Popular new weight loss drugs may not only shrink your pant size, but also your risk of heart attack, stroke and cardiac death, data shows.
Wegovy, a drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat obesity, reduced the risk of heart attack, stroke, and cardiac death in people who are overweight or obese and have heart failure, according to a study published Aug. 24 in the medical journal Lancet.
The study, funded by Novo Nordisk, the maker of Wegovy, looked at over 17,000 people in 41 countries who were over the age of 45 with preexisting heart disease.
Over 4,000 people in the study had some form of heart failure.
Those treated with Wegovy, the active ingredient in which is semaglutide, experienced a reduction in major cardiac events by up to 28%, and saw a 24% reduction in the risk of cardiac-related death and a 19% reduction in the risk of death from any cause.
Previous data from the same study, published in December in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that taking Wegovy reduced the risk of heart-related issues by up to 44% in people who are overweight or obese and without diabetes.
Over a span of, on average, 34 months, the people in the study taking Wegovy not only saw their risk of cardiac complications lower but also saw lower blood pressure levels and weight loss greater than people in the placebo group.
In the study, nearly 17% of the Wegovy users had side effects including cardiac, GI and nervous system issues serious enough to make them to drop out of the study.
Among all medications used for weight loss, the most commonly reported side effects are nausea and constipation, but irreversible gallbladder and pancreatic disease is also reported.