Findings suggest that drugs have the risk of reducing heart disease, diabetes and stroke.
In obese or overweight adults, weekly treatment with the glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1) receptor agonist semaglutide results in reduced excess body fat and increased lean body mass, according to an industry-sponsored study presented at ENDO 2021, the Endocrine Society. is. annual meeting.
“Our findings suggest that semaglutide, through weight loss and improving body composition, has the potential to reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes and stroke in overweight or obese people,” said lead researcher John Wilding, DM, FRCP. of the University of Liverpool.
Obesity carries many health risks. Excess fat in the abdominal area, especially fat in and around the abdominal organs, also called visceral fat, contributes to the major causes of death and disability, including heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, cancer, fatty liver disease and diabetes.
The study, called STEP 1, included 1,961 adults with a body mass index (BMI) of 27 or higher with at least one weight-related health condition, or a BMI of 30 or higher, without diabetes. A person is classified as overweight if their BMI is 25 to 29.9, and the extent of obesity is a BMI of 30 or more.
The study participants were randomly assigned to inject themselves once a week for 68 weeks with 2.4 milligrams of semaglutide or a placebo. Semaglutide, already approved by the US Food and Drug Administration at a lower dose of 1 mg per week as a treatment for type 2 diabetes, is a synthetic version of the natural hormone glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1). It works at appetite points in the brain and in the intestines and causes feelings of fullness.
As part of the study, the researchers used dual energy absorptiometry (DEXA), a technique widely used clinically to assess body composition, to monitor the effects of treatment on total body fat and belly fat in 140 of the participants. . .
They found that treatment with semaglutide has a better body composition by reducing excess body fat, including abdominal fat, and increasing the amount of lean body mass, or the amount of weight that someone who is not body fat carries. The more body weight a participant has lost, the greater the improvement in body composition.
In February 2021, the researchers presented findings from the STEP 1 trial in The New England Journal of Medicine showing that patients who injected semaglutide lost on average about 15% of their body weight, compared with 2.4% among patients receiving the placebo. More than one-third of the participants who received semaglutide lost more than 20% of their weight. Many patients have experienced improvements in risk factors for heart disease, blood sugar levels, and quality of life.
Meeting: END 2021