This is fantastic news! Finally a natural substance that might actually work against obesity. I never expected it to happen in my lifetime, but if it actually works in humans, and can get approval, it will revolutionize western medicine.
Diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, joint disease, and other disorders are made far worse by excess fat stores.
You can see how the big pharmaceutical money makers could potentially rise and fall as a result of such a therapy.

I love the names of some of these chemicals.

"Well Mr. Wohlgemuth, it looks like your body is producing too much 'Bigmacitin' and not enough 'Buffitan' which is causing you to gain weight. I'm going to prescribe 'Thinawazamite' to see if this will work with your metabolism....

I'm again, so optimistic about advancements of this sort. Plenty of scientists, commentators and the like have asserted that we will make as much progress in the next 20 years as we have in the last hundred in brand new fields like biotech, nanotech, nuclear medicine, life extension... It's all incredibly exciting. THIS is the Golden Age. A Platinum Age will follow.

Torn. Soo torn.

Being overweight, a beer swiller, and one who loves to eat well cooked tasty food, I applaud this new discovery.

But somewhere in the back of my mind I recall tales of Roman orgys. Where there was eating to the point of bursting, then one would visit the "Vomitorium", and be ready for more eating and drinking.

Seems chemicals to curb people who's only illness is gluttony might not be the joyous blessings first revealed.

Of course I could stand to lose around fifty or sixty pounds myself, so let em invent it first. Then we can worry about the abuses.

I'm with IXLNXS, too. It would be wonderful if we could somehow separate people that are obese through no fault of their own from people that are fat because they eat too much and never exercise. If such a drug were to become available to the latter group, it would only encourage more gross abuses of their bodies. Not that I really want to deny them obesity medication, but this is yet another scenario where modern medicine seems to be encouraging people to behave badly.

On one hand, I really don't believe people get obese because of their metabolisms. A bit overweight, perhaps, but not obese. Once one is at that level, there is a behavioral component. It is interesting to hear my mother and my aunt discuss which one of them eats more. (Answer: they both eat too much. My mom eats too much usually healthful food, and my aunt eats too much starchy stuff. And they are both obese. One diabetic, one getting there.)

On the other hand, I don't want or expect modern medicine to worry about our immortal souls; I'd rather they concentrated on averting disease. Let people work out the "gluttony" issue for themselves, please.

Although "gluttony" is a classic sin, the concept from an era where a glutton was one who took food from hungry people to satisfy his own appetites.

Scientifically speaking, there remains no evidence that the chronically obese have less discipline or are more self-indulgent than the overall population.

It also appears to be rather the reverse of what Attila Girl says; moderate overweight appears to be fairly easily corrected with a little discipline with diet and exercise. Trip over too far into obesity and the percentage of the population that can return to healthy, non-overweight status is vanishingly tiny. We continue to perpetrate odd myth about this too, such as the notion that 3500 calories = 1 pound of overweight and so if you do simple calorie counting and regular exercise to create a caloric deficit you will lose weight. We in fact know that none of that is really true for the chronically obese, for they can gain weight running what would be a caloric deficit for the overall population, and they frequently stop losing weight at a caloric intake and activity level that would cause others to lose weight at a rapid clip.

There is an obvious correlation between the much easier availability of calorie-rich foods, sedentary lifestyles, and an increase in obesity. Yet there is surprisingly little evidence that once obese, the solution is to eat less and exercise more. If you're one of a very lucky minority, it's true. For the rest, it appears to be (pun intended) a big fat lie: among the morbidly obese (defined as only perhaps 50 pounds overweight, by the way) the long-term success rate for reaching normalweight status and staying there for five years by counting calories and regular exercise is right around 1%.

Around one percent.

If physicians were in the habit of prescribing drugs or other medicines for heart disease or diabetes or cancer which had that sort of success rate, people would consider them quacks, I note.

Counting calories and exercising appears to work for exactly two things:

1) Preventing obesity's onset

2) Arresting its progress.

In other words, it works for weight maintenance and moderate weight loss. Its long-term success rate for anything else can barely even beat the placebo effect.

We need drugs like this.

I'm dieting now, I was pushing 300 lbs in Dec and that was a wakeup call. I've lost 35 lbs since Dec by following basic thermodynamics, More energy out than in.

Its just a matter of personal choice. I know its hard, but things that are worth it usually are hard.

I am probably close to 100 pounds overweight, so I definitely fit the description of morbidly obese. I also happen to agree with Michael and Attila Girl. I know that I am at this weight because I am way too sedentery and while my food choices are basically sound, I eat way too much of it.

I also think that we have been so inundated with fast food, junk food, and processed food that is too salty that we have forgotten how real food tastes and that's one of the reasons why we have such a hard time eating the right things.

Michael: I'm dieting now, I was pushing 300 lbs in Dec and that was a wakeup call. I've lost 35 lbs since Dec by following basic thermodynamics, More energy out than in.

This is, unfortunately, an utterly meaningless statement, for several reasons. First, because you're obviously still morbidly obese. Second, because you have only been on your regimen for six months. Your long-term prognosis for success--defined as reducing your weight to the point where you are no longer classified obese, and stay that way for five years or more, is approximately 1 in 100.

In other words, I am predicting that you will fail in your goal, if your goal is to become nonobese, unless you consult a physician just as soon as your weight loss stalls. Which it almost certainly will, and which you will undoubtedly blame on your own lack of willpower and discipline. Because that's what fat people always do. Then you stand a pretty good chance of doing what most fat people do, which is say "fuck it," give up in despair because you're tired of regularly denying yourself, and suddenly find yourself heavier than ever before you know it.

The cycle I just described is what happens to almost all obese people.

You may be tempted to become angry with me for predicting this. Consider that I have no power to make it come true and if I am wrong then that is a wonderful thing. I make my prediction knowing nothing at all about you personally, and based solely on what the science of obesity research tells us is the most likely outcome.

Its just a matter of personal choice. I know its hard, but things that are worth it usually are hard.

I hope you are aware that people who tell themselves this fail at least 99 times out of 100 on your chosen regimen, and that those who go in with this attitude usually wind up fatter, not thinner, by the time they're done.

Once again, I say this based not on any personal knowledge I have of you, but on the reality that has been documented time and time again by obesity researchers.

Heather: I am probably close to 100 pounds overweight, so I definitely fit the description of morbidly obese.

I have a few free pieces of advice:

1) Stop believing what Attila Girl and Michael believe, because what they believe will tend to make you fatter.

2) Open up your phone book and begin making telephone calls to physician's offices, looking for a physician who specializes in weight loss. Do not accept simply any family physician or interneist, not even your own, but one whose office staff will tell you that he or she regularly treats large numbers of obese patients and is up on the latest research and protocols.

At your level of overweight you are tipped far into the morbidly obese category. That is not an insult, it's a very dangerous medical condition that leaves you unlikely to live to see your 60th birthday.

It is also a level of obesity at which you are likely to wind up fatter than ever in the long term if you continue down the foolish, destructive path of believing that you are simply not disciplined enough.

In over 50 years of obesity research, no one has ever shown that fat people have less discipline than the overall population, nor that they are more lazy, nor that they have less willpower, nor that they have psychological problems which cause their overweight. And believe me, researchers have looked.

Let me put this as bluntly as possible: You need physician supervision on treating this deadly condition you have. Because it is probably going to kill you.

You need a complete blood workup to check for diabetes--you are probably diabetic and if you are not you probably will be very soon--and you need your thyroid, thyroid antibody, and growth hormone levels looked at. You should be screened for Cushing's Syndrome as well as some other stuff. You may need a consult with an endocrinologist. You need a physician-assisted dietary program and you probably won't like hearing it but you may well need some form of drug therapy. With all that you can reasonably expect to lose perhaps half your overweight, which should have significant health benefits.

I'm being blunt. You likely don't like what I'm telling you. Now just ask any physician who's looked at the current state of the obesity literature if there's a single thing I'm saying that's inaccurate or overstated.

I mostly agree with you in this case, Dean.

That's not to say that many cases of obesity could have been avoided by good food choices and activity (poor diet in children is thought to contribute to insulin resistance, which can lead to obesity).

However, once it does happen, it is incredibly difficult to lose the weight. Classical dieting (extreme) usually does not produce permanent weight loss; yo-yo-ing is also terribly unhealthy.

Fixing it with stomach-stapling is terribly unhealthy and dangerous, and it does nothing to address the important issue of healthy eating habits (which are very important to have), so I applaud this new drug in that it may moderate impulses to overeat in those who already have nails in their coffin. Obesity is incredibly serious, and if people can't diet and exercise it away, they could use this tmt - but it does not eliminate the need for better habits.

Thanks, Dean!

maura

Dean, dean, dean! Sorry - I almost forgot - my endocrinologist has been prescribing Metformin to obese patients who are not yet diabetic.

The beauty of it is that it can offset diabetes, and...they're losing weight. It's really fab because it seems to affect satiety/blood sugar levels, even in those who aren't pre-diabetic or insulin resistant. I'm taking it for PCOS/insulin resistance, and it is certainly affecting how I feel before/during/after eating. I do not need to lose any weight - and I probably have already - but I must take this drug.

I wanted to share that I do detect a marked improvement in hunger cycles, and a reduced need to eat frequently. I also don't feel hungover after eating. Basically, my blood sugar/insulin isn't wacked out.

Anyway - obese readers - listen to Dean. See a specialist. Doctors may dismiss you and tell you to just lose weight. I know this is discouraging. Go to another doctor. And another, if necessary. It took me 17 years of trying to get help, but it's worth it. If you're obese, you're more likely to get help than I was (because I looked healthy).

Ask (an endocrinologist, maybe) about whether they think you might be insulin-resistant. Get the bloodwork done. Ask them if you could try Metformin. It's generic (cheap), it's remarkably safe and well-tolerated, and may help you.