SELECTing Treatments for Cardiovascular Disease — Obesity in the Spotlight

Overweight and obesity have reached epidemic proportions, affecting more than 70% of the U.S. adult population and more than 50% of persons worldwide.1 In addition to numerous health consequences, obesity contributes to cardiovascular disease indirectly through the development of risk factors and directly through various biologic mechanisms.2 There is a clear need to redouble efforts to target obesity-related cardiometabolic risk as a strategy for combating cardiovascular disease.3 However, until recently, few pharmacologic tools were available to safely and effectively lower body weight. Medications that include glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist components have now been shown to produce substantial weight loss . . .