People receiving weight-loss drug Wegovy sustained weight loss for up to four years, shedding an average of 10% of their body weight in that time, as per a new study. Wegrovy is a brand that markets semaglutide injections, that have gained widespread attention for their weight-loss effects. The study also found that Semaglutide injections boost an individual's heart health, even when weight loss doesn't take place.

The study, called SELECT, was published in journal Nature Medicine. "At four years, we see ongoing benefits of semaglutide," said Cheng-Han Chen, MD, interventional cardiologist from Cardiologist, who was not involved in the research. Besides the weight loss, it also lead to a loss in cardiovascular outcomes.

The research was conducted on 17000 adults, who had obesity but did not have diabetes. Overall, people who received once-weekly injections of semaglutide lost on average 10.2% of their body weight over the course of four years. All of the study participants continued to lose weight for about 65 weeks, a year and three months, and then their weight remained at a stable level.

Were There Any Side Effects?

What Did The Results Say?

Of the people on the highest dose of Wegovy, 68% lost at least 5% of their body weight. This compared to 21% of people on the placebo. Additionally, of the total people on Wegovy about 23% lost at least 15% of their body weight. For those in the placebo group, only 1.7% lost that much body weight.

Semaglutide Shows Heart Benefits Beyond Weight Loss

Researchers found that even individuals who did not experience significant weight reduction while on the drug saw a reduced risk of major heart events. Recent analysis of the SELECT trial data revealed that semaglutide significantly lowers the risk of heart attack, stroke, and cardiovascular-related deaths in adults with obesity or those who are overweight. Notably, the results of this study lead the US FDA to approve Novo Nordisk's Wegovy for reducing heart-related risks in this group.

What Is Semaglutide?

Are Their Any Side Effects Of Semaglutide?

Semaglutide, marketed under the brand name Wegovy, is primarily an antidiabetic medication used to treat Type 2 diabetes. It is also an anti-obesity drug used for long-term weight management. While it can be taken as a subcutaneous injection or orally, it has significant side effects. It primarily impacts your gastrointestinal tract and its side effects include constipation, nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, and fatigue amongst others.

Thalassemia is a hereditary illness that hampers the production of haemoglobin, the component of red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout the body. If the production of haemoglobin is faulty or reduced, a shortage of healthy red blood cells occurs, resulting in anaemia and reduced oxygen supply to the organs.

"Thalassemia is, in fact, a collection of conditions ranging from a simple carrier state with no symptoms to a very severe disease requiring lifelong treatment. Mostly, thalassemias are classified into alpha and beta types, depending on which chain of the haemoglobin molecule is defective," said Dr Sneha Shinde, Consultant – Paediatric Haemato-Oncology, P.D. Hinduja Hospital and MRC Centre, Khar.

As per National Health Mission figures, nearly 42 million people in India are beta thalassemia carriers, and about 10,000 to 15,000 infants with thalassemia major are born every year.

What are the causes of thalassemia?

This disease is inherited from parents through genes. If both parents are carriers, their child may develop a severe type of the disease.

What are the symptoms of thalassemia?

Symptoms largely depend on the severity of the illness and can include tiredness, weakness, pale complexion, difficulty breathing, stunted growth, enlarged spleen or liver, and changes in facial bones. Most severe cases become apparent during infancy or the toddler years.

Dr Shashikant Apte, Director – Haematology, Sahyadri Super Speciality Hospital, Nagar Road, said, "Symptoms can vary from person to person. Some individuals may simply feel low on energy, while others may notice pale skin, shortness of breath, or delayed growth in children. Because these signs are common, they are often ignored or mistaken for general weakness. The majority of children with thalassemia major require blood transfusions every month for the rest of their lives to maintain haemoglobin levels above 9 gm%."

Diagnosis and Treatment

Dr Shinde explained that diagnosis comprises blood tests such as Complete Blood Count (CBC), HPLC haemoglobin electrophoresis, and genetic analyses. Mild cases may hardly need treatment, but more serious or transfusion-dependent thalassemia cases usually require regular blood transfusions along with iron chelation therapy to avoid iron overload. Besides bone marrow transplantation and newly discovered gene therapies, treatment advancements are gradually leading to better patient survival and improved quality of life.

Dr Apte said, "The positive aspect is that thalassemia can be detected with a simple blood test. Early diagnosis helps in managing the condition more effectively. Therefore, it is advisable to undergo screening for thalassemia before marriage or before planning a pregnancy, so the level of risk can be assessed. If both parents are thalassemia minor carriers, DNA testing should be conducted to identify the genetic defect and enable prenatal diagnosis during the 12th week of pregnancy. If the child is diagnosed with thalassemia major, pregnancy termination may be considered between the 14th and 16th week, based on medical advice and individual circumstances."

Prevention and Awareness

Of equal significance is the fact that thalassemia can be prevented through premarital or pre-pregnancy carrier detection and genetic counselling. Early awareness, proper diagnosis, and making informed reproductive choices are the key factors in reducing the burden of this lifelong blood disorder.

Dr Shashikant Apte, Director – Haematology, Sahyadri Super Speciality Hospital, Nagar Road, spoke about the incidence of constant fatigue and answered FAQs about thalassemia major, while sharing tips on living with it.

Why Constant Fatigue Should Not Be Ignored

Being tired every day is typically attributed to a busy lifestyle; however, it can also have underlying medical reasons. Thalassemia is one of the conditions a person is born with that can cause fatigue due to a lack of oxygen. Thalassemia is a disorder in which the proper formation of haemoglobin — the protein in blood responsible for carrying oxygen — does not occur correctly. When haemoglobin is not formed properly, the body does not receive enough oxygen, leading to frequent tiredness and weakness.

Understanding Thalassemia Major and Carrier Status

Thalassemia major is an inherited disorder, meaning it is passed down from both parents to their child. Some individuals may simply be carriers without displaying any symptoms. During each pregnancy, there is a 25 per cent chance of passing the abnormal gene to the foetus, which may result in severe complications related to thalassemia major or other conditions associated with a lack of oxygen. Therefore, it is critical to know your family’s medical history and thalassemia minor (carrier) status.

Living with Thalassemia

Dr Apte went on to say that although thalassemia is a chronic condition, there are highly effective ways to manage it with proper medical guidance. Regular medical check-ups and prompt treatment can help individuals maintain good overall health and lead a normal life.

Understanding thalassemia is the first step towards prevention and better management. Awareness allows individuals and families to make informed decisions and avoid complications before the condition becomes severe.

World Thalassemia Day is observed every year on May 8 to raise awareness about the inherited blood disorder caused by faulty genes.

The day was initiated in 1994 by the Thalassaemia International Federation in memory of George Englezos, the son of the federation’s founder, who succumbed to the disease.

This year’s theme, “Together for Better Care and Equal Access,” highlights the need for universal screening, safe blood availability, and advanced therapies.

The disorder, which often requires blood transfusions every fortnight, affects approximately 1.3 million people living with severe forms of thalassemia worldwide. About 1.5 percent of the global population is carriers, and the disease claims nearly 11,000 lives annually.

More than 40,000 infants are born each year with severe thalassemia, predominantly in low- and middle-income countries. Although mortality rates have declined, they remain high in developing regions, particularly in Southeast Asia.

What Is Thalassemia?

Thalassemia is an inherited hemoglobin disorder caused by defective synthesis of alpha or beta globin chains.

In β-thalassemia major, reduced or absent beta-chain production leads to ineffective erythropoiesis, severe anemia, bone marrow expansion, splenomegaly, growth retardation, and iron overload due to repeated blood transfusions.

Patients often present in early childhood with pallor, jaundice, recurrent infections, and characteristic facial bone deformities.

Thalassemia Screening

With 10,000–15,000 babies born with Thalassemia Major every single year in India, the country remains one of the global hotspots for the blood transfusion-dependent disease.

HealthandMe spoke to doctors who emphasized that carrier screening, premarital counseling, and antenatal diagnosis remain crucial preventive strategies in India, often referred to as the “thalassemia capital of the world”, as nearly one in every eight thalassemia patients globally lives in the country.

Experts stressed that normalizing conversations around screening is key to reducing the disease burden.

Dr. Ajay Sharma, Director and Head of Hematology and Hemat-Oncology at Paras Health Panchkula, said thalassemia is a preventable genetic disorder, but continues to go undetected until it is too late.

This is because “thalassemia screening, which is one of the simplest yet most overlooked preventive steps in India,” said Dr. Vishnu Hari, Associate Director and Head of Haematology & BMT at Sarvodaya Hospital, Faridabad.

“Every couple, especially those planning marriage or pregnancy, should undergo basic carrier screening. The challenge is not the availability of tests, but the lack of awareness and social hesitation around genetic conditions,” Dr. Hari said.

Also read: Reused Syringes Infect Over 330 Children in Pakistan With HIV: Report

When To Get Screened?

Screening should ideally be done early, as early detection helps informed decision-making and prevents severe health complications in children. Experts recommend screening:

• At the premarital stage
• At the start of pregnancy

What Will the Screening Find?

Carrier detection is possible with a complete blood count and a test called High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Indicators include:

• Low haemoglobin (~9 g/dL)
• Low MCV (Mean Corpuscular Volume, ~65)
• HbA2 levels above 3.5%

“If both partners are carriers, timely genetic counselling during the antenatal phase becomes critical,” he said.

While cultural stigma and low prioritization of preventive healthcare often delay this step, the integration of routine thalassemia screening into premarital check-ups and early pregnancy care can help significantly reduce the number of affected births in India.

What Could Be Done To Manage Thalassemia?

Dr Parveen Yograj, a General Surgeon from Jammu, in a post on the social media platform X, shared that treatment for thalassemia has evolved remarkably over recent decades.

“Regular blood transfusions combined with iron chelation therapy using agents like Deferasirox and Deferiprone have significantly improved survival. Curative therapy through bone marrow transplantation is now increasingly successful, especially in children with matched donors.

"Recent breakthroughs in gene therapy and CRISPR-based genome editing offer new hope for a long-term cure by correcting defective globin gene expression,” he said.

There is a particular cruelty about ovarian cancer. It does not announce itself loudly. Instead, it murmurs softly with a bit of bloating here, some lower back pain there, a persistent sense that something is not quite right, but nothing dramatic enough to cause alarm. And by the time most women receive a diagnosis, the disease has often made itself very much at home.

Every year on May 8th, the world pauses to mark World Ovarian Cancer Day, an occasion that has grown since its launch in 2013 into a genuinely global movement. This year’s theme – ‘No Woman Left Behind’ – carries particular weight because the uncomfortable truth is that far too many women are being left behind by late diagnoses, by underfunded research, and by healthcare systems that have historically paid less attention to this disease than it deserves.

The Numbers We Need to Sit With

Roughly 250,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer every year across the world. An estimated 140,000 will die from it. It is, by some measures, the deadliest of all gynecological cancers, and yet, it receives a fraction of the public attention given to breast cancer.

The comparison is worth dwelling on. Approximately 89 per cent of breast cancer patients survive beyond five years. For ovarian cancer, that figure drops to around 45 per cent – nearly half! And the primary reason for that stark difference is not that ovarian cancer is inherently untreatable but that it is rarely caught in its early stages.

When diagnosed at Stage I before the cancer has spread beyond the ovaries, survival rates climb dramatically, with some studies suggesting above 90 per cent. The problem is that only around 20 per cent of cases are caught that early. The rest are diagnosed at Stage III or Stage IV, when the cancer has already spread to the abdomen, lymph nodes, or beyond.

Why Does It Get Missed?

Ask most people to name the symptoms of ovarian cancer, and you will likely be met with a blank look. That in itself is part of the problem. Unlike the distinct lump in breast cancer cases or the irregular bleeding associated with cervical and uterine cancer, ovarian cancer does not produce one clear and recognizable sign. What it does produce are symptoms that most of us would simply dismiss – persistent bloating, feeling full quickly when eating, pelvic or lower abdominal pain, urge to urinate more frequently or urgently, unexplained fatigue, and a change in bowel habits.

Each of those individually could be attributed to several other conditions, including irritable bowel syndrome, gut infections, stress, dietary changes, and even getting older. That is precisely what makes this disease so dangerous. Women dismiss these symptoms. Sometimes doctors do too.

This is not about blame; it is about recognition. The medical community has made genuine progress in understanding ovarian cancer, but there simply aren’t any reliable early-screening tests available that are similar to mammograms for breast cancer or smear tests for cervical cancer. Hence, genuine and widespread public awareness becomes the closest thing to building a first line of defense.

No Woman Left Behind: A Global Reckoning

The 2026 theme is not merely a slogan. It is a confrontation with the reality that a woman’s place of residence, country, or economic circumstances should not determine whether or not she lives.

In higher-income countries, access to surgery and chemotherapy, whilst still imperfect, is broadly available. Newer treatments are beginning to extend survival times for women with advanced disease. Research into biomarkers is advancing, offering hope for earlier detection in the future.

But in lower-income countries, the picture is vastly different. Women are often diagnosed later, treated less effectively, and supported less comprehensively. The global survival gap for ovarian cancer is not simply a medical problem; it is more a problem of justice.

‘No Woman Left Behind’ asks us to hold that in mind. Progress that only reaches the privileged is not progress enough.

What Women Can Do Right Now

The absence of a reliable screening test makes personal awareness all the more essential. There are several things every woman can do, not just on May 8 but throughout the year.

• Know your body – That phrase risks sounding hollow, but it carries real weight here. If you notice symptoms – particularly if they are new, persistent, and happening more than 12 times a month – do not dismiss them. Note them down and take them seriously.
• Know your family history – Ovarian cancer has a significant genetic component. Mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes substantially increase a woman’s lifetime risk. If you have a family history of ovarian or breast cancer, speak to your GP about whether genetic testing might be appropriate for you. Knowledge is not a cause for panic; it is a basis for informed decisions.
• Advocate for yourself – This is perhaps the hardest one to say and the most important. Women have historically been more likely to have their symptoms dismissed or attributed to anxiety, hormones, or stress. If something does not feel right, go back and ask again. Push for a referral. You are entitled to be taken seriously.
• Talk about it – The single most powerful thing any of us can do is have conversations — with friends, with family members, in offices, and community spaces. The more ovarian cancer is spoken about, the more women will recognize its symptoms. And the more symptoms are recognized early, the more lives can be saved.

The Quiet Power of Collective Action

Since 2013, World Ovarian Cancer Day has grown into a movement that now spans more than 80 per cent of the world’s countries and is supported by over 200 organizations globally. That is an extraordinary thing. It is proof that sustained, collective attention can shift awareness, influence policy, and ultimately change outcomes.

But awareness days only work if they spark something beyond the day itself. The teal ribbons and social media posts matter, not because they are gestures, but because every gesture has the potential to reach someone who needs to hear it, someone whose bloating has been going on for two months, someone whose mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and who has never thought to ask whether their own risk might be elevated. Someone who simply did not know.

Therefore, let us spread awareness this day by realizing that equality is not in regarding different things similarly, equality is in regarding different things differently, and still leaving no one behind.