Kolasa: There's no magic bullet for losing weight
19.01.10
Q: "I tried to lose weight, but it's very hard. Doctor, is it not a diet pill or something that you can give me? - FS, Ayden
A It has been several weeks since the holidays and New Year's resolutions, and the difficulty of paying a few pounds settled for some people. Alexandra Stang, a medical student Brody, asked this question several times while she worked in family medicine. Here's what Alex has to say.
Many people turn to their family doctor and ask for drugs to help lose weight.After all, TV commercials and Internet make it look like there are pills and potions wonder that you can take and lose weight without doing any extra work. But popping a diet pill may not be perfect or easy solution.
There are several prescription drugs that can be used to help someone who is already obese, and willing to change their lifestyle. The drugs are of two types: reducing hunger and drugs that can pass through the fat of your body without being absorbed completely.
Source: Greenville Daily Reflector
As another weight-loss drug is withdrawn over health fears, are diet pills too ...
25.01.10
The drug, which was taken by 86,000 Britons last year, has been linked to heart attacks and stroke.
This means the only licensed obesity drugs available in Britain are Xenical and the weaker, over-the-counter version Alli.
These work by rushing fat through your guts before it can be digested - as well as also affecting good fats, such as omega-3s and fat- soluble vitamins (D and E), this has the side-effect of faecal incontinence.
Perhaps you could put up with this if you were going to lose lots of weight, but, at best, Alli has been shown to help patients lose just 10lb in a year.
Diet drugs have always been problematic. The first was the industrial chemical dinitrophenol (DNP), which came on the market in the Thirties when it was found to speed up your metabolism.
However, a serious down-side emerged - it could cause fatally high fevers and blindness.
After the war, amphetamines, previously used to keep troops awake, became
Source: Daily Mail