Diet Drugs - Who Are They For?
Drug Therapy as Obesity Treatment
In theory, the main use for diet drugs is in the treatment of seriously
overweight (obese) individuals, whose weight has serious health consequences.
Obesity treatment involves a range of weight control therapies and treatments,
including dietary modification, behavioral modification, counseling and
exercise programs, as well as diet and weight loss drugs. In fact, weight-control
medications to treat obesity must be combined with physical activity and
improved diet to lose and maintain weight successfully over the long term.
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Diet Drugs for General
Weight Loss
Diet drugs are not solely used by obese individuals. Diet and weight
loss companies and drug manufacturers continue to promote pharmacology
as a viable and desirable path to weight loss. Who can blame them?
Making diet drugs is profitable, as evidenced by the over 300 million
dollars consumers spent on dexfenfluramine alone in 1996, as well
as the success of Metabolife and Herbalife. Point is, as long as fatness
is stereotyped and derided, and as long as discrimination against
fat people exists, consumers will continue to seek a "magic diet
pill," and there will be a market for weight-loss drugs. |
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