A New Genetic Test Could Determine Which Weight Loss Drug Will Actually Work For You

As popular as the latest drugs being touted for weight loss, including Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Wegovy, are on social media, like any medications, they don’t work in the same way for everyone. Not all are even approved to treat obesity, but are being used off label as a relatively easy way to shed pounds. While some users lose up to 20% or more of their body weight on these drugs, others struggle to shed single digit percentages. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, since obesity isn’t a monolith and the factors that contribute to extra pounds are different for different people. In the same way that cancer doctors are now bringing more precision to which treatments they use by learning about the genes that drive people’s cancers, doctors who treat obesity are beginning to figure out the major contributors to an individual person’s obesity. That’s been catalyzed by the new class of more effective weight loss drugs that have been recently approved, with more on the way. Now that those medications are available, doctors are focusing on directing patients to the best treatments for them, whether it’s one of the newer drugs, some combination of older drugs, or a keener attention to diet and exercise. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] While obesity and diabetes specialists have been applying this tailored approach to helping their patients lose weight for many years, it’s not as familiar for medical professionals who aren’...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Weight loss Source Type: news