VOICE FOR EVERYONE | Share your voice with KSHB 41’s Abby Dodge
Kansas City doctors are at the center of breakthrough research for heart failure patients.
A global 52-week trial found overweight or obese heart failure patients who took a weekly injection of semaglutide, commonly known as Ozempic or Wegovy, saw an improvement in their symptoms — shortness of breath, fatigue, swelling and inability to exercise.
Dr. Mikhail Kosiborod is a cardiologist at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute and the study’s lead investigator, who also consults for Novo Nordisk, the maker of Wegovy.
“It’s great news for patients because it’s an entirely novel way of potentially treating this particular type of heart failure in the setting of obesity,” Kosiborod said. “Targeting obesity is, from this point on, should become one of the key therapeutic strategies, key treatment strategies to help our patients that have this combination of heart failure an obesity.”
Nancy Collins, a Kansas City area resident, participated in the study and said it changed the way she lives her life.
“I know I still have heart problems,” Collins said. “But they are not effecting me like they were before and I’m very thankful for that.”
Before the trial, Collins said she found daily tasks like walking up the stairs and taking care of her lawn difficult to perform. At one point she was hospitalized.
“I really felt like this was a beginning of an end,” Collins said.
After losing almost 40 pounds, Collins said she wants to see 100 and hopefully a great grandchild.
“I want to get a lot out of life,” Collins said. “I am anxious for life to come and what there is in the future.”
You might be wondering if weight loss without the help of medication would have given Collins and other patients the same result.
The study’s lead investigator said the effects of the trial are above and beyond weight loss alone.
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