Semaglutide helps your heart even if the scale doesn’t mean strength, study shows
The benefits of Semaglutide, the active ingredient in the popular drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, are not limited to obesity management. New research shows that semaglutive can protect people’s hearts regardless of how many pounds they lost while taking it.
The scientists examined data from a large clinical trial of people with obesity and existing heart disease. Compared to placebo people, they found, those on Sekelallutive were less likely to develop heart attacks and other heart problems — even if the people didn’t lose a lot of weight. The results show that semaglutive can improve heart health in more ways than one, researchers and outside experts say.
The finding “underlines that the cardioptive effects of semaglutide can be prolonged without confusion with weight loss,” Laurence Sperling, a cardiologist at Emory University who was not involved in the study, told Gizmoto.
Good for the heart
Semaglutide and other glp-1 drugs have ushered in a new era of obesity (and diabetes) treatment. But for a while, it was unclear whether these drugs could also improve people’s heart health, and to what extent.
Novo Nordisk (makers of Ozempic and Wegovy) sponsored a large, controlled, double-blind, and double-blind study designed to answer that open question – a selective trial. It involved nearly 17,000 people with obesity and a history of heart disease, who were followed for five years. The main results from the selected case, published almost two years ago, showed that the high semaglutive (a version approved as segaglutive for the treatment of heart attacks) and other major heart attacks and other major cardiac events by 20% during the study period. Based on these findings, the administration of drugs and drugs increased its approval of Wegovy to cover the prevention of heart disease in high-risk groups.
Since obesity is known to increase the risk of heart disease, it is easy to imagine that Semaglutide’s cardiovascular benefits are tied more to helping people lose weight. But some evidence suggests it’s more complicated than that. In this new study, some of the selected case investigators took a closer look at their data.
In the end they did not find a clear relationship between reducing the specific weight lost in the study (20 weeks) and their reduced risk of heart disease. The cardioprotective benefits of semaglutive were also similar in different weight groups. In other words, a person who is overweight (body mass index among studies) often sees the same reduction in the risk of heart disease as compared to a person who is very high (BMI more than 40).
“This gives us important information that maybe we should look at the index of these drugs in excess of your bmi is over 27,” Howard Weinstraub, Bmistrive Directiologist of heart disease at New Langone Heart, told Gizmodo. WeinTrauub was one of the lead researchers of the original case study but is not involved in the new study.
A study found an association between waist circumference in a pet animal study and the risk of heart disease. The more a person’s waistline, for example, the greater the reduction in risk they had. Waist circumference is another form of excess body fat. So Semaglutide’s reduction in body fat seems to help explain why it prevents heart disease – but only in part. The investigators estimated that only a third of Semaglutide’s effect in reducing heart disease could be accounted for by trimming the waistline.
The group’s findings were published Tuesday in The Lancet.
Without losing weight
The authors say the findings could have far-reaching implications for how semaglutide and similar drugs will be used. If the benefits of his heart are more independent of losing weight, then it would not be useful to limit the prescription of these drugs based only on BMI. People taking semaglutive who lose enough weight to no longer qualify as obese may be able to continue the drug with heart-protective effects — just like those who don’t lose a lot of weight, too.
It is also possible that GLP-1 therapy may one day be used as a surveillance method for cardiovascular disease, regardless of BMI. Richard Kovacs, the Chief Chief of the Cardiovascular Endiana University’s School, who was not involved in the study, said that these findings could set future guidelines for how doctors treat heart disease.
“This is a potential game changer because of its strong effect here. This is a well-functioning trial, the biggest trial of all time,” Kovacs, who is the chief executive of the American College of Cardiology, told Gizmodo. At the same time, he adds, it may still take a lot of data for at least one large randomized trial of a simple change.
One important question that remains to be answered is how these drugs can improve our heart health. The researchers say some of the drug’s protection may come from its anti-inflammatory effects, both in excess body fat and elsewhere. But the influence of drugs on the control of blood sugar or our blood vessels may also play a part.
Another question is whether these heart-altering effects can be seen in people who are overweight or obese – something Kovacs suspects will be tested soon enough. And it is still important to study whether the same benefits are seen with other GLP-1 drugs, including new drugs that combine GLP-1S with other compounds.
Meanwhile, this research continues to show that there is still a lot left to learn about these game-changing drugs.
“I don’t think we know everything that glp-1 alonons do. “So doctors will need to look at this beyond the Prism of the tiktok video, where children want to lose a few kilos to look smaller.
