Latest News

We have just seen the results of a study from a Canadian research team which suggests that the results that patients get from taking anti-obesity medications can sometimes be disappointing.  Whilst the research showed that there was a greater chance of achieving the weight loss required to get to a healthy body mass amongst people who take the medications than with those who do not, the results were quite often not that impressive.  A number of patients dropped out of the programme early on, which is something that we notice with some of our patients.  This non-adherence by patients is one of the major causes of disappointing weight loss results.  If participants do not follow instructions, it is hardly surprising that they do not lose weight!

The study looked at sibutramine, orlistat and Rimonabant – The Online Clinic routinely prescribes all of these medications.  We find that the results are very much mixed.  Some patients have amazing results whereas some drop out after the first month either because of cost or low levels of weight loss.  Unless there have been side effects, we would normally recommend continuing for three months to see if a 5% weight reduction could be achieved in that time frame.  Normally, with some persistence and a bit of effort on the exercise front, this result can be achieved by most patients.

The study found that those people taking the medications did get other results which have an overall positive impact on their health.  Xenical appeared to have an impact on reducing the incidence of diabetes and all the medications, including Reductil and Acomplia, had an impact in reducing certain cholesterol levels.