Weight Loss Drugs: What's the problem?

People are losing weight on the new drugs, but at what cost?  First there is the financial cost: we're paying $35 billion a year for these drugs, and don't be fooled, all of us are paying.  While insurance pays nothing for nutrition or exercise, it gladly pays for this.  And these drugs are untested long term, with some horrific potential side effects if you take them for a long time or if you stop them.  This is how our pharma industry works: big promises, little data, hide the side effects, but no money for actual lifestyle changes.  Maybe these drugs will be great, likely they'll have severe long term problems, but we are all paying a steep cost to put pharma profit over truth and not spending any money for real determinants of health: diet, exercise, stress reduction.  A shot seems appealing and requires no effort, but it can't substitute for what we know will work."The greater the ignorance, the greater the dogmatism."  -William Osler, MDwww.returntohealing.com