A Miracle Pill… Again.

French researchers found from a 10 week study on mice that the drug, SR1720, helped protect the mice from weight gain even on a high-fat diet. SR1720 is a chemical cousin of resveratrol, the red wine extract that fights aging and promotes heart health. There were no adverse reactions found during that 10 weeks. The drug seems to work by shifting the metabolism to a fat-burning mode that normally occurs only when the energy levels are low. This was reported in the scientific journal Cell Metabolism, but a much simpler version is from the BBC News in the article Drug ‘Tricks Body to Lose Weight’.

In the article, Prof Ian Broom, of the Centre for Obesity Research and Epidemiology at The Robert Gordon University, discusses the importance to research like this for tackling the growing obesity problem. But then he goes on to say:

… any such drug should be used alongside dietary and lifestyle changes to tackle obesity.

This is the part where I go off on a rant. First, I must state a few clarifications. We definitely need to address the obesity problem in the UK, this country, and as a global health issue. I am not opposed to all drugs. With that being said, I don’t necessarily think the fix to chronic health problems are going to rely on drugs that “trick” the body into anything, because we don’t EVER trick the body. The body usually has a reason for doing what it’s doing, even getting fat.

When you introduce a foreign agent in to the body to shift it where you want it to be, it will go there for a period of time. This shift is only a compensation that moves the body there while the the foreign substance is there. This usually also causes the body to negotiate other resources to manage the foreign substance and keep the body at a state that is not natural for it.

It is pretty amazing to me the results that happen when you take a drug and combine it with dietary and lifestyle changes. You have high blood pressure – you take a high blood pressure pill and combine it with exercise, good nutrition, and stress management and that blood pressure drops. High cholesterol? – take a cholesterol lowering medication and combine it with exercise, good nutrition, and stress management and that cholesterol comes right down. What seems to be the constant here?

What we need to start doing is to look at what we are doing to ourselves and find the etiology of why we have these chronic health issues and address with the appropriate methodologies for the person with the condition and not just the condition.

I welcome an open dialogue on this one. Please let me know what you think about all the “miracle pills” that are looking to be developed to save us from our lives.