The Best Obesity Drugs Yet To Come

No thank you.

If it can be done with diet and exercise, that's the way to go.

Drugs have their unwanted side effects, surgery does too. If you eat too much of the wrong kind of foods, sit on your posterior all day then come home and watch TV, the drugs aren't going to cure your problem, just mask the symptoms and bring along some baggage you might not want.

That's my opinion, anyway.

The older I get, the more I despise the privatized pharmaceutical industry. :\ Anything to profit, anything for a profit. Betcha it won't work as advertised without causing something else which requires drug therapy down the road as, in the long run, the industry needs (not wants, needs) repeat customers to thrive.

I agree. I think it has devolved into another capitalist cash cow. While we can debate its utility in gadgets and fashion, it's evil when it's done in health care.

I know people who take fistfuls of pills, every day, and could eliminate all of them if they only ate right. But there's another devolved industry, processed food, who is herding them towards the pills.

It's not paranoia if they are really after you.

And our own FDA, which is supposed to be a watchdog for our health has turned into nothing but a support group for big pharma, big medicine in general and big agriculture. This is Capitalism's dark side.

Bob

I'm a bit on the fence. Right now, I don't take anything if I can help it (synthroid and vitamin D are my morning cocktail).

Having said that, if there were an effective medication for the root causes of obesity, I'd be interested. Most people are in agreement that it's not a condition of energy balance, and that energy balance can only do so much to alleviate it. Yes, eating right is very helpful, but if you could attack the blood chemistry and hormonal issues effectively and safely, I can't say that I would be opposed.

That, I think, is the fundamental reason even beyond capitalist medical profiteers, for our sad drug and food situation. It's the belief of the consumer that medication is good.

As opposed to, the idea that drugs are to be avoided, and to let the body keep making healthy new growth as it wants to do - if only we could figure out what exactly we are to do, or to not do, to let the body do that. And it gets complicated by our environment which can be so harsh.

I know that we fell in love with drugs because of the golden age of bacterial infection cures and effective vaccines and simple deficiency diseases. But for me, the simple case is where it stops, when it comes to taking drugs. Metabolism is super complex. Metabolic drugs like statins where you have to treat 350 people to fix 1, and that have uncounted side effects, and that are barely effective, or not such a simple thing as "kill that bacteria" - no, no, no.

I'm in favor of drugs. Here's one I look forward to: http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=435270

Active trial: http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT01262664

Note the lack of side effects. Rather, most side effects are positive. Also, it doesn't work on the lean, so there's little incentive for abuse.

You can also have your fat sucked our with lipo... but this does not address the underlying metabolism problems.

As always, they come up with drugs which choke off the symptoms without fixing the underlying issue.