A widely prescribed diabetes pill lowered a blood marker of heart-related inflammation within two weeks in a small group of women with obesity and prediabetes, according to researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. The drug, empagliflozin, is sold under the brand name Jardiance. The findings were published in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association, and announced by Vanderbilt on October 5, 2026.
The study involved only 16 women taking the medication, and it was not randomized or placebo-controlled. It measured a change in immune cells, not a drop in heart attacks or strokes. That means the results do not show the pill prevents heart disease in people with prediabetes, and they do not change how doctors prescribe it today.
