What are the side-effects?
As with any prescription medication, some people who take it will experience adverse side-effects. The most common for Acomplia are:
- nausea and vomiting;
- diarrhoea;
- headache and dizziness; and
- a range of mood changes involving irritability, restlessness, anxiety and depression.
People are less likely to experience these effects if they are taking lower doses of 10mg. They most usually affect those taking 20mg. At this point, it is fair to say that this list is similar to those you will read for many different medications. When you balance them against the proven benefits of weight loss and improved health, you might always choose to buy Acomplia. But there has been some controversy.
There has been significant interest in Acomplia. If it is as free from side-effects as the French manufacturer, Sanofi-Aventis, claims then it will be widely welcomed as a solution to the “epidemic” of obesity that threats to overwhelm public health provision in most developed countries. The press has therefore been active in monitoring the progress of the clinical trials, and it has begun to print stories about individuals who have been involved in these clinical trials but suffered more serious side-effects. To some extent, although understandable as human-interest stories, they do somewhat misrepresent the science involved. Nevertheless, these stories have led to a slight loss of confidence in the regulatory authorities. They have been more inclined to take a precautionary approach and deny approval where the evidence is not absolutely clear.
So where is the truth of the matter?
There can be no doubt that Acomplia changes moods. That is the effect it is designed to have on the brain’s chemistry. What previously you found pleasurable is less pleasurable now, so you feel less need to eat, a lower craving for recreational drugs, and so on. Why should your mood become darker and more depressed? Well, if you began work to reduce your weight, hoping to improve your self-esteem, it is naturally depressing if you become demotivated, fail to keep up your diet and stop exercising. The looked-for weight loss is so much slower in coming. You lose heart.
But there is another factor at work. When healthy people exercise, they feel pleasure in feeling their bodies working well. This improved feeling of well-being motivates them to keep up the exercise. Studies involving rats that lack the CB1 receptor show them to become increasingly underactive. Similarly, doctors can give all their patients the “exercise prescription”, but one of the effects of Acomplia is to block the “pleasure” reinforcement system. People will no longer get the emotional reward for the exercise and so be less inclined to continue. Thus, anyone using Acomplia who fails to maintain the lifestyle changes may grow frustrated and depressed that Acomplia on its own is working too slowly. Even though their appetite will be less, they will not lose any meaningful amount of weight.
There have also been one or two cases where more serious degenerative diseases have been detected in users. There is speculation that, if you have latent Multiple Sclerosis or Parkinson’s Disease, taking Acomplia may trigger its onset. The research is inconclusive as to whether Acomplia was actually a trigger or the underlying condition simply surfaced naturally during the clinical trials. The cause and effect is uncertain. Nevertheless, it would be wise to avoid taking Acomplia is there is a history of degenerative diseases in your family.
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