Research
Hormonal
Obesity pharmacotherapy reduces the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in patients with established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) and BMI ≥ 27, independent of diabetes status.
If you have heart disease and are overweight (BMI ≥ 27), ask your doctor about semaglutide (Wegovy). It has been proven to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes, in addition to helping with weight loss.
WeakSupportsVERY_HIGH confidence
Over a mean duration of 40 months of follow-up, the risk of a major adverse cardiovascular event (death from cardiovascular causes, nonfatal myocardial infarction, or nonfatal stroke) was reduced by 20% with semaglutide versus placebo (hazard ratio [HR] 0.80, 95% CI 0.72 to 0.90).
Why this rating
Level 1a evidence from the SELECT trial (large RCT).
Source
Pharmacotherapy for obesity management in adults: 2025 clinical practice guideline update
Sue D. Pedersen et al. · Canadian Medical Association Journal · 2025
DOI 10.1503/cmaj.250502
clinical_guidelineCited 32×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Obesity pharmacotherapy is recommended against for compounded medications or unapproved medications due to safety and efficacy concerns.Good
- Long-term use of FDA/Health Canada-approved obesity pharmacotherapies (semaglutide, tirzepatide, liraglutide, naltrexone-bupropion, orlistat) combined with health behavior changes produces clinically meaningful weight loss and prevents weight regain upon discontinuation.Weak
- Tirzepatide (5-15 mg weekly) produces superior weight loss compared to semaglutide and placebo in adults with obesity, with dose-dependent efficacy.Weak
Related findings · Hormonal
- Initial treatment for type 2 diabetes should be a combination of metformin and either an SGLT-2 inhibitor or a GLP-1 receptor agonist to achieve cardiorenal protection, rather than monotherapy or older agents like sulfonylureas.Strong
- For patients with specific monogenic obesity syndromes (leptin deficiency, POMC/PCSK1/LEPR mutations), targeted pharmacotherapy (recombinant leptin or setmelanotide) is highly effective and should be prioritized, unlike in polygenic obesity.Strong
- Continued weekly administration of 2.4 mg subcutaneous semaglutide prevents weight regain and promotes further weight loss in adults with overweight or obesity, whereas switching to placebo results in significant weight regain.Strong
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