Not long ago, nobody was talking about GLP-1 receptor agonists. Most of us did not even know what they were \u2013 natural hormones that regulate appetite, helping to reduce hunger and calorie intake. Today, GLP-1 drugs like semaglutide and tirzepatide are prescribed in their thousands and have altered global health.<\/p>\n
This pharmaceutical success has sparked an intense obsession, triggering aggressive online marketing for \u201cskinny pens\u201d \u2013 self-injectable pens containing the medication.<\/p>\n
Since April, these sought-after drugs have even been available in oral form for those needle-averse, making them more accessible than ever.<\/p>\n
This has raised red flags among healthcare professionals. A UK news investigation in early 2026 found that people with a healthy BMI could easily obtain prescription-only injections from online pharmacies by submitting AI- or photo-edited images that made them look larger. Three out of six pharmacies sent jabs based on a single altered photo.<\/p>\n
Hong Kong family medicine specialist Dr Ivan Chow explains that these drugs were developed for type 2 diabetes because of their effect on blood sugar.<\/p>\n
After the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first GLP-1 drugs for type 2 diabetes in 2005, doctors began to notice that these drugs led to substantial weight loss \u2013 a discovery described as \u201ctotally serendipitous\u201d.<\/p>\n
How GLP-1 drugs work<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not long ago, nobody was talking about GLP-1 receptor agonists. Most of us did not even know what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2653,251857,49,48,8267,251855,251856,251854,28838,2714,23742,84,15674,23291,377,5246,2095,251858,13665,58057,13667],"class_list":["post-688053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-benefits","tag-body-banter","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-denmark","tag-dr-ivan-chow","tag-dr-stephanie-ng","tag-dr-will-chan-yap-hang","tag-fatty-liver-disease","tag-fda","tag-glp-1-receptor-agonists","tag-health","tag-hong-kong","tag-mash","tag-medication","tag-novo-nordisk","tag-ozempic","tag-professor-loey-mak-lung-yi","tag-semaglutide","tag-university-of-hong-kong","tag-wegovy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}