Everyone already knows that the combination perfect way to lose weight is to unite a balanced diet with physical activity. However, because many people are unable to lose weight naturally, they use body-slimming medications prescribed by doctors, the most commonly consumed being sibutramine. But does this substance bring risks to people’s health?
Prohibition by Anvisa
Anvisa (Health Surveillance Agency) intends to prohibit the sale of all drugs used for weight loss that act on the person’s central nervous system, including sibutramine and amphetamine derivatives, through a hearing that the Organ intends to hold to define whether these appetite suppressants will have their sales prohibited in Brazil. However, that meeting was postponed, and, to date, sibutramine is freely traded in Brazil.
Sibutramine History
In the eighties, sibutramine was initially developed by researchers as an antidepressant drug that acted on the regions of the brain that controlled appetite, mood, and the feeling of well-being in individuals. Only in 1997, sibutramine was approved as a medication for weight control by the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration), which regulates food and medication in the United States.
However, in 2009, Public Citizen, which is a consumer protection group in the country, sent a request to the FDA to ban the marketing of sibutramine on the grounds that it could cause possible risks to the health of North Americans. In 2010, a scientific study was carried out by the Institute called Scout (Sibutramine Cardiovascular Outcomes Trial), and based on it, the sale of sibutramine in the United States and in some European countries was prohibited.
And currently in 2011, Brazil, through Anvisa intends to prohibit the sale of sibutramine on the grounds that the harmful effects of its consumption are greater than its benefits as a weight loss medication.
Performance of Slimming Medicines
There are currently three drugs that act as weight loss and are available for sale: Sibutramine, which acts by giving the individual a feeling of satiety; Amphetamine derivatives that act by inhibiting hunger and Orlistat, which is a drug that promotes the absorption of fat acting only in the intestine. Sibutramine acts on the satiety and appetite areas of the central nervous system.
The better-known amphetamine derivatives such as Mazindol, Amfepramone, and Fenproporex, act in the brain region called the synaptic cleft, where noradrenaline and dopamine are stored, reducing the person’s hunger; and Orlistat, which is the only drug of the three that does not act on the central nervous system, only on the individual’s intestine, promoting a reduction of about thirty percent of fat absorption by the human body, and is not part of Anvisa’s prohibition list.
The use of sibutramine would be related to the increased risk of the person having cardiac complications, such as stroke (cerebrovascular accident) and heart attack, in addition to psychiatric disorders, which range from depression, anxiety, and agitation to conduct disorders such as aggressiveness and irritability, among others.
Expert Opinion
With this new study by Anvisa and the subsequent attempt to ban the drug in Brazil, many issues have been debated about sibutramine, and several specialized professionals have been positioning themselves against it and others in favor of banning the substance. According to some psychiatrists, the use of medication for weight loss can cause a psychic disorder in people with a predisposition or aggravate one that already exists.
However, they point out that the risk of sibutramine causing these disorders is lower compared to that of amphetamines. However, in patients with bipolar disorder, the use of sibutramine can trigger a destabilization of the patient’s mood. Some professionals specialized in endocrinology and contrary to the prohibition of sibutramine, they see obesity as a disease that needs to be controlled with medication.
The prescription of sibutramine that these professionals make to their patients goes through criteria, according to them, such as an evaluation of the person’s cardiovascular system, and its use is closely monitored by specialists. Other endocrinologists warn that being overweight can, in some cases, lead people to death in greater numbers than weight loss medications, because when the individual manages to lose weight, he reduces the risk of developing heart complications that are associated with obesity.
However, most experts claim that weight loss is directly associated with the practice of physical activities and a balanced diet, but in some cases, there is a need to use medications, especially when the person has an excessive body fat index. The information has been given, it is now up to the person who wants to lose weight to verify what benefits he will have with the use of sibutramine if it is worth taking the risks recommended by the competent Government Agencies. For the time being, sibutramine is still being marketed in our country.
By Salete Dias