What to Do if Your Compounded GLP-1 Goes off the Market

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What do you do if you can't get your compounded GLP-1 medications anymore? Now you've probably heard that they're going to be discontinued at the compounding pharmacist, or maybe you're getting a regular medication and you just don't want to keep spending the money, or maybe you just don't have access. Well, I've got 5 science-backed alternatives that actually work that can help you stay on track with those weight loss goals that you have. I'm going to say fat loss, right, not weight loss, and also improving your metabolic health. So let's dive in. Now, in order to talk about what we can do here, what can work as an alternative, most important thing to start with is how exactly do these peptides work and why are they so darn effective? And we've all heard of GLP-1 medications, Ozempic and Wegovy. They have literally been game changers for weight loss. They started out with type 2 diabetes, then they saw that people were losing weight. Why do they work so well? They suppress appetite, they slow digestion, But more importantly than that, they can help improve insulin sensitivity and blood sugar regulation, and they actually can start to heal your metabolism. They help drop chronic inflammation. And I contend that if used in the smallest doses, they can actually be a game changer in healing your metabolic health so that you can never have to try to lose weight again. The challenge with this is the prescription forms of these the— are the dosing is so high and you don't have the ability to lower the dose as you become more metabolically healthy or you're closer to your body composition goal. It may be that you can't change the dose. It may be that you've been using compounded versions, they're no longer available. Let's talk about what you can do here, because even if you are still using these, you can use what I'm going to tell you to help you as you titrate down or get off of them. Right now, these peptides are supposed to disappear from compounding pharmacies in a week or two. And again, why it's so great to use a compounding pharmacist here is you can do way lower doses. So hopefully that hasn't happened, but, uh, or there's a replacement option. But either way, again, you can use these alongside a medication, you can use this to help you taper off a medication, or you can use this in place of a medication. So I'm going to go through these 5, and the first one I'm betting is going to shock you. It's sugar. What? Okay, wait a minute. It's actually a rare sugar called allulose. And specifically, I'm going to shout out the brand RxSugar because they have literally been leading the way and doing a load of research on allulose and really bringing it out into the mainstream, although I still feel like it's a best-kept secret. They also have created some great products, which I'll tell you about. Now, allulose is a naturally occurring sugar that's found in very small quantities in things like figs and raisins, maple syrup, and wheat. It's a monosaccharide. It's similar to glucose and fructose, but it's got these distinct metabolic properties. It's about 70% as sweet as table sugar, but it only has about 10% of the calories. So it has 0.4 calories per gram compared to 4 calories per gram for sugar. Plus, it does not raise insulin or blood sugar. It actually lowers it. And here's how: it's been shown to naturally stimulate GLP-1 secretion in the gut. It slows gastric emptying— sound familiar?— and it helps regulate blood sugar levels. And again, it doesn't spike insulin, so it works like a GLP-1 medication. It just doesn't go as long, right? Now, you've heard of taking apple cider vinegar before a meal to lower the blood sugar impact of the meal. Allulose does this like on steroids, a much stronger effect. Literally, I watched someone take 10 grams of allulose and eat a candy bar. I kid you not. And not raise their blood sugar. Now, I am not saying to do that, but I'm saying this just shows the power of it. So if you want to use this to raise your GLP-1 to help with that blood sugar stability and insulin sensitivity, what you're going to want to do is take about 5 to 10 grams of it before a meal. And here's some of the ways that you can do it, or with the meal. They have gummies, no-calorie little gummies you can take. They have a little, it's almost like a Pixy Stick of the sugar with a flavor in it that you can just dump into your mouth. They have syrups. I specifically love the caramel syrup. I put it in either on Greek-style yogurt or into my protein-loaded smoothie. They also have an amazing fiber product with their allulose and resistant starch. They also have cereal. So you could put cereal on top of your Greek-style yogurt or on top of your smoothie. They have just the regular sugar so you can bake with this, and then they have their brownie mix. Okay, this is insane. This product is basically allulose. I don't remember what it's made out of, but it's gluten-free, no sugar, lots of fiber, and basically it's about 100 calories max. You make it in the microwave. You put water and this brownie mix in the microwave and in, I think it's like 60 seconds or less, it makes this little brownie. Now I make it with their chocolate syrup as well, and then I made it for my husband with chocolate syrup, a little bit of red cherries. He loves cherries and chocolate, and I put a little Cocoa Whip on top. Insane. So as you can tell, it's not going to be like upsetting to have to use allulose, but allulose is an amazing one, and I still can't believe it hasn't caught on. It's because it's so effective. All right, now the next one is another one that I believe everybody doesn't know about. And this one I found— I was at a conference and I met this company, they're from New Zealand, and this actually was tens of millions of dollars, I think like 10 years of research in New Zealand to try to find something that could raise GLP-1. This is a proprietary hops extract, and actually it will raise GLP-1 for 4 hours after you ingest it, which is amazing. I don't know of any other thing that can do that. Besides taking a GLP-1. So the difference with the GLP-1 and other things is these peptides keep GLP-1 up and raised for an extended period. When you do any of the natural types of things, it's usually pretty short-lived— minutes, you know. This is hours. So that's, that's pretty amazing. And so Calicurb, this hops extract that they've done a bunch of research on now, is a way to take something before a meal and really get that GLP-1 to stay up and extended. And one of the reasons I think it works is because it's of the bitterness of it, of the hops. There's another product similar to this called Himalayan Tartary Buckwheat that my buddy Dr. Jeff Bland has formulated. He actually is now like making this his life's work, and it's very good for your immune system and your gut health, but it also can help with GLP-1 production as well. So I've been doing some of this Himalayan Tartary Buckwheat. I actually do it every single day for the improvement it does— immunorejuvenation. It helps with gut health, it's great fiber, but it also can raise GLP-1. So those two, I think, in the same category here—callicurb and Himalayan tartary buckwheat. So try—you could try either of those. You can do both of those, and that's what's nice about all of these things. You could do all of these things. You're not going to have like too much lowering or too much raising or too much, you know, blood sugar dropping or anything like that. You know, with medications, they don't really have an off switch as much, but with nutrients, a lot of times they just—they know where to work and when to stop. You know, when's too much? So one of the big questions around GLP-1s is, are we resistant to it or are we not producing enough of it? And there is a theory that if you have metabolic issues, like you are insulin resistant, have higher body fat, obesity, have fat in your muscles, you will be more resistant to GLP-1s. Then the other question is, is your gut able to make it? It's produced in the gut. And so the next on the list is the probiotic called Akkermansia muciniphila. And it's been shown to boost GLP-1 secretion, improve gut health, and reduce the inflammation linked with obesity. And what you want is this pasteurized Akkermansia. This is the one that's particularly effective for improving insulin sensitivity and reducing body fat. So probably what's going on here is that we're helping to restore the health of the microbiome and the diversity of the microbiome, so the microbiome is able to produce that GLP-1. With diet, protein and fiber are the magic bullet here. They are a powerful duo, duo for weight management because number one, protein is going to help raise GLP-1 and stimulate GLP-1, and so does fiber. So I love doing protein and fiber together because you're going to slow down stomach emptying, you're going to have better blood sugar balance, and you are going to boost some GLP-1. So what would we look at here? First of all, whenever you're doing any caloric restriction, whenever you're looking to lose weight, you don't want to lose weight, you want to lose fat.. You want to hold on to them or build muscle as you're losing fat. If you lose weight, if you're not paying attention to this and you do big caloric restriction, which is what a GLP-1 drug left unchecked would do, is just cause you not to eat, then you're not getting in the protein you need, and then you will start to lose muscle, which can result in something called metabolic adaptation, where once you go off the program, your muscle mass is lower than it should be and because of that, your metabolic rate is lower than it should be, and you'll have a big drive, hunger drive, to get your muscle back on. But the problem is that hunger drive causes you to also put a lot of fat on too, which is not what you want. So protein can help you hold on to that fat-free mass when you are doing caloric restriction. And also, we know protein is more thermic, boosts your metabolic rate because of the thermic effect of food. So protein and fiber together Both work together to naturally raise GLP-1, to lower ghrelin— that's the hunger hormone produced by the stomach to tell you you need to eat. So it's a great one-two punch here. So how does this play out? Again, what I want you to think of is getting in at least 30 grams of protein at a meal, and more is better, with some fiber. So if you thought of each meal getting in 30 grams of protein, at least 10 grams of fiber, you are dialed. And that is not that hard to do, by the way. Like, think of if you had for dinner a grass-fed, grass-finished New York steak, and then you had some broccoli, and then you had maybe a little bit of— I've been doing purple potatoes that I've been cooking and letting cool because they're higher in resistant starch. That'd be an easy way to get your— the protein you need and the fiber that you need. And, you know, delicious. But these are pretty easy to do. Another example could be doing some Greek-style yogurt. I like to stir in my bone broth protein into that and then adding in some chia seeds or freshly ground flax seeds and some blueberries. So protein and fiber, again, look at how you can get at least 30 grams in a meal. A little more is better. And 10 grams of fiber. All right, the supplement that has been all over the internet, about as nature's Ozempic, is berberine. Now, one of the things that we know GLP-1s do is help with blood sugar and insulin sensitivity. So they help lower blood, blood sugar response to the meal, they help with insulin sensitivity, and also, of course, they help reduce inflammation. And berberine, we know, can stimulate GLP-1 secretion in the gut, but But berberine also has been found to help with blood sugar regulation and insulin sensitivity. So berberine, um, take 500mg twice daily, ideally with meals, can be fantastic for blood sugar regulation, for GLP-1 production, and for your gut. Now, of course, I have to say the public service announcement here, uh, you also want to make sure these things can help you whether you're on a GLP-1 and would like to maybe be able to use less of it. If you are tapering off a GLP-1, or maybe you just can't have access to your GLP-1 anymore, these are all things that can help your body naturally produce that GLP-1. And the reason we love the GLP-1 is that it's anti-inflammatory, improves insulin sensitivity, it helps with appetite, it's very good for healing your metabolism. But alongside of it, you want to make sure you're doing the other things that are mission critical here. So if you are looking to lose weight, you really don't want to think of losing weight, you want to think of losing fat while holding or building muscle, because that will make it so that you never have to focus on being on a diet again, because you're going to improve your metabolic health and improve your overall metabolism. So I have to say, have to do the shout out for you, also want to make sure that you are doing resistance training, because again, if you do caloric restriction without optimal protein and resistance training, you're going to lose muscle. And that just sets you up to then have a slowed-down metabolism and the drive to eat more to get that muscle back on. But the problem is you'll put fat back on and you'll just mess up your metabolic rate even more. So really important that whenever you're doing any of this, you're getting optimal protein. Eat it first to make sure you get it in. And, and if your appetite's too low from any of these things, back off. So that's why I like the compounded versions of GLP-1s, where you can use the lowest dose possible so that you have a little less hunger drive, you have the improvement in insulin sensitivity, and you lower inflammation. But goal is that you can taper off at some point, be able to use these things in place of it, along with resistance training to help restore your insulin sensitivity and improve your metabolic rate. And then of course, great sleep. Sleep is mission critical for good blood sugar control and insulin sensitivity as well. And of course, just moving all throughout the day. The biggest way we can really impact our metabolism, the biggest lever we have, is something called non-exercise activity thermogenesis. Moving more all day long. We all tend to think of it as exercise. Actually, it's just making sure you're getting in that 8,000+ steps a day every single day that make a big, big difference. And one more thing I have to say, because one of the things that can come along with GLP-1s is a reduction in thirst along with appetite. And remember that you've got to be well hydrated in order for your body to release fat. And so make sure that you are staying well hydrated, you're monitoring your fluid intake, and ideally add in a serving 1 or 2 of electrolytes a day as well to keep that electrolyte balance. All right, there you have it, 5 proven alternatives. So if you can't access your compounded GLP-1 anymore, you're covered. From allulose to berberine, these strategies can help you stay on track naturally without breaking the bank, and they can also help you either get to a lower dose of your GLP-1 or taper off altogether. Be sure to join me me next time for more tools, tips, and techniques you can incorporate into everyday life to ensure you look and feel great and are built to last. Check me out on Instagram, Facebook, and my website, jjvirgin.com, and make sure to follow my podcast at subscribetojj.com so you don't miss a single episode. And hey, if you're loving what you hear, don't forget to leave a review. Your reviews make a big difference in helping me reach more incredible women just like you to spread the word about aging powerfully after 40. Thanks for tuning in, and I'll catch you on the next episode. Want to listen to the show ad-free? Head over to SubscribeToJJ.com and start your ad-free experience today. Hey, JJ here, and just a reminder that the Well Beyond 40 podcast offers health, wellness, fitness, and nutritional information that's designed for educational and entertainment purposes only. You should not rely on this information as a substitute for, nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your health, you should always consult with a physician or other healthcare professional. Make sure that you do not disregard, avoid, or delay obtaining medical or health-related advice from your healthcare professional because of something you may have heard on the show or read in our show notes. The use of any information provided on the show is solely at your own risk.

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