How AI and Genetic Testing Can Personalize Obesity Treatment and Weight Loss

A new, more personalized route to weight loss uses genetic testing, scientific research and artificial intelligence to customize a plan specifically for you.

With these advances, you will be able to discover actionable information, including:

• Why you weigh too much, categorizing you into one of four subgroups known as phenotypes
• The treatment plans that work best for people with that phenotype

Obesity is a chronic disease, and this new approach for conquering it is based on solid scientific information. It can help you know which method or combination of methods will actually work for your unique body: diet, exercise, longstanding medications, newer medications, endoscopic weight-loss procedures and bariatric surgeries.

How AI and Genetic Testing Identify Your Obesity Phenotype

The phenotype program has been approved by the FDA but is not yet widely available. Here’s how it works.

• Swab your mouth for DNA and send it to a lab for genetic testing. You might be asked to have a blood test, too.
• Fill out a detailed questionnaire.
• Download a smartphone app that will track your actions for a week.

Once that’s done, a company with the appropriate expertise will receive your information and an artificial intelligence-driven program will help synthesize all your data. Then your doctor will present you with details about your phenotype. This might look like witchery, but it comes from very scientific research.

The Four Obesity Phenotypes—and What They Mean for Treatment

Your results will show the real reason you struggle to slim down. Each diagnosis is paired with treatments proven to work with your mix of attributes.

• Hungry Brain: When Appetite Control Is the Challenge. If you polish off a full, filling dinner and keep going back for more, this is your phenotype. Hungry Brains likely benefit from an established procedure such as gastric bypass, which, in addition to letting you eat less per sitting, is likely to demolish your food noise, that constant obsession with eating common among overweight people. Psychotherapy pairs well here, along with a medication to balance your dopamine, which can lift your spirits.
• Hungry Gut: When You Don’t Stay Full for Long. You’re done with that satisfying dinner, walk away … and eat a whole lot more two hours later, and two hours after that. If that fits your eating style, and you’re not overly heavy, medications known as GLP-1s can help you lose weight and keep it off. This breed of drug slows down how food moves through your stomach; as a result, you’ll feel full for a longer time. Surgeries that slow down digestion can help too.
• Emotional Hunger: When Feelings Drive Eating. We all sometimes devour chips or cake when we have big emotions — distress or joy. But doing so regularly leads to high BMIs. In this case, the best path might be a combo of a longstanding, inexpensive drug called naltrexone, which cuts hunger, together with an equally established antidepressant, bupropion. Those together tackle both the cravings and the angst.
• Slow Burn: When Metabolism Is Slow. Slow burners have a sluggish metabolism. That’s it. Neither drugs nor surgery is likely to help much. The road to fitness is a healthy diet, plenty of sleep and regular exercise — because toned muscles burn more calories than soft ones. If that’s not enough, look into accelerating your metabolism with an old-school medication like phentermine, which suppresses hunger, or book a tried-and-true weight-loss surgery like gastric bypass, which, in addition to decreasing your stomach size, will make your digestive tract a better fat-burner.

You will be able to work with your doctor to create a treatment plan. Keep in mind that your results might be complex. You might have one predominant phenotype but interface with others. Medicine will never be black and white. And new elements, including new GLP-1 analogs, will enhance the results soon.

Is AI-Guided Genetic Testing for Weight Loss Right for You?

These programs are not yet covered by insurance. But all that is changing. The phenotype program will soon be a wise way to begin a weight-loss journey. So far, it seems that neither gender nor ethnicity affects results, but age might. As the offerings expand, look for doctors who specialize in weight loss to guide you through the process.

This content is not AI generated.