A weight-loss drug primer
Hope is a funny thing. It gives us strength during the toughest of times, but it can also blind us to certain harsh realities. Consider the tantalizing promise of a miracle in a bottle with its ads featuring washboard abs on size-four women saying: "Thanks to this amazing fat-zapping pill, I lost 30 pounds in three weeks!"
Despite what those bikini-clad women say, the safest amount of weight you can hope to lose in a week is 0.9 kilograms (two pounds). And no matter how well we know that weight loss is best achieved with a reduced-calorie diet and regular exercise, the need to fit into that dress lowers our defences against big promises in small pills. But weight-loss drugs and supplements come with potential known, and unknown, side-effects -- some scarier than others.
Safety first
Because only prescription drugs have supporting research, your doctor is not likely to recommend over-the-counter (or over-the-Internet) weight-loss supplements. In 2005, an initiative by Canada, the United States and Mexico assessing bogus weight-loss products resulted in 734 actions against manufacturers that had cost susceptible dieters billions in wasted dollars. Considering that number likely represents only a fraction of the bad beans in the jelly-bean jar, you should apply more than a scoopful of skepticism before popping the lid.
Here's a primer on the most popular weight-loss drugs and supplements, from supposed hunger zappers to a fat blocker to every gym-hater's dream -- the energy burners.
Hunger zappers
If you can trick your body into thinking it's full, you'll eat less -- or so goes the theory behind a popular prescription weight-loss drug in Canada, sibutramine. The hunger-zapping drug, also known as Meridia, works by increasing levels of norepinephrine and serotonin, two brain chemicals that tell you when you're full. The chief, disconcerting side-effect is risk of elevated blood pressure and heart rate.
The long-term effects of sibutramine (which has been on the Canadian market since 2001) on cardiovascular issues such as heart attack and stroke, as well as overall death rates, are unknown, although a study of more than 10,000 people is under way. Like any prescribed anti-obesity drug, the most people can hope to lose is about five kilograms (11 pounds) over a year or more, says Dr. Raj Padwal, assistant professor in the division of internal medicine at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
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