The FDA has approved Qsymia for use today by those who are obese, with a BMI of 30 or more, or for those who have a BMI of 27 with weight related illness.
The history of weight loss pills has been fraught with law suits due to life threatening side affects and prescription abuse by physicians and patients.
The major problem with weight loss drugs is that they don’t address the underlying causes of weight gain such as the psychological component of over eating and the food itself.
There is wide ranging debate regarding the way certain processed and scientifically engineered foodstuffs react with human physiology and metabolism.
Until we confront these two major issues surrounding food it will be difficult to solve America’s obesity epidemic with a pill.
“Given the literally insatiable appetite of doctors and patients for new drugs as a quick fix for obesity, there is every reason to believe that, if approved, a combination like this, will be used by millions, over long periods of time far beyond its labeling indications. Because of a long list of safety reasons, this drug should not be approved,” the group’s Dr. Sidney Wolfe told the FDA advisory panel in 2010.
Vivus, the company that makes Qsymia, hopes it will be a safer successor to the notorious and now banned “fen-phen” diet cocktail. Fen-phen combined fenfluramine and phentermine — one of the two drugs in Qsymia — but it damaged the heart in some cases and caused a condition in some patients called pulmonary hypertension, which causes fluid to build up in the chest, bringing a feeling of breathlessness.
