Xenical Diet Pill Leads to Poorer Diet

Diet pills, they’ve had a rough go of it, links to heart disease, kids using them to get high, gross bowel movements and doubt as to whether they even work, a marketer’s nightmare. Time for more bad news!

A new study suggests the popular diet drug Orlistat, sold under the prescription name Xenical, doesn’t inspire people to improve their diets, instead individuals popping Xenical are more likely to eat worse. How’s that for irony.

Xenical works by blocking the absorption of fat in the intestines and people on the drug are advised to reduce their dietary fat intake, consuming no more than 30% of their calories from fat each day. Not doing so may result in loose stool, i.e. mud butt.

But people don’t follow the rules! Published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, researchers reveal of the 44 obese adults studied, men and women on Xenical, average daily calories from fat among Xenical users 33% and for the placebo group 28%. Participants were tracked over 3 years.

Scientists concluded that the drug did not place a governor on people’s diet choices, leaving Xenical’s manufacturer Roche Laboratories, Inc. scratching their collective heads; Reuters reports.

Makes sense, it’s a band aid approach, not a lifestyle. Oh, and did you know there was actually an appetite suppressant candy in the 80s called Ayds, pronounced AIDS! Talk about bad timing.

Resveratrol: Fountain of Youth or Waste of Money

Red wine drinkers have been toasting to better health and longer life with all of the news pieces on the miracle that is resveratrol - a component of red grape skin and some other fruits. Let’s sift through the claims and hype and see where the dust settles.

It was hard to ignore the headlines a couple of years ago. Newswires were replete with suggestions that resveratrol could boost health and lengthen life. Read beyond the headlines a bit though and you realize that this is only good news if you are a middle aged, overweight mouse. Still, the results were dramatic - mice given resveratrol became much healthier and lived about 25% longer than the mice who didn’t get resveratrol (Nature, 2006).

Read More

Alli and Appisat For Weight Loss

Alli and Appisat Approved For Over-the-Counter Sale in UK
Two diet drugs, Alli and Appisat, will go on sale in chemists for the first time in the UK this week. Previously, both drugs have been prescription-only.

But are they likely to help hopeful dieters - or just add to the credit crunch strain on wallets?
Alli

Alli (orlistat) was made available over-the-counter in the US in 2007. The drug works by reducing the body’s ability to absorb fat. The unabsorbed fat is passed out … often with unpleasant side effects: from GlaxoSmithKlein’s approved treatment program:

Read More

Fat-Burning Supplement Warning

The FDA is investigating “the potential relationship between Hydroxycut dietary supplements and liver injury or other potentially serious side effects” according to the issued warning.

There has been 1 death and 23 serious incidences reported, including severe jaundice and liver damage requiring transplant as well as seizures and rhabdomyolysis.

Iovate Health Sciences has responded by pulling 14 of their Hydroxycut products from the shelves. Iovate says that they had sold approximately 9 million units of the recalled products in 2008.

Hydroxycut products are dietary supplements sold in health food and department stores and pharmacies. They are marketed for weight loss, fat-burners, and low-carb diet aids as well as energy enhancers and for water loss according to the FDA.

Read More