Are you searching for the magic pill that will make pounds melt away?
Dr Linda Helps – We are a pill-popping society. When we feel bad, we take something to feel better. Americans are in love with drug solutions to anything. Pill popping is easy, convenient and doesn’t make us deal with the complicated issues of life. Temporary relief is the goal.
This pill-popping mentality is all around us. On the one hand we tell our children and teens not to take illegal drugs or misuse medications. On the other hand, we model the opposite by popping a pill for every ache and pain. Nowhere is the quick-fix mentality more evident than when you look at weight loss products. The number of products on the market claiming to make you lose weight is staggering. I am amazed at what people will swallow to reach the thin ideal of American beauty. Billions of dollars are wasted on elusive promises to melt away pounds. We covet the magic pill and we’ll try anything in an effort to find it.
At present there is no magic pill. We are still searching for a better understanding of the molecular biology of obesity. If we truly understood the causes of obesity we could do more than treat the symptoms. But until that happens, pharmacological solutions for obesity remain hopeful but not yet proven.
Science continues to bring us new treatments but we need to wait for proof of their effectiveness. Remember the fenfluramine hydrochloride and dexfenfluramine hydrochloride fiascos. Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories in Philadelphia, PA., the American distributor of fenfluramine and dexfenfluramine, voluntarily withdrew these meds from the market in September 1997 at the request of the Food and Drug Administration.
Then there was phen-fen (phentermine and fenfluramine). Obese patients were flocking to physicians for phen-fen prescriptions. They were desperate to find the right combination of drugs to make those pounds drop.
At the height of the phen-fen popularity, I was working with an internist who studied the research of Michael Weintraub and colleagues at the University of Rochester in New York. The results indicated these medications were less than exciting in the long run. Then, national concern about possible serious side effects related to valvular heart disease surfaced. People who jumped on the phen-fen bandwagon were left wondering what damage they may have done to their physical bodies and over time, gained back most of their weight loss.
Since that time, newer agents have been approved–sibutramine and orlistat. Again, time and research will tell if long-term results can be maintained without significant risks. The question continues to be, what amount of sustained weight loss is considered successful and worth the risks? Is a 5% reduction in weight worth the long-term effects of continued drug use?
The search goes on as we learn more about genetic influences after the 1994 discovery of the ob gene and its protein product leptin. The hope is that pharmacology will eventually cure obesity. The wish of many is that a magic pill will be discovered and our obesity problems solved. In the meantime, keep doing the sensible things we know to do: eat healthy, exercise, and change your lifestyle. It may be awhile.