Medical News

By Harry Jackson Jr.
www.stltoday.com
Alli — Safety of New Weight-Loss Drug is Questioned

A new over-the-counter weight-loss drug called Alli may give people with eating disorders another tool to harm themselves, local therapists fear.

Alli — pronounced “AL-eye” — is the only weight-loss medicine on the market approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration. It’s half the dose of the prescription drug orlistat, trade name Xenical, which is used to fight morbid obesity.

Dr. Randall Flanery, head of the Eating Disorders Program for the St. Louis Behavioral Medicine Institute, says the new drug is ripe for abuse because young people with eating disorders find the side effects of intense diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems that empty the digestive system inviting.

People who use diet products to bolster their eating disorders “… tend to take them at much higher dosages than recommended, as much as 10 times,” Flanery says. “It’s analogous to laxatives. People with eating disorders take 10 to 50 (laxative pills) at a time. They become dependent and take higher and and higher dosages.”

Another danger is that the medicine is approved by the FDA “… and people will believe that because it’s over-the-counter and FDA-approved, it must be safe,” Flanery says. “It’s not.”

The drug should be kept behind counters and monitored for distribution to make sure that at least teens don’t have access to it, Flanery says.

Continue reading “Alli: Safety of New Weight-Loss Drug is Questioned”

Original post by nospam@example.com (Wit`Alis)

By Harry Jackson Jr.
www.stltoday.com
Alli — Safety of New Weight-Loss Drug is Questioned

A new over-the-counter weight-loss drug called Alli may give people with eating disorders another tool to harm themselves, local therapists fear.

Alli — pronounced “AL-eye” — is the only weight-loss medicine on the market approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration. It’s half the dose of the prescription drug orlistat, trade name Xenical, which is used to fight morbid obesity.

Dr. Randall Flanery, head of the Eating Disorders Program for the St. Louis Behavioral Medicine Institute, says the new drug is ripe for abuse because young people with eating disorders find the side effects of intense diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems that empty the digestive system inviting.

People who use diet products to bolster their eating disorders “… tend to take them at much higher dosages than recommended, as much as 10 times,” Flanery says. “It’s analogous to laxatives. People with eating disorders take 10 to 50 (laxative pills) at a time. They become dependent and take higher and and higher dosages.”

Another danger is that the medicine is approved by the FDA “… and people will believe that because it’s over-the-counter and FDA-approved, it must be safe,” Flanery says. “It’s not.”

The drug should be kept behind counters and monitored for distribution to make sure that at least teens don’t have access to it, Flanery says.

Continue reading “Alli: Safety of New Weight-Loss Drug is Questioned”

Original post by nospam@example.com (Wit`Alis)