Leczenie otyłości a choroby układu sercowo-naczyniowego — gdziej jesteśmy i dokąd zmierzamy?

According to the World Health Organization, in 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults were overweight, and of these, more than 650 million meet the criteria for the diagnosis of obesity. Moreover, there is no doubt that obesity is associated with adverse health consequences, including serious cardiovascular complications, increasing more than twice the risk of diabetes, hypertension, and atherosclerosis. The history of pharmacotherapy goes back to the 1940s. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of some of the drugs available at that time was unsatisfactory and was associated with severe side effects. Recent years have brought new data on the glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists, initially investigated in type 2 diabetes, which showed to have a positive impact on cardiovascular and total mortality. Currently, studies are underway to assess the cardiovascular outcomes of these drugs in the obesity and overweight population. This publication aims to gather the available knowledge on the pharmacotherapy of obesity, especially in the high cardiovascular risk patients.