What Exactly Are GLP Medications?
Mar 05, 2026
Welcome to the 1st Part of our 4 Part Series on GLP Medications in Physical Therapy.
Bottom-line:
- GLP-1 medications are everywhere: from Superbowl ads to our patients in our outpatient Ortho clinic, they seem ubiquitous yet still wildly misunderstood.
- What started as a treatment for diabetes, GLP receptor agonists have now rocketed into an epic drug for obesity and weight loss.
- In short, GLP (glucagon like peptide) is simply a hormone that is released from the gut after eating to slow gastric emptying and stimulate the brain to reach satiety. Medications like semiglutide and ozempic mimic GLP. The newer classes of drugs combine other hormones and/or inhibitors of factors that breakdown GLP as well to give stronger responses.
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Transcript:
Hey y'all, Dr. Wells here from nutritionalphysicaltherapy.com. We're kicking off a (0:04) four-part series focused on GLP medications specific for physical therapy, rehab professionals, (0:11) and weight loss. So the purpose of today's video is to talk about what is or what are the GLP (0:18) medications. We hear about them all the time, but what does it really mean? What is a GLP? (0:24) So in short, GLP stands for glucagon-like peptide.
It is a hormone that's secreted by the gut after (0:31) we eat. Its main role is to help stimulate insulin, which helps to break down sugar. (0:38) Its other role is to affect the brain to promote satiety.
That's where we feel full and we don't (0:44) want to eat much, right? And so what these new, not new meds, but fairly older medications like (0:49) semiglutide and ozempic, they actually are GLP agonists or receptor agonists, if you will. (0:56) They help to mimic and act like a GLP. And oftentimes it comes in either an injectable form (1:03) like the old fashioned semiglutide, but there's now oral pills that you can take because obviously (1:09) early on patients that took these meds were really diabetics and they had a hard time (1:14) maintaining blood sugar and they were already probably stabbing themselves either with needles (1:18) for either getting the glucose readings or for providing themselves with insulin.
So (1:24) the semiglutide initially started with injectables, but now there's oral medications (1:30) and a second tier of medications have come out which have GIP. A GIP is another hormone, (1:37) a GIP mimicker, and then also a third tier that actually has a GLP (1:47) antagonist or a GLP enzyme inhibitor. So that basically inhibits those enzymes that breaks (1:53) down GLP.
So that basically means it floats around longer and you feel fuller longer. (1:58) That would be your ZEP bound medication, your class of drugs called terzapatides. (2:07) So all this to be said, GLPs, they're floating around, right? They're in the (2:11) Superbowl ads now.
We see them in patients as they come into our physical therapy clinic (2:17) and there's a lot of things that interact. So coming down the pipeline, we're going to talk (2:21) about what supplements interact with GLP inhibitors or excuse me, GLPs and some of (2:26) those other GLP inhibitors and medications. We're going to talk about the gray market of GLPs as (2:33) well as a little bit on the long-term reality is like, what does this look like for our patients (2:38) that come into our physical therapy practice? Are they going to be on these drugs forever (2:42) or are they going to be able to get off them and sustain their weight loss? So stay tuned, (2:47) check out more at nutritionalphysicaltherapy.com. Sign up for our board approved courses today (2:53) and save $50 and hope to see more of you on our site as well as liking and subscribe our content.
(3:00) Thanks so much.
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