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Popular weight-loss drug Wegovy appears to offer additional health benefits to people with diabetes and heart failure. A new study shows that more than just helping to shed pounds.
The study, published Saturday in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed how the drug helped people with type 2 diabetes as well as one of the most common forms of heart failure. Obesity-related heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. This condition occurs when the heart beats regularly but is too strong to fill properly.
Current treatment for this condition includes lifestyle changes and Heart medicationsHowever, there are no approved treatments for this particular condition, and the number of people with the disease is growing significantly, the authors of the study said.
Obesity-related heart failure with a reduced ejection fraction severely limits a person's ability to participate in daily life. They often tire easily and have trouble breathing, and the condition can lead to a high risk of hospitalization, injury, and death.
People with type 2 diabetes often suffer from this type of heart failure They have a more severe form than people without diabetes.
The researchers who conducted this study – funded by the drug maker Novo Nordisk – also One final fall is published Wegovi found that heart disease has significant positive health effects for people without diabetes. But that's because people with diabetes may react differently to medication., They wanted to see if they could see similar results in this additional group.
People with more severe heart failure sometimes don't respond as well to medication as people with less severe disease. Weight loss studies also found that people with diabetes who took Wegovin tended to lose weight, but not to the same extent as people without diabetes.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved two semaglutide drugs that mimic the body's GLP-1 hormone to aid insulin production and signal the brain to reduce appetite. Ozympic It has been accepted In the year It was approved in 2017 for type 2 diabetes, and Wegovy in 2021 for obesity. In Marchthe FDA has also approved Wegovin to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death, heart failure, and stroke in adults with cardiovascular disease and obesity or overweight.
The new study appears to provide more evidence of Wegovi's benefits for people with diabetes.
For this study, the researchers divided 616 people with type 2 diabetes and heart failure into two groups with a preserved ejection fraction. The participants came from 108 sites in 16 countries and across Asia, Europe, and North and South America, and all had a body mass index of 30 or higher. One group received Wegovin, and the other group received a placebo.
Participants who received Wegovin started with a small dose and built up to 2.4 milligrams once a week. Researchers followed both groups for a year.
People who received Wegovin had significantly better results in terms of weight loss and reduced heart failure-related symptoms and physical limitations compared to those who received a placebo.
You can also walk away in six minutes. And it had improvements in biomarkers for inflammation and other problems.
The Wegovy-treated group had fewer adverse events, such as hospitalizations and emergency doctor visits, although the number of events was lower in both groups.
There were 55 reported serious adverse events in the Wegovin group and 88 in the placebo group. Six people died in the Wegovi group during the study, compared to 10 in the other group. One death in the Wegovy group and four deaths in the placebo group were related to cardiovascular complications.
The consistent positive results from this trial and those published last year seem to suggest that Wegovi is an effective and safe treatment for many people, including those with diabetes, said study co-author Dr. Mikhail Kosiborod, a cardiologist and vice president of research at St. Luke's Health System in Kansas City, Missouri.
One of the most common questions after last year's study is whether weight loss has the greatest positive effect on people with heart failure. But the new study may show otherwise, he said.
“I think the test results clearly indicate that, while weight loss is important, it can't explain everything,” Kosiborod said.
One might expect a 40% lower benefit if diabetic patients weighed 40% less than non-diabetic heart patients, but the positive benefits were similar.
“I think this is very interesting because first of all these patients are very difficult to treat, and there are so many of them every day.” Kosiborod he said. “And until recently we had very little to give them, so if we know that it actually modifies the disease process, we have something that is very effective – and very well tolerated, by the way – and that's really great news for patients.” And it's great news for doctors who care for patients.
The study has some limitations. The patient population in the US was more diverse than the US as a whole. Number of patients, 26% of study participants As for black identification, however, test sites in the rest of the world were not that diverse, so it would be difficult to generalize these results to everyone. Researchers need to follow people for more than a year to see if the drug produces lasting results.
Dr Navid Sattar, professor of cardiometabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, who was not involved in the study but did, said the new study shows how important strong randomized trials are in showing these weight loss drugs are effective and safe. Research for companies that make weight loss drugs. “The evidence here is mounting and reassuring,” Sattar said Science Media CenterA group that presents a scientific perspective to the media.
“This new well-designed trial suggests that excess weight moderates the effect of heart failure on the development of heart failure with a preserved ejection fraction. Prevention of obesity remains important, but new treatments to help people living with obesity achieve optimal weight loss may help people with heart failure and others with obesity.” They help improve many other associated conditions.
Kosiborod, who presented the study Saturday at the American College of Cardiology in Atlanta, said he thinks the study opens up a whole new way to treat heart failure by treating obesity.
“Obesity is so much more than weight. It's a systemic cardiometabolic disease that causes all kinds of bad things. Treating obesity involves weight loss, but it's much more than that,” he said. “We need to target it, and I think the future standards of care for this type of heart failure will improve, and in my mind, that will undoubtedly include obesity management.”