Personal Fitness Professional - March 2008 - (Page 10) 10 incorporate in their regular regimens. We as fitness professionals should ask the hard questions, driving our clients to find some answers. Our clients should, at the very least, understand why they’re taking the things they’re taking, and when you begin to interview them, I promise you this: You’ll be blown away by how readily they swallow tablets and capsules without understanding them. It’s no wonder: The marketing is powerful and becoming even more powerful. Never before has an OTC weight loss product hit the marketplace with the anticipation of alli (play with the pronunciation, and you might find some irony in the name). Alli is touted as a tool, a part of a weight loss program, and since the advertisers have intentionally stayed away from presenting it as the great weight loss cure, it comes across as being marketed sensibly and responsibly. There’s more to the story than the handsome drug store displays might reveal. In 1999, the FDA approved Roche’s weight loss drug, orlistat, marketed under the brand name Xenical. Xenical limits the absorption of fat in the digestive tract, and if fatty foods are consumed, a percentage of the ingested fat will find its way from the beginning of the digestive tract straight through to the exit on the other end. The research was less than thrilling, the dropout rates in the studies were high and, with time, the side effects seemed to gain greater exposure than the alleged winning outcomes. In other words, the “exit” was more pronounced than any revelation of fat loss in the mirror or on the scale. Even the research touted as evidence to its success showed only a three-pound additional weight loss among those who used the drug along with diet and exercise — over a two-year period. Not thrilling for people now exposed to television ads for liposuction; far less thrilling when the side effects of anal leakage and loose and oily stools become real. The sales of Xenical dropped, so rather than abandoning the product, Roche sold it to GlaxoSmithKline for $100 million. The intention was to lower the dosage and release the disappointing weight loss drug as a much-hyped OTC product, as so they did, heading toward sales of three billion dollars in its first year. Consumers bought both the hype and the product. I’ll share one more example of how the confusion crosses the lines from the health food store to the drug store. You’ve no doubt come in contact with information related to ephedrine. Are ephedrine and its herbal sources, ephedra and ma huang, illegal? Ask supplement sellers — they’ll say it is, and then they’ll try to sell you a product with synephrine, telling you it’s safer and more effective. Five minutes later, walk into a pharmacy, and head toward the cough and cold products. Find Primatene tablets, and read the ingredient label. You will see ephedrine hydrochloride, right there for purchase. While you’re there, pick up some Neo-Synephrine nasal spray (note the word following the prefix Neo), and read the MARCH2008 · WWW.FIT-PRO.COM http://www.ptbaonline.com http://www.ptbaonline.com http://WWW.FIT-PRO.COM
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