Contrave good for Weight Loss Pill?

Drug companies know that a pot of gold is up for grabs if they can only develop a break-through weight loss drug.

It looks like Contrave, one such contender, is one step closer to getting approval from the FDA which will open the drug up for sale in the USA.

At the end of a 56 week treatment study 48.2% of participants lost at least 10% of their body weight.

If you haven’t heard about Contrave, it is a blend of two well known drugs;

• Wellbutrin - A drug used to treat depression.
• Naltrexone- A drug used to treat alcoholism and addiction.

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Antioxidants are good or Bad for Diabetics?

Antioxidant vitamins, the once promising antidote to heart disease and cancer have become the red-headed stepchildren in the world of nutritional research. The latest bad news is that not only is it NOT effective for diabetics, it may actually worsen it.

The antioxidant theory had such promise and seemed wonderfully simple - free radical damage (ROS) causes chronic disease, antioxidant vitamins squelch free radicals - therefore take antioxidants to reduce your risk of chronic disease. Ta-da!

Well the excitement soon died off when research went from in vitro to in vivo. Long-term trials came up empty and in some cases the antioxidant treatment arm even INCREASED risk of certain diseases in certain populations.

A recent study for example indicates that antioxidants may negate the longer-term benefits of exercise training by lowering the activity of certain genes involved in ROS defence.

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Dangerous Weight Loss

While there is no clear definition of what constitutes “unsafe” weight loss, it’s probably fair to say that “The Biggest Loser” flirts with that blurry line at the best of times. Add some additional measures to the already-extreme methods imparted on TBL contestants and you have a recipe for a potentially dangerous situation.

At least a couple of Biggest Loser contestants have admitted to intentionally dehydrating themselves to accelerate their progress.

Therein lies the most fundamental problem with TBL - using scale weight as the sole determinant of success and hence victory. This obviously leaves things open to all sorts of behind-the-scenes tactics to shed more weight. Moreover these are just a couple of examples, but who knows what kind of pills, laxatives or other adjunct measures contestants are trying.

In the world of reality TV, drama matters - the more extreme the weight loss, the greater the drama, the greater the ratings. Also, severe caloric restriction + intense exercise very make people grumpy - there’s your built-in drama right there.

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