Now weight-loss drug can ease symptoms of deadly heart failure, as findings of new trial offers hope to half a million Britons

Weight-loss jabs can help ease symptoms of deadly heart failure, offering hope to half a million Britons.

A trial found semaglutide, known under the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy, helped women lose more weight than men but provided the same benefits to members of each sex who suffer from a common type of heart failure.

Experts said it suggests that it may be addressing an underlying mechanism of heart failure, in addition to the benefits of the patients’ weight loss.

The analysis is the first to look at the effects of the jab on men and women separately in relation to preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), where the heart pumps normally but is too stiff to fill properly.

The study involving 1,145 patients analysed the effects of a weekly 2.4mg jab over the course of a year.

Women shed more weight, losing an average of 9.6 per cent of their body weight compared to 7.2 per cent in men. But the jabs were found to improve heart failure symptoms, such as shortness of breath, fatigue and swelling in the legs and feet, in both sexes.

Patients were also able to do more exercise and had reduced levels of inflammation.

The new analysis, presented in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, comes after the jabs were found to significantly slash people’s chances of heart attack and stroke.

New analysis found the drug to be effective at slashing people’s chances of heart attack and stroke (file photo)

Findings presented at the European Congress of Obesity last month in Venice were touted as the most significant development in heart disease since the introduction of statins with use of the drugs set to ‘change clinical practice’. HFpEF affects around half a million people in the UK.

The annual mortality rate is 10 to 15 per cent and patients typically are hospitalised around once a year. Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation and consultant cardiologist, has previously spoken of the ‘exciting’ potential of this class of drugs, known as GLP-1 agonists.

She said: ‘For some people, living with heart failure can make everyday activities difficult or even impossible.

‘The kind of improvements, such as being able to walk further, could have a transformational impact on someone’s life.’