The Healthy Lifestyle vs. The “Thin Pill”

Wired magazine, of all places, is where you can find a fascinating summary of one of the more important debates in modern medicine. The issue is whether obesity is a lifestyle issue or a medical issue. And the answer to that question is important not only for you personally, but maybe even more so for big drug companies. You can read The Thin Pill article online.

What happened was that some physicians wanted to begin using the ‘metabolic syndrome’ as a medical diagnosis. As such, it becomes a disease condition and qualifies for different treatment under FDA regulations and is a tempting target for big Pharma’s never ending search for the blockbuster drug. As it happens, all of the big pharmaceutical companies are in a race to develop drugs to attack obesity — a pill to take the place of a healthy lifestyle.

Some other physicians believe that the ‘metabolic syndrome’ is just a name for well-known symptomatic states that lead to disease conditions. And putting a name on them doesn’t alter the fact that a healthy lifestyle — weight loss and exercise, again and again — is the best lifelong way to avoid or cope with them.

So what is it to be? A pill that costs billions and billions — including billions in tax dollars if it is approved for Medicare (and you better believe it will be!) — or getting people into healthy routines?

Add comment October 9th, 2006