Are drugs making America fat?

Dozens of common drugs are proving to make people fat.

For those unsuspecting consumers who pop pills for everything that ails them, this may be a shock. Researchers and practitioners have found that dozens of prescription drugs cause you to gain weight. But what is alarming is that many doctors aren’t warning their patients of this unwanted side effect, and they go on gaining weight not knowing that the very medications they are taking may be the cause. Some have gained as much as 100 pounds in six months. So, what drugs should you be on the look out for?

According to an article in the Portland Oregonian by Patrick O’Neill, “the implicated prescription drugs span a wide spectrum of pharmaceuticals — from seizure medications to antidepressants to blood pressure meds”. What typically happens is a patient is so consumed with their particular symptoms which caused their visit to the doctor, that they really don’t notice the weight gain until it becomes painfully obvious. Some of the drugs are thought to alter the body’s metabolism causing “metabolic syndrome”, one of the fastest growing conditions in America, and some actually create cravings for carbohydrates and sweets. But all in all, the reason why some drugs cause some patients to gain weight is poorly understood. Yet, not everyone puts on weight because of drugs, and if they do, the weight gain can vary widely from patient to patient.

In data revealed on Medscape.com, patients on Zyprexa (Olanzapine) gained 8 to 10 pounds, after 10 weeks. And on PsychEducation.org, it is stated that weight gain can be so large on Zyprexa and other drugs that it can cause serious health complications. They go on to state that:

There are some medications which have become famous for this [weight gain]: Zyprexa, Depakote, lithium are all guilty some of the time (not always; it doesn’t happen to everybody). And now that we’re paying more attention to this problem, it’s becoming clear that other medications can do it: all of the new-generation antipsychotics (Zyprexa, Risperidone, Seroquel at least; Geodon very little, aripiprazole more than Geodon but less than the rest) and many of the old-generation medications like Haldol can cause weight gain. Even some antidepressants that were never really suspect in this way are now known to cause weight gain (slower than the medications listed above, though, and perhaps less often), such as Prozac and Paxil.

In other cases of medication induced obesity, prednisone is a known contributor. In the Portland Orgonian article, they cited a patient, Becki Welch, who gained 100 pounds in six months on an extended course of the steroid prednisone. Prednisone was prescribed for her intestinal inflammation. She reported that every time the doctor started to taper her off he drug, her inflammation returned and she ended up at 398 pounds. The patient noted that the problem she found with Prednisone is that “it made food taste so good.”

What is interesting to note is that some drugs with some form of histamine, serotonin and dopamine tend to stimulate the appetite while some drugs are known to cause sluggishness, which leads to a decrease in physical activity. But what is important to anyone taking prescription drugs is that they need to consult with their physician about the potential for weight gain, or for any other common side effects that are connected with the drug. Many times people take medications without a clue as to what the side effects can be and continue to take them not knowing that the drugs are the culprit. Physicians need to communicate side effects and risks better to patients before they walk out the door. The main thing to remember is just ask lots of questions.