Male: You can pick a pill by prescription over-the-counter and it cures everything. There are some tools that are sold over-the-counter things like a stack or are these really effective and should they be used or any danger to this pills?
Male: The over-the-counter pill industry is not as highly regulated as perhaps prescription medications. And the old dictum of no pain, no gain certainly applies to weight loss and lifestyle modification. Even prescription drugs which are so carefully monitored have all demonstrated that in the absence of changing behavior individuals who take these pills are likely to be successful for a short period of time perhaps six month to a year and ultimately will regain the weight in the absence of making a change.
I would suggest that people save their money and those pills of course can be quite expensive over-the-counter and invest in good multidisciplinary behavior modification programs such as the Kids Weight Down Program or the Healthy Life Program here at St. Barnabas Medical Center.
Male: Are there any real dangers for just taking things like stack?
Male: There is no question given the lack of regulation and perhaps consistency of the ingredients from product to product that there has been risk of damage and death in some previous over-the-counter pills that had high levels of a product of ephedrine. Ephedrine has been removed from many of the pills that are currently sold over-the-counter and replaced with things like caffeine. However, caffeine as we all know which forms the basic component in coffee can cause excessive heartbeat and raised blood pressure.
Therefore, I would advise individuals to stay away from these over the counter products and rather consult with their appropriate medical professionals to get the best treatment that can be afforded to them.
Male: There are two prescription medicines that are still in the market. I think what is called Meridia and the other one is called Xenical. Do they have any place in pediatrics or even a younger dose and weight control?
Male: There have been two pivotal trials in the use of both Meridia and Xenical in adolescence and they were both found to be effective in short term weight loss. However, I cannot stress it off that in the absence of changing behavior both of those medications will be less successful and ultimately will fail. It is quite clear that behavior modification is far more successful than either one of those drugs.
Male: I see all the time in TV ads for this places like Weight Watchers what not can they be used in a program like this with some adolescents with some success?
Male: There is no question that programs like Weight Watchers can be successful and they are based on the basic concept of behavior modification. What is lacking in programs like Weight Watchers in Jenny Craig for example is the appropriate medical supervision. It is quite clear to us for example that many of our children that we evaluate for overweight have significant medical problems that we not have been detected have they not come for an appropriate medical screening for example vitamin D deficiency is sound and nearly 50% of the children that we see and high blood pressure.
These are two very important complications that we see in over weight children. Sleep apnea, the difficulty in breathing at night requiring intervention, abnormal liver tests suggesting abnormalities in the liver so programs like Jenny Craig in Weight Watchers certainly do not afford that appropriate kind of medical screening. They do rely no the patient’s themselves engaging in their own behavior modification by recording what they eat and that is an important step forward but it I think it lacks the comprehensiveness of the programs like the Kids Weight-Down Program at Maimonides and the Healthy Life Program here at the St. Barnabas Medical Center.
Male: Are there any…
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services