A Big Advance in Heart Failure Outcomes with Tirzepatide

By 38%, Tirzepatide cuts the risk of bad outcomes in persons with obesity and an increasingly common form of heart failure that obesity causes. The diagnosis is heart failure with preserved ejection fraction or HFpEF. The measure of bad outcomes it prevents was a composite worsening heart failure or death from cardiovascular disease. Worsening heart failure means that a person winds up in the hospital or receives more intensive outpatient therapies because their heart failure symptoms became more severe.

A Big Deal

Make no mistake. With a simultaneous presentation at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions and publication in the New England Journal of Medicine, this is a big deal.

Milton Packer, one of the world’s most distinguished researchers on heart failure, was first author on the NEJM publication. He explained why this is such a big advance:

“These results indicate tirzepatide produced meaningful benefits for people living with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and obesity. The patients experienced a lower combined risk of worsening heart failure events and cardiovascular disease death, along with improved health status and exercise tolerance.

“This is the first trial to demonstrate that a medication can change the clinical trajectory of the disease in patients with HFpEF and obesity.”

Growing Evidence for Benefits of Treating Obesity

This study is part of a pattern that is becoming increasingly clear. Research is showing that diseases resulting from obesity get better with effective treatment for obesity itself. Harvard’s Fatima Cody Stanford explains:

“In this study have yet another example of a disease state linked to obesity that improves with the use of this drug. I’m confident that we will continue to see improvements in other disease processes as we conduct further studies in persons with obesity.”

The list is gets longer as new studies emerge. It includes heart disease, heart failure, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, kidney disease, and liver disease. All of these conditions seem to have better outcomes with effective obesity treatment.

Obesity can wreak havoc with a person’s health. Effective treatment can have sweeping benefits.

Click here for the new study in NEJM, here, here, and here for further perspective.

Upper Antelope Canyon Heart Formation, photograph by Tuxyso, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

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November 17, 2024