Author: Liz Neporent

New FDA-approved anti-obesity drugs, novel devices, implants, and surgical approaches have all hit the market but do they work and are they safe? Is a combination of diet and exercise better than drugs? 

There is nothing like lying in the emergency room getting pumped with shot after shot of morphine while your husband and child look on in concern. I’ve found myself in this situation 3 times in the past 5 years due to a migraine so powerful I couldn’t stand, see or speak. In between each event, I was suffering up to 20 head-throbbing headaches a month. Fortunately, thanks to an excellent doctor and a proactive approach, my headaches are now largely under control. See our comprehensive Treatment Chart An estimated 38 million Americans, including 8 million children and adolescents, suffer from…

While 1/3 of Americans are obese and 2/3 are overweight, there are currently only 5 FDA-approved prescription drugs on the market to aid weight loss. (A 6th, Vyvanse, was approved for the treatment of a related condition, binge eating disorder.) Now that obesity has been declared a disease by the American Medical Association, new drugs are coming to market and more are likely to become available. This chart offers an explanation of how each of the 53 prescription drugs work and their many side effects –Liz Neporent 1. CONTRAVE How it works: CONTRAVE is a combination of naltrexone, an opioid…

Despite the disastrous outcomes of some diet drugs — including Redux (aka Fen-Phen) in 1996 and Meridia (Sibutramine) in 2003, the pharmaceutical industry keeps trying to find a safe, effective medication that will help the 160 million Americans considered obese or overweight lose weight. In the past 3 years, 5 drugs have been approved for treatment of chronic obesity, including 3 in 2014. A slew of other medications have surfaced to treat type 2 diabetes, an obesity-associated condition, while Vyvanse, designed to help those with binge-eating disorder, received FDA approval in early 2015. New surgical approaches, implantable devices, commercial stomach pumps and even gel…