Research shows that semaglutide, the ingredient in shots such as Ozempic and its fat-burning cousin Wegovy, can reduce the risk of heart failure and cardiovascular death by almost a third.
Australian and international researchers analysed the health data of 3,533 diabetes patients who received the jab during one of the previous clinical trials.
By following the patients for three and a half years, they found that those taking semaglutide in the experiment had up to a 27 percent lower risk of heart failure and a 29 percent lower risk of death.
The According to the authors, this suggests that the drug may have a positive effect on people with heart failure due to obesity.
However, they said the precise mechanism by which the drug actually worked to reduce the risk of heart failure and death was still “not fully understood”.
Researchers found that people who took semaglutide during the experiment had up to a 27 percent lower risk of heart failure and up to a 29 percent lower risk of death.
They theorized that it could be partly related to the weight loss of people taking the drug, but added that the drug likely also has a direct effect on people’s cardiovascular health.
The results, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiologyare the latest to discover that semaglutide may have benefits for heart health.
This comes after the UK medicines regulator earlier this year approved the use of semaglutide to prevent heart attacks and strokes in overweight patients.
The decision comes after scientists welcomed the results of a study earlier this year, which showed that patients taking these drugs reduce their risk of these health problems by as much as a fifth. There were also calls for the drugs to be used more widely.
The British regulator Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) indicated at the time that the weekly injections should now also be offered to obese and overweight adults with cardiovascular disease as a ‘preventive treatment’.
It could open the door to millions of Britons being able to get the fat-burning jab.
The expansion of the conditions for which semaglutide can be prescribed in the UK only applies to Wegovy, the formulation of the drug for patients wanting to lose weight, rather than Ozempic, which remains specifically for diabetes.
Cardiovascular disease is the cause of around a quarter of all deaths in the UK, which equates to 170,000 deaths a year or 480 deaths a day.
According to the MHRA, the following conditions apply: a BMI of 27 or higher, a value that indicates that someone is overweight and a diagnosed cardiovascular disease.
Currently, people in the UK can only get Wegovy through the NHS if they have a BMI of at least 30 and a health condition related to their weight, such as high blood pressure.
The MHRA’s decision does not mean that the NHS will immediately prescribe Wegovy on this new basis.
A separate body, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), must assess whether Wegovy is making cost-effective use of taxpayers’ money in this way.
NICE told MailOnline it expects to publish the results of the appraisal next summer.
Ozempic and Wegovy are hormone injections that trick the body into feeling full, causing people to lose weight.
Losing weight already helps to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes. However, the clinical risk reduction observed was also clearly visible in patients who did not lose weight.
This suggests that the drugs target an underlying biological mechanism that reduces the risk of such events.
Doctors believe this may be due to mechanisms such as improving blood sugar levels, blood pressure or inflammation, as well as direct effects on the heart muscle and blood vessels.
Wegovy and Ozempic work by stimulating the body to produce a hormone called GLP-1 which is naturally released from the gut after meals
Although semaglutide-based drugs are associated with a number of benefits, like all medications, they come with side effects that vary in severity and frequency.
The most common complaints are gastrointestinal complaints, such as nausea, diarrhea, constipation and vomiting.
But other, stranger symptoms, such as hair loss, have also been reported in some patients.
Ministers in Britain have previously made plans to provide the drug to millions of obese Britons, in a bid to cut the sky-high benefits the country receives from sick Britons who take time off work and curb the rising cost to the NHS of treating excess fat.
While the hormone-mimicking injections are designed to help obese patients become healthier, there are also growing concerns about the number of normal-weight and underweight patients taking these injections for cosmetic reasons.
Some even required emergency care after getting vaccinated to get “beach body ready.”
Young women in particular are said to purchase Wegovy from online pharmacies. The pharmacies offer the products for amounts between £150 and £200 ($200-$250) per month, after providing false information about their appearance and health.
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In some cases, it is thought that people who receive the vaccinations without a valid medical reason do so as a result of an eating disorder.
The increasing demand for the vaccines worldwide, including among people who take them for cosmetic reasons, has left some diabetes patients struggling to get enough vaccines.
It has also led to a huge increase in profits for pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk, which makes Ozempic and Wegovy.
Earlier this year, the Danish company announced it was making £32 million a day as countries struggling with the financial costs of fat tissue fight to get their hands on the vaccines.
Analysis shows that the combined turnover of the Ozempic and Wegovy brands generated £20.5bn this year.