Anyone tryed Accomplia aka Romonabant?

This drug is approved for us in most of the rest of the world.  The FDA is still evaluating it.  My research indicates that it is effective.  Has anyone tried this?  Results? 

Here's what the famous Mayo Clinic has to say about diet drugs

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/weight-loss- drugs/WT00013

Note:  Rimonabant is similar to Xenical.

"Frequent oily bowel movements, diarrhea, bloating and abdominal pain"

Terrific!  Where do I sign up?

I mean, if you dont mind those side effect, by all means.  But dont kid yourself that a "diet pill" can replace proper nutrition or fix bad self-esteem.  Its worth saying, no?

Interesting post, however,  I'm afraid you have been misinformed.  This medicine is not at all related to Xenical or any other existing FDA approved obesity treament.  The Mayo article did not discuss this medication, it spoke only of Meridia and Xenical, both of which are not related to  Romonabant.  Average weight loss in clincal trial at six months with 20mg Romonabant was 16 lbs, without any change in diet or excersie. The only side effect is mild nausea occuring in 2% of patient population.  Please see the information below sited from Jerome E. Block, M.D. F.A.C.P. :" The Endocannabinoid system is a signaling system within the body that allows one cell to talk to another.   Within the brain, they inhibit the receptor, stopping the stimulation to eat. The cannabinoids are not just in the brain, but also throughout the body, causing a change in energy intake and expenditure, resulting in increase or decrease of abdominal fat. This fat is extremely active metabolically, determines our weight and resulting health. ....To improve our vascular health, particularly those with the CARDIOMETABOLIC SYNDROME, eating less and exercising more does help. But, blocking the marijuana receptor (CB1) reduces appetite and increases caloric burn, with a decreased body fat is more successful. This results in improved blood sugar, lipids, blood pressure and abdominal obesity. We now have a novel therapeutic tool to treat this genetic metabolic form of obesity. The cannabinoid (marijuana) look-alike, ACOMPLIAR (Rimonabant), has been promised to U.S. market for over 14 months, but it has been available in Europe since April 2006.  Certainly not a substitute for lifestyle change, but when the goals are difficult or impossible to reach even with extreme effort, then it is in the patient?s best interest to use a medication. Contrary to diets where we feel deprived in losing eating pleasure, this causes no dissatisfaction even with minimal food intake. People have satiety rather than the lust for more. When the body is in need of food, there is an increase of natural cannabinoid and hence, the desire to eat. When that energy requirement is satisfied, so is the appetite. In experimental animals without the CB1 receptor, no hunger exists, even when completely deprived of food. The location of these receptors is in the brain in a small area, the nucleus accumbens and the larger hypothalamus, but they occur also in other parts of the body. Study after study has shown that not only is AcompliaR 20mg a day is safe and effective in weight loss, but the metabolic syndrome is "cured". The Adiponectin/IL6 ratio, which favors good health, is increased with AcompliaR as much as it is with eating minimally and exercising maximally. Why wait to get healthy?"  ....ALSO FROM The New England Journal of Medicine: "Rimonabant is a first selective blocker of the cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1) being developed for the treatment of multiple cardiometabolic risk factors, including abdominal obesity and smoking. In four large trials, after one year of treatment, rimonabant 20 mg led to greater weight loss and reduction in waist circumference compared with placebo. Therapy with rimonabant is also associated with favorable changes in serum lipid levels and an improvement in glycemic control in prediabetes patients and in type 2 diabetic patients. At the same dose, rimonabant significantly increased cigarette smoking quit rates as compared with placebo. Rimonabant seems to be well tolerated, with a primary side effect of mild nausea. As an agent with a novel mechanism of action, rimonabant has a potential to be a useful adjunct to lifestyle and behavior modification in treatment of multiple cardiometabolic risk factors, including abdominal obesity and smoking. " Eli V. Gelfand, MD; Christopher P. Cannon, MD       & nbsp;  

 So I hope this post may help clarify the two previous posts.  Also, I agree, no pill is a magic bullet...it still takes work, diet work and diet....

 

This is a simple explanation directly from Sanofi-aventis:

"ACOMPLIA® acts by selectively blocking CB1 receptors found in the brain and in peripheral organs important in glucose and lipid (or fat) metabolism, including adipose tissue, the liver, gastrointestinal tract and muscle(1). CB1 receptor blockade with ACOMPLIA® acts to decrease the overactivity of the endocannabinoid system (EC system)(2,3). The EC system is a recently characterised physiological system that includes receptors such as the CB1 receptor and it has been shown to play an important role in regulating body weight and in controlling energy balance, as well as glucose and lipid (or fat) metabolism. "

I hope this clarifies any confusion.

(1) Pagotto U. Pasquali R. Fighting obesity and associated risk factors by antagonising cannabinoid type 1 receptors. Lancet. 2005; 365: 1363-64.

(2) Van Gaal LF, Rissanen, AM, Scheen AJ, Ziegler O, Rössner S for the RIO-Europe Study Group. Effects of the cannabinoid-1 receptor blocker rimonabant on weight reduction and cardiovascular risk factors in overweight patients: 1-year experience from the RIO-Europe study. Lancet. 2005;

365: 1389-97. (3) Marzo V, et al. Leptin-regulated endocannabinoids are involved in maintaining food intake. Nature. 2001;410:822-825.

i'm sorry but this looks like SPAM.Please stop

I'm sorry.  This is not spam. I am in no way benefitting from this.  I am trying to help people who struggle with this issue.   Actually,  I am stunned  by your post,  considering that you say you are a "research scientist".?  One would think a researcher would want to be informed of the latest science in the metabolic arena.   Sorry to have offended you.  I will reluctantly honor your request.

I guess I should have written "stop if this is the case". But I still think it *looks* like spam. It might not be but it looked like it to me. 

Just dropping in to let y'all know that moderators are keeping an eye on this post. :)

That said, Hugh, let me tell you where we're, in general, coming from on Calorie-Count.  Typically, many of our users who have been here for a while have tried some form of weight loss drug and the general result is that none of them work, or those that DO work have some truly scary side effects.

So, I can't and won't say that these boards are fully anti-pill, but perhaps typically so. :)

So while I don't know anything about Accomplia, I do know that there are alot of people who you'd really have to show PROOF that it works, like it's supposed to, without side effects, before they even considered trying it.

Thanks for listening!

call me old fashioned but i think diet pills are a silly waste of time.

i think that people who take diet pills haven't fully accepted responsibility for their weight gain or weight loss. i think that in order to lose weight permanently, you must accept resposibility. you must accept that you are overweight because you ate too much and exercised too little. you have to be real with yourself about the fact that eating less and exercising more is what you're going to have to do to reverse your poor decisions. denial is powerful, that's why people look for other ways to lose weight -- pills, fad diets, weight loss surgeries (without trying on your own first), etc.

i can't wait to be called a "pill-taker hater" -- that's what i was called last time i posted this opinion. but regardless, i think it is good to play devil's advocate sometimes.