European Society of Cardiology 2024 – weight loss drugs and beta blockers after heart attacks

It’s been a working weekend for me, as I have been lucky enough to attend the European Society of Cardiology meeting in London. It’s possibly the largest cardiology meeting in the world, rotating through a number of major European cities each year. There are 10s of thousands of delegates, hundreds of stands and presentation. It is HUGE! There has been so much content, that this week I’ll use both this email and my video to bring you the stand out messages.

Interestingly enough, one of the trials actually made it onto Sky news this morning. The article I saw online concerned the drug semaglutide, which is the weight-loss ‘wonder-drug’ that seems to have taken the world by storm. There has been considerable mention of this class of drugs (called GLP-1 agonists) at the conference, and I have conflicting emotions on them. Let me start with my emotions! I find the statistics pretty depressing – there has been around a 400% increase in obesity over the last 30 years, and childhood obesity in particular is at unprecedented levels. Conceptually therefore the idea that so many people need to turn to a medication to manage this epidemic is sad.

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