Weight-loss drugs appear to improve people’s sensitivity to tastes This could potentially lower their desire for sweets, researchers said Semaglutide changed the way the tongue and brain reacted to tastes MONDAY, June 3, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Ozempic and Wegovy appear to improve people’s sensitivity to tastes, potentially lowering their desire for sweets, a new study suggests. The active ingredient in the weight-loss medications, semaglutide, also appears to affect the way that the tongue and brain respond to sweet tastes, researchers reported Saturday at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston. “People with obesity often perceive tastes less ‘intensely,’ and they have an inherently elevated desire for sweet and energy-dense food,” said researcher Mojca Jensterle Sever , an endocrinologist with the University Medical Centre in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
For the study, researchers randomly assigned obese women to receive either semaglutide injections or a placebo. For four months, researchers measured the participants’ taste sensitivity using strips containing different concentrations of tastes. They also used MRI scans to measure brain responses to a sweet solution dripping onto their tongues, both before and after the women ate a standard meal.
Researchers also took tissue samples to evaluate genetic activity in the participants’ tongues. Women receiving semaglutide experienced changes in their taste perception, in the ways their taste bud genes expre.
