Oh boy, the FDA approved the first weight-loss drug in 13 years! Could Belviq be the magic pill to cure the obesity epidemic? I mean, oh no, the FDA approved the first weight-loss drug in 13 years. When will people realize there IS NO magic pill capable of curing the obesity epidemic?
Here's the long and short of it: Historically, diet pills either don't work or end up being harmful to your health. Prescriptions for Fen-phen, the last diet pill on the market to actually work, were written every month by the millions ... until it was taken off the market when the FDA discovered that up to a third of its users developed heart valve damage. (The fallout was NOT pretty, if you recall.) Anyway, the troubling thing about Belviq thus far is that it sounds like it might fall into both categories.
First of all, does it work? Let's just say Belviq's performance in clinical trials was ... not exactly awe-inpsiring: Over the course of a year, "patients lost about 3% of their initial body weight, which works out to just six pounds off a 200 pound frame." Um, yay? Oh, and to keep those pounds off, patients have to keep taking Belviq for the rest of their lives.
Wow, it's like a weight-loss miracle in pill form. Or ... something. With results like that, potential risks like depression, migraines, memory lapses and -- surprise, surprise -- heart valve problems. In fact, Belviq's potential for causing heart valve problems caused the FDA to reject it way back in ... 2010. Hmmm.
Oh well. The good news? Belviq is predicted to bring in as much as 1 billion dollars per year! So the people taking it might be overweight, depressed and have heart problems, but at least the people making it will be rich.
Do you think Belviq sounds like a safe, effective drug for weight-loss?
Image via Keith Ramsey/Flickr
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Comments 8
No. Stop worrying about what you weigh, and start worrying about how you FEEL. If you are eating healthy food and moving your body, THAT is what counts.
What I don't get is...how can they get away with approving something that could cause so many problems. I get so angry when I see these drugs advertised on my tv and then the list of side effects....it just blows me away..
Okay so if I want to ease my symptoms for depression I should take this pill that can ....I dunno...can cause lymphomas? Hello? Isn't that cancer??? Wouldn't you rather take your chances with your depression than rely on some stupid pill that could give you cancer?
My mother in law, God love her...she falls for crap like this all the time! "If it helps my fibromyalgia pain", she says ," then I will take my chances.."...UGH! REALLY?
Not worth it but I also dont get how they can make drugs for every other imaginable disease or illness but can't seem to make an effective weight loss drug or appetite suppressent.
I have a slight weight issue, and I suffer from manic depression. They had me on a few anti-anxiety, anti-depression, and a light anti-psychotic for 2-3 years. They never could find the right combo to help me. The side effects made me hallucinate, and worse. I finally stopped taking them.
After I stopped, I decided to try some diet pills to help get my weight in check while I started a new diet & exercise program.
Almost all my depression issues went away.
I lost weight, but honestly, I think the diet pills had nothing to do with it, because when I stopped taking them, the weight stayed off. My depression symptoms also came back.
I hate the FDA for what they approve and don't approve for certain conditions, incuding weight loss.
But I'm not going to stop taking my 1 diet pill a day. Idk what the pills have in them that control about 90% of my depression issues, but it IS worth it to me.
I've been a better parent, been happier, and more stable than I ever was in my teen & early 20s years. If it eventually hurts my heart, I will look at it like "quality of life, over quantity".
I would rather have 10-20 good years, than 50 years of being mentally ill.
LOL
The FDA doesn't care about you, or what is safe for you, me, and everyone we know, they care about making money, and this proves that even further.
Here's a total conspiracy theory that has no basis in fact other than my own observations...
groups like Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, et al, make BILLIONS every year. If a viable, safe, and effective weight-loss pill comes on the market, they are all but shut down. I wonder if that has anything to do with FDA approval?
Because as "pro-love your body as it is" as I am, I, too, have to wonder why they can find a pill for damn near everything else, but not for weight loss.