Thursday, May 28, 2009

Orlistat and liver damage?

Is this another instance of rushing a drug into production before finding out if it has dangerous side effects? Probably, after all, we have past examples of the same thing happening with phen-fen and Vioxx, just to name two.
And everyone "knows" that it's much better to suffer with any/all side effects/complications of anything that will make fat people thin because being fat is a fate worse than death, right? Right? Sorry, I'd rather be fat and as healthy as I can be with the problems I have (yeah, I know, hindsight is 20/20 and if I knew 11 years ago what I know now about WLS, I never would have done that either) than take whatever pill the doctors/pharmaceutical companies are pushing today to make me thin, simply because those pharmaceutical companies don't actually give a rat's ass if I have quality of life as long as they get my dollars for every so-called "cure" they have for being fat (and as successful as they've been in the past, I really don't think they're going to come up with anything better any time soon). After all, if their pills cause damage to your body in any way, they can sell you more pills to take care of that too, and make even more money off you. No thank you.
But of course, according to them, liver damage isn't caused by taking Alli/Xenical. After all, if fat people didn't take these drugs, they'd end up with liver damage anyway simply because being fat causes liver damage (in their opinion, and you know what they say about opinions). I want to see the studies showing that fat people who haven't taken orlistat in any form end up with liver damage in the same or greater numbers than fat people who have taken orlistat. Somehow, I don't think there's a study out there that shows that (I wonder why that is? Hmmmmm...........).
So, for my money, if a diet or a pill promises results that sound too good to be true, those results are probably unattainable by the majority of fat people, and should be taken with the whole of the Bonneville Salt Flats.

6 comments:

  1. I hope you're feeling better and on the mend Vesta.

    I agree with your comments and sentiments wholeheartedly, I've been saying even before I gave up on weight loss dieting, that I don't intend for big pharma to make one penny piece out of my avoirdupois, ever.

    What totally fascinates me, to the point where I can barely put together any thread of meaning, is why is it that nearly all these weight loss drugs seem to produce the exact 'obesity' related type symptoms they are supposed to prevent- through weight loss?

    Why in this case would reducing a chemical that enables fat absorption potentially damage the liver?

    What is the underlying connection here? I hardly know where to start, when are all the science students/scientists involved in FA, going to make themselves useful and explain it to us?!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, the phen-fen caused heart/lung problems, which it was supposed to prevent by making fat people thin (yeah, that worked real well). So I'm not real fond of taking pills to make me thin (even though I took phen-fen for about 6 months 12 years ago, before I had my WLS). Live and learn, and don't repeat past mistakes is my motto (not one I've always followed very well, but I'm getting better at it).
    It's the same way with statins to reduce cholesterol. I've read about the side effects of a lot of them, and I'm just not convinced that the risks of those side effects are worth it when compared to their effectiveness at lowering cholesterol and preventing cardio vascular disease (I think the jury is still out on that one).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ummm... yeah... cuz fat people are walking death time bombs anyway, ANYTHING is justified in making them unfat. *headdesk* *headdesk* *headdesk*
    It makes me very angry that so many people and industries are so very invested in making fat this horrible deadly plague... as opposed allowing folks to realize the reality of body diversity. God forbit.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yeah, the give lip-service to diversity in race/religion/etc, but Maude forbid that body diversity should be included in that (or sexual diversity, for that matter). Who the hell cares what people look like, what race/color they are, what religion they do/don't follow, or anything else that makes us different, one from another? That diversity is what makes life interesting and worth living, as far as I'm concerned.

    ReplyDelete
  5. For anyone else commenting today - your comment may not see light of day until Sunday when we get home from our trip to the Soldier's Field Veteran's Memorial in Rochester, MN this weekend (well, and we're going to see my son and his family too). I plan on taking lots of pictures, so may post them when we get back. Enjoy your weekend, folks. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is a vicious cycle where a pill is necessary and then the damge may be caused as side effects.But there should be some remdy for it.

    EMR

    ReplyDelete

Comment moderation is enabled. If you're a troll and trying to slander someone or just being generally an asshat, your comment probably won't see the light of day. If you want to have a reasonable, civil discussion, welcome, and feel free to comment.
To the troll at IP: 70.242.65.196 , adsl-70-242-65-196.dsl.stlsmo.swbell.net, your comments will not be published, nor will they be read. They will be automatically deleted. Get a life, sad sack.