The Future of Obesity is Drugs?

I agree completely, it is sad, but just for fun I’ll play devil’s advocate. Who would support a pill if it could make people diet and exercise?

I'm with you! I'll stick to the old way of healthy diet and exercise though. Besides, from a serious point of view. Drugs always have 'side effects.' Listen to the reassuring voice at the end of every drug commercial. :)

These kinds of reports make me so mad!!!! Let's make up yet another "syndrome" ("disorder" seems to be another favourite) so people can forget about personal responsibilty (that is, until they stop taking the pills and put all the weight back on again because their eating habits haven't changed) and drug companies can make a huge profit from poor self esteem and the desire for a quick fix.

The exagerrated numbers of people who supposedly have ADHD is another example of this, how many of those were genuine cases requiring drugs, and how many would simply have benefited from a change in diet (away from processed c**p) and maybe some counselling?

This kind of "quick-fix" mentality is slowly growing in New Zealand, I am sad to say. More and more ads for optional (as opposed to essential, like diabetics on insulin) medications are appearing.

Just eat well and exercise!!! Once you start, you'll feel so good it will become habit.

Caramelle-oh: Hippocrates said that you should treat the cause of an illness, not the symptoms. The problem with all of this is that they are indeed just treating the symptoms. The "illness" will then always come back when treatment is halted. Nearly all people will see the illness go away if they just get educated and disciplined about the cause.

ADHD and ADD are certainly overdiagnosed. It depends what you mean by "requiring drugs". I'm actually a textbook ADD case. Most psychiatrists I talk to will mention it within 5 minutes of talking to them, even if they had no prior knowledge and even if I was just talking to them in a casual situation. I show vast improvement from ritalin and only decent improvement from change in diet and exercise. However, I don't believe that I require ritalin.

Ritalin is an unnatural chemical that I believe has no place in my body. It may make me concentrate like a normal person, but it does weird things to the rest of me. I think that complete health should come first. What do I do about my impaired concentration? I deal with it. I have to work harder than others because I got slightly worse genetics in one area. People don't want to hear this when it comes to weight loss though.

Right now anything told to us about metabolic disorder would be a guess. It is real a real disorder but does it cause obesity or is it caused by obesity? No one really knows.

Not all people who are obese have a metabolic disorder either.
It’s so easy to look for a magic pill. I think with some people obesity is an illness, many bulimics are obese and morbidly obese because of the binge purge aspects of their disorder. Yet others obesity might be due from inactivity or abuse?

ON ADHD
Caramelle
I wrote about ADHD on my blog today. I have adult ADHD and it’s a real disorder though there is a huge over diagnosing in the 1980’s. A lot of it stems from people with little training diagnosing ADHD.

Ryan
Some people require drugs and some people don’t it’s really up to the person and their doctor.
I did well with Ritalin for while but the drugs will only work short term if they are not combined with structure.

I know ADHD is a real disorder, but the huge amounts of people being diagnosed with it after just one assessment, then being given copious amounts of legal amphetimines to treat it is ridiculous. My husband was diagnosed in this way as a teenager and was put on a drug similar to Ritalin. He said the drugs made him feel like a zombie, no emotions, no enthusiasm, and weight gain, the only upside being his increased ability to study (and of course he never got excited about his wonderful grades).

As he has gotten older and got more life experience, he has realised that his problem behaviour was not caused by ADHD, he was just a troubled teen acting up for various reasons, poor diet, drugs (dare I say it, the illegal kind) boredom at school and a lot of family "issues". The percentage of Americans taking at least one legal drug on a regular basis is astounding(I can't remember the figure off the top of my head). I'm not that old, but I can remember a time when medication was for people who actually needed it.

Sorry, Diet-Blog, for getting so off-topic.

iportion: Again, it depends what you mean by "require". I've yet to meet someone who will die without ADD/ADHD drugs. In the strictest sense of the word, no one "needs" ritalin, but it may make a world of difference in their ability to concentrate. I choose not to take it, no matter how much my performance suffers. Health before success.

What I meant was for some people the alternative treatments don’t work or don’t work alone. While I am not on medicine right now I might in the future feel it necessary. I am still a success. I just won’t put down a person anymore, who decides medicine is right for them. I used to be dogmatic in alternative treatments but now I see what works for some will not work for others.

"I just won’t put down a person anymore, who decides medicine is right for them. I used to be dogmatic in alternative treatments but now I see what works for some will not work for others."

Oh, indeed. Ritalin is definitely right for some. However, I prefer to go the natural way, due to the various side effects I had with it.

Why the hostility? I don't get it. Sure, there's money involved, and sure, diet and exercise are always going to be part of the equation...but seriously...fat storage is hormonal and everyone's different. If big pharma can discover a safe pill to make endomorphs less endomorphic, why not? Wouldn't that be a good thing?

:( this makes me want to cry for the future.

My mother-in-law has "metabolic syndrome" and she most DEFINITELY takes no responsibility for it at all. To hear her tell it, she's a victim and can't do anything about it. She knows she should exercise, but she claims that her "delicate condition" would make her pass out or something. She also has a thyroid problem which she blames everything on too, even though the medication she's on has brought her thyroid function to about normal levels. She takes about a million pills and if they made a pill that cured fatness, I'm sure she'd be all about it. I guess I figure things this way: I used to be fat and I blamed it on genetics and a slow metabolism. Then I got healthy and lost weight and I guess I proved to myself that my metabolism isn't inherently slow and the obesity problem in my family is maybe only a small bit genetic, but it was overcome with diet and exercise.

PS...My dad, sister, and brother all have ADD to varying degrees. My sister and dad have it the worst and they definitely are textbook cases. My sister was on Dexedrine (dextroamphetamine) and it helped her focus tremendously. It was so noticeable that I could tell if she'd forgotten her pills...her behavior was that different. Now that she's an adult, she doesn't take the Dexedrine anymore and she has instead tried to focus without it using other methods. My brother was only on medication for his ADD for a short while and he decided he was a lot better off without it. My dad was about 40 when he was even diagnosed with having ADD and he figured that he'd dealt with it his whole life without drugs that he didn't feel like taking more pills.

The whole issue of pharmaceutical treatment of overweight and obesity worries me. There is no proof that a healthy BMI maintained through drugs actually carries fewer health risks than an overweight BMI in someone who eats well and exercises. Overweight and obesity are products of certain lifestyle factors and it's unclear whether the weight itself, the lifestyle or the combination of both is more important for disease risk.

Although I do have to say that having some sorts of medical treatments available is probably beneficial for folks who are so obese that they have limited mobility or have already developed disease processes such as diabetes. But they are not and should never be the first choice treatment.

...ummm...did anyone notice that the woman in the article who was 226 lb. 'was so relieved that she was diagnosed' (with metabolic syndrom) and just 'by the way' happened to loose 20 lb. by cutting out carbohydrates. Did she not get the connection?? She was 'relieved' that she was diagnosed with something official??? Looks to me that in her case the syndrom was 'elbow hinging to mouth' syndrom.

Seems to me that she was 'relieved' that she could blame it on something else other than herself. She did after all loose weight when she made the effort to change something about her food choices. In her case, cutting out he carbohydrates worked.

Spectra, I know someone here very similar. Practically sputters cake crumbs all over you agonizing at her 'fate'. Of course she can't walk/exercise her belly hangs down to her knees (wears leggings!!!!) and her neck has disappeared. Funny, her 'gland problem' disappeared when she lost 80 lb a few years ago for her wedding.

Before anyone pounces, yeah-yeah, I know there are legitimate 'gland' (metabolic syndrom - the more modern excuse now) problems, but in this case it obviously was not...as is so often the case. It is just a defense mechanisim.

Leave it the pharma industry to creat yet another 'modern illness' that - golly - THEY just happen to have the pill for!

I have sympathy for those with true metabolic problems. Somehow I just can't muster the sympathy for those who let themselves get out of (self) control. We don't live in the dark ages, there is an overabundance of nutritional advice out there.

I know someone who just gave up all prepared foods - anything that had an ingredient list, minimized whole bread (rye) to every other day, and never ate refined foods again. Lost 4 sizes in 6 months and was never hungry. And Nordic Walked as well.

"It was so noticeable that I could tell if she'd forgotten her pills...her behavior was that different."

Yeah, my dad says the same thing about me.

Part of the problem is that we're putting way too much trust in doctors. Many people look to doctors as the ultimate source of information about their bodies. However, there are faults in their way of thinking and their training that concern me. This is not to say that some doctors don't think outside the doctor mindset, but it's the exception and not the rule.

A normal doctor's primary function is to prescribe drugs, potentially dangerous ones. The way in which doctors choose the drugs they use disturbed me even as a kid. A representative comes along and talks to the doctor for about five minutes between appointments, then takes the doctor to a nice restaurant and basically courts the doctor. They're very good socializers. Some of the best restaurants I've ever been to were those my dad took me to when a drug representative came to talk to him.

At dinner, I don't remember them ever even talking about the drug's effects and dangers. The representative leaves some samples, which the doctor hands out and eventually begins writing prescriptions for.

This is not to say that there aren't good applications for drugs. When I got food poisoning, I needed thenagrine for about 2 days to keep me from throwing up everything I ate or drank, which my dad wisely prescribed to me. However, people are getting way too dependent on medications.

"I used to be fat and I blamed it on genetics and a slow metabolism. Then I got healthy and lost weight and I guess I proved to myself that my metabolism isn't inherently slow and the obesity problem in my family is maybe only a small bit genetic, but it was overcome with diet and exercise."

Spectra - I could have written those exact words! I used to maintain on 1,200 calories a day, now I'm maintaining 14.4% bodyfat on 2,200 calories a day. (I'm a short woman.) People *can* reseset their metabolism. Sure, I did get a bad deal on my genetics and I'll always have to keep working out and eat a healthy diet, but there's no way I'd ever want to go back to my couch potato ways. I'm only sorry I didn't realise much earlier that I could turn my life around.

Patricia - I cut out processed food too and the week I cut bread out of my diet - even healthy low-GI rye or oat bread - I lost 1% bodyfat. I've mentioned this on other boards and other women have had the same result. I guess my body just doesn't like any kind of processed carbohydrates.

I cannot believe this. This is totally giving people another reason to be lazy. People seem to do things better and quicker when they are left with little or no choices. When the word gets out far enough, people will not only stop resorting to diet and exercise, they will most likely keep making all of the mistakes they make now because there is an easy way out. They will be happy to hear that they can forget all the old ways to lose weight and be delighted to have something prescribed by a doctor that gives them the excuse to not try. Now what happens when these people take these pills but continue to overeat thinking they can erase what they are doing to themselves. I think this is ridiculous. I used to be 248 lbs. and over the past two years I have gradually lost 100 lbs. No diet pills, no gastric bypass surgery, no diet shakes; just plain healthier eating and real exercising. I don't think I would appreciate my life as much if I hadn't struggled to be who I am now. Working toward something is the only way to appreciate the reward in the end.

"I don't think I would appreciate my life as much if I hadn't struggled to be who I am now. Working toward something is the only way to appreciate the reward in the end."

Totally agree, girl! As someone smarter than me once said. "The triumph can't be had without the struggle."

"I don't think I would appreciate my life as much if I hadn't struggled to be who I am now. Working toward something is the only way to appreciate the reward in the end."

Just hearing someone say this alone has made my day.

Metabolic syndrome is really just 'carbohydrate intolerance', hence the woman cutting down on the carbs and managing it.

But I dare say that the majority of people would support a drug, rather than do something so horrific as to cut out the carbs.

Wake up people!

Bravo Maggie!

RedPanda - how were you able to measure the 1% body fat.

'Metabolic syndrome is really just 'carbohydrate intolerance', hence the woman cutting down on the carbs and managing it.'

This may be so in many people's case, however it just isn't that easy call it 'just' carbo intolerance. A metabolism out of whack can be due to many other factors as well. Sluggish liver, TYPES of carbos, metabolic typing, medications causing a cumulative effect, on and on. :>)

I believe that obesity is a full fleged "mind" disease. If you go to another country, say England, and you ask them what they know about Americans, they will respond that they are over weight. My point is that it seems as though obesity really exists in our minds. Most people around the world are not obese and i say most cause there are some around the world but not as many as to compare the USA. You see it all the time in the news that people are trying to lose weight but cant because of eating habbits. Its a vicous cycle, obese people eat alot because they are sad and they are sad because they eat alot. When you are sad you dont feel like doing anything except eating, right?

I think that The Future of Obesity is Drugs because if someone can just sit on their couch without having to exercise to lose weight and just take a pill, how hard is that?

I think lowcarb_dave said it best, "...the majority of people would support a drug, rather than do something so horrific as to cut out the carbs.", or should i add to that and say exercise.

I do think that drugs will help fight the war on obesity. Americans take presciption medication for everything these days from anxiety, sexual problems, etc. Obesity is a disease and if modern science can find a cure for it in a form of a pill or drug than I think that will be great!

Patricia - In answer to your question, I track my bodyfat % with calipers. They're easy to use once you get the hang of them.

I agree with Ryan with treating the cause, not the symptom whenever possible... I wonder how many of these "metabolic syndrome" patients being given weight loss drugs would benefit from treatment to any real disorders that may be worsening their problems (menopause, PCOS, hypothyroidism, Type II diabetes) not to mention of course, lifestyle changes, and who'll be handed some diet pills and not thoroughly checked for those.

As for the new psych diagnoses mania, I'm autistic, technically speaking. I often take a friend and her little one who is autistic to his specialists and they all say I have more diagnostic requirements than he does. I wonder if they'd treated me differently because of that or pumped me full of antipsychotic drugs, like they do with him, if I'd be functional now (don't get me wrong, I'm still weird and no people person, but I "pass for normal", let's say).

Oh as for the making excuses not to diet/exercise, I have a friend whose excuse is: anemia. She can't take supplements for them cause they "don't work" (iron, b12, I've even suggested brewer's yeast, which is what my holistic doctor used to give me for anemia). She can't cut any calories cause she "feels more anemic" (mmm chips don't have iron - she could eat beef and spinach 3x a day, get more iron than she does right now, and 1/4 of the calories). And exercise? She faints from the anemia.

She is only 22 and her BP and cholesterol are so serious she is on drugs for the both of them already. I mean, I'm not saying lose weight to look like a fitness model, but losing 10lb could seriously improve her health with minor effort. I've given up on suggesting anything.