{"id":366076,"date":"2026-03-26T11:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T11:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/366076\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T11:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T11:18:10","slug":"jacksonville-research-group-exploring-new-paths-to-lasting-weight-loss-beyond-glp-1-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/366076\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville research group exploring new paths to lasting weight loss beyond GLP-1 drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 For some, GLP-1 drugs<\/a> feel like a weight-loss miracle. <\/p>\n

For others, the weight comes right back after they stop taking them, which has led a Jacksonville-area clinical research group to work on finding a solution.<\/p>\n

Glucagon-like peptide-1, or GLP-1, has become one of the most talked-about breakthroughs in weight loss medicine. The science behind it starts with how the body communicates with itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you say GLP-1, that\u2019s a type of messenger hormone called an incretin,\u201d said Dr. Michael Koren with the Jacksonville Center for Clinical Research. He is also a cardiologist. <\/p>\n

Incretins are hormones sent from the gut to the brain. After a meal, they signal the brain to stop eating. <\/p>\n

But for some people, that signal doesn\u2019t work as effectively \u2014 making it harder to feel full and easier to overeat.<\/p>\n

In fact, Koren explains that GLP-1 medications were not originally designed to help people shed pounds. Their roots are in diabetes care.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese drugs were originally developed to treat diabetes but turned out to have this satiety effect and helped people lose weight because they just don\u2019t eat as much,\u201d Koren said.<\/p>\n

But as millions of people have discovered, GLP-1 drugs don\u2019t work the same way for everyone, and results can stall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are still people that take GLP-1 and they get some weight loss and then they get stuck. We are not always sure why they get stuck, but they do,\u201d Koren said.<\/p>\n

Koren, who has worked in clinical research for 35 years, said he is now studying a different class of incretin called an \u201camylin agonist\u201d that takes a distinct approach to appetite control.<\/p>\n

While GLP-1 works by enhancing the body\u2019s natural signaling after a meal, amylin works continuously to quietly reduce the mental \u201cnoise\u201d of food cravings throughout the day.<\/p>\n

The research question Koren and his team are now trying to answer: Can combining the two do more than either one alone?<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the research that we are doing now is if we can add an amylin agonist on top of a GLP-1 and if that combination does better than the GLP-1 alone,\u201d Koren said.<\/p>\n

Several dozen participants from Northeast Florida are currently enrolled in the study; however, specific participant information is confidential.<\/p>\n

The trial is a blind study, meaning participants do not know whether they are receiving the test medication or a placebo. <\/p>\n

Results are expected to take two to three years.<\/p>\n

If the combination proves effective, it could be a game-changer for the millions of people who have plateaued on GLP-1 medications \u2014 or who have regained weight after stopping them.<\/p>\n

For more information, visit medevidence.com<\/a>, encoredocs.com<\/a> or read more about ongoing obesity trials at this link here.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 For some, GLP-1 drugs feel like a weight-loss miracle. For others, the weight comes right…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[4368,103,61,60,35396,371,2114],"class_list":{"0":"post-366076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-glp-1","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-medication","14":"tag-weight-loss"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}