Word: diets
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...conditional approval, though, is based on the assumption that Redux will be doled out by well-informed physicians and will be used as intended--by the truly obese, for a limited time, in conjunction with a diet and exercise program. That seems rather naive, considering the history of fen/phen. In the four years since the older treatment has been on the market, clinics have sprung up all over the U.S., especially in the Los Angeles area, to distribute Redux to eager customers. One chain alone, California Weight Loss Medical Associates, has 19 centers and a catchy toll-free number...
This marks a striking change in attitude. The idea of using drugs to treat excess weight was anathema 20 years ago, when M.I.T. neurologist Dr. Richard Wurtman first learned about the compound fenfluramine. At the time, the term diet pill was synonymous with amphetamines, and conjured up an image of sleazy feel-good doctors getting patients hooked on speed. Pharmaceutical companies wanted nothing to do with the weight-loss business...
...fen/phen. He now treats some 300 patients--and so far has tallied 63,000 visitors to his Science of Obesity and Weight Control Website. Krentzman's contrarian advice, based on several months of library work and an ongoing experiment begun last year: take the pills instead of worrying about diet and exercise. Says Krentzman: "Dieting and exercise without fen/phen don't keep people slender, so why should they work with fen/phen...
Most weight-loss experts insist that the reason diet and exercise don't work is that people don't stick with them. But because fen/phen and Redux can be dangerous if they're used too long, and they lose their effectiveness after a few months anyway, patients will eventually have to take up regular exercise and change their eating habits. Neither fen/phen nor Redux alone can "cure" obesity...
What they can do, say the experts, is give obese patients a powerful head start on weight loss. Redux is revolutionary, explains author Levine, because "it overcomes the loss of confidence in one's own diet. The feeling that the drug gives you is the key." That's the attitude of Barbara Dorsett, the Red Lobster survivor: "I'm just so thankful they discovered this stuff," she says. "I felt so old and decrepit. It's like a new lease on life...