Diet Drugs & WLS - What you MUST know!

Let's talk a little bit more about prescription appetite suppressants! 

This topic has come up a few times in the Project 2014 Facebook Group during Season 1 . To recap the question:

"What is the role of prescription appetite suppressants in the patient's long term weight management with bariatric surgery?"

In the Group Files I shared a white paper from 2013 that reads,

"Appetite suppressants can play a significant role when patients experience a slow down of weight loss or begin to regain lost weight. Sympathomimetic medications act to both decrease appetite and increase basal metabolic rate (BMR). The use of appetite suppressants, such as sympathomimetic medications, can offset the effects of the neuropeptides that tend to favor weight gain. Because there is no time at which the risk of regain resolves, long-term use of medications may be required. Long-term use of appetite suppressants is becoming more widely accepted among obesity medicine specialists."

You can read more of this paper under the Files tab or link to our website below for the PDF file: http://www.livingafterwls.com/Project2014/Pharmeceuticals_post_WLS.pdf

MOST IMPORTANT: The reason I feel knowing the current professional thinking is so critical to each of us personally is that at some point a doctor may tell us, "How about we prescribe XYZ medicine to help control your appetite and obesity?" For many of us personal experience and highly publicized controversy over the years has cultivated passionate feelings about prescription diet drugs. If we are not informed on what the current professional thinking is, we will respond emotionally, not intellectually, to the doctor who suggests this treatment. This is not to say I'm in favor or against prescription dietary support - I am absolutely certain this is a case-by-case situation and I am not qualified to tell anyone what they should do. But I can point you to the current information to support your intellectual response should the need arise.

Qualified information rather than passionate emotions or internet hearsay is a critical tool in thoughtfully and intelligently managing our health.