Put Down the Dumbbells? New Diet Pill In Development

Over one third of Americans are obese. On a national level, the financial impact of the condition is strong. In 2008 alone, obesity cost the United States $147 billion in health care spending (CDC, 2013).The impact of obesity on an individual can be great, too, especially with respect to quality of life. According to Garner et al (2012), the condition has been associated with "social stigma and reduced labor force participation, and contributes to health disparities among racial and ethnic groups and across socioeconomic strata"  (pp. 814). There is, then, reason for concern and a need for change.

Many approaches to combating obesity involve either increasing activity, decreasing caloric intake, or both. Organizations such as the Center for Disease Control recommend adults exercise 30 minutes a day five days a week and eat more fruits and vegetables and less high fat and sugar foods (2010). Even the companies targeted by the healthy lifestyle movement are starting to listen. Fast food chain restaurant Burger King, for example, has released a new line of french fries, named Satisfries, with a lower fat and caloric value or its customers searching for an alternative to regular fries (Baertlein, 2013). 

Belonarib, a new drug being developed by Zafgan, Inc,
allows patients to burn fat and lose excess weight without
modifying their activity level or diet (Dey, 2013).
Image courtesy of Medciencia.com

Lifestyle changes, however, are difficult. An easier route being revisited by research is medication. A private U.S. company named Zafgan, Inc is developing a drug that, "is designed to make the body produce less fat and burn off the excess as fuel" (Dey, 2013). The drug, Belonarib, would then allow patients to lose weight without any lifestyle modifications. Belonarib, given as an injection, targets the enzyme methionine aminopeptidase 2. By blocking the enzyme's activity, the drug not only decreases fat production, but induces a, "higher rate of fat burn and improves some key conditions related to heart safety, including reducing bad cholesterol and lowering inflammatory actions in the body" (Dey, 2013). These non-weight loss effects that address components of metabolic disease make the drug appealing to critics.

Another attractive aspect of the drug is that it bypasses the hypothalamus component that previous diet pills focused on. Staying away from that emotion signaling area, which is also involved in suicidality  and depression, nearly (if not completely) eliminates mental side effects associated with this field of medicines (Dey, 2013).

Personally, as safe as this drug appears to be and as successful it has been in trials thus far, I would highly discourage individuals from pursuing the medication-only route. We do live in a very stressful, busy society that doesn't prioritize primary prevention (e.g. through healthy lifestyle education) enough. How a person comes to be x-many pounds overweight is more of a system failure than a personal one. Making lifestyle changes in a largely non-supportive environment is difficult, but following through with these changes can increase a person's awareness of their self and their society, and potentially be very empowering.  However individuals decide is the right way for them to lose excess weight, though, the benefits will be substantial.