TUESDAY, May 21, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- You've watched others shed pounds in a matter of weeks after taking one of the new blockbuster weight-loss drugs, so you decide to try one of the medications yourself, only to discover the needle on your bathroom scale barely budges. Why? New research presented Monday at the Digestive Disease Week conference in Washington, D.C.
, suggests genes might be at play. Some patients will lose 20% or more of their body weight, but one study found that roughly 1 in 7 people who used the GLP-1 agonist semaglutide for more than a year didn’t lose at least 5% of their starting weight. Now, research shows that a new test that assigns a genetic risk score to patients may be able to spot who is likely to be successful on injected weight-loss medications.
The test, MyPhenome, was developed by researchers at the Mayo Clinic and licensed last year by a company they founded called Phenomix Sciences. It costs $350 and must be ordered by a health care provider, CNN reported. “Our data support that obesity has a strong genetic and biological basis that varies within patients living with obesity," lead investigator Dr.
Maria Daniela Hurtado Andrade said in a company news release . "Furthermore, our results underscore the potential of individualizing therapy to improve outcomes that will ultimately translate into improved health.” “We think that the test will be able to explain who will be able to lose weight, and we can predict with 95% accuracy who .
