Anti obesity drugs offer heart health benefits beyond weight loss, study reveals
A new study has found that popular anti-obesity drugs can improve heart health regardless of how much weight people lose while taking them.
The research showed that individuals receiving the medication experienced significantly fewer heart attacks and strokes, with the benefits observed across all weight categories, from those who were only slightly overweight to those living with severe obesity. The improvements remained consistent irrespective of the amount of weight lost.
“These findings reframe what we think this medication is doing,” said Dr John Deanfield, one of the study’s authors and a professor of cardiology at University College London. “It is labelled as a weight loss jab, but its benefits for the heart are not directly related to the amount of weight lost.”
The study, published in The Lancet medical journal following a preliminary analysis last year, was funded by the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk. The firm manufactures semaglutide, marketed as Ozempic for type 2 diabetes and Wegovy for obesity and weight-related health conditions.
Semaglutide belongs to a class of drugs known as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, which promote weight loss by mimicking a natural hormone that helps people feel full for longer.
The clinical trial analysed data from more than 17,600 participants aged 45 and older who were living with overweight and had heart disease but did not have diabetes. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either weekly injections of semaglutide or a placebo.
Those treated with semaglutide saw a 20 per cent reduction in major cardiovascular events, including heart attacks and strokes. Researchers suggested that GLP-1 drugs may lower heart risks by reducing inflammation, improving blood pressure control, lowering cholesterol and other fats in the blood and enhancing the health of blood vessels.
Dr Deanfield said the findings support widening access to semaglutide rather than limiting its use to the most obese people or short treatment periods. However, he cautioned that “investigations of side effects become especially important given the broad range of people this medicine and others like it could help”.
Common side effects of the drug include gastrointestinal issues such as nausea, diarrhoea and vomiting.