A major international study led by researchers at University College London has found that semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, may protect the heart even when users lose little or no weight.
The research, published in The Lancet and funded by Novo Nordisk, followed more than 17,000 adults aged 45 and older who were overweight and had cardiovascular disease.
Over two years, those who received weekly semaglutide injections saw a 20% reduction in heart attacks, strokes, and similar cardiovascular events compared with those who took a placebo.
More than just weight loss
Interestingly, this heart protection appeared across all body types, not just among people with obesity.
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Even participants with only modest weight loss still showed substantial cardiovascular benefits.
A smaller waistline explained about one-third of the protective effect, according to the study.
But most of the benefit, researchers found, could not be explained by weight change alone.
Rethinking how doctors use GLP-1 drugs
The findings could change how doctors prescribe semaglutide. Professor John Deanfield, who led the study, noted that patients don’t need dramatic weight loss or a high BMI to benefit.
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If the goal is to reduce heart disease risk, limiting use to people with the highest BMI doesn’t make sense, he explained.
However, he cautioned that doctors must continue to weigh the drug’s potential side effects against its broader use.
Although this research focused on semaglutide, scientists believe other GLP-1-based medications, a class of drugs originally developed for diabetes, could offer similar cardiovascular protection.
Researchers emphasized the need for future trials to include more diverse participants by sex and ethnicity to better understand how different populations respond to GLP-1 therapy.
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Sources: Science Daily, and The Lancet.
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