All of the weight loss drugs put out with so much hope have pretty much turned out to be total busts. The weight loss is pretty moderate, and the side effects range from life-impairing to fatal. This is not really surprising--with something as central to survival as eating, you'd expect to find a lot of redundant mechanisms supporting it, and some of the mechanisms by which you target it are likely to be mission critical for some important organ.
And of course, with something as central to survival as eating, you'd expect people to have trouble controlling their urge to eat--appetite is a signal akin to pain, and we don't expect people to be able to function normally when they're in constant pain. With growing evidence that moderate excercise doesn't actually make you any thinner (your body just ups your appetite), that leaves people who want to be thinner in search of a miracle cure.
Apparently, they're turning to "off label" uses of various drugs whose side effects are a reduction in appetite: stimulants like adderall, Wellbutrin, and Provigil. Taking stimulants you don't particularly want or need seems like it would be worse than being fat--but of course, that's easy for me to say.
They might try just eating less. No miracle there, and it doesn't cost a dime (might save some money on food, actually).
Hi! I'm Troy McClure. You may remember me from such self videos as "Smoke Yourself Thin" and "Get Confident, Stupid."
Your sole focus on appetite vis-a-vis body mass once again shows what a shallow, uniformed idiot you are.
CONGRATULATIONS! I LOVE YOU MEGAN!
In Asia, slimming teas are popular and that makes sense. I don't know all the active ingredients in them, however theanine from green tea would act on the GABA-ergic system. Anything which stimulates the GABA-ergic system will increase HGH production which boosts metabolism. GABA-ergic drugs (and the amino acid GABA itself) are popular with weight lifters. Theanine is the most mild that I'm aware of.
The downside is that all GABA-ergic drugs seem to lead to tolerance to one degree or another, and many of the stronger ones can lead to withdrawl. The Kavalactones are a possible exception to the withdrawl symptoms and tolerance but that's probably just due to lack of evidence. Theanine doesn't seem to cause withdrawl symptoms, but does lead to tolerance. Some folks (myself included) are allergic to GABA suppliments.
Alpha-lipoic acid or R-lipoic acid helps with carbohydrate metabolism and is a wonderful anti-oxidant. But friends have claimed it also increases the desire for sweets.
I wonder how long it will be before the newly approved Lyrica is used off-label for its GABA ergic properties.
The best natural way to increase HGH is to get good, restful, regular sleep on an empty stomach. Anything which increases deep sleep will increase HGH. There's a strong correlation between sleep quality and quantity and the fat to lean muscle mass ratio.
There's some good evidence that resveratrol helps avoid many negative side effects of a high fat diet, but I don't know if it actually helps people lose weight.
The post you link to and the Wall Street Journal article it links to are from 2006. Wellbutrin is not a stimulant, it's an antidepressant. What's your source that "all" of the anti-obesity drugs are busts? If doctors are prescribing them, what do you know that they don't?
All you need to do is read "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Taubes to know the truth.
It's unfortunate that generations of people have been misled by the health authorities about what constitutes a "healthy" diet.
All you need to know is that carbohydrates leads to insulin production which leads to fat accumulation.
They might try just eating less. No miracle there, and it doesn't cost a dime (might save some money on food, actually).
Wow! You should put that on a billboard. I'm sure the fat people of the world will rejoice at your insight.
With growing evidence that moderate excercise doesn't actually make you any thinner (your body just ups your appetite)
I have not heard this and it contradicts my personal experience. I'm genuinely curious. Any pointers to some of the growing evidence?
Anything which stimulates the GABA-ergic system will increase HGH production which boosts metabolism.
(Eyebrow raise) Reference, please. Thanks.
Cigarettes and whiskey and wild, wild women.
um how is 2006 news?
Madame,
As an acquaintance of mine would observe, "Better skinny and dead than fat & alive."
Yours truly
C. V. Snicker
"With growing evidence that moderate excercise doesn't actually make you any thinner (your body just ups your appetite)"
Moderate exercise is usually 20-30 minutes 3-4 times a week. My feeling is that in self-reported studies it's very easy to justify to ones self, that despite not making an effort to exercise you had 20-30 minutes of activity on half of the days per week.
Once exercise gets bumped up to one hour 5-6 times a week there is more of a correlation with weight loss, because the only people doing this are truly making the effort.
Klug - I assume that you're questioning the link between the GABAergic system and human growth hormone? There are a number of studies showing how certain pathologies disrupt the link. I've removed some links to the studies themselves, since the spam filter eats my post if I don't
Present experiments were carried out in 23-day-old female rats to analyze the interaction between excitatory amino acids (EAAs) and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the control of gonadotropin and GH secretion.
GH secretion was enhanced after administration of NMDA, KA and AMPA, while LH increased only after activation of NMDA receptors;
link
Alcoholism abolishes the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)ergic control of GH secretion in humans.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9818985?ordinalpos=10&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
Psychoneuroendocrinology of depression.... Growth hormone.... ACh-induced GH release through the somatostatin system, GABA, and also GHRH-stimulated release are reported as abnormal by some researchers.
link
Failure of gammahydroxy butyric acid to stimulate growth hormone secretion in cocaine addicts...
data show that a chronic abuse of cocaine induces alterations of the GABAergic system which were unmasked by the absent GH response to GHB.
link
Altered neuroendocrine control of GH secretion in normal women of advanced reproductive age.
BACKGROUND: Previous studies have suggested that the neuroendocrine control of growth hormone (GH) secretion changes with increasing age in women with normal menstrual cycles and sex steroid levels. METHODS: In order to verify this hypothesis women ... were tested with the serotonergic agent sumatriptan (6 mg in a subcutaneous bolus), the GABAergic agonist sodium valproate (800 mg orally), the dopaminergic compound L-Dopa (500 mg orally) and placebos.
RESULTS: Plasma IGF-I concentrations and the GH responses to sumatriptan, sodium valproate and L-Dopa were significantly lower in older than in younger women.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9224438?ordinalpos=15&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
Wellbutrin is both a stimulant and an anti-depressant (surprise surprise..the categories aren't exclusive) and I've read that there is a small but statistically significant effect where people trained to recognize amphetamine effects mistake wellbutrin for amphetamines at a rate greater than with placebos.
I've always wondered about the link between exercise and weight, in that even the most pessimistic studies only study short to medium term impacts. But most folks gain weight at a slow or moderate level as they age, not all at once. Isn't it possible that sustained activity will have an effect on weight over time? To my mind, that would fit with the fact that if you're active in your youth, that does have a real effect on your adult weight (suggesting that these things are calibrated over the long term).
Also, the other awkward thing for suggesting that diet and exercise don't produce weight loss is that changing diet and activity levels have clearly led to rapid weight gain for the population over the past few decades. Was it really the case that people were regularly starving back in the 50s?
Well, someone's gotta clue them in. They sure don't seem to be figuring it out on their own. Save the indignation for the folks proffering fad diets and snake oil.
Excercise does lead to weight loss, while diet doesn't.
In comparison studies, diet alone led to a weight loss of about 5 pounds, exercise play diet led to a weight loss of 16 poinds, while exercise alone led to a weight loss of 15 pounds. The lesson here is that dieting is the wrong way to lose weight. Only exercise really works. Now, it's important to eat the right kinds of healthy foods, but trying to control the amount we eat simply doesn't work. Exercise controls our food intake, not will power.
"Taking stimulants you don't particularly want or need"
Why would people not particularly want or need them? It seems that people both want and need them, if alternatives are not working.
i am a vegan for 5 years but am still obese so i take many, many drugs--but none are from animals or tested by animals, that would be bad. i only eat humanely raised and slaughtered meat, like vegan bacon and vegan sloppy joes. mmmmm.
Obviously the answer is to do more than just moderate exercise.
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