The Digester

A VA study of veterans with type 2 diabetes found that heart benefits from GLP-1 drugs like semaglutide shrink quickly after stopping the medication, with cardiovascular risk rising within months, though the study is observational and not definitive.

Researchers analyzed VA records from more than 300,000 veterans with type 2 diabetes between 2017 and 2023, including about 130,000 people prescribed GLP-1 drugs.
Two thirds of GLP-1 users in the study were on semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy.
People who stayed on GLP-1 therapy had an 18% lower risk of major cardiovascular events compared with patients on sulfonylureas.
Cardiovascular protection began to fade within six months of stopping GLP-1 therapy and the risk increased the longer patients remained off the drugs.
The study is observational and cannot prove that stopping GLP-1s causes heart events, and the VA population may not reflect the general public.
Common reasons for stopping include gastrointestinal side effects, lost insurance coverage, high out-of-pocket costs, and drug shortages, which can cause repeated on and off cycles.
The findings were published in BMJ Medicine and the study used target trial emulation to strengthen causal inference within observational data.

Stopping GLP-1 Drugs Linked to Rising Heart Risk, VA Study Finds

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