Hello again,

I see you’re looking for folks who’ve taken this drug. I have not, but am anxious to hear how it’s working for folks.

Mr. Hobbs, what is your opinion on this drug? Have you talked to anyone who’s used it? Interviewed any overseas doctors who’ve prescribed with with success?

Clabbergirl,

I have not talked to anyone who has used it, nor any doctors who have been part of the studies, however…

I am not that impressed with the results from the studies I’ve seen.

Weight loss is modest at best, no better than the drugs that are already available and it looks to be less effective than many of the drugs such as phentermine, Tenuate, phendimetrazine and ephedrine and caffeine.

Once it is on the market, it will interesting to see if combining it with other drugs such as phentermine will cause greater weight loss than either drug alone.

It seems overrated. 5% weight loss over the course of a year, and it can cause major psychological side effects like depression or anxiety.

There are other medications that are more effective with fewer side effects, I would use one of them instead. Qnexa for example (topamax & phentermine) causes a 10% weight loss over the course of half a year with far fewer side effects. 

Naturally the more we learn about acomplia, the more we will be able to find the ideal dosage (best benefits with lowest side effects) and figure out how to minimize the other side effects. But right now it just doesn’t look too impressive.

Lord Humungus,

I agree—Acomplia is overrated.

But the most common question I get from weight loss doctors is, “What new drugs are coming?”

New drugs, regardless of how well they work, bring patients in to doctors offices.

Everybody wants to try something new.

Personally i hav never used the weight loss pills Acomplia. i was about to buy it since i wanted to lose weight quickly but luckily i came across the side effects of Acomplia- dizziness, nausea, anxiety, diarrhea and insomnia and i was reluctant to buy it.

Fat_Sick,

I am not very impressed with the research on Acomplia.

There are better weight loss drugs out that such as phentermine.

Clabbergirl - 20 September 2006 07:44 AM

Hello again,

I see you’re looking for folks who’ve taken this drug. I have not, but am anxious to hear how it’s working for folks.

Mr. Hobbs, what is your opinion on this drug? Have you talked to anyone who’s used it? Interviewed any overseas doctors who’ve prescribed with with success?

clabbergirl, i think that one has to research the thing closely before jumping into it.
you can find some more info here for the Acomplia weight loss pills. there are some people who say that Acomplia is not so good but there are some people who also say that Acomplia works wonders.

I would not a fan of Acomplia considering the weight loss is not that great—even though I’ve seen news reports saying things like, “This may be the most effective diet pill ever.” Nonsense.—especially considering the mood problems it can cause.

And I think that adverse effects of drugs are ALWAYS underreported.

I’ve read thousands of studies and I have NEVER seen a study say, “X percent of patients dropped out of the study within the first three months because of this or that side effect.”

The papers ALWAYS say, “10% or 20% or 30% of patients dropped out of the study, but none of them had to do with side effects from the drug. They all dropped out because of personal reasons.”

Nonsense.

Hi,

I can report my personal experience using Acomplia (rimonabant) and the anti-depressant Cymbalta (duloxetine) concurrently from September 2006 to September 2007.

I had been on Cymbalta for a couple of years at 30 mg. per day before starting Acomplia.  I started Acomplia while on Cymbalta.  I have never had major depression, just dysthymia. I did not notice any additional depression from taking Acomplia, but I did find myself getting more irritable and loosing my temper easier.

Initially I lost 12 pounds between September 2006 and February 2007 - (from 183 pounds to 171 pounds - BMI 30 to BMI 27.5) on a carbohydrate restricted diet and taking 20 mg Acomplia daily.

When I went off my carbohydrate restricted diet,
from February 2007 and March 2007 I regained 6 pounds from 171 to 177 pounds,
from March 2007 to May 2007 I regained 8 pounds from 177 to 185 pounds,
from May 2007 to June 2007 I lost 5 pounds from 185 to 180 pounds,
from June 2007 to September 2007 I regained 4 pounds from 180 to 184 pounds.

My net loss after 1 year on Acomplia was 0 pounds.

At this time after being off Acomplia
from September 2007 to November 2007 I have gained 6 more pounds from 184 to 190 pounds.
Furthermore, I have been walking uphill 30 minutes and downhill 30 minutes every day for the last month.

REGARDING: Concurrent Use of Anti-Obesity and Anti-Depressant Medication

As noted earlier in the FDA briefing document for rimonabant, all patients who were placed on anti-depressant therapy
were to be discontinued from the RIO studies. This was done to avoid confounding the
weight-loss data. Given the increased incidence of depression-related adverse events in
subjects treated with rimonabant 20 mg vs. placebo and the lack of data on the efficacy
and safety of concomitant use of rimonabant with anti-depressants, the Division obtained
concurrency prescription-use data for anti-obesity and anti-depressant medication. During
the time period covering 2004 through 2006, roughly 580,000 raw patients per year
received a prescription for one of the following weight-loss drugs: phentermine, orlistat,
sibutramine, or diethylpropion. Approximately 30% of these raw patients received a
concurrent prescription for an anti-depressant medication.

Sanofi Aventis says it did not test the concurrent use of anti-depressant medication and Acomplia (rimonabant.) 
They probably did not want to spend the money to test both at the same time. But since a lot of people who are
obese are on anti-depressant medication also, they should test both together to ascertain effectiveness.

I do not know if the use of Cymbalta with Acomplia prevented me from getting more depressed with the Acomplia
and possibly counteracted the effectiveness of Acomplia.

What I do know is that when I was on the low carbohydrate diet, I lost weight. When I went off of it, I gained the weight back.

Very similarly to the story posted regarding Tranabant at http://fatnews.com/index.php/forums/viewthread/79/
I agree in my case to what Larry Hobbs said:

John,

Typical weight loss in diet drug studies that also employ diet and exercise is weight loss for the first 6 months—sometimes 9 months if they are really strict and monitor people and have group therapies to help them with behavioral changes—followed by some weight gain.

Studies never seem to show that patients lose 50 lbs and them keep it off for as long as they keep taking the drug. They usually gain some back even when continuing to take the drug, but then if they get off the drug, they often gain all their weight back.

What Larry Hobbs said to John definitely holds true in my case too.

_________________________________________________________

I would appreciate any feedback from anyone regarding this posting.

TJ,

I do not think that Cymbalta prevented Acomplia from causing more weight loss.

Cymbalta does not block the effects of Acomplia.

Cymbalta inhibits reuptake of serotonin and noradrenaline, whereas Acomplia blocks cannabinoid receptors.

Cymbalta might have reduced the risk of depression from Acomplia, although the increase irritability you noticed could be interpreted as an effect on mood.

When I get depressed I feel more irritable.

TJ,

I posted your story here as well so that more people can see it:

http://fatnews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/2748/

I was glad to run across this thread, as I was going to inquire about Acomplia vs. Phentermine - efficacy, side effects, etc.  After reading the above posts and the articles on each, Acomplia doesn’t seem to produce enough justification to outweigh the risk of psychiatric side effects.  True phentermine isn’t without it’s own effects on the mood but it doesn’t seem to carry the extremity of risks.

EERgirl,

I agree.

I’m not that impressed with the weight loss from Acomplia.

Most weight loss doctors who have been around for years say that phentermine is the best weight loss drug available.

One of the best weight loss doctors I know told me that he thinks phentermine is so safe that it should be available over-the-counter.

I don’t think this will ever happen, but if it did, the drug companies would convince the politicians that it was unsafe and have it banned the exact same way that they did with PPA and with ephedra.

Hi I’m new to this board and going to start using Acomplia. I was hoping to find information about phentermine. I’ll start in a couple days after my cholesterol tests come back so I’ll come back and post my experience with it. I’m still a little nervous as I’ve heard that depression is a side effect. I’m not really prone to depression so I’m giving it a month.

Just a little background on me. I’m a 41 year old American who moved to Sweden 2 years ago (longgg story). I have Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis (diagnosed age 12), have been overweight since age 6 (just after suffering mono), and was diagnosed as type 2 diabetic December 2002. That was probably what saved my life. I read, re-read, and re-read Gretchen Becker’s book and really worked on understanding diabetes so I could control it.

I started out with an A1c of 9.7 using 4mg Amaryl and now have a 5,1 with 1mg Amaryl. My cholesterol is good and my blood pressure is excellent. The problem, is although I lost 100lbs the first year, something happened and I have lost nothing since. I’m still roughly 140 lbs overweight which is why I’m going to start using the Acomplia as long as my thyroid levels are all normal. I’ve thought long and hard about it and just think the risks of heart attack are too high for me.

If anyone else out there has tried it, I’d be interesting in hearing their experiences with it.

If it were me, I would contact Julian Whitaker, MD and ask how he handles cases such as yours.

In the past 30 years, he and his doctors have seen about 50,000 people for various health problems, so I imagine they have seen a number of people such as yourself.

Dr. Whitaker has written a number of books including “Reversing Diabetes”.

He avoids using drugs whenever possible.

He does not use any oral diabetes drugs.

He has said that a study came out in 1973(?)—37 years ago—when he was doing his medical residency which found that oral diabetes drugs caused more problems than they solved.

He has also noted that several studies since then have also found problems.

He has also told stories about people with diabetes losing a lot of weight after coming to see him.

—————

You can sign up to get the email newsletter on his home page at
http://www.whitakerwellness.com/

—————-

Whitaker Wellness Institute
Attention: Patient Services
4321 Birch St.
Newport Beach, CA 92660

Located right next to John Wayne—Orange County Airport.

In the United States and Canada,
(800) 488-1500

All others please call
(949) 851-1550

info@whitakerwellness.com

—————-

Regarding Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis and how this might have affected your weight and your diabetes, I would contact Mark Starr, MD, author of the wonderful book, “Hypothyroidism Type 2”.

I would ask him how he handles cases such as yours.

In his book, he notes that desiccated thyroid is superior to synthetic T4 such as Synthroid.

Dr. Starr learned about thyroid from Broda Barnes, MD, PhD who spent his entire career studying thyroid problems.

Dr. Starr notes that the average dose required is 3.5 grains of desiccated thyroid, and in someone with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis it may be up to 5 grains. (Although you have to start with a low dose and gradually work up to the full dose over many months to avoid problems such as an increased risk of heart attack if the starting dose is too high.)

These are much higher doses than most people are given today due to mistakes that have been made in studies over the past 50 years as Broda Barnes explains in his book.

Broda Barnes, MD, PhD, (no longer living) who was one of the greatest thyroid experts of all times, explains in his excellent book “Hypothyroidism: The Unsuspected Illness” that heart attacks occurred 94% less often in his patients given desiccated thyroid.

Desiccated thyroid lowers cholesterol levels and prevents heart attacks.

Dr. Barnes explains exactly why this is.

In fact, Dr. Barnes argues that most heart attacks are NOT caused by elevated cholesterol levels, but rather by low thyroid function.

He explains this in detail in his book and how the cholesterol hypothesis about heart attacks came about and why it is wrong.

Hypothyroidism is also related to diabetes.

Mark Starr, MD
21st Century Pain & Sports Medicine
10565 N. Tatum Blvd., Suite B-115 
Paradise Valley, AZ 85253 
(480) 607-6503 phone

http://www.21centurymed.com/

————-

I would also ask Stephen Langer, MD about how he would handle your case since you have Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.

Stephen Langer, MD, author of “Solved: The Riddle of Illness” about hypothyroidism.

He also learned about thyroid after interviewing Broda Barnes for an hour on a radio program he was doing.

Stephen E. Langer MD
3031 Telegraph Ave, Suite 230
Berkeley, CA 94705
(510) 548-7384 phone

You can also look up Stephen Langer on YouTube.

For example, see him interviewed here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oqZ71FmwaM&feature=channel

There are also a bunch of related videos with Dr. Langer.

————-

And lastly…

When it comes to losing a large amount of weight such as 100 lbs, weight loss surgery is far more effective than any drugs.

I realize this is a very serious decision and you can find plenty of people who have horror stories about weight loss surgery, but it it is by far the most effective.

For anyone considering surgery, I would look for a surgeon who has done A LOT of these procedures, and I would want to talk to 5 or 10 people who this doctor has done surgery on.

thanks a lot, I will try to do it.