Word: orlistat
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...weight-loss options for obese pre-adolescents are slim. The two most effective obesity medications on the market, (Orlistat and Meridia) are not approved for children under age 15, and surgical treatments such as gastric bypass are often too risky for kids. That leaves lifestyle- and behavior-modification programs, combined with counseling, which can be effective but unpredictable. But Armstrong's study suggests that there may be unconventional and useful ways, like reading, to teach weight-loss techniques that researchers may not have considered...
...body weight can make a big difference to a patient's health. On that level, at least, there's little doubt anti-obesity medications can help. The BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) paper, a comprehensive review of 30 controlled trials on anti-obesity drugs, showed unambiguously that orlistat (Xenical), sibutramine (Meridia) and rimonabant (Acomplia) all resulted in weight loss - but the drugs' benefits extended beyond that. In one four-year trial, orlistat reduced the incidence of type 2 diabetes by almost a third; orlistat and rimonabant both cut patients' blood pressure; all three drugs lowered certain kinds of cholesterol...
...reasons are many. A course of medication can be expensive - hundreds of dollars a year. Drugs also have side effects. Orlistat prompts weight loss by limiting the body's ability to absorb fat, but that can result in oily feces and sometimes incontinence. Sibutramine can raise blood pressure and lead to nausea and insomnia. Rimonabant is associated with an increased risk of psychiatric disorders like depression and anxiety. Still, Padwal says, "I think the main problem is the disappointment." For a lot of patients, the meager results of the medication don't justify their cost and unpleasantness...
...several medications on the market that limit the body's ability to digest fat, Xenical (also called orlistat) was approved for adults in 1999. In fact, it was the FDA that originally encouraged Xenical's manufacturer, Hoffman-La Roche, to study its effectiveness in the pediatric population. The company selected 357 obese kids ages 12 to 16 and put them on both Xenical and a low-fat diet. As a control, 182 equally overweight teens were put on the same diet and a placebo. At the end of the study, the Xenical children had lower body-mass indexes than...
...diet pills has been pretty dismal. Amphetamines, which speeded metabolism and suppressed appetite, looked promising in the 1950s and '60s but turned out to be physically harmful and powerfully addictive. Drugs like fen-phen and Redux, which alter the brain's chemistry, had scary side effects. Newer drugs like orlistat and food substitutes like olestra keep fat from entering the body, but they cause serious bowel discomfort...