Everyone these days is struggling to stay slim and healthy. We have many new techniques, drugs and all kind of innovative methods that claim to help you shed those extra pounds. In case you are one of the many in the rat race against obesity, here’s a new drug named Tesofensine that should apparently help you achieve double the weight than regular pills.
According to experts at the University of Copenhagen, the drug presently in its experimental stage is a sure shot cure to obesity making it a winner in the anti-obesity pursuit. Researchers reveal that Tesofensine is an attempt to fight the ever amplifying obesity wave. As against other anti-obesity treatments currently in the marketed, the tests of the novel drug show a double the weight loss.
Professor Arne Astrup, President of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, mentioned, “We were quite astonished when we saw the results. It is extremely promising. Tesofensine had the potential to produce twice the weight loss as currently approved drugs. The once-a-day diet pill focuses on the part of the brain that controls appetite (the neurotransmitters noradrenalin, dopamine, and serotonin) controlling the urge to snack and making people feel full more quickly.”
Dubbed as the once-a day-diet pill, as part of the Phase II trial of Tesofensine, researchers analysed its effects on nearly 203 obese patients who had an average weight of 220 pounds. The study put all enrolled participants on a low calorie diet in tandem with a regular dose of exercise and some physical activity for up to an hour a day. While half the volunteers were given a daily 0.5 mg dose of Tesofensine once in a day, the other half were prescribed a 1 mg daily drug placebo.
The participants were followed up for six months and looking into them showed astonishing results. Those volunteers who were administered Tesofensine reported nearly 11.3kg reduction in weight. These results were pretty satisfying as those who were in the placebo group reported just about a 2.2kg loss in weight. Researchers are hopeful that the drug should qualify as the new age anti-obesity drug as it now enters the Phase III trials stage.
If in the Phase III trial, the drug comes out with flying colours , manufacturer, Neurosearch A/S, a Danish biopharmaceutical major, promises to introduce it in the market within the next four years. Researchers would however light to point that participants who took the drug in high doses showed a notable increase in blood pressure. Possible side effects could also include damage to part of the brain that may not be completely involved in the weight control signals.
Thanks to our sedentary lifestyle obesity figures are increasing at really quick pace with each passing day. Along with it other factors to be blamed are our genes, medical and psychiatric illness. Obesity eventually causes us to suffer from fatal conditions like diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer and high blood pressure.
The study is published in the Lancet medical journal.
