Weight Loss, Dieting & Obesity

Reviews of Prescription Weight Loss Drugs & Medications and Diet Pills for Obesity: Part One.

There are many over-the-counter and prescription diet pills, weight loss drugs & medications on the market these days. Some are "natural" herbal or vitamin & mineral based products, others are complex pharmaceutical chemicals.

I strongly advise avoiding weight loss medications wherever possible - particularly prescription diet pills and weight loss drugs & medications. All medications have side-effects, many are highly addictive and may not even work for the desired purpose in many people. Despite assurances of "FDA Approval" or "clinical trials show no adverse effects" and so forth, dangers are still very much present. There have been no end of medications, including prescription weight loss drugs, that were considered safe and given FDA approval only to later be withdrawn from the market due to deaths or other severe outcomes.

Clinical trials often are for short periods of time. Hypothetically, though realistically, many trials of new medications are for relatively short periods of time. "Product X shows that 90% of patients lost 10% of their body weight in six weeks, with no or only mild side effects." Sounds good - until the FDA approves it and the general public start taking it for longer than just six weeks.

Remember the Fen-Phen excitement only a few years ago? Dramatic weight loss was promised by these prescription diet drugs, and even delivered - but so too were deaths or severe disabilities from heart valve disorders as a side effect. It was subsequently banned - too late for those who died or have to live with permanent heart damage.

It has recently been revealed that the standards the FDA uses for assessing new drugs are very poor indeed. They rely on clinical trials conducted by the manufacturer themselves. Worse still, the manufacturers are not even bound to supply the FDA with adverse results - only the results that support their case.

Are herbal, over-the-counter medications safe? Recently, the FDA banned the natural herb ephedra, commonly used as a stimulant in weight loss products, because there had been 155 confirmed cases of death from this herb. (Considering the millions of people worldwide who have used ephedra, and the thousands of years in some cultures it has been used, that is a very low risk in most people's eyes. Compare it with 25,000 death every YEAR in the USA alone from non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, yet the FDA takes no action against them.)

As a wise suggestion, prescription diet pills and weight loss drugs & medications should never be considered as a first resort. They should be placed a long way down your order of priority of treatments, and avoided altogether where possible. There may well be some exceptions, such as where a pre-existing condition is causing the obesity or the obesity is exacerbating the pre-existing condition, in which case prescription diet medications for weight loss may be warranted. However, such situations should be at the instigation, recommendation and under the strict supervision of your medical practitioner.

Most weight loss drugs & medications have only a temporary effect. Weight usually returns rapidly after the patient stops taking the medication. They do little to engender behavior modification for the long term benefit of the obese patient.

Some modern weight loss drugs & medications have taken a different approach and may in fact assist in behavior modification.

Future medications are increasingly likely to be targeting genetic and hormonal factors in weight loss and obesity. As welcome a new development as they may eventually prove to be, it is still likely that they will require patients to undergo lifelong drug treatment as they will address only the symptoms and not the causes of hormone imbalances (many, if not most, being nutrient mineral deficiencies). The profit motive of the major multi-national drug companies assures us that they will act in the best interests of their shareholders- not necessarily the best interests of the consumer.

The following Parts of this article review some of the specific and most used prescription weight loss drugs & medications on the market today: