Weight Loss Medications

The age old practice of fasting is making a huge comeback the world over. This tradition is no longer isolated to religious zealots but instead is being used as a weight loss method. Even though most of the world’s religions deal with fasting in some form or another it has generally been dealt with from a spiritual prospective. Jesus speaks of fasting and prayer in the New Testament in regards to casting out devils.

The process of fasting is simply going without food and/or water for a specified amount of time Hippocrates often referred to as the Father of Western Medicine recommended fasting for people who were sick. Even today most doctors will tell you to fast before or after a visit depending on the procedure you are at the doctor’s office for. Appetite suppressants like Reductil can be used to begin the fasting process by taking away your desire to eat. However, you will need the will power to continue and you need to drink plenty of water during this time. The best advice I could give to anyone is to start off slow by going with out a meal a day. Over a period of time you will develop a tolerance and you can start going hours a time without food.

There are many benefits to fasting that go beyond weight loss. Fasting helps to cleanse the body out of toxins that are built up and store in your system. These toxins are stored inside of the human body by the pounds in various forms primarily in the intestinal regions. Releasing them will not only cause weight loss but will restore your body to its natural state. Over time these toxins cause internal poisoning to your blood stream so it is important to get rid of them. Drinking vegetable juice or fruit drinks during the fasting process will aid in pushing these po
isons out of the body.

People with oversized stomachs usually have undigested food stored inside that rots away in the body causing all kinds of sickness and disease. Fasting will help to ease the stomach contents out rapidly while reducing pounds off of your body. During this time many people may have a sick or fatigued feeling because they are exposing these inner poisons and chemicals to be released from the body. Since they would normally sit there undisturbed and continue to drain the body it is usually unnoticeable that they are present. This is a necessary step to go through though because the only other alternative would be to leave them in the body.

Many people are completely unaware that they may have intestinal parasites. These parasites feed off of these many toxins in the body and continue to grow causing an ongoing weak and tired feeling to a person. Once you begin to fast these parasites will come out of your system along with many of the toxins. Since the toxins go first the parasites no longer have anything to feed off of and die out.

I can’t stress how important it is to drink lots of liquids while fasting to flush the system out. Reductil, Xenical and Acomplia can help stop toxins from being reabsorbed back into the body. Toxins can be released through the skin which is normal as they are on a regular basis. The amount may increase during fasting so regular bathes are recommended to cleanse the flesh.

The main benefit fasting seems to play on the body is letting go build up toxins that build up over time. It is estimated that the every person has at least ten pounds of unwanted materials in their body or more that fasting will release. It is worth trying a fast just to let go of these unwanted pounds of waste stored. You may want to consult a family doctor before you begin your fast to find out more information.

On March 9, at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions in New Orleans, investigators presented details of their studies with rimonabant (trade name: Acomplia) - the first of a new class of drugs (selective CB1 blockers) aimed at helping with weight loss and smoking cessation. CB1 blockers act on the endocannabinoid system (the EC system), a natural system that modulates the body’s energy balance and nicotine dependence. An over-stimulated EC system is thought to play a role in obesity and in tobacco dependence, and CB1 blockers are supposed to reduce this overstimulation. In a press release 3 weeks ago, the makers of rimonabant (Sanofi-Synthelabo,) indicated that the studies were favorable.

Data from two studies with rimonabant were reported this week. In the first, called the Stratus-US study, the drug’s effect on smoking cessation was evaluated. In this study, 787 smokers (average of 23 cigarettes per day) were randomized to receive either placebo, or rimonabant in doses of either 5 mg or 20 mg per day. The patients received the study drugs for 10 weeks. They were permitted to continue smoking for the first 2 weeks, but were instructed to attempt to quit smoking on Day 15. The number of patients who had not smoked during the last 4 weeks of the 10 week period were tabulated. Of patients who took 20 mg of rimonabant, 36% had quit smoking. Of patients who took either placebo or 5 mg rimonabant, only 20% successfully quit. Further, of those patients who quit smoking, the ones taking either placebo or 5 mg rimonabant gained 84% more weight than those taking 20 mg rimonabant. Thus, rimonabant at 20 mg per day significantly increased the rate of successfully quitting smoking, and also greatly reduced post-smoking-cessation weight gain.

In the second study (the RIO-Lipids study,) 1036 patients who were either overweight or obese and who had blood lipid disorderswere also randomized to one of three groups (placebo vs. 5 mg/day or 20 mg/day rimonabant). After 1 year of treatment, patients receiving 20 mg rimonabant lost an average of about 20 pounds of weight, compared to 5 pounds for patients on placebo. Further, patients receiving 20 mg rimonabant had significant improvements (compared to placebo) in waist circumference, HDL levels, triglyceride levels, CRP levels, and insulin sensitivity. For patients with metabolic syndrome at baseline (which included about 50% of the study population), half of those taking 20 mg rimonabant no longer had metabolic syndromeat the end of the study.

The Acomplia (Rimonabant, Zimulti) drug was said to be well tolerated. The only relatively common side effects were mild GI side effects and dizziness, and these were said to be transient.

There is still a lot we don’t know about rimonabant, and further studies will be required before the drug is released - which probably won’t happen for almost 2 years. Clearly, this is a drug that has “blockbuster” written all over it. If it turns out to be as effective and as safe as these early studies suggest, its uptake once released has the potential to be explosive - literally millions of patients may be receiving it within a short period of time. Given this fact, along with the fact that this drug is the first of a brand new class and thus there is no long-term experience with any similar substance, we can predict that the FDA will be cautious with its approval. The agency will be in a tough spot. They’ll be getting a lot of pressure from both doctors and the general public to get this drug out there. But if there turns out to be some relatively uncommon (say, 1 per 5,000 patients) but devastating side effect, widespread early adoption of the drug may mean that hundreds or even thousands might experience that side effect before it is recognized.

So: real, pharmaceutical help for smoking cessation, weight loss, metabolic syndrome, and HDL levels may be on the horizon - but hold your horses. The drug will not be available to you for a couple of years - and even then, you might be wise to wait for a year or to two see if unexpected but nasty side effects eventually turn up. For at least the short-term future, we’ll be left to resort to the old-fashioned methods for weight control and smoking cessation.

Source: About.com , date: March 11, 2005