[HN Gopher] Heart Attack and Stroke Risk Jumps When People Stop ...
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Heart Attack and Stroke Risk Jumps When People Stop Taking GLP-1s
Author : siquick
Score : 28 points
Date : 2026-03-20 21:42 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (nautil.us)
(TXT) w3m dump (nautil.us)
| Robotbeat wrote:
| Kind of makes sense that stopping taking a drug that reduces
| heart attack and stroke risk leads to a return to the higher risk
| of before.
| TaupeRanger wrote:
| Kind of a useless analysis if it doesn't compare the risk after
| stopping GLP-1s to the risk of NEVER taking GLP-1s in the first
| place.
|
| We probably don't know the numbers yet, but one can easily
| envision a scenario like: risk of CE without GLP-1 weight loss:
| 20%. Risk after taking GLP-1s for 2 years: 10%. Risk after
| stopping GLP-1s: 12%. "Your heart attack chance goes up 20% after
| stopping GLP-1s!!!"
| rayiner wrote:
| This is a very odd phrasing that makes it seem like heart attack
| and stroke risk are higher for those who stop taking the drug
| than those who never took the drug. Moreover, the effect of
| restarting taking the drug seems attributable to the study
| design. Those who took a break had higher risk at the end of the
| study than those who don't. But those who took a break took the
| drug for less total time than those who took it for the entire
| study.
|
| You could characterize these same facts in the opposite way.
| GLP-1s don't permanently change your body. They provide benefits
| while taking them but quickly clear out of your system when you
| stop taking them. Arguably, that's a good thing in a drug.
| IAmGraydon wrote:
| >This is a very odd phrasing that makes it seem like heart
| attack and stroke risk are higher for those who stop taking the
| drug than those who never took the drug.
|
| That does appear to be the case, according to the study.
| kube-system wrote:
| The conclusion of the study says:
|
| > This study showed that discontinuing and interrupting
| GLP-1RA treatment could erode and might _reverse the
| cardiovascular benefits of the drug_ in a duration dependent
| manner, increasing the risk of cardiovascular events.
|
| emphasis mine
| post-it wrote:
| It certainly does not. To make that claim, the study would
| need a control group of people who had never taken the drug.
| They didn't have that:
|
| > Participants Veterans Affairs users with type 2 diabetes
| who started treatment with GLP-1RAs (n=132 551) or
| sulfonylureas (n=201 136), followed up for three years.
| Veterans Affairs users were defined as having at least two
| visits to Veterans Affairs and having used the Veterans
| Affairs outpatient pharmacy within a year before receiving
| treatment with GLP-1RAs or sulfonylureas.
| ldayley wrote:
| How much of this could attributed to simply having less
| artificial hormonal support for not overeating after
| discontinuing treatment, and falling back into old habits? I'd
| love to see more research focused on these mechanisms.
| 46493168 wrote:
| In veterans with T2 diabetes:
|
| > To find out what happens when people stop taking GLP-1s, Al-
| Aly's team of researchers tracked the health of more than 333,000
| United States veterans with type 2 diabetes for three years.
| bethekidyouwant wrote:
| Studies get worse every year.
| jryio wrote:
| We finally found the first morbidity signal of GLP-1s (or lack
| thereof).
|
| These are life changing drugs, but like plastic we'll see their
| effect in force within this generation:
|
| > The longer time spent off GLP-1s, the greater the risk of major
| cardiovascular events--up to 22 percent for those who abstained
| for two years.
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(page generated 2026-03-20 23:00 UTC)