Anti-Obesity Drugs benefits and side effects, list and review of old and new prescription medications, safety and danger

Long-term treatment with the anti obesity drugs orlistat, sibutramine or rimonabant produces slight weight loss, but all three drugs influence cardiovascular risk profiles in different ways and have different side effects. If you would like an effective appetite suppressant, consider Diet-Rx. Many natural supplements are a good alternative to anti obesity drugs, and these natural supplements are safer.

Present anti obesity drugs either regulate food intake by acting on neural circuits or reduce nutrient absorption from gut. These approaches have shown moderate success, with several safety concerns. Potential anti-obesity drugs can be classified into five broad categories:

Decreasing appetite through central action. A natural supplement that works to decrease appetite is 5-HTP, which is a precursor to serotonin.
Increasing metabolic rate or affecting metabolism through peripheral action. A natural supplement that works to increase metabolic rate is a citrus aurantium extract.
Modulating gut peptide receptors;
Modulating targets to affect overall cardiometabolic parameters;
Combination therapies directed against several targets.

High drop out rate with anti obesity drugs
High drop-out rates -- 30% to 40% -- limits the effectiveness of these anti obesity drugs.

Effectiveness of anti obesity drugs
Patients taking these anti obesity drugs are more likely than those taking placebo to experience a 5% to 10% reduction in weight. In a review of long term studies, compared with placebo, orlistat reduced weight by 2.9 kg, sibutramine by 4.2 kg, and rimonabant by 4.7 kg.

Benefit of orlistat anti obesity drug
Orlistat reduces the incidence of diabetes and improves levels of total and LDL cholesterol, blood pressure, and glycemic control in patients with diabetes but increases rates of gastrointestinal side effects and lowers HDL levels.

Benefit of sibutramine anti obesity drug
Sibutramine lowers HDL and triglyceride levels but raised blood pressure and pulse rate.

Benefit of rimonabant anti obesity drug
Rimonabant improves HDL and triglyceride levels, as well as blood pressure and glycemic control in diabetic patients but increases mood disorders, such as depression or anxiety. Acomplia may increase the risk for suicide.

Qnexa study September 2009
Qnexa, an experimental obesity drug, helped people lose an average of nearly 15 percent of their body weight by combining an older weight-loss drug with an epilepsy drug. The result from Mountain View, California-based Vivus Inc shows it may not require breakthrough approaches to drug design to help the most severely obese people lose enough weight to improve their health -- although it remains to be seen how long they can keep the weight off.I t also suggests that tackling obesity from two directions -- by altering both behavior and biology -- can pay off. Many researchers have tried to tackle the problem of obesity, attacking hormones such as leptin and ghrelin, brain chemicals such as neuropeptide Y and even trying to stop the body from absorbing nutrients. One big problem, however, is human behavior. Drugs can speed up metabolism, suppress appetite and even prevent the body from absorbing fat. But some people will gorge themselves even when they are full. Vivus bet that it could improve on the notorious "fen-phen" combination pulled off the market in 1997 after it was found to damage the heart and cause sometimes fatal cases of pulmonary hypertension. Fen-phen combined fenfluramine and phentermine. Phentermine, a stimulant now available generically, appears safe and is used in the new Vivus drug Qnexa. Fenfluramine, once sold by companies now a part of Wyeth under the brand names Redux and Pondimin, could damage heart valves, causing fluid to build up -- the main symptom of pulmonary hypertension. Wyeth is still settling lawsuits from patients who said they were injured by the combination.