Australia's leading heart experts are recommending weight loss drugs be used to help reduce heart attacks and strokes, adding pressure on the federal government to subsidise the medications so more people can afford them.
Teacher Scott Kenny was at death's door when he first met cardiologist Peter Purnell. Nearly 140kg, diabetic and at serious risk of a heart attack, he had tried ways to lose weight that had not been greatly successful.
Prescribed the weight loss drug Mounjaro, the results were dramatic. He lost 65kg last year, but there were other benefits.
“I've reversed diabetes, I've reversed my hypertension, I've quit smoking cigarettes,” Kenny said. “I used to feel pressure on my chest on a regular basis and now I don't feel any of that.”
New research has found these GLP-1 medications may protect the heart beyond helping people lose weight.
“You don't have to be the heaviest person to get benefit from this type of medication,” Purnell said.
The Heart Foundation on Monday recommended the drugs for patients with heart disease or high cardiac risk in new national obesity guidelines, which could benefit thousands of Australians.
“In the next decade about half of our population will be living with obesity. It's incredibly timely for us to do better to manage this,” spokesperson Natalie Raffoul said.
But with these medications still costing hundreds of dollars a month, pressure is mounting on the federal government to expand subsidies for those high-risk patients, as well as calls for the drug companies to lower their prices and put patients over profit.
“We hope that everybody has the access to these medicines that need it,” Raffoul said.
Scott says the treatment changed his life. He remembers when he was a 4XL. Now he wears his new lease on life.
