A recent study from researchers at UT Southwestern has shed light on an unexpected benefit of a commonly prescribed weight-loss drug called liraglutide.
This drug, which is often used to help people lose weight, may also play a significant role in improving heart health, especially in individuals who are overweight or obese and at high risk of heart disease.
Liraglutide is typically used to help people lose weight by suppressing appetite and slowing down the emptying of the stomach. But this study has discovered that it does much more than that.
For people who are overweight or obese, taking liraglutide daily along with making healthy lifestyle changes, such as eating better and exercising, can lead to a significant reduction in harmful types of fat in the body.
These fats, known as visceral fat and ectopic fat, are closely linked to serious heart problems.
Visceral fat is the type of fat that builds up deep inside the belly, wrapping around important organs like the liver, pancreas, and intestines. This fat is particularly dangerous because it can interfere with the way these organs work and increase the risk of heart disease.
Ectopic fat, on the other hand, is fat that accumulates in tissues where fat isn’t usually found in large amounts, like the liver, muscles, heart, and pancreas. Both types of fat are known to raise the risk of conditions like type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
In this study, 185 participants who were either overweight or obese were given a daily injection of liraglutide for 40 weeks. The results were impressive.
The participants experienced a significant reduction in visceral fat, especially those who didn’t have diabetes but were still carrying extra weight.
The amount of fat in their abdominal tissues was reduced by twice as much as the overall body weight, and the reduction in liver fat was even more striking, being six times greater than the overall weight loss.
This finding is important because it suggests that liraglutide doesn’t just help with losing weight on the surface; it specifically targets the most harmful fats that contribute to heart disease.
What’s more, these effects were consistent regardless of whether the participants had pre-diabetes, indicating that liraglutide could be beneficial for a wide range of people struggling with weight and heart health.
In addition to reducing harmful fats, liraglutide also helped lower blood sugar levels and inflammation in participants who didn’t have diabetes. This is crucial because high blood sugar and inflammation are both risk factors for heart disease.
The ability of liraglutide to lower these factors provides a potential explanation for why the drug could be so beneficial for heart health.
Obesity is a major health issue affecting about one in four adults and one in five young people. It significantly increases the risk of heart disease, which is one of the leading causes of death worldwide.
Reducing visceral and ectopic fat is critical in lowering the risk of developing heart disease and other related conditions like type 2 diabetes. However, identifying those at the highest risk and offering them effective treatment remains a challenge.
This study offers hope that liraglutide could be part of the solution, especially when combined with lifestyle changes like a healthy diet and regular exercise.
The study, which was published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, provides valuable insights into the broader benefits of weight-loss drugs like liraglutide.
While it’s commonly used to help people lose weight, this research shows that liraglutide might also be an effective tool for improving heart health, even in those who don’t have diabetes.
This could potentially change the way doctors approach treatment for overweight and obese patients, focusing not just on weight loss but also on reducing harmful fats that increase the risk of heart disease.
If you care about heart disease, please read studies that herbal supplements could harm your heart rhythm, and how eating eggs can help reduce heart disease risk.
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