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Comment by chpatrick | Hacker News Reader

As far as I know GLP-1 is a naturally occurring hormone but it's not something you can just give people directly. Instead you give them artificial things like semaglutide that work on the same receptors.

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You can but if I recall based on a book I read [0], you’d need to take a pill something like three or four times a day as your body naturally clears GLP-1 very quickly. The chemical has been known since the 90s, the Ozempic breakthrough was binding/mixing it with some chemical of Gila monster venom which makes your body take much longer to break down the chemical (days instead of hours).

[0] Magic Pill by Johann Hari

GLP-1 is a class of drugs (or molecules). The first known GLP-1 was pretty much just a synthesized version of a naturally occurring compound from the Gila Monster’s venom.

Semaglutide is like a 2nd generation GLP-1 and there are 3rd generation ones in development right now

Semaglutide and co are "GLP-1 receptor agonists" that behave in a similar way to the naturally occurring hormone GLP-1.

We can't give people GLP-1 itself because it breaks down really fast and you'd have to provide it continuously, so we use ones that effect the body the same way over a long period of time.

Yeah, halflife of GLP-1 is about 5 minutes.

Ah ah, I see what your original comment meant now! I parsed that completely differently :)

Yes you’re right.

Gila Monster is a pretty cool name for a lizard

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