Side Effects of Xenical

Last week, I felt like yelling, 'Stop the madness!' when I read about Paul - a security guard in Peterborough, England - who had his first heart attack at the age of 29.

At the time, Paul smoked 60 cigarettes a day, and he weighed well over 400 pounds. And in spite of the fact that he ate a massive amount of food every day (his breakfasts typically included fried bread, a pound of bacon, a pound of sausage, tomatoes, baked beans, eggs and mushrooms), he was shocked to discover that someone so young could have a heart attack.

So Paul got a wake-up call and a quick education in dietary restraint. But when I read further details of Paul's story in an article in the online version of the Evening Telegraph, I couldn't figure out what was worse: his diet before his first heart attack, or his post-heart attack weight loss plan, which included the use of an anti-obesity drug called Xenical (also known as Orlistat).

Paul has lost a considerable amount of weight, but his health is still a ticking time bomb.

Misused as directed

Xenical actually inhibits the absorption of fat in the intestinal tract, so it's a drug that's custom-made for the mainstream tunnel-vision view that a low-fat diet is the 'correct' way to lose weight. And Xenical offers a built-in incentive to avoid foods with high fat content. When too many fatty foods are consumed while taking the drug, side effects include diarrhoea, gas, and stomach pains.

In other words: the drug inflicts physical punishment when the user strays from a low-fat diet.

Xenical is not designed to be an aid for the average dieter. It's intended to help obese people lose weight when exercise and dietary changes have little or no effect. But according to the BBC News, prescriptions for Xenical in the UK have jumped by a third over the past year, and since the drug was first approved in 1999, sales are up by 300 percent.

So the question is: at this steep rate of increased usage, is Xenical being restricted only to obese subjects who are unable to lose weight? Or are doctors prescribing the drug as a diet pill for patients who are simply overweight?

It's hard to ask these questions with a straight face.

We know that there are plenty of doctors out there who are firmly fixed on the low-fat diet mindset, and also unwavering in their opinion that medication is the answer to most health problems. And there will always be plenty of patients willing to take a pill rather than exercise.

Case in point

Paul's case is a good example of Xenical used outside of the guidelines.

Here's a seriously obese man, whose idea of modifying his diet included, 'three or four chops with my main meal and lots of potatoes.' And he admits that he didn't start going to the gym until after he started taking Xenical. So it appears that Paul's doctor didn't press him very hard on changing his exercise and eating habits before prescribing Xenical. But do the ends justify the means?

Paul is 41 now. And although he's lost almost 200 pounds in more than a decade, he's still considered obese at 245 pounds. But because Paul's weight loss just might add years to his life, he represents a potential Xenical success story. I say 'potential' because Paul has now had a total of 4 heart attacks. And although he's in better shape today than he's been in many years, he suffers from osteo-arthritis and angina (a common symptom of coronary heart disease).

Meanwhile, Paul is coping with these health problems without the benefit of several important vitamins, including the valuable antioxidant properties of vitamin E. Because not only does Xenical block the absorption of fats (including types of fats that are good for us), but it also blocks absorption of fat-soluble vitamins E, A, D, K, and beta carotene.

Insert earplugs now

Pardon my yelling, but: Stop the madness!

Any drug that purposely tricks the body into rejecting necessary nutrients had better have an EXTREMELY good reason for doing so. If someone is literally being brought back from the brink of death by using such a drug, then by all means, use it. But for those doctors and patients who would use it as a diet pill (for conditions far less severe than Paul's) only one word will do: madness.

And yet, Xenical is flying off the shelves of UK pharmacies, and I found at least one web site that promises to supply it without a prescription. It seems that Xenical may be on the verge of becoming a best-selling fad.

The sad thing is, most Xenical users will never understand exactly how the drug works, so when the long-term side effects of going without essential nutrients set in, they'll never know what hit them.