Photo: Richard Drew, AP

If you're relying on weight loss drug Alli to help you slim down, the costly $45 that you hand over to the pharmacist every 20 days could be the least of your worries -- new reports indicate that the drug has been linked to liver damage and even liver failure. The Food and Drug Administration has received over 30 reports of liver damage between 1999 and 2008 in patients who've taken Alli and Xenical, the drug's prescription version. Of those cases, 27 were hospitalized and six suffered liver failure.

Still, the FDA has not confirmed a direct link between the drugs and liver problems, and they're advising patients to keep using the drug until further notice, with a warning to "consult their health care professional if they are experiencing symptoms." For the record, symptoms of liver damage include fatigue, fever, nausea and vomiting.

Alli's been on the market in North America for a while now, but it started to gain quite a bit more press once Wynona Judd announced she was jumping on the bandwagon and using the weight-loss drug to lose a few. However, just because a celeb uses Alli, doesn't mean you should, as Fitsugar has reminded us. Because, have you taken time to read the side effects? They are:

• Oily spotting. From your, um, rear end, if you needed clarification.
  
• Loose stools
• More frequent stools that may be hard to control.
  

Ick. What's more, they advise that "you may feel an urgent need to go to the bathroom. Until you have a sense of any treatment effects, it's probably a smart idea to wear dark pants, and bring a change of clothes with you to work." Lovely.

I think I will stick to regular dieting rather than risk unfortunate accidents like these. What about you?

Source

Wynonna Judd is singing the weight loss blues ... or rather the reds, blues, golds and greens of the alli© logo. She's signed on as spokesperson for the weight loss drug.

Judd is part of a long-list of celebs who have lent their names and faces to weight loss products. Jenny McCarthy once touted Weight Watchers, and Phylicia Rashad is the latest celeb speaking for Jenny Craig. Regarding alli, Judd said "I've considered every diet under the sun, but so many of them wanted me to be something I'm not and do things I knew were not healthy for me. Then I discovered alli. With the alli program, I'm learning how to make and maintain healthier lifestyle choices. It keeps me honest with myself and allows me to set realistic goals."

That's great, Wynonna. But I've got one question. Why do you need alli to do all that? You can make healthier choices and set realistic goals without a pill.

Source

Diet pills do work. But they've gotten more dangerous than effective over the years, and experts warn that there's no miracle potion out there that can shrink you back into your college jeans without compromising your health. Diet and exercise -- now, these are two formulas that work. Still, we're on a hunt for the perfect skinny pill.

Redbook magazine digs up the scoop on five popular diet drugs and offers a rundown on them all right here. There's Alli (orlistat), Meridia (sibutramine), Zimulti (rimonabant), Glucophage (metformin), and Byetta (exenatide). If you think blocking the digestion of fat calories is the way to go, Alli might be your drug. But if you eat too much fat, you'll need to be prepared for loose, oily stools. Maybe you'd like to just feel full faster. Then Meridia is tops. Well, if you don't mind high blood pressure and an increased risk of heart attack or stroke. Shutting off your appetite is another possible fix, thanks to Zimulti, which might just happen to turn on a little anxiety and depression.

You get my drift, right? Yes, weight-loss drugs work. Their effectiveness just comes with a cost-- one I'm not wiling to pay. How about you?

Source

So what's your opinion on Alli? After all the hype leading up to it people have finally had a chance to buy it and try it for themselves -- nasty side-effects and all. But because it's over-the-counter and anybody can buy it, does that lead to a greater chance that people will abuse it? A psychologist from the St Louis Behavioral Medicine Institute thinks so, and he thinks the greatest danger is for people who suffer from eating disorders. Although Alli has been proven safe for those who are overweight, it may not be for people who do not need to lose weight or are already underweight. And since it's so readily available it may be particularly attractive to people with eating disorders -- even the side-effects (like diarrhea) may not deter them as they may be used to dealing with them already.

Source

Although the first FDA-approved weight loss drug -- Alli -- has been approved and is now being sold at drugstores nationwide, one has to wonder if the drug is required at all. It makes no goofy "weight loss with a pill" claims an d touts that a low-fat diet and nutritional awareness must be used with it for weight loss.

well, if the only product of this drug is blocking is blocking fat from being absorbed in to the body, why would anyone need to take it? If a weight loss prospect is required to modify their diet substantially anyway to ensure Alli provides the most benefit, why not just modify your eating habits to lose weight without needing a fat absorption drug?

If you're already makes large nutritional changes, going further and losing weight by getting fatty items out of your diet costs nothing, right? I'm not sure I see the benefit of a $50 supply of drugs, but if Alli really (and most likely, subjectively) has worked for you, I'd like to hear about it.

Source

Is the future of weight loss in a pill? I sincerely doubt it, but that is not stopping expensive, FDA-approved diet drugs from finally entering the scene. It makes sense, as over-the-counter weight loss items have been around forever it seems and for some odd reason, people keep buying them.

But Alli looks to be different. It's promising no magic weight loss "from a pill" but is being marketed as an assistant to weight loss with proper diet and exercise (how novel!). I'm quite sure Alli is not needed for this, but if it works for you, then great. Hooks are different for everyone.

What about the newer Rimonabant? This drug, known as Accomplia outside the U.S., is another designer drug that I'm looking into as a possible "assistant" to weight loss. A decent dose of scientific information on the drug is available over at The Diet Channel, and for those thinking of Rimonabant, this is worth a read.

Source

I would have thought the days of "weight loss in a pill" products were numbered (the credible ones anyway), but they just keep coming! The latest is from GlaxoSmithKline and it's called Alli. It's a version of Xenical, and it's the first drug to be approved by the FDA for sale without a prescription and over-the-counter in the U.S. It works by preventing some absorption of fat into the body.

The advertising of this product will be interesting, with more than $150 million dollars budgeted for marketing alone they plan on taking a slightly different approach than many diet pills have in the past: it's gonna take work on your part too. Interesting.

Learn more at myalli.com.

Source