There is a growing trend of microdosing with Ozempic and other popular weight loss drugs. People are taking much smaller amounts, or splitting up doses, to save money or cut down on side effects.

The practice of microdosing weight loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy, where individuals take smaller or split doses, is gaining attention as a way to save money or reduce side effects. Some celebrities have publicly endorsed this approach, claiming it helps with weight management. However, medical experts highlight that there is little clinical data on the safety or effectiveness of microdosing these medications. The drugs are designed to be taken at specific doses, and altering this regimen can lead to potential risks, including infection from improper handling of medication vials and inconsistent appetite control. Experts emphasize that while some people may experience benefits, there is no substantial evidence from clinical trials to support microdosing, and the long-term effects remain unknown.

Is microdosing with popular weight loss drugs safe?

In this morning's Health Watch we're looking at the growing trend of microdosing with ozempic and other weight loss drugs. People are taking much smaller amounts or splitting up the doses to save money or to cut down on the side effects. TV host Andy Cohen says this helped him shed 25 pounds this summer, while actress Rebel Wilson says microdosing helps stabilize her weight too. But here's a question, is it safe and does it actually work? We're gonna find out. CBS News medical contributor Dr. Selene Gounders, editor-at-large for Public Health at KFF Health News and joins us to sort this all out. I looked at Andy, number one I never thought he was overweight so I'm trying to figure out exactly what the microdosing is and how it works. Well so to explain just the term microdosing, that just means micro dose, tiny dose. So it's just a lower dose than what would normally be prescribed and also then was studied in clinical trials. So we don't have very much data as a result. These drugs are designed to last in your system for about a week. So by a week's end the medication has washed out of your body. This means that you may have swings in your appetite as a result if you're doing it say every other week. If you really want a steady level you need to be taking a smaller amount weekly. The problem with that is a lot of people get it in vials and those are meant to be single dose vials. And so if you're putting in the needle into a single dose vial multiple times you might be introducing germs into the vial and then you could end up injecting bacteria into yourself. So that can cause infections. So how is it used to maintain weight loss? Well we don't really know how well it works because no big clinical trials have been done. Not everybody is the same. For some people it might work but we know for a lot of people it probably does not. So the large clinical trials that were done of semaglutide also known as Ozempic and Wegovy for a standard dose they saw 16% weight loss. For the highest dose about 19% weight loss. And then with Trezepatide which is also known as Monjaro or ZepBound they saw 21% weight loss with the top dose. But we don't have data for those tiny doses. I'm trying to figure out why wouldn't you just use the regular dose? Are you doing micro dosing because it's cheaper? Is that? Well it's a combination of things. It's cost and side effects. So in fact some estimates are as many as a half to three quarters of people who start these medications actually stop them within a year and it's a combination of cost and side effects. Some people cannot tolerate the nausea, the constipation and so on that you can get with these drugs. So people hearing these celebrity endorsements should know this has not been studied in a classic way and there are some potential risks involved. That's right and so while some doctors some people have some experience with it we don't have good clinical trial data to advise you on how best to do this. Small tiny steps in increasing your dose may help in the short term but that is not tested in the long term. Okay. All right. Remarkable. Thank you Dr. Gowdner. Appreciate it.

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