Tom Davies says he nearly ended up in hospital after accidentally overdosing on a fake version of retatrutide. He ordered it from a Chinese supplier after friends at his gym recommended it.<\/p>\n
“It was horrendous,” says the 20-year-old from Brighton. “My body felt so under pressure, I was so bloated, it was like someone had dropped a 20kg weight on my stomach.<\/p>\n
“For 72 hours I had really bad diarrhoea and nausea. I thought, if this continues I’m going to end up in A&E.”<\/p>\n
Tom later realised he had given himself eight times the recommended dose. Depending on what is ordered, copycat retatrutide can arrive needing to be mixed with sterile, bacteriostatic water which requires various calculations.<\/p>\n
Dr Nas Khattak, a research doctor based in Chester, has been screening patients for one of Eli Lilly’s Phase III clinical trials. He says those sourcing fake versions are in effect behaving as lab rats without any medical oversight.<\/p>\n
“If users who buy it online become their own doctor, they’re taking a huge risk,” he warns.<\/p>\n
He says trial participants need to meet strict criteria before they are given the green light to start taking the real drug or a placebo.<\/p>\n
“We request their GP record, we make sure that they’re emotionally well. They’ll have suicide, self-harm, mental health assessments – and this is all done by doctors.<\/p>\n
“Then we come back and have a look at the blood tests, have a look at everything, and then we think whether they’re suitable or not.”<\/p>\n
Tom decided to do more research into dosing and, despite the nasty side effects he’d previously experienced, decided to give his fake version of retatrutide another go. After nine months of taking it in cycles, he says his cravings for sugar and junk food have gone.<\/p>\n
Pharmacist Shahid warns that just because a fake version of reta works for one person, does not mean it will “work for the next”.<\/p>\n
The obesity drugs currently on the market – the likes of semaglutide (marketed as Ozempic and Wegovy), and tirzepatide (marketed as Mounjaro) – target just one or two hormone receptors. But, if approved, retatrutide will become the first weight loss medication in the world to act on three, giving it the nickname the “triple G”.<\/p>\n
The three hormones it mimics are: <\/p>\n
GLP-1 – this slows down stomach emptying, signals fullness to the brain to reduce appetite and helps control blood sugar levels<\/p>\n
GIP – this enhances insulin secretion and improves insulin sensitivity, and works alongside GLP-1 to help the body process nutrients and reduces hunger<\/p>\n
Glucagon – this is the hormone that’s novel to retatrutide. It increases resting energy expenditure so the body burns more calories, promotes liver fat breakdown and supports weight loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Davies says he nearly ended up in hospital after accidentally overdosing on a fake version of retatrutide.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[103,61,60,371],"class_list":["post-615293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-medication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615293","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=615293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}