MILLIONS of people should be put on weight loss injections to protect their hearts, a leading doctor says.
Professor John Deanfield’s call came after a trial found taking semaglutide reduced the chances of early death, heart attack or stroke by 20 per cent for overweight people with heart trouble.
ReutersMillions of people should be put on weight loss injections to protect their hearts, a leading doctor says[/caption]
And the injections improved heart health even if patients in the three-year study did not lose weight.
The drug, used in fat jab brands Ozempic and Wegovy, could also be the biggest heart breakthrough since cholesterol-busting statins in the 1990s, according to Professor Deanfield, of University College London.
He told the European Congress on Obesity in Italy about four million overweight people in the UK with heart problems could benefit.
The professor, an NHS cardiologist in London, said: “We’re focusing on weight loss but something else is going on that benefits the cardiovascular system.
“This is the sort of thing we had with statins in the 1990s.
“We finally figured out there was a class of drugs that would change the biology of this disease.”
Seven to eight million people in the UK take statins to lower cholesterol or reduce heart problems.
Prof Deanfield said weight loss jabs could be routinely prescribed in the same way.
NEW weight loss drug retatrutide has been called the “Godzilla” of fat jabs after a trial showed slimmers lost up to 29 per cent of their body weight in a year.