McCall McPherson explains that a GLP-1 microdose is any amount below the lowest standard dose. Modern Thyroid Clinic starts patients at one-quarter or one-eighth of the standard dose and increases by small fractions as needed, seeing benefits like reduced inflammation, fewer antibodies in Hashimoto's patients, and less nausea than full doses.
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What is considered a microdose when it comes to GLP-1s? So what a microdose is not is just taking the lowest standard dose of something like Ozempic or Mounjaro. That's not a microdose. So a microdose isn't extremely defined. It's not like this particular dose, but it's any dose that's less than the lowest available dose. For example, at Modern Thyroid Clinic, we often start people at a quarter or an eighth of the lowest available dose, to give you an idea. And then we increase them only in a quarter or an eighth of the lowest dose when needed, not every 4 weeks on a scheduled basis. So we see so many benefits happen with microdosing. We still see weight loss, but we also see inflammatory reduction. People feel better. Hashimoto's antibodies, we see them reduce all the time. So tons of benefits with microdosing. When it comes to side effects with microdosing, people experience less. They have less nausea, but they also lose weight less quickly, so they have less muscle loss, less collagen loss, less rapid drops in blood pressure that can increase risk for blindness, etc. So the goal is always slow weight loss, low weight loss over a sustained period of time, and microdosing really makes that happen.