A FormBlends network publication
FormBlends Video Library

Playlist: How GLP-1s work

Five videos on mechanism, from a 90-second hospital explainer to a 38-minute academic podcast, in the order that builds understanding. Each has a written fact-check with the label and trial sources.

By FormBlends editorial teamUpdated September 4, 2026Educational, not medical advice

Playlist player

Open full calculator

How GLP-1s work: 5 videos, about 67 minutes in total. Watch in order; each write-up assumes the ones before it.

  1. 1 of 5 · 1:27

    What is a GLP-1 agonist, and how does it work? | Ohio State Medical Center

    Ohio State Wexner Medical Center · Original

    A 90-second hospital explainer that gets the essentials right: GLP-1 agonists mimic a gut hormone, act on receptors in the brain and gastrointestinal tract, affect appetite and satiety as well as glucose, and semaglutide's cardiovascular benefit appears partly independent of weight loss.

    Read the full fact-check

  2. 2 of 5 · 6:32

    Role of GLP-1 Receptor Agonists for Weight Loss

    Harvard Medical School Continuing Education · Original

    A Brigham and Women's endocrinologist walks through the trials that established liraglutide and semaglutide for weight management: SCALE, STEP 1, STEP 8 and STEP 4, with the correct primary numbers for each.

    Read the full fact-check

  3. 3 of 5 · 17:16

    Pharmacology - DRUGS FOR DIABETES (MADE EASY)

    Speed Pharmacology · Original

    A pharmacology educator's overview of every diabetes drug class, with a compact and accurate account of the incretin effect, DPP-4 degradation, and why GLP-1 mimetics slow gastric emptying, promote satiety and cause weight loss.

    Read the full fact-check

  4. 4 of 5 · 38:02

    Ep 3: Inside GLP-1s: How They Work, Who They Help & What to Expect | Medicine Made General

    Johns Hopkins Medicine · Original

    A 38-minute Johns Hopkins podcast with an obesity medicine physician: body composition and ageing, why lifestyle alone rarely holds more than 5 to 8 percent, GLP-1s as long-term therapy like a statin, what the first weeks feel like, and a candid answer on compounded products.

    Read the full fact-check

  5. 5 of 5 · 3:15

    GLP-1 weight-loss drugs: What the science says | 90 Seconds w/ Lisa Kim

    Stanford Medicine · Original

    A three-minute Stanford Medicine piece with several faculty: the class has been prescribed since 2005, the benefits reach the heart, kidneys, liver and sleep apnoea, the common side effects are gastrointestinal, and weight bias shapes how side effects are judged.

    Read the full fact-check

Watch order and why

Start with Ohio State's 90 seconds for the shape of the answer: a gut hormone, receptors in brain and gut, appetite plus glucose. Harvard's first teaching video then supplies the trial numbers that made the class matter. Speed Pharmacology's 2017 lecture is next because it explains the incretin effect and DPP-4 degradation better than newer videos do, even though it predates every drug people now ask about. Johns Hopkins' podcast adds body composition and the long-term framing. Stanford's short piece closes with the outcome benefits and a note on weight bias.

What the playlist adds up to

By the end you should be able to say, without notes: GLP-1 is an incretin released by intestinal L cells after eating; native GLP-1 lasts minutes because DPP-4 destroys it; the drugs are receptor agonists engineered to last a day (liraglutide) or a week (semaglutide, tirzepatide); they act centrally on appetite, in the gut on emptying, and in the pancreas on glucose-dependent insulin and glucagon; tirzepatide adds GIP receptor agonism; and the effect persists only while the drug is present. All of that is in section 12 of the Wegovy and Zepbound labels.

What none of these videos covers

Cost, coverage and compounded products get little or no time in a mechanism playlist. Compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide, including what FormBlends dispenses, are not FDA approved and are not interchangeable with the brand products in the trials these videos cite. For diagrams of the pathways, go to FormBlends Science; for every agent on one page, GLP-1s Explained; for a plain introduction to tirzepatide, the FormBlends guide at formblends.com.

Sources

  1. Wegovy (semaglutide) prescribing information, section 12 clinical pharmacology, DailyMed set id ee06186f-2aa3-4990-a760-757579d8f77b Accessed September 4, 2026.
  2. Zepbound (tirzepatide) prescribing information, section 12 clinical pharmacology, DailyMed set id 487cd7e7-434c-4925-99fa-aa80b1cc776b Accessed September 4, 2026.

Canonical URL: https://formblendsvideos.com/playlists/how-glp1s-work. Written by the FormBlends editorial team. This page is educational and is not medical advice; see the medical disclaimer.