Can you lose weight by taking slimming pills without dieting or exercising? If you want to lose weight, you should also consider safety

Rumors

If you don’t lose weight in March, you will regret it in April; if you don’t lose weight in April, you will regret it in May…

It is the season of showing off your body. Many people have started the "weight loss cause". Some people feel that dieting and exercise are too slow and painful to lose weight, so they focus on weight loss pills. I believe many people think↓

▶ Just use slimming pills, you can lose weight quickly without dieting or exercising

Is this really the case? Let's look down to find the answer~

With the gradual improvement of living standards, how to "lose weight" has become a hot topic among more and more people.

Indeed, being overweight and obese will bring many adverse effects and hazards to physical health, such as the three high problems, increased risk of cardiovascular disease, fatty liver, and increased risk of various cancers such as colorectal cancer.

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In recent years, various weight-loss drugs have emerged one after another. If there is a drug that can help people lose weight by "taking medicine" without the need for arduous long-term dieting and exercise, it would of course be an ideal state.

But is it really safe and reliable to use drugs to lose weight? Today we will take stock of the common "weight loss drugs" for you.

Orlistat

Please note that this is not "oseltamivir" for treating influenza, but " orlistat ". Although the two names are similar, they are completely different types of drugs. Oseltamivir is an antiviral drug, while orlistat is one of the few oral drugs approved in China for weight loss.

Orlistat is a gastrointestinal lipase inhibitor. Its mechanism of action in controlling obesity is to inhibit the hydrolysis of fat in our diet in the gastrointestinal tract, thereby preventing the fat from being absorbed into the human body, thereby achieving the effect of reducing lipid absorption and controlling obesity.

In terms of its mechanism of action, this drug blocks the absorption of fat by the intestines and is of course a very effective weight loss drug. But in fact, the unique pharmacological effects of orlistat also cause it to produce many adverse reactions.

The most common of these is the gastrointestinal adverse reaction caused by the drug's inhibition of fat hydrolysis, including increased gastrointestinal flatulence, sense of urgency during bowel movements, fatty stools, steatorrhea, increased frequency of bowel movements, fecal incontinence, abdominal pain, rectal pain, etc.

In addition, if you experience persistent severe abdominal pain, loss of appetite, jaundice, lighter stool color, right upper abdominal pain, etc. during medication, you should stop taking the medication immediately.

Like this friend who took the wrong medicine, he unfortunately experienced the common side effects of orlistat. Picture from the Internet

If you can exercise strict self-discipline and control the fat intake in your diet, it will be safer than taking orlistat and can also avoid many embarrassing adverse reactions. Don’t you think so?

Semaglutide

This is a very popular "Internet celebrity" weight loss drug recently. Even Musk uses it to lose weight. Semaglutide belongs to the GLP-1 receptor agonist class. When this drug was first launched on the market, it was used to strengthen blood sugar control in patients with type 2 diabetes who still have pancreatic islet function. This drug can promote insulin secretion and improve blood sugar control. At the same time, it can also play other roles in promoting incretin secretion, such as suppressing appetite, delaying gastric emptying, etc. Therefore, it has a good weight loss effect while strengthening blood sugar control.

This drug does not lower blood sugar in people who do not have hyperglycemia, but its weight loss effect still exists and the effect is obvious. Therefore, the drug manufacturer has further conducted clinical research on the weight loss indication of this drug and has been approved for weight loss indications abroad. Its dosage and brand are different from those of hypoglycemic drugs.

Semaglutide is administered by subcutaneous injection, and once a week, it can achieve a good weight loss effect. It is indeed the "ideal weight loss drug" in the eyes of many people. Many friends are also looking to buy this drug for weight loss, but it should be noted that injection is an invasive method of administration, which may cause problems such as nodules and infections at the injection site. In addition, the drug itself may also cause adverse reactions such as nausea, vomiting, bloating, diarrhea, and a few people will have liver and gallbladder system-related problems such as cholecystitis.

Another point that needs to be emphasized is that this drug is indicated for use by obese people with a BMI of over 30. Some friends do not fall into this category at all. They are just not satisfied with their body shape and weight, so they use this drug to lose weight. This drug delays gastric emptying and suppresses appetite, which will inevitably lead to reduced food intake and may bring the risk of malnutrition.

Phentermine

Compared with the above two weight-loss drugs, many friends may not be familiar with phentermine. It is a sympathomimetic stimulant that suppresses appetite and promotes energy consumption by upregulating the activity of multiple hormones in the body. This drug has been on the market since 1959. Currently, the more common one is the phentermine topiramate combination preparation approved in 2012.

In this compound drug, phentermine is a stimulant, and topiramate is a drug for preventing and treating migraines. It also has the effect of suppressing appetite and producing a sense of fullness. Therefore, from the perspective of the mechanism of action, whether it is phentermine alone or a compound drug, if you want to achieve a weight loss effect, it should be combined with diet and exercise to work.

The results of a clinical trial in 2013 showed that users who took phentermine and topiramate combined sustained-release tablets lost about 9% of their body weight. It should be noted that phentermine's excitatory effect on nerves can cause adverse reactions such as dry mouth, insomnia, increased blood pressure, and palpitations. Long-term use can also lead to dependence and drug resistance. Compound preparations have also been found to have reproductive toxicity. If an accidental pregnancy occurs during medication, the fetus may have cleft palate malformations. Another relatively rare adverse reaction is the breeding of suicidal thoughts, which occurs in about 1/500.

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Metformin

Metformin is a classic medication for patients with type 2 diabetes. It can reduce the output of liver glycogen, inhibit intestinal glucose absorption, improve glucose utilization in muscle tissue, etc. While lowering blood sugar, it also has a certain weight loss effect.

Some friends also want to use metformin to lose weight. In fact, the weight loss effect of metformin is not obvious, and non-diabetic patients may suffer from fatigue, weakness, gastrointestinal discomfort and other problems when taking it. Therefore, metformin is not a good choice for weight loss indications.

Sibutramine (disabled)

Once upon a time, sibutramine was also sold on the market as a weight loss drug, but due to its major safety issues, sibutramine was listed as a "banned drug" in my country as early as 2010. However, there are still many lawless elements who illegally add sibutramine to some weight loss health products for sale. This behavior is illegal and will be severely punished by law.

Why was sibutramine withdrawn from the market and listed as a "banned drug"? The main reason is that this drug achieves weight loss by inhibiting the appetite of the central nervous system. Although it has a good weight loss effect, it also brings serious cardiovascular risks and causes serious adverse reactions such as headaches, heart rhythm disorders, high blood pressure, insomnia, and even multiple organ damage, stroke, and even death. When the risks of a drug far outweigh its clinical benefits, such a drug will be eliminated.

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In addition to medicines, I would also like to remind everyone to pay attention to some weight loss health products. Although these products are claimed to be safe, many of them contain illegal drug ingredients. Sibutramine is just one of them. In addition, some products will add anthraquinone laxatives, such as senna, rhubarb, etc., and some will add psychotropic drugs such as diazepam, phentermine, etc. These illegal additions may make these weight loss products "effective", but the safety issues they bring are also greater. Therefore, they should be used with caution.

When it comes to losing weight, especially using medication to lose weight, I would like to advise everyone to be cautious. If you are really determined to lose weight, instead of bearing the possible risks of medication safety, you might as well be strict with yourself and control your weight by maintaining self-disciplined healthy eating habits and increasing physical exercise. This is the safest way, so why not do it?

Author: Li Jin, Deputy Director Pharmacist, Deputy Head of the Youth Studies Group of the Medical Committee of the China Science Writers Association

Review | Liu Guiyang, Chief Pharmacist, Fourth Medical Center, PLA General Hospital

The article is produced by "Science Refutes Facts" (ID: Science_Facts). Please indicate the source when reprinting.

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