Discussion Board

It's called Belviq, a prescription drug for long-term weight loss. It's for the adult population who are obese/overweight with at least one medical complication, such as diabetes or high cholesterol.

It's side effects are depression, memory loss and migraine headaches.

http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/ap/fda-a ... -in-decade

I remember Dr. Esstelyn this past January saying that when the FDA approvies a pill for obesity, it now becomes a disease. Hello higher insurance premiums!

Why, oh why, can we not teach people to eat correctly??? Do we really need our cake and eat it, too?

YES EDUCATE and ALSO what I hate is that these companies creating chemically addictive food are not being held in any way accountable. It's sick and they're benefitting off of making people ill addicts.

3 to 5% weight loss in a year with this drug? That doesn't sound like much at all,compared to what people are losing on the McDougall plan. And all those delightful side effects. I heard on the news it may also cause heart problems - as if overweight people need even more propensity to have heart problems.

So does this means those of us who are NOT obese get a discount on our insurance?

What are the chances the reported weight loss is from the diet councelling and increased exercise??? That little bit of loss sounds like they continued to eat what made them fat to begin with and just walked a little more.

When is this madness going to stop?

Well it kinda sounds like an anti-depressant to me which would help people with eating disorders. Now that I know it's a serotonin thing...

All I'll say is I struggled with bulimia in college, and anorexia before THAT, and was on an anti-depressant for awhile, and it genuinely did help me. And I was a vegan then and trying to eat clean. Sometimes you're just chemically effed up and really sick in that way.

So while it's being marketed as a weight loss drug, the serotonin thing is reading to me as an anti-depressant. I hope it'll be used wisely (though I'm sure it won't be sadly enough.)

That's interesting because my friend just started taking a serotonin-based antidepressant and GAINED weight. She found this article to support her suspicion that it was the drug causing her problem: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the ... eight-gain
She never had a weight problem before that, and she said she was eating all the time because she just could never get full! What was really cool was that the article says you need more STARCH!

My doctor prescribed Meridia for me when that came out and I took it for 3 months until my heart started racing uncontrollably at odd times, like when I was driving. Scared the living daylights out of me and I went off it right away! I lost about 20 pounds on that drug (in addition to a low-calorie diet and exercise...duh!) which was a drop in the bucket compared to the 100+ lbs I've shed on MWL! I'll happily take the McDougall "pill" any day!

I guess everybody's experience is different though. I lost weight and gained control over very health damaging compulsive behavior. Again, for me, it was depression and anxiety that resulted in eating disordered behavior. When you control that, often times your weight normalizes and/or drops. Though it's possible what I was taking may have been more of a dopamine thing. It's been a few years. And I'm certainly not saying your friend's experience isn't real, and having been a vegan since I was 20, since BEFORE the meds, of course I'm an advocate for plant and starch based as a way to help you cope with weight (for me I made the change to this lifestyle more for emotional reasons).

All I'm saying is, when it comes to anti-depressants, seems like everybody has a very different experience. Anyhow. I don't wanna get off topic.

For me, if it's an anti-depressant that helps people overcome an eating disoder, then I don't think it's the evil to end all evils. BUT if they're marketing it as simply a weight-loss drug, if I'm understanding correctly, well that doesn't fly with me and again it's just our society addressing symptoms not the root cause.

Yeah--I lost more than 40% of my body weight in less than a year on MWL. SOOOO much better than a pill!

People want drugs, plain and simple. If they were not using them, they wouldn't keep making them. I have heard so many people in my life say that they would rather take a pill and suffer a few side effects so they can live the way they want, rather than have to restrict themselves in any way.

It is madness. Plain and simple!

ummm.... hello!

So many don't care about health. Kind of "Life's a beach and then you die" mentality. I guess until they are suffering from serious disease. Many would rather take a pill then make serious changes. It's easier to take a pill in the mind of many.

Well or to be fair they're buying into medical lies! I mean we lucked out and found a lifestyle that is HEALTHY and RIGHT but the vast majority of people are being told constantly that eating meat, dairy, oils, etc IS healthy and that you're just a victim of genetics, etc.

I only have to think as close as my mother, or my girlfriends, who listen to their doctor who tells them they're eating healthfully and maybe just "walk" a little bit more.

I think some people don't care, but I do think SOME people DO care and they feel very lost because our society is telling them to do all the wrong things while still claiming it will help.

For most people that seems to be the very sad truth. I have a friend who is suffering severely from many illnesses, most of which likely could be helped much by this kind of diet. He's open to talking to me about it but says he doesn't ever think he could do it. Makes me very sad--this is a genuinely good man who helps people to the extent it puts him in physical danger and he doesn't deserve to suffer.

Then there's the other dear friend who just wants to lose weight the "easy" way and is starting and HCG program. I've given her books and DVDs, but the lure of the magic of a shot appeals to her more.

I have relatives I'd love to see try this plan. Diabetes and obesity is running rampant in my family.

I guess the adage "God helps those who help themselves" applies here, but it makes me very, very sad that the answer to many problems is so simple and available for FREE (a wonderful gift to the world from Dr M) yet people can be so resistant.