Marissa Cole

Marissa Cole has spent the last 8 years reading peer-reviewed literature for a living and rewriting it for people who don't have journal access. Her focus is peptide research — what the studies actually measured, how large the sample was, and what the headlines left out. Before writing full time she worked in science communications for a health publisher, where she learned that most wellness confusion comes from a single overstated sentence. She writes the same way she reads: slowly, with the methods section open. Off the clock she's an avid trail runner and a reluctant but consistent early riser.

Online-bought retatrutide, a hospital admission, and the limits of a single case

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Online-bought retatrutide, a hospital admission, and the limits of a single case

A case report published on 26 August describes a man in his mid-30s with long-standing type 1 diabetes who was admitted to hospital with severe vomiting, diarrhoea, high blood sugar, ketones and acute kidney injury, shortly after self-administering a product he had bought online marketed as retatrutide. His partner took the same preparation and also … Read more

Retatrutide met its endpoints in two more Phase 3 trials, but not on cardiovascular events

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Retatrutide met its endpoints in two more Phase 3 trials, but not on cardiovascular events

Eli Lilly reported on 23 July 2026 that retatrutide, an investigational triple hormone receptor agonist, met its primary endpoint in two further Phase 3 trials. Participants with obesity and type 2 diabetes lost up to an average of 20.8% of body weight over 80 weeks; those with severe obesity and established cardiovascular disease lost up … Read more

FDA approves Mounjaro to lower cardiovascular risk in type 2 diabetes

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FDA approves Mounjaro to lower cardiovascular risk

The FDA has approved a new indication for Mounjaro (tirzepatide): lowering the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events — cardiovascular death, non-fatal heart attack, or non-fatal stroke — in adults with type 2 diabetes who are at high risk for them. Eli Lilly announced the approval on 28 August 2026. It is the first cardiovascular … Read more

Large cohort links GLP-1 drugs to more diabetic retinopathy, not to vision loss

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GLP-1 drugs, diabetic retinopathy and what 98,082 pairs showed

A large propensity-matched cohort study published in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism on 27 August 2026 found that people who started a GLP-1 receptor agonist were modestly more likely to be diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy, and more likely to undergo a retinopathy procedure, than matched people who started a DPP-4 inhibitor instead. The same study found … Read more

Only 3 in 100 people on semaglutide hit the combined target in a 45,000-patient real-world study

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Only 3 in 100 people on semaglutide hit the combined target in a 45,000-patient real-world study

Trial results describe what happens under close supervision with motivated volunteers. A study published in August in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology asked a harder question: among 45,093 real patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes, how many actually hit a meaningful combined target a year after starting treatment? The answer for semaglutide was 3.0%. … Read more

A higher semaglutide dose reached 20.7% weight loss. It closes some of the gap to tirzepatide

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A higher semaglutide dose reached 20.7% weight loss. It closes some of the gap to tirzepatide

The standard maintenance dose of Wegovy is 2.4 mg a week. STEP UP, a phase 3b randomised trial published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, tested three times that — 7.2 mg — against both the standard dose and placebo over 72 weeks. Average weight loss was 20.7% on the high dose, 17.5% on 2.4 … Read more

Tirzepatide beat semaglutide head to head. The trial has two caveats worth knowing

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Tirzepatide beat semaglutide head to head. The trial has two caveats worth knowing

The question people ask most often about these two drugs — which one works better — has a direct answer, and has had one since July 2025. In SURMOUNT-5, a trial that gave 751 adults either tirzepatide or semaglutide and followed them for 72 weeks, tirzepatide produced an average weight reduction of 20.2% against semaglutide’s … Read more