it's not nothing. And unlike the patches, these are published peer-reviewed studies with measurable outcomes. Side effects, mostly mild. Some people might get an initial gut upset that might be up to 10 % of people. That usually settles after a few days. But here's the thing, and this is why Spencer is skeptical and rightly so.

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These are short-term studies, hours, maybe a couple of days. We don't yet know if the appetite suppression holds over weeks or months, and I'd suspect that it wouldn't. We don't have data showing significant long-term weight loss. That is huge. And the concept of food noise has never been formally measured. This is such a huge game changer when it comes to GLP-1s and GIPs, and it's not measured here with KaloCurb. Anecdotally, some users say it helps quiet the chatter, but likely in a gentler,

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dimmer way than the dramatic effects of GLP-1 drugs. So, callocurb could probably be seen best as a dimmer switch, not a mute button. It nudges down appetite and cravings, but it's not going to replicate the pharmaceutical power of a GLP-1 agonist. So, if we look at all three of these sort of side by side, we know that the GLP-1 drugs are direct GLP-1 receptor agonist, they slow gastric emptying, acts on the brain appetite centers. Callocurb stimulates gut bitter

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taste receptors, the T2Rs, which boost our own GLP-1, plus CCK and PYY. Those patches, those herbal blends, there's no proven GLP-1 activity. The effect on food noise is profound with GLP-1 drugs. It's anecdotal in short term with calocurb, and there's absolutely no evidence of a shift in food noise. It's marketing claims only for those GLP-1 patches. The onset of effect

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the GLP-1 drugs is within days to week, dose dependent. Calocup is within hours of dosing, yet it is short lived. GLP-1 patches, it's unknown. Ingredients are unlikely to cross the skin barrier effectively. What about durability? So how long does this weight loss persist? And these effects persist, such as a diminishing in food noise. Sustained while on therapy with the drugs, however, food noise can return when the drug is stopped.

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With callocurb, it's likely mild and transient, but there aren't any long-term studies and no benefit of durability with those patches. There are dozens of randomized controlled trials, multi-year outcomes looking at GLP-1 drugs. There are small human randomized controlled trials. are acute feeding studies with callocurb, but these are hours and not months and certainly not years. And there is zero peer-reviewed evidence when it comes to GLP-1 patches. There are side effects with

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GLP-1 drugs that need to be monitored such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. There are mild side effects, gut issues with Cali-Curb in about 5 to 10 % of early users. And we have no idea about side effects with GLP-1 patches. There may be some sort of stimulant side effect, but again, no idea. And what about the regulatory status? GLP-1 drugs are prescription only. They FDA, EMA, and TGA approved. Cali-Curb is an over-the-counter supplement

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generally regarded as safe, certified, for what that's worth, those GLP-1 patches are completely unregulated, they're sold online and through social media. I mean, hello. So really, where does this leave us? GLP-1 drugs are absolutely groundbreaking, there's no question. They've shown us just how important that gut brain hormones are in controlling appetite and body weight. They are also costly, prescription only, and not right for everyone. The supplement space predictably is rushing in to fill the demand

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with GLP-1 inspired products. Some of them, like CaliQube, are grounded in actual biology. Despite the fact that the data looks promising, we just don't know. There are no long-term studies. And I've got to say, with the previous work done on compounds for weight loss, even with these early studies, I don't know, just things haven't really panned out the way we would have hoped. And of course, those patches, they're all marketing, no science, so do not get swept up by the hype. Whenever you're coming across these products,

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reach out to the companies and say, you know, ask them how it works. Ask them what evidence they have. Ask for the long-term data. And remember that despite the fact that there will be studies that are backing up the ingredients of those GLP-1 patches, they are studies done as, you know, supplements in particular doses, which very rarely actually match up to the product that you could be considering buying. We see this all the time, just because some researchers out there doesn't mean that it's research that backs up.

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what's going on here. So I found that super interesting when I saw those GLP-1 patches come in my feed. Hopefully, you know just to scroll on by and maybe even click the X and tell Instagram that's irrelevant for you at this time and at any time because really no one deserves to waste their money on something like GLP-1 patches that will do absolutely nothing. You'd be way better off spending that money on some decent protein, I don't know, some meat or maybe

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I don't know, dumbbell or something. All right, team, that's Mini Micropedia for a Monday. You can find me over on Instagram, X, and threads @mikkiwilliden, Facebook @mikkiwillidenNutrition, or head to my website, mikkiwilliden.com, call one-on-one call with me. All right, team, have a great week. See ya.