Originally published August 26 2005
Drugs are not a good weight loss solution
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
New generation of weight loss drugs have their limitations and should be avoided in favor of a healthy diet and exercise.
Summer has long been a time of renewed efforts to lose excess pounds that are hard to hide under skimpy hot-weather clothing.
Having just driven from New York to Minnesota and back, at every rest stop I saw evidence of what health experts are calling a national crisis - an epidemic of obesity, especially health-robbing morbid obesity.
No doubt most of the overweight people I encountered, had tried and ultimately failed to keep their weight under control before tipping the scales at 300-plus.
In recent years, they had hundreds of diets to choose from, and many probably lost a number of pounds, only to regain the weight and more when they tired of the diet of the day.
Enter - or I should say, re-enter - drugs that promote weight loss.
You may recall the many desperate souls who sought to curb their appetites with amphetamines, drugs that caused extreme nervousness, insomnia and addiction.
Now other medications, on the market or in the pharmaceutical pipeline, are being cited as safer alternatives.
Moyers' bottom line: "Whereas the evidence may support the use of medications to enhance weight loss, medication alone without diet/lifestyle change is not effective."
The two leading prescription weight-loss aids are Meridia (sibutramine) and Xenical (orlistat).
Xenical interferes with the enzyme that digests fat and can reduce by a third the amount of dietary fat a person absorbs.
Another group of diet drugs are appetite suppressants, which result in losses of about one pound a week.
Among drugs in the pipeline, Acomplia (rimonabant) blocks brain receptors that stimulate the "munchies" in marijuana smokers.
Daily treatment for a year has resulted in average losses of 19 pounds and 3.5 inches around the waist.
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