A major new study has found that a drug called semaglutide can greatly improve heart health in people who are overweight or obese—even if they don’t have diabetes.
This is exciting news because it could offer a new way to protect the heart in a large number of people worldwide.
The research was done through a big international clinical trial. The participants were all people who were overweight or obese, but they did not have diabetes. For three years, they took part in a carefully controlled study. They were given either semaglutide or a placebo—a fake treatment that looks the same but has no real effect.
Semaglutide is already used to treat people with type 2 diabetes and has been approved as a weight loss drug. It is usually taken as a weekly injection using a special pen. In this study, participants started on a low dose, which was slowly increased over time.
The results were impressive. People who took semaglutide had a 20% lower chance of having a heart attack, a stroke, or dying from heart disease compared to those who got the placebo. On top of that, they also lost about 9.4% of their body weight, which is a meaningful amount when it comes to improving health.
The drug was found to be mostly safe. Some people did stop using it because of mild stomach problems, but these side effects weren’t considered serious. Most participants were able to keep using it along with their regular treatments for heart disease.
One of the most important things about this study is that it focused on people who had heart disease but didn’t have diabetes. Before now, many heart-related studies involving semaglutide included people with diabetes. This research shows that the drug may help a wider group of people than we thought.
This could be very useful at a time when obesity rates are rising all over the world. Heart disease is one of the top causes of death, and semaglutide could help prevent further problems in people who are already at risk. Researchers believe this drug may offer a new way to manage heart health for millions of people.
More studies are being planned to understand exactly how semaglutide helps the heart. Scientists also hope to make the treatment easier to access for those who need it.
One thing to keep in mind is that most of the people in this study had already experienced heart disease, and there were fewer women in the group than in the general population. Future research may focus on these gaps to see how the drug works for different types of people.
Overall, this research is an important step forward in the fight against heart disease. It shows that protecting your heart might be possible, not just through diet and exercise, but also with the right medication—even if you don’t have diabetes.
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