Originally published February 26 2006
Reporter admits to being duped by weight loss miracle drugs
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Sue Hutchison of the Mercury News talks about the philosophy of weight loss drugs and her personal experiences with magic pills.
If you're following the war against fat, aren't you wondering whether the Food and Drug Administration's advisory committee voted to recommend over-the-counter sale of the diet drug orlistat just as some sort of twisted dare?
First, consider the results of the six-month clinical trials showing that obese people who took orlistat lost an average of about six pounds.
Can you see the slogan on the bottle now?
``Six pounds in six months!'' Wow, get ready to stun 'em at the high school reunion!
Then, consider some of the delightful side effects including gas, incontinence and so-called ``oily spotting.'' Sorry, but this sounds more like an episode of ``South Park'' than a serious way to control weight.
I barely managed to resist the siren call of the prescription ``miracle'' drug fen-phen, which ended up being yanked off the market nine years ago because it was found to cause heart damage.
When I was in college in the early '80s, I did sell my soul to a diet drug called ``starch blockers'' which melted the pounds away while also causing serious gastrointestinal distress.
Over the years I have learned the hard way what many doctors and nutritionists have preached for a long time.
As Joanne Ikeda, co-director of the Center for Weight and Health at UC-Berkeley, put it: ``The public is looking for a healthy lifestyle in a pill, and that just isn't going to happen.''
``Part of the problem is that drug companies invest so much money in the development of anti-obesity drugs, and a lot of scientists are in bed with the pharmaceutical giants,'' Ikeda explained.
For me, the best thing about the announcement of this latest hot diet pill is that I'm not at all tempted to buy it, not even over the counter.
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