DR. WORLDWIDE GETS SOCIAL
DR. WORLDWIDE GET TO KNOW HIM
Frank Agullo, MD, FACS — known globally as Dr. WorldWide — is a double board-certified plastic surgeon in El Paso, Texas. He is a Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Affiliate Professor at the University of Texas at El Paso. Specializing in preservation-based aesthetic surgery and the Deep Plane Facelift, he has been named a Castle Connolly Top Doctor for thirteen consecutive years and has a global social following of over 3.5 million across Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. He is the founder of Southwest Plastic Surgery and Plastic Surgery Studios.
Meet Dr.WWDR. WORLDWIDE GET TO KNOW HIM
Frank Agullo, MD, FACS is the plastic surgeon the world watches. Known globally as Dr. WorldWide, he has built one of the largest followings of any surgeon on the planet (over 3.5 million on Instagram @RealDrWorldWide) by pulling back the curtain on plastic surgery and showing what extraordinary results actually look like. Celebrities, influencers, and patients from across the United States and around the world make the trip to El Paso, Texas, because when you have seen the work up close, there is nowhere else to go. More than 80% of his patients travel from outside El Paso. The practice handles every detail of their journey.
Dr. Agullo is double board-certified, Mayo Clinic fellowship-trained, and a Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. But credentials only tell part of the story. What sets him apart is a philosophy built on preservation: enhancing, restoring, and elevating what is already there rather than changing who you are. Not cookie cutter. Every plan is molded around the individual patient's desires, their anatomy, their life.
That philosophy drives every decision in the operating room. His Motiva Preserve breast augmentations deliver results that feel as natural as they look. His deep plane and endoscopic deep plane facelifts turn back time without announcing themselves. His Supercharged BBL has been refined, published, and presented on international stages. And his ability to combine face and body procedures in a single operative session is a capability few surgeons in the world can offer safely at his level.
The same philosophy applies outside the OR. Forget synthetic fillers. Dr. Agullo restores volume with regenerative grafts including Alloclae, Lipoderma, exosomes, and platelet-derived growth factors. Recovery is treated as part of the result: lymphatic massages, scar management, and Elixir MD LED light therapy ensure that what happens after surgery is as intentional as what happens during it.
Castle Connolly Top Doctor for eleven consecutive years. Texas Super Doctors Hall of Fame. Best Plastic Surgeon in El Paso for thirteen consecutive years. Aesthetic Everything Top Plastic Surgeon 2026. Founding Vice President and President of the World Association of Gluteal Surgeons, where he helped write the global safety standards for gluteal surgery.
The results are daily. The standard is uncompromising. The philosophy is simple: #MakeItHappen. #HappyIsBeautiful. #StayBeautiful.
#PlasticSurgeryIsMyPassion
GLAMOUR SHOTS
Plastic Surgery is a very personal choice and a unique experience for every individual who chooses to undergo a change, be it a discreet or major surgery. The one thing in common for my patients though is that they experience an inner transformation which ultimately shines through as confidence in themselves. Confident is Beautiful!
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- Posted on: August 31st 2026
- Category: Wellness
The most searched weight loss molecule in America produced 30 percent weight loss in trial and has not reached a pharmacy shelf. My read on the gap, and on what people are doing to close it.
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- Posted on: August 31st 2026
- Category: Wellness
There is a molecule Americans search for hundreds of thousands of times a month that has not reached a pharmacy shelf. Not because it is banned. Because it has not finished the process.
What it actually is:
“Retatrutide is a triple hormone receptor agonist that targets three pathways: GLP-1, GIP and glucagon receptors.”
“At this time, there is no FDA-approved branded retatrutide product available.”
Where it sits in the family:
“The GLP-1 originally came out as a medication for diabetics. There are receptors in the stomach that make us feel full, and that same signaling helps lower blood sugar, which is how it helps diabetics control their sugar. It also communicates with the brain so your appetite goes down, you feel fuller and more satisfied, and it slows the intestine so your portions naturally get smaller. You eat the same way but smaller portions, and certain foods, like very greasy or very sugary foods, stop appealing to you.”
“Semaglutide was the first one and has just one component, GLP-1. Tirzepatide has two components, GLP-1 and GIP. It helps more with inflammation, helps with more weight loss, and has fewer side effects like nausea, heartburn, and vomiting.”
One receptor. Then two. Retatrutide makes three.
On how I dose the approved ones:
“We start with the smallest dose, which is 2.5 milligrams, for four weeks, and I see how you feel. If you are doing well I increase the dose depending on how you feel. If you are losing a good amount of weight, I keep you at that dose until you stop losing, then we go up again.”
“I give you the four injections for the whole month, and you inject yourself once a week. The injections are like an insulin shot, a tiny drop, usually in the abdomen, alternating sides each week.”
In trial, retatrutide started at 2 mg weekly and stepped up every four weeks.
Why the body fights you in the first place:
“As estrogen starts to drop, the other hormones start to change, the thyroid, insulin, and cortisol, and women tend to start gaining around the middle.”
“Insulin makes you very hungry and tired and causes you to store more fat. The metabolism slows down and cortisol rises, and that is part of why we gain weight.”
“Even if you exercise a lot and eat well, sometimes we need some kind of help.”
On whether the new molecule is the better choice:
“Retatrutide, being a triple agonist targeting GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon receptors, may offer greater weight loss potential than semaglutide and tirzepatide. Semaglutide is a GLP-1 receptor agonist, whereas tirzepatide is a dual GLP-1 and GIP receptor agonist.
“Patient selection should be individualized rather than based on one peptide. Patients with obesity or overweight accompanied by metabolic complications such as prediabetes, insulin resistance, metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver, or cardiometabolic risk factors may all be appropriate candidates for any of the GLP forms.”
May. That word is doing real work and I am not going to pretend otherwise. There is no completed head to head trial against tirzepatide.
Why anyone cares this much
Lilly published Phase 3 TRIUMPH-1 in May. At 80 weeks, participants on 12 mg had lost an average of 28.3 percent of their body weight, about 70 pounds. Forty five percent lost at least 30 percent. Two thirds finished with a BMI under 30. A smaller group who ran to 104 weeks averaged 30.3 percent, roughly 85 pounds.
I have spent my career operating on people after weight loss like that. Until recently the only reliable route to those numbers was a surgeon.
The results carried a cost. At the top dose, 42 percent nausea, one in eight reporting abnormal skin sensation, about one in nine quitting over side effects. The lowest dose studied delivered 19 percent weight loss with fewer dropouts than placebo, which tells you the ceiling is not the target for everyone.
Where it stands
Lilly hinted it might file with the FDA before the end of 2026. In July it moved that to the first quarter of 2027, citing manufacturing and quality control data still being assembled. Then the review clock starts.
On sourcing, which is the part that keeps me up:
“An important safety consideration with GLP-1 based therapies and other peptide treatments is the importance of ongoing evaluation, treatment, and follow-up by a qualified licensed medical professional. Patients should undergo appropriate screening before treatment.
“Appropriate clinical oversight and sourcing medication through legitimate, appropriately licensed pharmacies can also help reduce the risk of obtaining counterfeit, contaminated, improperly compounded or otherwise unsafe products from unverified sources.
“Patients should be educated to obtain their medications only through authorized and reputable channels and to avoid products purchased from unverified websites, social media, or any other unauthorized sellers.”
Unverified websites, social media, unauthorized sellers. That is where a great many of those searches end up, and there is no approved product waiting at the other end of any of them. I wrote recently about what the word peptide actually means and why I now ask every surgical patient what they have been injecting. Same problem, newer name.
What I tell people instead
The approved medications work. What I say to patients on them has not changed:
“Your appetite will go down. Many patients stop eating and only eat at mealtime, but I do not want you to do that, because if your blood sugar drops you will feel tired. I want you to eat small amounts during the day, snacking on something like a fruit, so your blood sugar stays more stable. I also want you to eat more protein so you do not lose as much muscle and we burn more fat.”
“Walk twenty to thirty minutes a day. Once you feel a little better, add light weights while you walk. That helps the muscle grow and burns more fat.”
A better obesity medication does appear to be coming. On the optimistic reading it is about a year from a pharmacy. Nothing about that timeline improves by buying a vial from someone who will not tell you where it came from.
For the full trial breakdown, dosing as it was studied, and what to do in the meantime, read the complete guide on the Southwest Plastic Surgery site. The version I wrote for my surgical patients is at agulloplasticsurgery.com, and body contouring after major weight loss is the surgical side of this story.
Call (915) 590-7900, text 1-866-814-0038, or book online at agulloplasticsurgery.com. #StayBeautiful
@RealDrWorldWide on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, @Agullo on X, or @AgulloPlasticSurgery on Facebook.
- Posted on: August 30th 2026
- Category: Editorial, Wellness
Insulin is a peptide. So is your serum. So is the vial someone ordered at 2am. Treating those as one story is how the public got this confused.
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- Posted on: August 30th 2026
- Category: Editorial, Wellness
A peptide is a size designation, nothing else. Insulin is a peptide, and the contents of the vial someone ordered at two in the morning from an online store is also a peptide. Treating those two things as one story is how the public ended up this confused.
U.S. News asked me about peptides earlier this month. That is where I started, and it is where anyone honest has to start.
Take the Word Apart First
A peptide is defined as a chain of amino acids normally composed of anywhere from two to about fifty in number. It is a size range, not a drug class nor a benefit.
Insulin is a peptide, just like the peptide in an antiaging serum, just like the compounded vial someone ordered from an overseas website. They have all been thrown into the same box together, making people think they are identical, hence the rampant, widespread confusion on the issue.
Most marketing makes these products out to be better than they are, and the vagueness of the word is exactly what makes that possible.
The Serum on Your Counter
In short, the science is good, not great.
Copper peptides and signal peptides used in some consumer skincare have lab studies that show they can stimulate collagen synthesis, and a small selection have proven in trials to smooth fine wrinkles modestly over several months of regular use.
Then physics gets a vote. Delivery limits how much of this can penetrate the outer layer of the skin, which consists of dead skin cells built up as a shield designed to keep outside contaminants like large molecules, especially water-loving ones, from entering the body.
So here is the rule I give patients. A peptide is a reasonable addition to a product where a sunscreen and a retinoid are doing the real work. It is not a replacement for either one.
When a client tells me their plan for anti-aging is a peptide serum, that is when I feel a little uneasy. It is a quiet harm that we miss discussing within the safety debate.
Nobody gets hurt by the serum. They get hurt by the decade they spent on it instead.
The Vial in the Refrigerator
My real issues began with the injectable and compounded peptides.
It is about impossible to go a month without seeing at least one patient who is self-injecting peptides obtained without a prescription from who knows where, for an injury, for joint pain, or for what they are calling recovery. BPC-157 comes up all the time, and growth hormone secretagogues are about the most frequent second thing asked about, usually phrased as anti-aging.
Very few of them know how little human research is available on these compounds, know that most dosage regimens have been picked up from bodybuilding forums, or know that the vial is coming from an overseas research-chemical company, with no guarantee as to contents, purity or whether it is a sterile preparation.
I have seen and operated on patients with abscesses as well as infected lesions at injection sites that stem from these supplies.
That is not a warning I am passing along. That is an operation I performed.
What I Now Ask Before I Operate
Before operating, I routinely ask my patients if they have been injecting peptides, much like asking about their supplements, mainly because I have no idea what is in the vial my patient received and neither do they.
The Part Everyone Is About to Get Wrong
If some peptides could now go through licensed compounding pharmacies with an actual prescription, that would be safer than the massive, unregulated market people are already buying from on the internet. I am in favor of that.
The big risk is that people read the news and think a scientist gave their blessing simply because it became more available.
Expanding legal options answers the question, who is allowed to make these? It does not address the question of how effective these peptides actually are. One of those questions deals with legal access and the other asks about scientifically verified results, yet they will both get treated the same.
Allowing a pharmacy to compound it means a pharmacy can make it. Allowing them to make it does not mean it will work.
Where I Land
Peptides are not peptides, and one answer is not the answer.
Topical peptides applied to the skin are mostly not toxic and, in most circumstances, they have been exaggerated. Peptides that are compounded or injected are promising enough to merit genuine study, and they are already used a great deal, far ahead of the studies and with almost no supervision.
Both of those sentences are true at once. Any coverage that picks one and runs with it is going to mislead somebody.
Why I Get Asked
I am board certified in plastic surgery. I practice in El Paso, Texas, and I am a Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L. Foster School of Medicine. I also sit on the editorial boards of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open.
I am not against peptides. I am against a word doing the work that evidence is supposed to do.
Ready to Talk?
If you are injecting something and cannot say what is in it, bring the bottle. Call (915) 590-7900, text 1-866-814-0038, or book online. #StayBeautiful
@RealDrWorldWide on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, @Agullo on X, or @AgulloPlasticSurgery on Facebook.
Companion reads: the plain guide to what is in the bottle at swplasticsurgery.com, and the surgical safety piece on agulloplasticsurgery.com.
