balabala 叭啦叭啦 ＊　伊小娃的小圈圈

PILLS OR HEALTH?

(from bbc)以下文章從bbc選錄，中文翻譯僅屬於簡化的解釋文章中大略意涵。

Patients taking anti-obesity drugs lose only "modest" amounts of weight, and many remain significantly obese or overweight, research reveals. 

服用減肥藥物只能減去最保守的平均重量，很多服用的患者到現在依舊是過度肥胖。

Experts said the Canadian work in the British Medical Journal shows pills are no substitute for healthy living. Eating less and exercising more is essential, they said.

服用減肥藥物並不能夠就是代表擁有了健康的人生。

Over a billion people worldwide are overweight or obese, making the anti-obesity drug market big business. An estimated $1.2 billion was spent on anti-obesity drugs worldwide in 2005.

２００５年估計全球就有１２億人口服用減肥藥丸，他們都是這些減肥藥品大廠的大財主。

They reviewed the evidence from thirty placebo-controlled trials, involving nearly 20,000 people, where adults took one of three anti-obesity drugs - orlistat, sibutramine or rimonabant - for a year or longer. The National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence recommends stopping the use of anti-obesity drugs if 5% of total body weight is not lost after three months.
All of the volunteers in the trials were deemed obese, and weighed an average of 100kg (15.7 stone). 

他們進行了一項實驗，選用三種減肥藥品讓２萬個成人自願者分配服用，每天１／３的劑量實驗長達一年，有的更久一些。 結果顯示，他們的確都各下降的５％的體重，而且停用的三個月也都沒有再復胖。這些實體驗者都是真正的肥胖者，平均體重都超過了１００公斤。

 Patients taking the weight loss pills were significantly more likely to achieve 5%-10% weight loss, compared to those who took a dummy drug. But is was unclear whether the weight loss achieved was enough to have big health and survival benefits. Orlistat reduced the incidence of diabetes in one trial and all three drugs lowered patients' levels of certain types of cholesterol. 

這些服用減肥藥丸的確都比那些未服用者減去了體重，但是這當中對於是否真的對身體健康有幫助並有好處，仍舊是一個迷思。 Orlistat(羅氏鮮)可以防止糖尿病的發生,而且這三種藥品成分也都可以有一定程度的降低膽固醇。

But adverse effects were recorded with all three drugs and there were high drop-out rates, with 30%-40% of patients failing to complete the trials. A separate study in The Lancet found patients given one of these weight loss drugs, rimonabant, were at increased risk of severe psychiatric events. 

但是這個報告並不是這樣而已，既然如此有效，卻有３０％到４０％的人不願意繼續進行這項實驗，因為當中服用rimonabant(利莫那班)的一些患者卻產生了精神上的一些不良狀態。

Dr Colin Waine, chair of the National Obesity Forum, said: "The first choice has to be a healthier lifestyle, but medication use can be justified because obesity is a serious medical condition. "The purpose is not just to achieve weight loss but to reduce health risk factors. All three drugs can have beneficial effects on those." 

減肥研究中心的Colin Waine博士說：肥胖不只是減重的原因，就醫學來說他也是一項嚴重的不良症狀；不只是減肥也要健康，這三種藥品都達到了效果。

Professor Gareth Williams, professor of medicine at the University of Bristol, warned of the potential damage to society if anti-obesity drugs were licensed to be sold without prescription, as already happens in the US. "Selling anti-obesity drugs over the counter will perpetuate the myth that obesity can be fixed simply by popping a pill and could further undermine the efforts to promote healthy living, which is the only long term escape from obesity. 

Bristol大學的醫學教授Gareth Williams卻不這麼認為。他憂心的說：美國開放了減肥藥品不需要經處方簽而可以取得，這其實會慢慢影響到國人對於減重與健康上的觀念錯誤。減肥不是造就健康的全部。