Social media influencers are touting a new option for popular weight loss drugs: “GLP-1 patches,” they say, are just as powerful as Ozempic for shedding pounds — without the discomfort of needles or the hassle of getting a prescription.
One TikTok user summed up the appeal perfectly in a viral video with five million views. “My insurance doesn’t cover Ozempic, so I had to find a more affordable option,” she says. “I was a little hesitant to try these patches at first because I didn’t think that they would work. But I tell you, I have not craved anything, and it’s actually been hard for me to eat.”
A progress video from the same user, which has more than three million views, showed her stomach appearing to shrink a bit more each week.
Sounds too good to be true? It probably is. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hasn’t approved any weight loss patches that work like the blockbuster injected GLP-1 drugs Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound, and Mounjaro, says Jody Dushay, MD, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and an endocrinologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
“Some patches claim that they include ingredients that boost ‘natural’ GLP-1,” Dr. Dushay says. “There are no data to support these claims.”
What Are GLP-1 Patches?
Often, they’re advertised as an affordable, needle-free alternative to Ozempic.
The ingredients vary, but often include:
“There are no data to support the claim that any of these ingredients produce weight loss,” Dushay says.
Drugs like Ozempic work by mimicking a hormone in the body also called GLP-1 (short for glucagon-like peptide 1), which the body naturally produces to regulate blood sugar, hunger, and metabolism.
How Are GLP-1 Patches Supposed to Work?
With some medications, patches are indeed a convenient and effective drug-delivery system. The FDA has approved patches for uses like birth control, smoking cessation, and pain relief.
The problem, however, is that not all medicines are small enough to pass through the skin and into the bloodstream — a requirement for patches to work, says Melanie Jay, MD, a professor and obesity researcher at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine in New York City.
“GLP-1s cannot cross the skin unaided,” Dr. Jay says. This means that even if patches did contain medicines like Ozempic, they would probably not be able to get into the bloodstream the way injected GLP-1 drugs do, Jay says.
There isn’t any research to suggest that a GLP-1 patch will work in the future, says Adam Gilden, MD, an associate professor and the associate director of the weight management clinic at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora.
“I have never seen any published studies testing absorption through a patch, only by injection,” says Dr. Gilden, who also serves as a medical reviewer for Everyday Health.
Can GLP-1 Patches Help With Weight Loss or Appetite Suppression?
With the exception of berberine, there’s no evidence that any of the ingredients commonly included in the GLP-1 patches sold online can aid weight loss, Jay says.
One meta-analysis of 12 studies on berberine for weight loss found this plant compound helped people shed an average of about 4.5 pounds — not enough to be clinically meaningful for improving health, says Gilden.
Jay agrees, calling this “a modest amount” of weight loss. And the review doesn’t show that berberine can be applied on a patch and absorbed through the bloodstream, Jay adds.
Should You Try GLP-1 Patches?
Given the lack of clear benefits, there’s no good reason to try a GLP-1 patch, Jay says. Since they aren’t FDA-approved, you really have no idea what ingredients are in there or what the risks might be, Jay adds.
“Even FDA-approved patches that effectively deliver medication — unlike the GLP-1 patches — can cause skin irritation both from the medications and also from the patches themselves,” Jay says.
This leaves no upside to trying GLP-1 patches, Dushay says.
“I would not recommend these patches to any of my patients,” she says. “Anyone who needs a GLP-1 medication for treatment of diabetes or weight management should not use a patch in place of the real prescription medication.”
Read the full article here
