WEIGHT LOSS MEDICATION
I wanted to know if anyone could recommend a weight loss medication other than meridia or xenical. If those are the only 2 out there which one did you find worked better and with less side effects. My pcp she doesnt recommend wls surgery but she said if she could see that i have been trying to lose weight by trying different methods she might be willing to change her mind i probably will have to change pcps but it so hard to find one in my area that is for wls. so if anyone has any suggestions yopu can email me directly @[email protected] or just post a message. and if anyone lives in the same area and could recommend me to a pcp that will refer me for wls surgery i will greatly appreciate it. I live in southern New Jersey in Sicklerville which is close to williamstown i am willing to travel within the southern new jersey area.
Hi Tyshea, I live in Willingboro, NJ about 40 minutes or less from Sicklerville. I am familiar with your area, my husband goes there alot of work. Anyway, it may be a hike for you, but my doctor - Dr. Stanley Markunas runs a diet program from his office. It is a medication called Phentermine. I took it for years and it helped me, but once I stopped it, I gained back, so I don't recommend it.
But he is all for WLS and I am sure he could help you. It's worth a phone call at least. If you find someone closer to you by all means, please use them, just letting you know who my pcp is and how he felt about wls and diets. If you must be on a medically supervised diet though in order to get wls you may want to contact him. His phone number is (609) 386-0023 and he is from the Burlington Family Medical Assoc.
Hope this helped a bit. However, if you tried the two med's you mentioned in the past, you may want to make an intital appt. with him, change pcp's for the time being and he can recommend you have surgery based on your past usage of medical options for weight loss with no sucess.
Tara
It is not really clear if you are in favor of trying weight control meds or not from your post. A lot of insurance companies require that you document you have exhausted non surgical options before they will approve surgery, which means in some cases having to take medications in addition to the six month medically supervised weight loss diet. Weight control medications do not work; their manufacturers' own studies have shown that, but you may have to do it anyway as part of the approval process for surgery.
For meridia in studies of 6 to 12 months, patients on placebos lost an average of 2-15.2 lbs. Patients on Meridia lost an average of 6.6-28.4 lbs. So best case Meridia helped some people lose 1-2 lbs more per month than they would have on a placebo. In my book, that's not too effective. you have to put in the http and www but the study is published at ...rxabbott.com/pdf/meridia.pdf
For xenical, in the physician's section of their website, they say:
"In clinical trials, the overall mean weight loss from randomization to the end of 1 year in the intent-to-treat population was 13.4 lbs in patients treated with XENICAL plus diet versus 5.8 lbs in placebo-treated patients." So in one year, the Xenical patients lost 8 pounds more than placebo patients. That's less than a pound a month - again, not what I'd consider a success. ...xenical.com/hcp/3_faq.asp#efficacy
Try to find out exactly what your insurance company requires for approval.
Jen
Hi Tyshea my name is George I am having WLS on Friday December 10th at the hospital of the University Of Penn. My doctor is located in Gibbsboro which is near Lindenwold he is affiliated with penn. If your interested e-mail me and I will shoot back the info to you. I was on xenical for about a year, I lost some weight but not alot the medicine blocks about a third of the fat in all you eat so where does it go ? Lets just say you spend alot of time in the bathroom! I don't know how much overweight you are but please note this surgery is serious and for people who's weight has become a threat to thier lifes. Good luck to you which ever road you decide to take.
George
Hi Tyshea,
I was under the care of my PCP on a supervised diet plan. At first I was put on Xenical which gave me the runs. My PCP changed my medication and I was then put on Meridia 15mg, which was excellent the first 6 months, I lost an average of 8-10lbs a month. As long as I took the medication I lost weight. Then I hit a plateau. After my body adjusted to the medication, it stopped working. I gained back what I had lost and then some. The funny thing is my Insurance did not cover weight loss medication. I payed out of pocket, 30 pills at $150.00. Good luck in your journey whichever path you chose. This was the only way my PCP would reccommend WLS. I had to be on a supervised plan. You have to go with what works for you until you come to your only resort, mine being WLS.
Sweet
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