Obesity can not be cured with pills, injections or surgery. Stimulants for weight loss speed up metabolism but can cause strokes, heart attacks and cardiovascular problems. Drugs that prevent the body from absorbing fat have terrible side effects such as diarrhea, rashes and the notorious fat anal flow.
"We have no magic bullet for obesity," says Dr. Gene Jack Wang, chairman of medical research at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the United States.
Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of the Research Group for Health is part of the nonprofit organization and consumer advocate Public Citizen of the United States does not have much hope about developing an effective and safe drug for weight loss .
"The possibility that the drug will only do good things such as losing weight and has multiple effects on the body, is zero," he said.
Despite centuries of supposed remedies for weight loss, from soups anti-obesity, crash diets based on vinegar and even amphetamines, fads have failed.
Over the years, people have become increasingly obsessed with losing weight, but have not become healthier, since obesity has become a public health problem.
Obesity has more factors than just overeating, according to some research. The reasons why people come up with too much weight can vary, and a drug will not consider all factors such as lifestyle, access to food and environment.
Our brain has a natural tendency to desire to eat beyond the need for storage in case of shortage or famine, say scientists. This is not ideal in this modern age in which high-calorie foods are available at all times.
Harmful magic pills
The drugs have not responded effectively with the problem, despite the billions of dollars spent on research.
The research group Public Citizen asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban the only drug approved for long-term weight loss: orlistat.
The group said that orlistat, sold in Mexico by prescription as Xenical Orlistat as the counter drug like prettiness, causes serious side effects like liver damage and kidney failure.
Genentech, the maker of Xenical, said he had not yet reviewed the request. The firm argued that the efficacy and safety of the drug "is based on over 10 years of clinical experience and more than 38.7 million patients worldwide have received Xenical."
Glaxo Smith Kline, owner of Alli, announced that the market would take weight-loss drug with other products, because "do not contain a sufficient critical mass" of consumers.
Treatment for obesity "is a priority" among drug researchers, said Dr. Mark Gold, chairman of psychiatry at the University of Florida, who focuses on addiction and eating habits. "They have failed in most previous cases."
Weight loss medications and their side effects are varied, including: Redumed, Basistram, YEDUC (heart attacks, strokes), Ifa acxion (cardiac risk), Acomplia (suicidal thoughts).
Last year, the FDA rejected three proposed weight loss drugs: Qnexa, Does Phen375 Work Contrave Iorcaserin and due to safety concerns from heart problems to psychological problems.
"Losing weight does not mean anything if the drug is having negative effects," said Wolfe, a member of an advisory committee to the FDA safety. He was not involved in the guidelines related to the three drugs for weight loss.
"The diet drugs should not be approved unless they are sure, for people who are overweight and suffer a major cardiovascular risk and risk to suffer a stroke. If you add to that a drug does not make sense. "
So why can not create an effective drug to lose weight without having terrible side effects?
Obesity, personal responsibility
The causes of weight gain can be emotional, biological, social, psychological, environmental … and these multiple factors do not fit in a pill effectively.
While lifestyle, diet and exercise are important, our biological wiring, along with the modern environment, make it difficult, researchers say.
"Many people say that the reason for obesity is a personal responsibility," says the scientist Wang "As a doctor I do not think that's necessarily true."
The researchers are considering how to tackle the problem of overweight because the traditional approach of blaming the patient is not working, he said.
Our brain looks for calories to be stored for hard times, says Gold, an obesity researcher.
"But unfortunately, it worked very well when we had little food and we needed an incentive to hunt. Now that we have an abundance of food, is very easy to get food and fast food, "he said.
Today, the high-calorie foods laden with salt, sugar and fat are everywhere. Advertising and social messages bombarding consumers to eat.
"The global epidemic of obesity is that there is food available anywhere," said Gold. "The food evolved, but our brain has not really changed from the time when we had to hunt and grow our own food."
Much of the paths of the brain are linked to appetite, he said. It is difficult to create a drug that suppresses appetite when there may be several unknown factors involved in this instinct.
Drugs to reduce appetite have had disastrous results such as psychotic episodes, depression and suicidal thoughts, according to experts.
Dr. Patricia Powell, assistant clinical professor for clinical pharmacy at the University of South Carolina, says that "the problem with these stimulants are the side effects, cardiovascular risk, stroke, heart attacks, high blood pressure. They are forcing the heart to work faster. "
The risk of a heart attack or stroke "outweighs any small benefit of losing weight," he said.
Another side effect is that some people adopt new addictions like drugs and alcohol after having suppressed his appetite, experts say. That's why overeating has been linked to drug addiction.
"There can be a more basic driver for people to eat," said Wolfe, who speaks critically about weight loss medications. "It is embedded throughout the body, and if you suppress your appetite and fat absorption affected, other systems will affected."