The Tale of Vivek Hattangadi and the GLP-1 Wars
In the bustling corridors of global pharma, a war was raging. Not with swords or bullets, but with data sets, clinical trials, and billion-dollar molecules. Ozempic, Wegovy, Trulicity, Mounjaro, Zepbound, Rybelsus, Orforglipron—each a synthetic mimic of the GLP-1 hormone, each promising to suppress appetite, melt fat, and tame blood sugar. The battlefield was crowded, the stakes astronomical.
But far from the sterile labs of Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, in a quiet corner of Ahmedabad, sat a man who had already won his war.
Vivek Hattangadi, 76 years young, was no ordinary observer. A thinker, a seeker, and a rebel in his own right, he had watched the rise of GLP-1 agonists with a skeptical eye. The headlines screamed of miracles: “Orforglipron helps patients lose 12.4% body weight!”. “Wegovy edges ahead in oral obesity trials!”. But Vivek had seen this dance before—rofecoxib, celecoxib, cisapride, cerivastatin—all hailed as breakthroughs, all withdrawn in shame.
He asked the question no one dared: “Are we sure GLP-1s won’t be the next pharmaceutical tragedy?”
The losers? Patients, burdened by side effects and exorbitant costs.
The winners? Corporations, chasing market dominance and profits.
But Vivek had found his answer not in a lab, but in the soil of India. A humble husk, revered for centuries—Sat Isabgol, known to the West as Psyllium.
The Mystique of the Husk
Sat Isabgol didn’t need a billion-dollar marketing campaign. It whispered its power through generations. It didn’t mimic hormones—it harmonized with the body. It didn’t suppress appetite with chemical trickery—it gently expanded in the gut, signaling fullness with grace.
It was a fiber, yes. But it was also a healer.
- Appetite control without side effects
- Lipid profile normalization
- Smooth bowel movements, easing cardiac strain
And unlike the GLP-1s, it didn’t need FDA approval—it had centuries of human trust.
The Living Testament
Vivek didn’t just preach. He practiced.
At 164 cm tall, he had once weighed 74 kg. But with Sat Isabgol as his quiet companion, his weight had stabilized between 63 and 54 kg—for five years. No injections. No pills. Just nature, discipline, and belief.
He was not a statistic. He was a story.
The Verdict
So while the world debated data sets and dosing convenience, Vivek sat with his dose of Isabgol, watching the pharma giants clash. He didn’t need to win the war. He had already found peace.
And to those who asked, “What’s the best path forward?”—he simply said:
“You be the judge.”