Diego Bellido

A person’s waist circumference is a better indicator of the risk of cardiovascular disease than body mass index (BMI) alone, according to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. BMI has been used to determine overweight or obesity, common risk factors for heart disease, but this research — which analysed data from nearly 260,000 people with an average follow-up of 20 years — shows that failing to take waist circumference (WC) or the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) into account can lead to an incorrect assessment of the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Oral semaglutide is not effective in slowing the progression of the disease in patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease, according to the findings of the first large-scale, randomised phase 3 clinical trials published in The Lancet. In these trials, around 3,800 patients aged between 55 and 85 with a confirmed diagnosis and mild symptoms received up to 14 mg daily of oral semaglutide or a placebo. After two years, no significant difference in disease progression was observed.