Fenfluramine and its side effects

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Fenfluramine and its side effects

Reserchers in US recently confirmed that fenfluramine use as appetite suppressant can cause heart valve problems. Though this problem is mild it could be life threatening. The heart problem improves or disappears after the drug is discontinued.

This drug is known to cause palpitation, depression, pulmonary hypertension, vomiting, sleep disturbances, even congestive heart failure.

Fenfluramine acts on the central nervous system to inhibit the feeding centre.  The diet drugs should not be taken to control appetite and a shotcut to slimming. Most of the weight loss drugs cause impressive weight loss in the beginning only.

These drugs cause the body to go into starvation mode, when it responds by burning fewer calories and boosting appetite.
The starvation response is triggered because the weight loss causes a decline in blood levels of a hormone leptin. Researchers are now trying a way out to keep the leptine level high by giving leptine along with the appetite suppressants like sibutramine.

Small doses of leptin along with sibutramine tricks the brain into thinking enough leptin was in the body to allow the weight loss to continue.

Because of the seriousness of the valvular heart disease associated with the use of fenfluramine, the medication was withdrawn from the market in September of 1997.
 

Obesity

Obesity & Serotonin

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Obesity & Serotonin
It is increasingly recognized that obesity is not a failure of will or behaviour, nor is it a disorder of body weight regulation. It is a chronic medical condition, like hypertension or diabetes.In the obese person, body weight is just as carefully regulated as it is in non obese persons, but regulation is around an elevated set point. This homeostatic set point — strongly influenced by genetics and is probably controlled by neurotransmitters that signal hunger or signal satiety.Only those individuals with exceptional will power and the ability to tolerate discomfort are able to defeat this homeostatic mechanism through dietary energy restriction.
A number of major studies have shown that the majority of dieters who lose weight with low-calorie diets and behaviour modification regain that lost weight within 3 to 5 years.
If eating behaviour, like mood and personality, is simply the result of a mixture of neurotransmitters, then a pharmaceutical intervention may be more effective than attempts at behaviour modification, just as antidepressants are generally more effective for clinical depression than a psychiatrist.At one time, amphetamines were being used for weight control, although when the drug was discontinued, the patient gained back all the lost weight. However, if obesity is a chronic medical condition in the same way that hypertension is a chronic medical condition, then weight gain following drug discontinuation is no different from rising blood pressure after the discontinuation of antihypertensive medications.
Using serotonin reuptake inhibitors for weight lossIn the early 1980s, clinical investigators discovered a link between serotonin and eating disorders. The discovery was unexpected: during clinical trials of the serotonin reuptake-inhibitor fluoxetine, one side effect noted was weight loss. Even before this, seotonin was implicated in the eating disorders.

The dietary starch is converted to sugar, sugar stimulates the pancreas to release insulin, insulin raises brain levels of the amino acid tryptophan, tryptophan is a precursor of serotonin, and serotonin regulates mood, producing a sense of well-being. Therefore, obese people load up on carbohydrates to elevate mood. In studies with obese women, it was found that a high-carbohydrate snacks improved mood.

Subsequent studies showed that serotoninergics helped overeaters lose weight. One agent — dexfenfluramine — was particularly effective for cutting food intake. Dexfenfluramine is the active portion of the anti-obesity agent fenfluramine. Its side effects are dry mouth, diarrrhea, unsteadiness, and memory problems along with cardiac problems..

Because of the seriousness of the valvular heart disease associated with the use of fenfluramine, the medication was withdrawn from the market in September of 1997

According to the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control, more than 30% of Americans are 20% or more overweight, and one third of women and more than one quarter of men are trying to lose weight at any given time.

Overweight people loosing a little bit of weight – gain a lot

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Overweight people loosing a little bit of weight -gain a lot
Overweight people who manage to lose just a little bit of weight – even just a pound a year – may substantially lower their risk of high blood pressure. The hard part, of course, is keeping the weight off. But a new study shows that surprisingly little weight loss – if it can be sustained – carries a big payoff in better health.

Obesity ~ Some facts

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Obesity – some facts
  • Exercise alone is not enough to get rid of the obesity.
  • Fact is, one pound of body weight is equivalent to 3,500 kcal. To shed this much body weight one needs to walk approximately 50 miles or 80 km.
  • A slice of bread pasted with jam and butter contains some 150 kcal. To be able to burn up this much body needs workload equivalent to strenuous exercise for half an hour or a 3 mile run. How many of us can do it!!!
  • By far the only way of shedding excessive weight is to eat fewer calories, fewer that those expended.
  • Losing weight should be a gradual process. There is no miraculous diet which would take off extra large amount of weight within a few days without toiling hard.
  • Complete fasting for a week is difficult and inadvisable, but even if it is accomplished it would take away not more than 5 pounds of body fat.
  • The best way to fight obesity is to consume a properly balanced low caloric diet, to be accompanied by bouts of exercise.
  • Overweight people who manage to lose just a little bit of weight – even just a pound a year – may substantially lower their risk of high blood pressure. The hard part, of course, is keeping the weight off. But a new study shows that surprisingly little weight loss – if it can be sustained – carries a big payoff in better health.
  • If you’re overweight, losing just a pound or two a year–and keeping the weight off–can help prevent diabetes. The more weight lost, the bigger the reduction in diabetes risk. In a long-term study, the risk of developing diabetes was 33% lower in overweight people who lost between 8 and 15 pounds, while those who lost more had a 51% reduction in risk.
  • Women who repeatedly gain and lose weight, especially if they are obese, have significantly lower levels of HDL or “good” cholesterol than do women who maintain their weight.
  • Women who are not obese should try to maintain a stable weight.
  • Being overweight and having high blood pressure can independently increase a man’s chances of developing kidney cancer. 
 

 Obesity

Childhood Obesity

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Childhood Obesity
Obesity is one of the most significant health problems in the developing and developed countries. An overweight adolescent has a 70 percent chance of becoming an obese adult, and obesity can lead to a higher risk of life threatening health problems like –

  • High blood pressure
  • Premature heart attacks
  • Diabetes
  • Physical risks
  • Emotional ramifications because of peer ridicule and lower self-esteem levels.
  • The additional weight can result in reduced endurance, leg pains from stressed joints and often make simple activities more taxing.

All this leads to “The Vicious Cycle of Childhood Obesity”.

It is believed that children are becoming heavier due to –

  • decrease in physical activity (modern transportation, television, computers and video games)
  • Increasing availability of higher calorie foods such as fast foods, higher-fat convenience foods and snacks.

Management of Childhood Obesity

  • Dietary intervention.
  • An exercise program.
  • Behaviour counselling with family participation.
There is a rare genetic disorder that is related to childhood obesity. It is named Prader-Willi Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that affects about one of every 15,000 people. Prader-Willi Syndrome has been recognized as the most common genetic cause of potentially life-threatening childhood obesity.It results from an abnormality on the 15 chromosome.The children have extraordinarily low metabolism and an insatiable hunger and insatiable urge to eat, which is beyond the control of the patient.

Other features of this condition are:

  • Low muscle tone and short stature
  • Small hands and feet
  • Poor motor skills
  • Reduced bone mineral density.
  • Delayed or incomplete sexual development
  • Mild to moderate mental retardation
  • Distinctive facial features (including a narrow face, small mouth, and full cheeks)

 
 Low Muscle Tone 
Obesity 
Obesity ~ Your Weight or Your Shape ?