You need to take care of yourself in order to live a long and healthy life. But sometimes you needs some medicine to lower your risk of death. Scientists from the University of Glasgow have found that a new class of diabetes medications, called GLP-1 receptor agonists, can reduce the chance of heart attacks, strokes and death. And this effect is quite significant.
It is crucial that you take care of your heart and GLP-1 receptor agonists can help you do that. Image credit: Pia von Lützau via Wikimedia (GFDL)
GLP-1 receptor agonists are a relatively new drug class. They are used to treat diabetes, but for a while scientists have been suspecting that these drugs could bring cardiovascular benefits. Scientists now have performed a large meta-analysis study, summarizing the risks and benefits of GLP-1 receptor agonists. Researchers found that these drugs can reduce the chance of heart attacks, strokes and death from cardiovascular disease by 14-15%. Furthermore, they reduce the risk of all-cause mortality by 12-13%.
And it’s not only that. GLP-1 receptor agonists were shown to reduce hospital admission for heart failure by 11%. GLP-1 receptor agonists reduce the build-up of plaque inside arteries by 17-19%, which is basically what reduces the risk of stroke. Of course, these benefits are especially important for people with type 2 diabetes, but scientists could see them being applied to patients of other conditions as well. Newer GLP-1 receptor agonists can even help people achieve considerable weight loss of around 10kg or more.
Naveed Sattar, one of the authors of the study, said: “The new results for prevention of heart failure and reducing risk of kidney outcomes, support that this class of drugs does benefit cardiorenal outcomes, albeit more modestly than the other newer class of diabetes drugs called SGLT2 inhibitors.” GLP-1 receptor agonists would be very helpful for people with diabetes as well as for those with an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease.
More research needs to be done about the safety and effectiveness of cardiovascular disease. However, scientists are hopeful that GLP-1 receptor agonists could be used to help lose weight, reduce blood pressure, and plaque formation in blood vessels. All in all GLP-1 receptor agonists could reduce mortality. But before these drugs can be widely used, they need to be tested in larger studies.
Novel drug candidates emerge all the time. However, they rarely have such a big promise as GLP-1 receptor agonists. Hopefully, at least most of these effects can be confirmed in further studies.
Source: University of Glasgow
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