Heart Health
Can a diabetes drug transform the treatment of obesity?
In studies, a weekly injection caused dramatic amounts of weight loss and improved other heart-related risk factors.
For treating most conditions closely linked to heart disease, a two-pronged approach works best: lifestyle changes plus medication. For obesity, however, the currently available drug options simply aren’t very effective. But that has changed with approval of Wygovy. It's a higher dose version of semaglutide, a drug originally developed to treat type 2 diabetes. The brand name
Semaglutide works by mimicking a substance called GLP-1, which is made naturally by the gut and the brain. It prods the pancreas to release insulin when blood sugar rises too high; it also reduces appetite and helps you feel full following a meal.
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About the Author
Julie Corliss, Executive Editor, Harvard Heart Letter
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