Lorcaserin: the Latest FDA-approved Obesity Drug

The FDA recently approved a new drug called lorcaserin (brand name Belviq) for the treatment of obesity.  Lorcaserin causes an average of 13 lbs (5.8 kg) of weight loss over a year, compared to 5 lbs (2.2 kg) for placebo (1), which is less than the other recently approved drug Qsymia (formerly Qnexa; topiramate/phentermine).

Learning about obesity drugs is always a good opportunity to gain insight into the mechanisms that underlie the development and reversal of obesity.  If you've been following this blog for a while, you already have a pretty good guess what organ this new drug acts on.  Make your guess and read on!

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Recycled Guru?! Marilyn Diamond

I'm kinda surprised the community didn't go a bit a buzz when Anthony Colpo included this in a recent reader mail roundup:  

Reader Glen sent along a link to comments made on FaceBook by Marilyn Diamond.  Who you ask?  Well as AC reminds us:

... she co-authored a runaway best-selling diet book in 1985 with her then husband Harvey titled Fit For Life. It was enthusiastically endorsed by folks like Merv Griffin and Tony Robbins so, hey, it had to be scientifically sound. The diet was reportedly “based on Harvey Diamond’s exploration of Herbert M. Shelton theories of food combining. Both authors claimed to be able to bring about weight loss without the need to count calories or undertake anything more than a reasonable exercise program. In the first version of the program, Diamond claimed that if one eats the foods in the wrong combination they “cause fermentation” in the stomach. This in turns gives rise to the destruction of valuable enzymes & nutrients. Diamond categorized foods into two groups : “dead foods” that “clog” the body, and “living foods” that “cleanse” it.”

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