Latest / Doctor Drop It with Dr Barbara Hessel / Is “Natural Ozempic” ACTUALLY a Thing? Obesity Doctor Exposes Dark Truth

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Is “Natural Ozempic” ACTUALLY a Thing? Obesity Doctor Exposes Dark Truth · Doctor Drop It with Dr Barbara Hessel

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: So is natural Ozempic actually a thing?
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: You've probably seen these by now.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Natural Ozempic, GLP1 patches, capsules, powders, supplements claiming that they control your appetite and help you lose weight without a prescription.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Patients ask me about them all the time, so of course, I looked at what was actually inside of them.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Dr.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Barbara Hessel.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm board certified in obesity medicine and gynecology.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: I've spent 25 years treating women with weight and hormone issues.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: And one ingredient keeps popping up over and over again, and that's berberine.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, berberine is a real compound.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: It does have effects on blood sugar and insulin, but does it actually do what Ozempic does?
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's a completely different question.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you're spending$50,$75, or even$100 on something being sold as natural Ozempic, you should know whether you're getting a weaker version of the same thing or whether you're actually buying something entirely different.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to show you how Ozempic works, what berberine actually does instead, and the numbers from 23 clinical trials that tells you how much weight people really lose on it.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what Ozempic actually does.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: To understand why the comparison gets shaky so fast, you have to know what Ozempic is actually doing.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: So Ozempic activates the GLP1 receptor.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'd like to explain how receptors act like locks.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Ozempic has a key that fits in a particular lock.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Once that receptor is unlocked or activated, several things happen.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Your appetite decreases, your stomach empties more slowly, you stay full longer after you eat.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that combination can have very powerful effects on how much someone wants to eat and how much they actually eat.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Berberine does not activate that receptor.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: So right away, we're not talking about a natural version of the same drug.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about a completely different compound doing a different job in your body.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: And once you understand what that job is, the comparison that actually makes sense isn't ozempic.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's metformin.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now here's what berberine actually does.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Berberine affects the way your cells handle energy and respond to insulin.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: If your cells become more sensitive to insulin, your body doesn't have to produce as much of it to move glucose out of your bloodstream and into the tissues where it can be used.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that can be useful, especially if insulin resistance is part of the problem.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where berberine has much more in common with metformin.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Metformin has been used for decades in diabetes, and we also use it in women with PCOS because insulin resistance is part of that picture.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now berberine and metformin aren't the same thing, but they're working in a much more similar metabolic neighborhood than berberine and osempic.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: So if a company said this plant compound might help support insulin sensitivity, we'd be having a very different conversation, but natural osempic creates a much bigger expectation.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: The weight loss data makes the difference pretty obvious.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about that number from those 23 trials.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Researchers looked at 23 clinical trials looking at berberine and weight loss.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: The average additional weight loss was about two pounds, about half an inch off the waist.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's not nothing.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: And if someone has insulin resistance and berberine approves some of those metabolic markers, that might be a reason to discuss it.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: But two pounds is very different from the kind of weight loss people associate with GLP1 medications.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: The newer incretin medications like trzepatide, the average weight loss in the larger trials has been measured in double digit percentages of total body weight.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: So for someone starting around 200 pounds, that can mean 30 or 40 pounds, depending on the dose and their response to it.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now compare that with roughly two pounds from berberine.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Those are not remotely the same results.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why the label bothers me more than the ingredient.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Berberine has real effects.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Natural Ozempic makes you think that those effects are much bigger and much more similar to the prescription than the research actually shows.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And there's another issue you almost never hear about in the ads.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Your body doesn't absorb berberine very well.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the absorption problem.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Berberine has extremely poor oral absorption.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: So very little of what you swallow actually makes it into circulation.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then your liver clears a large portion of what does get through.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: So now you've got a compound with modest weight loss results, and you're also dealing with an absorption problem.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that matters when you're spending real money on these products.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it matters even more when the product is a patch.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because with a patch, now you're added another question.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Does this ingredient even get through the skin in the amount that produces the effects that they're advertising?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Evidence.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's something that you should demand evidence for.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: A company putting GLP1 on the package does not answer that question.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: The advertising usually makes the whole thing sound very simple.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Put on the patch, boost GLP1, eat less, lose weight.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: The biology is nowhere near that simple.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: But there is a reason that some of these companies can connect berberine to GLP1 without making the whole thing up.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: The way it works is that berberine may affect your body's own production indirectly.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's where the marketing gets its foothold.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you like having somebody actually explain what's in these products and what the research says before you spend money on them, hit subscribe.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: I cover weight loss, hunger, hormones, medications, supplements, and where the evidence actually lands once you get past the marketing.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: So does berberine raise GLP1 at all?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: There is some early research suggesting that berberine might influence your body's natural GLP1 production.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: The proposed mechanism seems to involve changes in the gut and the microbiome.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's interesting and important.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: But most of that evidence is still early and a lot of it comes from animal research.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we just do not have the strong human evidence showing that taking berberine creates anything close to the GLP1 effect of a prescription medication.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's where the language starts stretching, may influence natural GLP1 signaling, becomes supports GLP1.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Then supports GLP1 turns into natural Ozempic.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: So those statements sound similar when you're scrolling through an ad, but they're very different scientifically and how they're actually acting in your body.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now the same standard should apply to every patch, powder, gummy, or capsule making these claims, but they're supplements.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just ask whether one ingredient somewhere inside the product has research behind it.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Ask whether this actual product in this actual form has been shown to produce the result that they're promising.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's the question that matters.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: So is berberine worth taking?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: That depends on what you're actually trying to fix.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you're buying it because you want prescription-level appetite suppression without a prescription, that's probably going to be disappointing.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: The research doesn't support that expectation.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you have insulin resistance, that's a different conversation.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: One of the numbers I like to look at is fasting insulin.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: A woman can have normal fasting glucose for years while her body's actually producing more and more insulin to keep the glucose levels normal.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: So the glucose looks fine.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, the insulin is working overtime.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: So if your fasting insulin is elevated, now we've identified an actual metabolic problem.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Then we talk about the tools that help with insulin resistance.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Food matters, strength training matters, sleep matters.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And depending on the person, metformin might be part of that conversation.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Berberine might also be worth discussing for some women, but now you're choosing berberine for what it actually does.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: You're not buying it because somebody convinced you it was ozempic in a plant.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And if your real goal is to increase your body's own GLP1 naturally, there's another piece of this that's much more useful than chasing these supplements.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Your body already makes GLP1.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Your gut naturally produces GLP1, and what you eat can influence how much of it your body releases.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Fiber is one of the big pieces.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Certain fibers get fermented by the bacteria in your gut, and those bacteria produce compounds that can help stimulate natural GLP1 release.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean that fiber works like ozempic.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: The effect is much smaller, but it is a real way to support the system your body already has.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Comes with other benefits for blood sugar, digestion, fullness, and overall metabolic health.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: I've got another video where I walk through how much fiber women should be aiming for, the foods that make it much easier to hit that number, and how to increase it without making yourself miserable and bloated.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because there actually are natural ways to support your GLP1 system.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: They just don't behave like the drug.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: So is natural Ozempic actually a thing?
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: If you mean a patch, powder, or supplement that gives you the same appetite suppression and weight loss as Ozempic without a prescription?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: The products I've looked at lean heavily on berberine.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Berberine might help insulin sensitivity.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: It may have some indirect effect on your body's own natural GLP1 signaling, but it does not activate the GLP1 receptor the way Ozempic does.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And across 23 clinical trials, the average weight loss effect was about two pounds.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: So berberine isn't the problem.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is what the words natural Ozempic make you think you're buying.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Before you spend another$100 on a GLP1 patch or bottle promising prescription level results, figure out what you're actually trying to treat.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: If insulin resistance is the issue, measure it and address it.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you're looking for major appetite suppression, an over the counter supplement isn't doing the same thing as a prescription GLP1 medication.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: And if what you really want is to help your body make more of its own GLP1 naturally, watch the next video.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'll show you the foods that support that system, how much fiber to aim for, and the easiest way to build up to it without wrecking your stomach.