With over two-thirds of Americans now overweight, 70 million over fifty pounds and another 70 million over one to forty-nine pounds, it just may take a combined effort of a diet pill and a diet compatible with that pill.
In February 2007, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals announced the FDA approval of the weight loss Orlistat in the form of a lesser dosage, 60 mg capsule, sold over-the-counter starting summer 2007. It will cost 60 cents a capsule taken three times a day with each meal. The company recommends it not be used as a true stand-alone weight loss method, but only in combination with exercise and a diet that is reduced fat that contains about 15 grams of fat per meal.
It’s actually a pseudo-diet pill since its main function is to block absorption of 20-30% of the fat one consumes rather than decreasing the urge to eat. The fat passes out of the body is about 150 to 200 calories. Understanding this fact will determine the success of its usage by a dieter and whether the drug will fail being called the first fad diet pill in history.
If past history shows that controversy sells the most amounts of drugs, alli is getting it with pros and cons. On one end, critics restate the diet pill maker’s own admitted side effects found in clinical studies. While advocates of the much awaited pill feel anything that will help is needed as long as it’s free of severe side effects since the overweight problem in America is now an epidemic and out of control.
With alli one can lose 50 percent more weight than with a diet alone. Low fat diets on the market along with alli should give women 2-3 pounds loss per week and 4-5 pounds of weight loss for men, as long as the diet meets the low fat criteria of the new diet pill.
The diet pill has drawn less criticism than most newly released drugs. Nutritional counselors feel the drug will be abused and that more focus should be placed on change in dietary and exercise habits. Others feel that the drug will fall into the hands of teenagers and college students that will abuse the pill for quick fixes or ignore its fat blocker purpose and not adjust the fat content to their diet.
Critics tend to focus on unpleasant side effects of loose stools and flatulence that happens to be the same listed on food packages that contain Olestra or other reduced sugar candies. This should only occur in those not using the diet pill correctly by having too much fat in their intestines that is not getting absorbed and exits the body with the rest of their wastes. The real unknown at this time is many vitamins are fat based and may be blocked, which can be helped by taking a multivitamin daily.
GlaxoSmithKline has not joined forces with any diets on the market today mainly since it appears that many are not low fat. The Atkins Diet is high fat while the South Beach Diet on its own back cover states it’s not low fat or low carb and therefore will not meet the criteria of alli. The company has a website that is steering dieters to do weight-loss profiles and build customized meal plans and provide feedback on their progress.
Dieters have been the route their website is trying to take overweight people and this has failed in history. They are skeptical of special meals or recipes and need a diet that makes it easy to eat at restaurants. In a very busy society, they don’t want to count calories or carbs, or measure food portions.
It will be a shame if GlaxoSmithKline’s product fails since it appears public abuse of the product may be the only cause of it being pulled from the market one day other than dieters not using it along with the proper diet plan. The FDA recently set guidelines with one being that diet pills are ranked based on their ability to keep weight off for one year or more.
The key will be finding a non-fad diet that allows eating normal foods found in grocery stores and restaurants. The diet chosen to take with this new diet pill will also have to take the brunt of the responsibility in keeping the weight off and not allow a dieter to go back to eating wrong foods or in excess. The diet must change bad eating habits and get overweight people away from the addiction to wrong foods at the beginning of the diet. Alli will help do this by acting as a sort of diet police putting in discipline if one cheats on the correct diet that matches the pill’s criteria and might be what’s needed to put in some dieting ethics.
Other controversy, as exists for all drugs on the market today, is whether there is a contribution to colon cancer. A Brazilian study indicated that similar drugs as Xenical and Orlistat in the higher dosage obtained only by prescription could form cancer. The same occurred in the past when the Sweet-n-Low low calorie sweetener was inappropriately accused of causing cancer when later research article found it safe. Compared to mind altering drugs to lose fat, drugs based on physical blockers and not mental ones may be one of the waves of the future that won’t go away anytime soon.
Dr. Donald Fox is in private practice in Clearwater.
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