Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Rapid Weight Loss Diet Pill

Question:
I have been taking avandia and glyburide and since started taking them (about a year ago), I have gained allot of weight. A friend of mine told me that she had recently read an article that there was some new pills that you could take. She said that they only worked for weight gain that was caused as a result of taking medication. She does not remember the name of the pills or where she read the article. I was wondering if anyone else had heard or tried anything like this. Other than traditional dieting and exercise, are there other things that one can do to counteract the weight gain from medication.

Answer:
One pill to counteract the side effects of another is very common. The Avandia website (www.avandia.com) has the following information: What are the possible side effects of Avandia? Some people may experience tiredness, weight gain or swelling with Avandia. Avandia may cause fluid retention or swelling which could lead to or worsen heart failure, so you should tell your doctor if you have a history of these conditions. If you experience an unusually rapid increase in weight, swelling or shortness of breath while taking Avandia, talk to your doctor immediately. In combination with insulin, Avandia may increase the risk of other heart problems. Ask your doctor about important symptoms and if the combination continues to work for you. Avandia is not for everyone. Avandia is not recommended for patients with severe heart failure or active liver disease. I have never used Avandia, but I have used Actos (in the same class) and had weight gain and swelling that went away when I stopped taking it. I recently attended a health conference in which a doctor discussed the symptom of swelling from Actos as an indication of possible congestive heart failure. In MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, I found that the Actos + weight gain left me with the same A1c as no Actos + resulting weight loss. Your body is not the same as mine, so this may or may not be true for you. In ADDITION to diet and exercise, you could talk to your doctor about trying a different medication. We all react differently to individual meds, as well as classes of meds. Even another med in the same class may be acceptable to your body. Especially since the friend of mine couldn't remember more. Even if there's a new medication out there to help with some of the diabetes drugs side effects, it might also have nasty side effects, and there are so many weight loss miracle cures we couldn't begin to guess which one your friend might be referring to. Are you sure the weight gain isn't natural to your insulin actually functioning and being able to metabolize all the food you eat? How much weight gain are you talking about here? And have you talked with your doctor, whose business it is to know the medications you take and their effects on your health, good and bad? In rare cases where the primary medication CANNOT be changed then using another medication to deal with the side effects does happen. This is the reason that HIV drug treatments are such a tail - half of the drugs counteract the side effects of the other half. For the rest of us, the answer is normally to change the primary medication - there are enough alternative meds out there surely - unless: a) The doc doesn't know enough (or has been asleep for the last 20 years) b) There are other factors we do not know about A slippery slope though. Could end up taking 27 drugs all countering the side effects of each other rather than switching out the first! The original reference to new drugs isn't a garbled reference to Metformin is it? All arguments aside - sounds like a re-evaluation of treatment is required.