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New Diet strategy Pill Alli May Not Be a Wonder Drug, After All

By: Ike Ani


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Starting tomorrow, customers may walk into any drug store and buy the new OTC diet drug Alli (also known as orlistat in its clinical trials). Designed to block weight within the intestinal tract, the drug may be proven safe and at least mildly efficient for moderate fat loss.
In clinical studies, Alli may be shown to block approximately 25 percent of the fat ingested at any one meal, if taken prior to the meal. "I have a lot of sufferers who wish to consume a little additional weight, and they take this so they won’t absorb some from the fat that they eat," said Dr. George Blackburn to reporters. Dr. Blackburn is really a professor at Harvard Medical School, and co-chairs the Reality Council, which is aimed toward preventing obesity. The Reality Council receives funds in the form of a grant from GlaxoSmithKline, the makers of Alli.
Dr. James Anderson, who heads the UK College of Medicine Metabolic Study Group, supervised the studies of OTC-strength orlistat, or Alli. "Our study showed that people taking orlistat and following low-fat diets lost nearly five percent of their initial body fat, about seven to 15 pounds, over four months," said Anderson towards the press.
Pronounced "ally," as in friend, Alli might not be so friendly to some, nevertheless. Unwanted results can be quite startling, say both experts and users of Alli’s prescription-strength sister drug, Xenical. They included excessive flatulence, unexpected uncontrollable bowel movements, diarrhea, upset stomach, and loose, oily stool. The product’s info guide, Are You Losing It? Losing Fat Without Losing Your Mind, includes a recommendation that until users know how their bodies will respond to Alli, they would be wise to bring a change of clothing or wear dark-colored pants when leaving their homes.
Dr. John Husted, a bariatric surgeon at the California Pacific Medical Center, told The San Francisco Chronicle, "Long-term, I think individuals are going to turn out to be unsatisfied with this drug. People lose weight in various methods, and for some individuals it may work, but I expect that to become a minority of people."
Some specialists believe that an unintended result from the drug is to force people to select lower-fat meals due to the unpleasant unwanted effects of eating high-fat meals.
Some doctors who once prescribed Xenical, the stronger version from the drug, reported that their sufferers either did not return for prescription refills or only utilized Xenical for a short period of time, following which it seemed to shed its effectiveness.
In a related story, an FDA advisory committee voted unanimously yesterday to not recommend a various new diet strategy drug, rimonabant, simply because of its potential unwanted effects.
Though rimonabant has been marketed successfully in Europe, the committee voiced concerns that some sufferers could experience greater risk of depression and suicide. A U.S. News report stated that in clinical trials, patients taking rimonabant did shed considerably much more fat than the control group, yet much more than 25% of them reported undesirable effects like increased depression and anxiety.

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Ike has been writing articles online for nearly 3 years now. Not only does this author specialize in health, fitness and weight loss, you can also check out his latest website called buy whole sale gift baskets which provides you with information so that you can buy wholesale gift baskets for your leisure.

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