The products are being advertised as more affordable alternatives to blockbuster weight-loss drugs. Here’s what doctors think about them.

While both berberine and Ozempic may lead to weight loss, they are very different things. It’s “inaccurate and misleading” to call berberine “nature’s Ozempic,” Dr. Ali says, noting that they work differently in the body and have very different weight loss results.

Prescribed medications like Ozempic and Wegovy can be expensive and hard to find, leading to a rise in popularity of natural weight-loss alternatives — but do they really work, and are they safe? NBC’s Emilie Ikeda reports and gastroenterologist Dr.

Natural supplements have “very mild effects” on weight loss based on what Dr. Ali has seen. There is some data to suggest that saffron, green tea, or turmeric can have a slight impact on GLP-1 production, he says, but again, it's not a ton.