 |
 |
Some can't stomach diet pill's side effect
E-mail this article | Print this page
Drug blocks absorption of fat
By Misti Crane
Alli pills come with the promise that your colon won't absorb all the fat you swallow.
And a caution that you should eat a low-fat, low-calorie diet and exercise while you take them.
And a recommendation that you travel with an extra pair of pants. Just in case.
The chief side effects of the pills, made by GlaxoSmithKline, are gas with oily spotting and sudden, frequent bowel movements.
Depending on whom you ask, that can mean anything from needing the facilities -- pronto -- to going home and changing clothes.
Alli is a reduced-dose, over-the-counter version of the prescription drug orlistat (sold under the name Xenical) and the first such diet aid approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
It blocks about a quarter of fat from being absorbed. Instead, that fat moves right through the digestive tract, prompting urgent trips to the bathroom.
The drugmaker says the pills can boost weight loss by about 50 percent.
Since Alli (pronounced AL-eye) hit shelves this summer, thousands of users have visited a Web site devoted to it, sharing stories of success, frustration, intestinal distress and other side effects they attribute to the pills.
Christina Heath of Grove City started on July 4 and has since tapered back from three pills a day to one or two.
When she takes Alli, she said, she feels as though she constantly needs to go to the restroom.
"It comes suddenly and at times without much warning at all," she wrote in an e-mail.
"It is not pleasant in the least."
She said the company was straightforward about the side effects. But after losing just 3 pounds, she's probably going to quit once her current supply is gone.
"I could lose as much weight on my own," Heath wrote.
Toni Harris, who lives in Gahanna, has been taking a pill three times a day with meals for about two weeks. She said she feels energetic, has lost about 5 pounds and hasn't had any severe side effects.
She's also disciplined. She exercises 30 minutes, five times a week and closely follows the Alli rule of no more than 15 grams of fat per meal. That means no visits to her favorite restaurant, the Cheesecake Factory.
Regan Jameson, a 27-year-old from Wisconsin, is among those who've posted questions and comments on the Alli site. She said the pills made her tired, nauseated and achy.
To such posts, company pharmacists reply that Alli works only in the gut, that it won't interact with prescription medications and that it doesn't cause headaches.
"I'm concerned that this is yet another pill that has not been fully tested and they are trying to sell as many as they can before they actually admit there is a problem," Jameson said.
GlaxoSmithKline did not respond to a request for an interview last week.
Some doctors and nutritionists say Alli's fine, albeit costly at about $60 a month, and just another tool for helping patients shed pounds.
Others question its worth considering the side effects, saying it doesn't do much beyond what diet and exercise are capable of.
At first, Dr. Stephanie Benedict of St. Ann's Family Practice was concerned about marketing a fat blocker directly to dieters. But she said the company is being responsible by encouraging a healthful lifestyle.
If people just followed the Alli plan minus the pills, they'd probably lose weight, she said.
Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe of the consumer-advocacy group Public Citizen is particularly concerned about research that has linked orlistat to precancerous colon lesions in rodents.
Furthermore, orlistat prevents proper absorption of fat-soluble vitamins -- the drugmaker recommends a nightly multivitamin -- and hasn't even been proved to be particularly helpful for people trying to shed pounds, he said.
"The regimen is fine, except for one thing and that is the Alli," said Wolfe, a longtime critic of Xenical.
mcrane@dispatch.com
Source: The Columbus DispatchAll rights reserved.