--- title: Stopping GLP-1 Drugs Could Put Your Heart at Risk description: The latest study finds that the heart benefits of the drugs go away when you stop. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/03/18/stopping-glp-1-drugs-heart-risk/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-03-18T16:00:05.034Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-18T16:00:11.927Z article:section: Health og:title: Stopping GLP-1 Drugs Could Put Your Heart at Risk og:description: The latest study finds that the heart benefits of the medications go away when you stop. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/03/18/stopping-glp-1-drugs-heart-risk/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb83679b0cbc9a591/69b99889a8d4473ca7db7a59/glp-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: glp-1.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stopping GLP-1 Drugs Could Put Your Heart at Risk twitter:description: The latest study finds that the heart benefits of the medications go away when you stop. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb83679b0cbc9a591/69b99889a8d4473ca7db7a59/glp-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stopping GLP-1 Drugs Could Put Your Heart At Risk  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Mar 18, 2026 4:00 PM UTC  Jon Challicom—Getty Images  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Mar 18, 2026 4:00 PM UTC People take GLP-1 drugs like [Wegovy](https://time.com/7343023/wegovy-pill-weight-loss-drugs-novo-nordisk/), [Ozempic](https://time.com/7221684/weight-loss-drug-ozempic-alcohol-addiction/), [Mounjaro](https://time.com/6284941/mounjaro-weight-loss/), and [Zepbound](https://time.com/7284750/weight-loss-drug-wegovy-zepbound/) for a variety of reasons, from controlling diabetes and [sleep apnea](https://time.com/7203597/zepbound-sleep-apnea-fda/) to managing weight and enjoying [benefits to the heart](https://time.com/6334001/weight-loss-drug-wegovy-heart-study-results/), [liver, and kidneys](https://time.com/7207986/health-risks-benefits-weight-loss-drugs-ozempic-wegovy/). But scientists are taking a closer look at what happens when people stop taking the medications. Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly and his colleagues at the Washington University School of Medicine zeroed in on the heart in their new study. They looked at more than 330,000 veterans with [Type 2 diabetes](https://time.com/6158372/type-2-diabetes-remission/), around half of whom were prescribed injectable GLP-1 medications. They compared [heart events](https://time.com/7361499/heart-risk-prevent-calculator/) between those who continued taking the drugs for three years and those who stopped to see if the heart benefits continued even after people stopped the medications. About a quarter of participants stopped taking the medication during the study, and a quarter stopped and restarted the drugs. People who quit the medications tended to do so because of [cost](https://time.com/7331880/white-house-deal-lowers-prices-weight-loss-drugs/), a lack of access to the weekly injections, and difficulty sticking to the weekly administration schedule. “There are a lot of people excited to start a GLP-1, but we see a lot of people also discontinuing the drug for whatever reason,” Al-Aly says. “A lot of people, including the pharmaceutical companies, focused on weight regain if people stopped the drugs. But that’s the visible part. We asked about the invisible: [blood pressure](https://time.com/4640747/lower-your-blood-pressure-naturally/) climbs up, [cholesterol](https://time.com/6248034/how-to-control-high-cholesterol/) climbs up, [inflammation](https://time.com/6269070/inflammation-deadly-diseases/) goes up, and [insulin resistance](https://time.com/6188405/type-2-diabetes-intermittent-fasting/) goes up. What are these doing to the body and to the [heart](https://time.com/7316703/heart-health-at-every-decade/)?” When Al-Aly and his team focused on these consequences, they found that the improvements brought on by the medications—such as better insulin resistance, lower cholesterol, and reduced inflammation—started to reverse when people stopped taking GLP-1s. More surprising was how quickly the benefits disappeared. “We’re calling it metabolic whiplash,” he says. “It takes a long, long time to build cardiovascular protection, but half as much time to undo it. That was a bit of a revelation. So for someone using GLP-1s for a year, if they stop, they undo all the benefits in just six months.” **Read More**: [_The 1 Heart-Health Habit You Should Start When You’re Young_](https://time.com/7010134/heart-health-habits-exercise/) People in the study saw their inflammation levels go back up, insulin resistance return, blood pressure increase slightly, and cholesterol rise. This reversal can be harmful to the heart, and in the study, people who stopped the drugs for two years had an up to 22% increase in the risk of heart attack, stroke, or death compared to people who stayed on them. While it’s not clear why this rebound occurs so quickly, Al-Aly says that the body may reset physiologically to healthier metrics thanks to the medications, but if the drugs are no longer in the system, the body might be less able to control processes like inflammation and blood sugar. Whether this whiplash puts people at higher risk than if they hadn’t begun taking GLP-1 medications in the first place isn’t known yet. “I suspect that may be the case, but we don’t know," Al-Aly says. "It’s possible that the yoyo of making things better and worse puts so much strain on the heart, that it raises the risk even higher than people who haven’t used the drugs. But we don’t have that data yet.” These study results suggest it’s important for people to take the medications consistently, and for long periods of time, rather than thinking about them as temporary or quick-fix solutions (though more research is needed on long-term use). “Our understanding of these medications has shifted dramatically,” Al-Aly says. “Several years ago, the prevailing thinking was that people would get on them for obesity or diabetes, and if they get better or reach their goal, they would get off them. But these drugs are treating a chronic-disease state. Getting completely off of them, like taking a GLP-1 holiday, is likely unrealistic.” In Al-Aly’s study, people who decreased their dose to lower maintenance levels did not show increased risk of heart events. Only complete stoppage of the drugs seemed to be associated with the higher risk, which implies that once someone starts taking a GLP-1 drug, they need to maintain some amount of drug in their body if they want to reap the heart benefits. The results raise important questions about how durable the wide-ranging benefits of GLP-1 medications are, and what happens—beyond regaining weight—if people start taking the drugs and decide to stop. Further research is needed to better understand the metabolic legacy of these medications, but so far, data suggest they might be more profound than previously thought. “Everybody knows that if you stop taking GLP-1s you regain some weight, but what happens to the heart is not visible in the national conversation,” says Al-Aly. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/03/18/stopping-glp-1-drugs-heart-risk/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/03/18/stopping-glp-1-drugs-heart-risk/"},"headline":"Stopping GLP-1 Drugs Could Put Your Heart At Risk","datePublished":"2026-03-18T16:00:05.034Z","dateModified":"2026-03-18T16:00:11.927Z","description":"The latest study finds that the heart benefits of the medications go away when you stop.","url":"https://time.com/article/2026/03/18/stopping-glp-1-drugs-heart-risk/","keywords":["Obesity"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb83679b0cbc9a591/69b99889a8d4473ca7db7a59/glp-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alice Park","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/alice-park/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb83679b0cbc9a591/69b99889a8d4473ca7db7a59/glp-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"glp-1.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"Jon Challicom—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/obesity/","name":"Obesity"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/03/18/stopping-glp-1-drugs-heart-risk/","name":"Stopping GLP-1 Drugs Could Put Your Heart At Risk"}}]}] ```