So the NHS are going to make the fat pill (rimonabant) available for prescription. Trials suggest that obese individuals taking a course of the drug lose 10% of their bodyweight. At £60 a month, this is an expensive treatment.
The recent report on the BBC suggests that there is also evidence that people coming off the drug have a tendency to put the weight back on. There is a good reason for that: these people still have the same unhealthy relationship with food that got them obese in the first place. Remove the chemicals and that problem is there, and if anything it will get worse because we are talking about people who don’t accept accountability for their problem. By pinning their hopes on a wonder pill they are removing themselves further from the fundamental issue that who they are is a result of what they have done.
Whilst the pill definitely has a place in helping people improve their health, it should be used in conjunction with a programme to help them change their lifestyle and eating disorder. At the end of the course they should be back in control of their lives, their eating, and have cast away old habits. I fear that the real situation will be lardies thinking that they can have an extra slice of pizza thanks to the medication that they are taking.
