Are Weight Loss Medications Right For You

0
308

You and your doctor ultimately will decide if weight loss medications are right for you. But before you even discuss the option with your doctor, you can do a lot of research on your own and make some important decisions. You’ll want to look into the history of each medication and read about others who have taken it. Look up side effects and any serious cases that have resulted from people taking the pills. You’ll also want to consider whether or not you can just lose weight without medication.

If you’re considering weight loss medications at all, it’s probably because you’ve tried many other ways to lose weight. You’ve dieted and exercised and still the weight won’t come off. Maybe it does come off at first but stops, and you can’t seem to keep losing. You may have even tried dangerous things like starvations diets, excessive exercise, and weight loss drugs not prescribed by your doctor.

If you have, make a promise to yourself now to only lose weight in a healthy and safe way. While that can include weight loss medications your doctor prescribes, you still must be aware of what’s in the medicine you’re putting into your body. Some similar medicines that were prescribed widely in the past ended up carrying scary and dangerous side effects that they didn’t know about until it was too late. Sometimes a drug was hyped as the newest, best weight loss drug. And so many people heard about it that patients were asking their doctors for it by name.

Then people started to get sick-and in some cases, people died-prompting them to recall the weight loss medications completely. The best way to avoid a scenario like this is to avoid any brand new medicines. People like new things. The newest pill is something that gives them hope that this time it will work, and this time they won’t gain the weight back. But if you’re one of the first to use the medication, you’ll also be one of the first to have side effects from it outside of a clinical testing situation.

Opt for weight loss medications that have been on the market for some time without causing health scares in the people who’ve taken them. Even your doctor may recommend a new drug that’s showing great results for people. Just calmly explain your reason for wanting to avoid that drug for a while, and he or she will probably understand. Even though these drugs go through years of clinical trails, sometimes the dangers don’t seem to show until they’re more widely used.

Look at your dieting past and really ask yourself if you’re capable of losing weight without drugs. Only you know how hard you’ve really tried and how dedicated you’ve been to your diet and exercise program in the past. So only you can really judge whether or not weight loss help is really necessary. If you think it is, then be sure you fully understand the potential risks of the weight loss medications.