Over the previous few years, GLP-1 medicines like Ozempic and Wegovy have reshaped the dialog round weight reduction and metabolic well being. For a lot of, these medicines have been life-changing. But, regardless of their transformative potential, a troubling sample has emerged. Many sufferers are discovering that they’re being prescribed medicines with out making an allowance for their totally different metabolisms and wishes. This one-size-fits-all strategy is failing sufferers, and the implications are inconceivable to disregard.
The standardization entice
The statistics say all of it: half of U.S. sufferers utilizing GLP-1s for weight problems care discontinued use throughout the first 12 months, with most regaining the load throughout the following 12 months. This isn’t merely a matter of affected person compliance. It’s a predictable final result of inflexible practices and constrained healthcare methods that put sufferers on commonplace doses, no matter their particular person wants or response to treatment.
This one-size-fits-all strategy, developed by massive pharmaceutical firms, assumes that what works for the common affected person in scientific trials will work for everybody. In actuality, particular person variations in metabolism, physique composition, and drugs sensitivities imply that many sufferers are pushed to doses increased than they might really need to be able to see outcomes.
This commonplace dosing strategy creates a double burden for sufferers. Unnecessarily excessive doses of a weight reduction treatment improve the probability of antagonistic uncomfortable side effects – fatigue, complications, and mostly, gastrointestinal points that plague 40-70% of GLP-1 customers. These signs typically develop into so insupportable, that sufferers merely give up remedy.
Even those that can tolerate the uncomfortable side effects face the opposite barrier: price. GLP-1 medicines are among the many costliest prescriptions, and sufferers typically find yourself paying premium costs for doses that could be extreme for his or her wants. For these with out dependable insurance coverage protection, this creates an inconceivable monetary burden that always forces them to discontinue remedy simply because the treatment begins working. In reality, of 3000 US adults who use GLP-1s, 45% reported discontinuing their treatment, naming price and insurance coverage obstacles as the first motive.
This isn’t simply inefficient, it’s backwards. Present protocols ignore particular person variation, and normally suppliers shouldn’t have the capability to look after every affected person attributable to constraints within the present healthcare system.
Beginning small, scaling sensible: The case for individualized dosing
Microdosing, or beginning with a dose under the usual and step by step rising based mostly on the affected person’s response, marks a transfer away from one-size-fits-all protocols towards personalised drugs. The objective isn’t reaching a hard and fast dose, however working with every affected person’s optimum remedy plan and schedule.
What began as early discussions in late 2024 has rapidly gained traction, with the microdosing being mainstream sufficient that some telehealth firms have even begun constructing out devoted applications round it. Microdosing just isn’t a shortcut or a development – it’s a shift in the direction of a extra adaptable, patient-focused methodology of care.
A 2025 survey discovered that 36% of GLP-1 weight reduction customers are presently microdosing their treatment with out medical supervision, whereas an extra 32% have tried it up to now. Their motivations reveal the core issues with commonplace prescribing: 66% did it to cut back uncomfortable side effects, whereas 38% did it to make it financially sustainable.
This strategy turns into notably priceless on condition that GLP-1 medicines provide advantages past weight reduction. Research have proven diminished irritation, decrease cardiovascular threatand even doable neuroprotective advantages – and lots of of those aren’t strictly dose-dependent. Sufferers should see significant well being positive factors at decrease doses, particularly with constant use over time.
Navigating uncharted territory
As microdosing positive factors reputation, the essential query stays: how can sufferers and suppliers strategy the observe responsibly? Regardless of its many advantages, microdosing introduces variables, similar to dosing inconsistencies and elevated complexity in monitoring responses, requiring extra scientific oversight and structured protocols.
The reply lies in structured scientific tips that emphasize monitoring outcomes and tailoring care to the person. As an alternative of asking “what dose is commonplace for this treatment,” suppliers ought to ask “what dose does this affected person require?” Achieved accurately, this methodology calls for higher medical supervision, not much less.
Sufferers experimenting in isolation or counting on unverified on-line recommendation threat their security and success. As an alternative, this strategy requires shut supervision much like different medicines, with oversight from physicians who perceive its advantages and the particular wants concerned.
From one-size-fits-all to patient-centered care
GLP-1 medicines are right here to remain. But when we would like them to succeed in their full potential, we have to evolve the best way we prescribe, dose, and assist sufferers. Microdosing isn’t about chasing a development. It’s about increasing our remedy toolkit to mirror what sufferers want: a sustainable, accessible, and personalised strategy.
Microdosing gained’t be the suitable alternative for everybody. However for a lot of sufferers, it’s already proving to be the distinction between quitting weight problems remedy early and making lasting progress. With extra analysis and scientific oversight, microdosing may develop into a cornerstone not simply in weight problems care, however in how we handle power, complicated circumstances extra broadly.
Photograph: Peter Dazeley, Getty Photos
Dr. Myra Ahmadfounder and CEO of Mochi Well beingis devoted to revolutionizing weight problems care by offering sufferers with accessible, evidence-based weight administration applications. Pushed to attenuate healthcare disparities and supplier biases, she champions personalised, holistic care that empowers sufferers.
Dr. Ahmad obtained her MD from the College of Washington College of Drugs, and has held analysis positions on the MIT Koch Institute for Integrative Most cancers Analysis, UCSF Medical Middle, and College of California, San Francisco.
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