Healthy Returns: Stopping GLP-1s raises risk of heart attack, stroke and death, study says [View all]

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/18/stopping-glp-1s-raises-cardiovascular-risks-study.html

GLP-1s are practically everywhere – roughly one in eight U.S. adults take one. But stopping those drugs may come at a cost.

That’s according to a new study from the Washington University School of Medicine, which was published on Wednesday in BMJ Medicine.

The research found that even short gaps in treatment with a GLP-1 can drive up risks of heart attack, stroke and death in patients with Type 2 diabetes, and the impact may not be fully reversible. Using electronic health records, researchers followed more than 333,000 adults with diabetes over three years, and the lion’s share of them were taking Novo Nordisk’s diabetes injection Ozempic.
(snip)

Patients who stayed on GLP-1s over three years saw an 18% reduction in cardiovascular risk
Quitting GLP-1s for as little as six months erased much of that protection, raising the risk by 4% compared to continued use
A two-year gap in treatment pushed that risk to 22% compared to sustained use
(snip)