Do Diet Drugs Drop Density

Not sure if its the AP writer or Arena Pharmaceuticals that wants you to take a bit of this one with a veil of success.  I'm skeptical so far because I've looked at the statistics. Their PR says 13 percent to 15 percent of body weight, but is you read the reports it takes about a year to reduce by very few percentage of pounds.

And there are risks as well as problems related to monkeying with your serotonin.

"Lorcaserin works in a way similar to fenfluramine, which was part of the fen-phen diet cocktail before it was withdrawn in 1997 after being linked to heart valve damage."
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1225473220100312

Fenfluramine is a fluoride based compound with benzene
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2010/07/common-sense-needed-not-new-risky.html
Lorcaserin 10 mg Once Daily

40.2% of patients treated with 10 mg of lorcaserin dosed once daily lost
at least 5% of their body weight (p<0.0001); and
17.4% of patients treated with 10 mg of lorcaserin dosed once daily lost
at least 10% of their body weight (p<0.0001).

Taking the drug twice daily (BID) increases your risk of serious side 

effects and you show little difference in weight loss over taking the drug

once daily

22.6% of patients treated with 10 mg of lorcaserin dosed twice daily
lost at least 10% of their body weight compared to 9.7% for placebo
(p<0.0001)

So for what costs you incur for the drug, price data which so far I haven't

located, you really aren't making signnificant progress.

If you weigh 250, in a year on this drug you may lose 12.5 - 25 pounds. And if

you follow a sound weight management plan without drugs and include exercise

you can safely look at a loss of 2 pounds a week.

Experimental diet pill shows promise, little risk

Mike Stobbe, Ap Medical Writer – Thu Jul 15, 2010

ATLANTA – An experimental diet pill helped about half the people who tried it lose some weight and keep it off a year later, without the heart problems that some earlier drugs caused, a study found.
Complete article/http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100715/ap_on_he_me/us_med_obesity_drugs

http://invest.arenapharm.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=410040
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1225473220100312http://weightloss.suite101.com/article.cfm/will_new_weightloss_drug_make_it_to_market

There might be better ways to look at this health problem.