Weight Loss Drug Cuts Heart Attack Risk, Semaglutide Helps Heart Health!

         Prof John Deanfield, the director of the National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research and the lead author of the study, said the findings showed that the medication should be routinely prescribed to treat cardiovascular illnesses, and that millions of people across the UK could be taking the medication in the next few years.

       This fantastic drug really is a gamechanger. This [study] suggests that here are potentially alternative mechanisms for that improved cardiovascular outcome with semaglutide beyond weight loss … Quite clearly, something else is going on that benefits the cardiovascular system,” Deanfield said.

       The study involved 17,604 adults aged 45 and over with a body mass index of over 27 from across 41 countries. The participants, who had also previously experienced a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack, were prescribed either a 2.5mg weekly dose of semaglutide or a placebo for an average period of 40 months.

       Of the 8,803 patients in the semaglutide group, 569 (6.5%) experienced a primary cardiovascular end-point event, such as a heart attack, compared with 701 (8%) of the 8,801 patients in the placebo group.

       Prof Jason Halford, president of the European Association for the Study of Obesity, said that as the medication could be seen to improve cardiovascular health, it could be economically beneficial for it to be prescribed widely.

      “I think in the next 10 years we’ll see a radical change in the approach to healthcare,” he said. “Once the costs come down then the cost savings to the NHS will be significant. There are already people in the Treasury thinking about the savings to the economy because of the opportunity to boost productivity. You need to get your workforce as fit as possible.”

      About 7.6 million people in the UK are living with heart or circulatory disease, according to the British Heart Foundation.

      The trial of 338 participants living with obesity showed that participants lost 24% of their body weight over a 48-week period. Researchers say it is more effective for weight loss than Ozempic or Wegovy, which only work by suppressing appetite.

       Prof Naveed Sattar, of the University of Glasgow, who has worked on trials of other weight loss treatments, said: “Five or 10 years ago, we could never have imagined drugs that would cause this kind of weight loss. The trial suggests retatrutide still hadn’t plateaued, so it’s probably going to see more weight loss. If we give this drug even longer, I think it could reach nearly 30% of someone’s body weight.”