Obesity has taken epidemic proportions in USA and the same trend is noticed world over. In fact the incidence of obesity doubled over the globe during nineties In USA, 300,000 direct obesity related deaths occur every year. Even child obesity too is of great concern in US.

Obesity simply means excess fat deposition in your body, out of proportion with your present and future energy requirements and storage. A person with body mass index of over 30 KG/MT2 is considered obese. The first casualty of obesity is onset of insulin resistance. Our body fat cells are more insulin resistant than our muscles cells. So an obese body is highly prone to insulin resistance that later on develops into diabetes type-2. With this comes a host of other ailments like artery hardening, hypertension, high cholesterol etc. that diverge into seemingly unending chain of related medical conditions affecting the quality of life in general.

Benefits of Xenical

Xenical (generic ‘Orlistat’) is a new concept fat blocking drug approved by FDA in April’1999, first of its kind that treats obesity by inhibiting an enzyme ‘Lipase’ in gastrointestinal tract. Lipase breaks down dietary fat into miniscule molecules for absorption by the body. Xenical reduces body fat absorption by about 30% resulting in weight loss and reducing triglycerides in blood as triglycerides are also fats.

The drug is however recommended along side dietary control with the calorie from the fat being not above 30% of total calorie value of the diet. Xenical is indicated for the weight loss program of persons with body mass index of 30 KG/MT2 and above or 27 KG/MT2 and more in patients with medical conditions of high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol or heart ailments.

Weight loss is modest but definite with Xenical as per 7 studies of 1 to 2 year duration. According to http://www.xenical.com/, after one year of treatment, Xenical users lost over 10% of their body weight than those who only dieted. In these cases, the mean weight loss was 31 pounds that ranged between 18 and 67 pounds. In a large randomized controlled trial with Xenical (in the 4-year XENDOS study), the onset of diabetes type-2 was found to drop by about 42% in obese people. Xenical also causes small yet statistically important reductions in blood pressure, cholesterol and insulin requirement in blood which may be of far reaching benefits in the long run.

Side Effects

On the flip side, marked gastrointestinal side effects noticed are loss of bowel control, increased number of bowel movements, fatty or oily stool, flatulence and overall discomfort. Most of the symptoms however disappear within four weeks while in some patients the effects may persist six months or longer. All these symptoms are caused by unabsorbed fat and not due to any chemical action of Xenical, which does not interfere with brain chemistry as it works mostly in GI tract and is not absorbed much in blood.

Further, Xenical blocks absorption of fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K and beta carotene. These are then excreted in stool. Therefore the patient must supplement loss of these valuable nutrients externally by taking multivitamin preparations. However to ensure that these vitamins do not bind to fats again in GI tract and get excreted, they must be taken at least two hours before taking meal or Xenical.

Recommended dosing of Xenical is one capsule (120mg) per fat containing main meal and therefore generally three capsules are taken per day. Where the meal does not contain fat, Xenical need not be taken. Xenical taken in higher doses does not induce additional weight loss.