Weight Loss Drugs - weight loss information

Diet pills aim to help overweight people to curb their hunger and therefore lose weight. They are invariably pharmacological substances, though herbal and other natural alternatives exist, too. If diet pills contain pharmacological agents, there is an issue of benefits vs. risks involved. Obviously, grossly obese patients with serious health risks caused by excessive weight do not have many options. However, many of the initially developed diet pills contained amphetamines. Examples of these were Dexedrine and Digoxin. These stimulants can increase heart rates to dangerous levels. Obese persons often have to reduce weight precisely because of existing or developing heart conditions. In this context, diet pills that contain amphetamines or similar stimulants present a definite risk. While they do curb hunger, they also disrupt normal sleep patterns, cause anxiety and are highly addictive. Their uncontrolled use leads to many serious problems. In fact, almost all diet pills work by disrupting some natural physical and even mental functions. This is an important point to remember.

Depending on their mode of action, modern diet pills work by suppressing appetite, accelerating the body's metabolism and interfering with the absorption of certain nutrients in consumed food. Many diet pills prevent the absorption of fat into the body. If the patient habitually consumes foods with excessive fat levels, such diet pills are certainly useful. However, they work by short-circuiting the body's tendency to store fat in its tissues. This is an important metabolic function that can be disrupted safely only for limited periods. Therefore, using diet pills is not a long-term weight loss option. One must also not forget that appetite is a necessary reflex that nature has provided to ensure our survival.

Some active ingredients for diet pills in the recent past were phentermine and fenfluramine. These work by blocking certain metabolic feedback pathways that result in weight gain. Their use in combination apparently yielded considerable success, too. However, medical authorities took fenfluramine and its derivatives off the market when studies revealed that they could lead to heart valve damage. Topiramate and phentermine combinations are currently still in use. So are combinations of bupropion with zonisamide and naltrexone.

Certain pills now under research and development work by overcoming abnormalities like insulin resistance, in which the body's usual output of insulin is not enough to bring about a normal insulin response from fat. Another line of pills currently under development aims to correct conditions in which the body's lipid (fatty molecule) levels are abnormally high. Technically, these pills are not diet pills because they do not reduce appetite. However, they will be extremely effective when used in conjunction with a proper weight loss diet.

People tend to overeat for various reasons, many of which are psychological rather than physical. For this reason, there are pills that reduce excessive appetite because they correct a psychological or even psychiatric disorder. Again, these are not diet pills but do have the desired effect of helping curb appetite in overweight people.

No scientific research exists to support the efficacy of herbal diet pills in curbing appetite and reducing weight by other means. However, they may have a placebo effect. This means that the patient's belief in the medicine's power is sufficient to bring desirable results.

Source: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/diet-pills/