A New Drug Brings Up New Hope in the Search for Weight Loss Pills that Work

When you look at how there are always people searching perennially for weight loss pills that work, it becomes clear that weight-loss isn't really a science; not just yet. It's still at a thoroughly experimental stage. There's a new drug on the block today called Qnexa. Well, it's new in a way; it's a combination of two drugs that you know of already, brought together in an attempt to create something new and useful. The two drugs are Fen-Phen (one half of it), the disgraced diet pill that caused heart damage, and an anti-epileptic from Johnson & Johnson called Topamax (which by the way, isn't free of controversy either). The new drug, Qnexa, still hasn't gained FDA approval; but it's close. It’s said to help people lose 15% of their weight in a short period of time.

Fen-Phen makes a person lose his appetite (in a good way). The other component the antiepileptic, Topamax, changes the way your brain handles hunger. As far as the FDA is concerned, this antiepileptic seems to not really do much for weight loss. So why exactly do they feel that Fen-Phen is safe for you now when it wasn't safe the last time you heard of it? It's because what they use in Qnexa, technically, isn't Fen-Phen. It's only one half of it - phentermine, which is considered to not have been responsible for the heart damage problems. It was fenfluramine, the other chemical in Fen-Phen that they say did it. Why, phentermine is still allowed and prescribed all over the world by itself. It isn't considered to be unsafe.

Qnexa is a drug that you're supposed to take once daily. So are there going to be unpleasant side effects? Anything that is powerful enough to cause you to drop your weight by 15% is undoubtedly going to come with unintended effects. Topamax for instance, has serious memory loss issues going on.

The risks do exist; if Qnexa does come on the market, it will be intended only at those who are dangerously obese (about one in 15) in America, considering that it does come with some alarming side effects. Typically, weight-loss pills that work have been hard to come by. If you are anxious for this particular drug and you can't wait until it comes on the market, you could conceivably talk to your doctor about separate prescriptions for phentermine and Topamax.

In general, experts don't believe that we will ever have weight-loss pills that work that are safe as well as effective. It will always be one or the other. In general, pills, they say, aren't where you should be looking if you wish to lose weight.