Ozempic, Wegovy help ease heart failure symptoms: study

Another day, another benefit to taking semaglutide, the popular drug marketed as Ozempic and Wegovy.

Originally FDA-approved to treat type 2 diabetes, semaglutide was later sold as Wegovy because of its proven weight-loss benefit. (Ozempic contains a smaller dose of semaglutide than Wegovy.)

Earlier this month, Wegovy was also shown to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.

And now, in a study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, Wegovy has been proven to reduce the symptoms of heart failure and improve the quality of life for people who are also obese.

“We are talking about marked improvements in symptoms such as shortness of breath, fatigue, inability to have physical exertion, swelling,” Dr. Mikhail Kosiborod, a cardiologist at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, told the Guardian.

“These types of improvements can be very impactful for patients living with heart failure,” Kosiborod added. “It is one of the most promising developments in this field.”

Heart failure occurs when the heart is too weak or stiff to pump blood properly. This may cause blood to back up, and fluid builds up in the lungs.

An estimated 6.2 million people in the US have heart failure, and it’s the leading cause of hospitalization in people 65 and over.

Also called congestive heart failure, it can be caused by narrow arteries in the heart or high blood pressure, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Heart failure can be deadly, and people with the condition may have severe symptoms including shortness of breath, fatigue, swelling in the legs and feet, irregular heartbeat, wheezing and a bloody cough.

The study included 529 people who took a weekly dose of Wegovy or a placebo for 52 consecutive weeks.

Those who took Wegovy had a 17-point improvement on a scale that measures the severity of heart failure symptoms, while those taking a placebo had only a 9-point improvement.

Another goal of the study was weight loss: Kosiborod, the lead author of the study, noted that some 80% of US patients with heart failure have obesity or are classified as overweight.

And study participants taking semaglutide lost about 13% of their body weight, compared with just 2.6% for those on placebo, over the course of the year-long trial.

Current treatments for heart failure include diuretics (“water pills”), which increase urination and reduce swelling, but Kosiborod described those as “woefully insufficient,” CNN reports.

Other drugs, known as SGLT2 inhibitors, also offer symptom improvements that are modest at best.

Kosiborod found the study results “extremely gratifying, because what I now can tell [patients] is that we have pretty definitive evidence that if we prescribe this medication, you will feel better and be able to do more, and it’s going to have a significant impact on your quality of life.”