A study has found new evidence that some common weight loss drugs may have health benefits beyond weight loss and the treatment of heart failure. In a report published in the “Wall Street Journal” yesterday (Friday), researchers reported that the anti-obesity drug “Vagovi” relieves the symptoms of a common form of heart failure in patients suffering from obesity and receiving injections. Once a week for a year, fatigue, shortness of breath, and found that they could walk longer distances while losing an average of 13 percent of their body weight.

The results of the study were published online in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology in Amsterdam. It’s not just about helping people lose weight.

This treatment is also a cure for diabetes. Earlier this month, drugmaker Novo Nordisk announced that in a separate study, Wegovi reduced the risk of heart attack and stroke in overweight people without diabetes.

And researchers are evaluating other potential health benefits. Other companies, including Novo Nordisk, are studying the drug’s effects on conditions such as liver disease and sleep apnea, a dangerous sleep disorder that causes breathing to stop and repeat during sleep.

Lilly Mongoro makes another drug in its class that lowers blood sugar and suppresses appetite by mimicking gut hormones, including a hormone called GLB1.

More than 6 million Americans suffer from heart failure, a condition in which the heart does not pump blood well. It causes fatigue and shortness of breath, limits a person’s ability to perform daily tasks, and can lead to hospitalization and death.

Obese people are more likely to have a heart failure called ejection fraction, which means their heart is pumping blood at a normal rate, but muscle stiffness limits the total amount of blood being pumped. Doctors have noted that weight loss can help relieve symptoms.

In the recent Wegovi study, researchers enrolled nearly 530 heart failure patients. Half took Vicovi and the other half took a placebo. At the end of the study, people who took Vecovi improved on a questionnaire that assessed symptoms of heart failure. Patients who took Vecovi were able to walk 21 meters in six minutes more than they did at baseline. study, compared with an improvement of just 1.2 meters in the placebo group.

Luke’s Mid-America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, and the lead physician leading the study, said Vecovi “has real potential to be a fundamental paradigm shift in how we manage morbidly obese patients.” type of heart failure.”

Compared with 12 in the placebo group, only one Vecovi user was hospitalized or visited an emergency for heart failure, although the study was not designed to accurately measure the drug’s impact on hospitalizations, the journal reported.

Denmark-based Novo Nordisk plans to present the results of the study to US and European health authorities in 2024, pending the results of a separate study, hoping to gain approval to promote the benefits of “Vecovi” for heart failure. .