The papers are full of reports that this would be another wonder drug for Heart Failure. One paper says it’s for patients with preserved ejection ,the other didn’t specify.
It also slates Obese patients who are in the majority for heart failure. I am not a slim Jemima so feel everyone will be saying ‘serves her right ! Feeling rather glum.
Are you all puddings like me……..I don’t think so……..Or are you ?
Hey Ho !
hi. I read that too. I know people with heart problems who are very slim and athletic and also those who are carrying extra weight. There can be a multitude of reasons for heart problems and it’s wrong to say that it’s only obese people who have it. There are some lovely people on this forum but I always feel that people are quite guarded about the issue of weight and don’t like to say if they are heavy. I feel that most of this is due to the fear of being “fat shamed”. It can be quite disheartening to read that everyone is slim and doing tons of exercise if you aren’t able to achieve that yourself. It can make you feel like a failure no matter how happy you might feel for them in their achievements. . The problem with social media is that you can portray yourself as anything you want to be online even if it bears no resemblance whatsoever to the reality. I suspect that not everyone who posts on this site has a bmi of 23, runs 10k a day and eats a perfect diet. Xx
Thank you Anon. I certainly know people who are slim, fit, splendid diet who have died before me . So things happen . I should have added than I am 80 so shouldn’t be complaining !
I bet you still have plenty of years in you yet. I know 80 year olds who live life to the full!! X
Well Anon….Thanks for that ! I need all the encouragement I can get
at the moment. I had breast cancer about five years ago with Chemo which wasn’t great and it landed me with HF. Now I am being looked after very well by my HF nurses and a sack full of drugs. My mobility is pathetic !
I would say if you are 80 years old, then keep on keeping on with how you live. You sound like you are doing well. I believe extra fat and cholesterol in your senior years is beneficial. Healthy weight is not achieved with a pill, those pill also say they work along with diet and exercise. Skip the pill, adjust the diet if you want to lose a few pounds.
Thank you Jack. You are very encouraging !
I would ditto on that. My mother in law who did suddenly pass away a couple years ago (nothing to do with the heart) was very overweight. Yet she was nearly 90 years old and active (not going to the gym, but travelling, playing bridge, being with friends and family, reading loads - generally interested in life and enjoying it) She was amazing because she mentally enjoyed life - her weight never stopped her 
I am slim and active with a good diet and only 53, yet I and have high cholestrol and heart failure - life is funny. Take care of the whole of you - mind and body. You sound like a very nice person so also hug yourself and appriciate yourself
I expect many of the experts 🤔 haven't reached the age where many, including me, have gone from being skinny beanpoles to fat shamers targets age. Other medical issues make mobility almost impossible sadly and unless I only ate a lettuce leaf a day, oops no good as vitamin k will mess the INR up too 😂. Sadly, average, tick box algorithms don't really come up with what really happens to older people.If younger people can be active enough and healthy enough to maintain a healthy weight then would very much encourage them to do so while they can, but weight is an individual complex thing.
Keep going bones-bones I'm 82 and as fit as the mobility scooter allows.
Live, Love, Laugh best medicine. Doughnut anyone 😆
Hi guys
I think once weight has its talons in you, it’s an uphill battle.
so you can be lesbian gay bisexual transsexual queer intersexual asexual plus but can still be ‘fat shamed’ in this world! I get fat shamed, denied knee replacement and ablation because I’m a lard a*se! Life isn’t fair unless it’s the current trend. My sympathy and empathy, anger and exasperation Take care. 🦊xx
Thank you Bingo fox.
I can sort of accept the surgeons don’t like to do surgery on us as we are higher risk. I blame the media for all the alarmist headlines….their main object in life is to bring bad news….never mind the human side of it.
Well - I'm a 63yr-old life-long skinny-minnie, Bones - not for want of trying to put a bit of weight on - and I've a couple of heart attacks and a triple bypass under my belt from last January/February! Always been reasonably fit with a healthy attitude to food. It works the other way too, last time I was admitted to hospital by ambulance with an AF attack (October last year) the night shift doctor took one look at me, and before doing anything or even looking at my medical records, said in such a sneering condescending tone, "well, you certainly don't look as if you have heart problems" - so I offered to show her my bypass scar 😜. Thankfully the cardiologist who looked after me that night soon put her right! I hate the way weight, either too little or too much, is wrongly taken into account in such a lot of cardiac situations.
Thank you Cee Cee. I was a skinny child and didn’t lose my way till I had children !
I’m sorry….You seem to have a bit of a torrid time and I hope things are looking up now. We all need to stick together !
Thank you, Bones - things are absolutely fine and, in all honesty, I've had a new lease of life in the 18 months since the bypasses after the initial, quite short, recovery period!👍 I'd been feeling quite grotty for a couple of years prior to it and was sort of putting it down to aging! 😊 As Mummasoap mentions, I think there's a bit of 'age discrimination' sometimes involved in diagnostics too!😱 Carol
I had a similar experience during my admission after being diagnosed Carol! I was the youngest on the ward and nearly every nurse I saw said “ gosh you’re young to be in here” or something of that ilk. I did explain that I wouldn’t be there if I didn’t need to be 🤣
bones-bones I’m slim, always have been and like Carol, not through lack of trying to put on a bit extra. I don’t have the world’s best diet but I do try to eat a balanced diet (so chocolate in one hand and crisps in the other 😂🤭). In all seriousness though, I don’t believe that weight has a large a bearing on health as is sometimes implied. Yes of course it’s important to eat healthily and well but some of it is just genetics and we can’t escape that!
Best wishes
Soap 🧼
Mumma Soap. You said;
"Does weight have a large bearing on health?"
I saw an interesting item in one of the daily newspapers about excess fat , the amount of blood vessels needed to support it and the effect on the heart and decided to check it out. It was Broadly correct and two articles –and a clarification- provided more detail.
Unlikely to have much impact if you have a small body and only mildly overweight, the effect ramps up the more overweight you are and has a serious impact if you are obese.
Fact: Every pound of fat gained causes your body to make 7 new miles of blood vessels.
Knowing this, it’s easy to see why obesity and heart disease often go together. Most of the new blood vessels are tiny capillaries, but also include small veins and arteries. This means if you are “only” 10 pounds overweight your heart has to pump blood through an extra 70 miles of blood vessels. The good news is that this also works in reverse. If you lose a pound of fat, your body will break down and reabsorb the no longer needed blood vessels. This is encouraging to dieters, as one pound does not seem like a lot to lose, but even that little bit of difference will result in a large benefit for your heart!
listverse.com/2012/09/01/10...
follow up;
Sorry but that is not fact, muscle has 6.5 miles per pound and fat has 3.5 miles meaning it you have more muscle than fat you are at great risk...
Page 5 of Vander, Sherman, & Luciano's Human Physiology, the Mechanisms of Body Function 9th ed. Mcgraw-Hill
That’s really interesting, thank you for your reply devonian186
I suppose naively I never gave it that much thought but that makes a great deal of sense.
The difference between muscle and fat in terms of blood vessels is really interesting too.
Best wishes
Soap 🧼
I'm going to own up on this one, having been a heart patient since 1961, I feel as though I can now come out and freely admit to being an obese infant and an obese 10st wet through 33year old when I had my first AVR. Now as a 12.5st, 62year old with Heart Failure I obviously still haven't learnt my lesson.
Heedio…Thank you. 12.5 stone would be fine with me !
Is this connected to the fat drug for diabetics coming out next year.
This drug is Wegovy - it's designed for controlling Type 2 Diabetes sugar/insulin levels.
It's also got a secondary use for reducing the risk of CVD or stroke for those with type 2 diabetes.
The drug is currently available on the NHS for these conditions.
It's other secondary use is to aid in weight loss for adults with high blood pressure or cholesterol. Having diabetes isn't a prerequisite for this.
The drug is not currently available on the NHS for weight loss, but can be bought as a private prescription for off lable use.
Thanks for that my capitan, I have read that this drug costs up to US$1,000 a month. Hope the NHS has ever deepening pockets and those who can afford it get it privately.
Yea it's about £200 a month to have it prescribed privately in the UK
Again thanks captain.
it feels like another thing where print media, and sadly social media, polarise everything. I met someone recently who had heard about this drug and was saying that it was shocking if diabetic people couldn’t get it because of the obese people taking it. (As if they are in completely separate camps!) There was definitely an element of blaming overweight people.
I’ve also found younger ‘body confidence’ influencers ignoring the risks of obesity too much, sort of going too far the other way. We all have such different metabolisms, and of course a lot of weight gain can put us in a vicious circle with lack of activity.
I’m just a little heavier than I would like to be, and argue that it fills our the wrinkles - but would really love to get that last half stone off.
Sometimes it feels to me that our current press and also social media just revel in pitting people against each other. I’ve never known a time when people were so judgemental of others, while feeling smug and ‘in the right’.
I've been advised I have heart failure by GP. EP says its borderline heart failure, Consultant says asymptomatic heart failure or not at all.I'm summising from this that it is not a straightforward diagnosis and they go with the patient experience, symptoms and stats, like EF.
I'm not skinny but but not overweight either. Within the bmi range. I also, luckily, don't carry weight around my middle.
When I was very underactive with thyroid (due to heart meds plus family hxy) I put on weight and one cardiologist I saw then was pretty scathing about weight and I felt very shamed. Not helpful when you're feeling vulnerable.
I am slim and very active, yet I got heart failure. There is many reasons why one can get heart failure. saying it is only one reason is wrong.
I have been on Ozempic for a long time having had two heart attacks and being type2 diabetic my gp says it’s beneficial for people who’ve had cardiovascular events and are diabetic, it’s now annoying that there’s a shortage because of the drug being prescribed off licence for obesity, may I add some of the side effects are very unpleasant while your body adjusts.
A lot of it is genetic. My BMI is between 25 and 30, but 20 years ago my doctor put me on heart meds with the words, “With your family history you’ll be on medication for the rest of your life.”
My mother’s father died at 64 and my mother at 62, both HA (my mother had had a heart bypass). One of my older sisters and my older brother have had heart bypass operations. I had a HA at 66. Four stents
I don’t smoke, exercise regularly, mostly eat sensibly and generally feel as fit as a butcher’s dog. But it’s hard work and very easy to fall off the wagon (especially after I had Covid).
You’ll get lots of help and support here. You’re in the right place.
Don't let them get to you bones-bones. They are neanderthals 😊
I am related to someone who was part of the Semaglutide drug trial...at the end was told she had the placibo !.. Dieticians and others were part of the medical staff and good diet and being active were all part of it. At the end around 2 yrs, the results were good for those who had been getting the drug ( aimed at those who have difficulty losing weight ) If it can also help those with AF or Heart failure that sounds to me like a win,win... lets hope !
I don’t believe all the rubbish the media is telling us. I believe we all have an allotted time on this earth and we have no say in when our time is up. Why worry? We can’t add more days to our life whatever we do. You are exactly the way God made you and wants you to be. Be happy, be kind and enjoy the good days. They go so quickly.
They want us all to be 8 stone and live on water and greens, walk 3 miles a day, never put your feet up of your sedentary.?
LOL. I have relatives who have lived into their late 80’s and 90’s and who have done all the wrong things - according to the media. 😂😂😂
my aunt lived to 81!!! smoked from 14, breathed cotton dust in for 20 years when she worked in the mills. Fried everything in fat and passed away peacefully at home in bed.! I don’t know how she did it because she did smoke a lot.
I don’t believe all this rubbish they tell you about how to live longer. It could drive you nuts if you let it. They are trying to play God. Look after yourself, take each day as it comes. No one can change fate. Your Aunt sounds wonderful. They worked very hard that generation and we’re content with their lot. All the best and nice talking to someone sensible. 😃
All the best cav👍
How I feel for you-I have seesawed half my life, weight -wise, and since my early cancer in 2021, have steadily put on weight with the anti oestrogen drug meant to prevent a recurrence of the breast cancer. So many side effects, the weight being the one which makes me fume, I am an active 78 yr old, run.a B&B but have difficulty turning over in bed because of the weight I have put on-the GPs don't seem to care! I do find the extra 20 lbs is holding me back-though, I don't 'exercise' as I get exhausted! A bit of fat is good-it evens out the wrinkles, and provides the basis for vitamin absorption too, so it's not all bad! Keep your head up and carry on!
Yes I have read about this wonder drug. I hope it does work . But will it help congenital issues? Any way you can be fat or thin and still problems can arise. The heart is a muscle and it does alot of work and we do take it for granted. The trouble is we carnt control how we where made the genes we have and so on. I have tried to lose a few kilos which may help in some way with my heart but it's not easy. My bmi is high at 83kg and a height of 177cm. However if I want to get to the recommended bmi i just need to loose another 4kg. Sounds easy? However the last time I might have been at my recommended bmi I was possibly in my mid teens. Nearly 60 now. I just hope these new medications do help to improve people's quality of life.
Most people with HF are overweight because we retain excess water. The heart doesn’t pump efficiently enough to get rid of the fluid. It then tends to settle around abdomen, legs and ankles.
Thank you for all your replies. I am not personally affected but I do hate the media blowing things up. I’ll continue to yo yo ! But well done all you thinnies and relax you fatties (like me !) I think as you get old people don’t really notice how big you are…you’re just old !
If we ate and did everything they told us we would all be walking skeletons.? Would we be happy.?
How many people above the so called recommended BMI scale have heart failure compared to others who are below it.?
I was always a size 12 to 14 until I was hospitalised with my heart episode which was heart failure. As I was so symptomatic I was told to stop what I was doing when I got breathless, dizzy etc. after 18 months of doing virtually nothing, being bored and inactive I now have excess weight and need to lose about 5 stone. One of the reasons I did have such severe symptoms was my pacemaker wasn’t on the correct settings for my heart! Still symptomatic but am now allowed to do more and am finding the attitude is very much “you’re overweight so it’s not surprising you’ve got heart failure”.
I think what people don’t realise is it’s very hard to lose weight when you are unable to be active and it’s very demoralising when the scales barely move week after week. Also, when you are restricted in your level of activity and can’t do much on a daily basis due to all of the symptoms that accompany heart failure, it’s easy to fall into the cycle of depression, comfort eating etc. and the changes you have made seem so pointless at times.
Sorry about the rant, but yes, I too am like you, as were many at the rehab classes I attended 😊
I'm on Semaglutide as Ozempic 1mg for injection. Purely for type 2 diabetes. As that's what it is made for. The weight loss is a happy accidental side effect..I have 4 weeks left and an appointment with my Nurse at Gp to devise a plan, as there is none available now until next year!! This is directly as a result of all the press interest and making it available for weightloss, without ring fencing a supply for us Diabetics..After 2 years on it my hba1c level is near target. I'm potentially now looking at going on Insulin as an option. So I'll have to notify Car Insurance and DVLA and maybe not drive for a specific length of time to assess if I have hypoglycemic episodes. I'm the only driver in our house, so no shopping, no caring from us for my Mother in Law, who is Disabled and physically ill.. I recently found an advert for a Beauty salon near me. Who was advertising the injection for weightloss in the salon. In the Uk you're only supposed to go on it via Gp for weightloss. Looking on MHRA you can't swap to another glp1 drug or reduce your dosage because it causes more shortage. I'm really angry because the NHS is doing nothing, press are doing nothing but jumped up and down about hrt shortage. This is life saving medication for Diabetics. It's stressful and having a knock on effect on my sleep and mental health. I'm sorry if I've come over wrong way but it's so scary.
I was seriously underweight for the majority of my life and the main reason for it was an undiagnosed heart condition.It's those sorts of assumptions by the Medical Community that often mean that people with serious conditions remain undiagnosed and heart conditions are under diagnosed in people whom are slimmer and very active.
Hi all I had HA 8weeks ago and stent fitted my Nan died age 58 from blocked lad and that’s what I had I had lots of visits to gp and a and e to always be told nothing wrong with me one consultant told me I waisting there time anyway when I was in the cardiac care unit after HA and stent fitted the consultant came round to see me and when I asked why all my visits before had been ignored she had know answer got a bit nasty and said you need to loose weight I’m not much over but I have fibromyalgia so am not as active as I used to be but my Nan was a very small lady so I don’t think it makes any difference if it’s going to happen it’s going to just all keep doing the amazing things you do enjoy life and most of all be yourself take care lolly
How are you doing now.?
I hate the assumption that if you’ve had a heart attack, you’ve been sitting about stuffing yourself with chips, chocolate and ice cream even if you aren’t obese. Many medical professionals are even guilty of this. They don’t seem to take into account genetics. It’s hard to escape your genes and there’s not a lot you can do about it. I’ve struggled to lose weight over the years, despite a healthy diet and being relatively active compared with others my age. Also the lock downs during the pandemic did not help. We were virtually confined to our cottage and very small garden, so opportunities for exercise were limited.
Seemingly I am morbidly obese. I have mild CAD and moderate LVH, chronic kidney disease and prediabetic. I start a diet today with Second Nature arranged by my GP.I have never been offered weight loss medication and understand why you fall into the category of being offered. I would definitely speak with your GP. I am going to give my new to me diet the best I can. All I will say about it they want you to eat alot more good than I'm used to and my friends have said in the past that they don't think I eat enough.
Keep me posted on what your GP says and I'll let you know how my diet is going.
Take care.
How dare you imply I’m in the ‘Pudding Club’! The very idea! 🤣🤣🤣
Thank you all for your lovely replies.
Statistically speaking it may well be true that the risk of certain cardiac conditions increases with obesity/overweight, but nobody has a zero risk for anything. It’s impossible to tell much about someone’s health by looking at their size and shape. I’ve always been a slim person but I have several chronic conditions yet all I’ve heard is “but you look so well” and sometimes outright disbelief/dismissiveness particularly when I was younger. We are extremely discriminatory as a society and we are too quick to judge people by their appearance.
The other side of these “wellness” influencer types is that many are struggling with disordered eating and excessive exercising, to the point they lose their periods to hypothalamic amenorrhea (HA) and develop early onset osteoporosis through restrictive and unbalanced eating. Their lives can often be blighted by mental health issues because so much of their self worth is about maintaining a particular appearance. Low body weight from dieting also predisposes people to heart issues because their type of weight loss typically reduces muscle mass which includes the internal muscles, particularly the heart muscle and the digestive tract. That particular problem doesn’t get much publicity that it should. All we can do is the best we can to look after ourselves, regardless of what we weigh.
Uncomfortable dull pain….
What is Heart Failure explained by Dr Sanjay Gupta, Consultant Cardiologist
Confused
Resorting to private g.p.
