The Lowdown on the New Diet Drug

NeuroSearch A/S, a Danish biopharmaceutical company, has been funding research into the diet pill potential of tesofensine. Once studied as a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease, significant weight loss was observed in patients who took the drug. It currently has the status of an under-research drug for treating obesity.

Tesofensine works not on just one but on three pathways to help treat obesity. It increases the transmission of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that works on the accumbens (a part of the brain) to amplify the feeling of satisfaction that you get from eating. Noradrenaline and serotonin transmission are also increased simultaneously to affect the hypothalamus so that eating urges are reduced and the metabolism is increased, respectively.

Current diet drugs on the market typically reduce only up to 5 kg or 11 lbs in patients. Tesofensine, on the other hand, has shown potential to double that maximum weight loss. A Phase II study on tesofensine, the results of which were released earlier this year, showed as much as a shocking 28-lb reduction among the 208 individuals included. A Phase III study – mere steps away from submission to the FDA for approval – is slated for early 2009. But don’t get your hopes and calorie consumption up just yet.

Coming Not-So-Soon

Although the results of tesofensine are very promising and it looks like the drug could be out on the market as early as 2010, there’s a hitch in the game plan. The future of tesofensine – as with most other experimental diet drugs – is hazy because the FDA has recently tightened regulations and requirements on weight loss drugs. Even if the Phase III study is very successful, it’s unlikely that the drug will make it to US shores anytime soon.

It’s a very controversial season for weight loss drugs. American pharmaceutical Pfizer and French Sanofi-Aventis, two of the biggest players in the industry, have recently dropped R&D on CP-945,598 and Acomplia, their respective experimental diet pills. This was after the sudden stricture on health and safety regulations regarding weight loss pills on both sides of the Atlantic.

Health departments in both the United States and Britain are afraid that such diet drugs are causing adverse psychological side effects with all the neurotransmitter manipulation that they do. New, stricter regulations and a longer application process have hampered the efforts of pharmaceutical companies to get experimental drugs approved for sale on the market. It’s mot clear when this trend will get corrected and the path clears for the approval of tesofensine. Until then, though, it’s good old diet and exercise for you.

The study showed that ingesting too much fructose (a simple reducing sugar found in many foods) heightens one’s risk of suffering from leptin resistance when compare with a diet high in fats and calories.

Leptin is a hormone that performs a sort of balancing act in our bodies. It checks the balance between how much we eat and how much energy we burn. So you can imagine that being leptin resistant is not good as this removes our bodies’ natural way of trying to balance incoming and outgoing energy. Without the hormone, we would be more likely to eat and eat and eat.

The research group is quick to point out that you should NOT stay away from eating fruit, which is of course a well know source of fructose. Instead, “it is the consumption of table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, added to many foods these days, which is causing people to eat much more fructose than ever before”.

The study was conducted on rats, which were divided into two groups. Both groups were administered basically the same diet over six months with only one change, one of the groups were given high doses of fructose. At the end of the research period, the rats on the high-fructose intake diet showed higher levels of triglycerides in their blood steams.

The rats were done injected with leptin and the researches found that those in the ‘normal diet’ group were reducing their food intake. Those on the high-fructose diet, however, became leptin-resistant and did not decrease their food intake.

The study is one of the first to link fructose consumption to leptin resistance. Initially, leptin resistance was thought of as a result of being obese. However, as the study showed, one can be leptin resistant without being overweight first. (In fact, being leptin resistance can lead to obesity.)

“Usually, leptin resistance is associated with obesity, but in this case, leptin resistance developed without obesity. This was very surprising,” according to research team member Alexandra Shapiro.

Source: oneindia

According to research results released (say that 3x!) in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, women who dieted before getting pregnant gained MORE weight during pregnancy than those who were not so stringent about their diets.

The study was conducted on 1,223 pregnant women across America. They were all provided questionnaires where they had to indicate their eating habits, weight cycling data (if any), dieting beliefs, and their pre-pregnancy weight. Answers to the questionnaires revealed that 32% of those considered ‘underweight’ prior pregnancy gained too much weight during the course of their pregnancy. By contrast, 63% of those considered average weight, 85% of overweight, and 74% of those who can be considered obese, gained extreme weight during the course of expecting a child.

Another finding was that those who yoyoed a bit with their weights (5 lbs more or less) prior getting pregnant gained 2 kilos MORE gestational weight than those whose weights were ‘stable’.

In short, those who retrained their diets or were ‘habitual dieters’ all showed more weight gain during pregnancy than those who were simply ‘relaxed’ with their eating habits.

Actually, even without the research, it’s kind of understandable that people who limit their food intake would gain more weight while pregnant. I mean, haven’t we all heard that being pregnant was a ‘great excuse’ to not be so hard on oneself when it comes to eating all those ‘forbidden, good stuff’?

In the end, does this mean you should not go on a diet? Of course not; what it does mean – at least for me – is that one should choose a diet that is not so limiting in food choices. This way, you never really feel that you’re restraining yourself. If there’s nothing to ‘restrain’, then there’s no reason to ‘let go’, right?

Just choose to live a healthier lifestyle and you’ll be fine!

Officials at the Kinosaki Marine World in Japan have decided to put all their 19 dolphins on a diet starting last August because the cute ones all failed to reach their jumping targets and stay erect while treading on the water.

Actually, visitors to the marine park were the ones to first notice these changes in the dolphins when they started to note that the dolphins were no longer jumping as high as they used to. From here, the caretakers noticed that yep, the dolphins ARE getting rounder!

Using a tape measure (I wonder if dolphins have the same apprehension as humans when subjected to a tape measure!), it was confirmed that the dolphins were indeed heavier, with some putting on as much as 22 lbs over the summer.

The dolphins’ diet at the marine park used to be around “31 pounds of mackerel mixed with some white fish”. Now, the dolphins are on a weight loss plan of “more white fish and fewer fatty mackerels, while instituting a new exercise regime”.

Hmmm… eat less fat and a new exercise routine. I guess it really doesn’t matter if it’s for humans or animals; the same basic weight loss steps apply.

Photo credits: AP

Research headed by Leanne M. Redman and associates at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center observed 46 overweight people for six (6) months to determine once and for all if dieting, which almost always means restricting yourself with one type of food or another, can actually harm bone tissue.

The 46 participants were divided in to several groups: 11 were placed in a control group (where a healthy diet was administered); 12 were placed on a diet where they consumed 25% less calories than exhausted daily; 12 were placed on a diet that consumed even less calories AND were told to exercise 5 times a week; and the 11 were placed on a diet where they consumed only 890 calories daily till they succeeded in a 15% weight loss.

After 6 months, these were the results:

• Ave. body weight declined 1% in the control group;
• Ave. body weight declined 10.4% in the second group;
• Ave. body weight declined 10% in the third group; and
• Ave. body weight declined 13.9 percent in last group.

And as far as bone loss was concerned? Well, compared to the control group, none of the other groups indicated any change “in bone mineral density for total body or hip”.

So what does this all mean to you? It means that you need not fear that going on a diet restricts so much of a certain nutrient that bone loss will occur. So really, now more than ever, is the time to get up, get moving and get dieting!

Actually, maybe you should first take a long and hard look at the word ‘dieting’. A lot of people associate this word to ‘giving up great-tasting food’. It really need not be this way you know.

Think of it this way: dieting is a food-positive way of life. You don’t have to restrict yourself from eating anything at all. You just have to be more conscious of the types and related amounts of foods you put in your body.

Really, the minute you start thinking of dieting as healthier way of life, the better your life will be. So get ‘goin!