I talked a couple of days ago about why I think it’s important to avoid supporting organizations like the Obesity Action Coalition. Today at the gym I saw an advertisement for the weight loss drug BELVIQ (whose manufacturer gave the OAC over $100,000) that reminded me why I think it’s so important. What I learned about BELVIQ was so ridiculous that it would be funny if it wasn’t completely horrifying:
What does it do to you? (All of these quotes are pulled directly from their website)
Before using BELVIQ, tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, especially medicines that treat depression, migraines, mental problems, or the common cold. These medicines may cause serious or life-threatening side effects if taken with BELVIQ. Call your doctor right away if you experience agitation, hallucinations, confusion, or other changes in mental status; coordination problems; uncontrolled muscle spasms; muscle twitching; restlessness; racing or fast heartbeat; high or low blood pressure; sweating; fever; nausea; vomiting; diarrhea; or stiff muscles.
You read that right, taking BELVIQ with cold medicine could be life threatening.
It is not known if BELVIQ when taken with other prescription, over-the-counter, or herbal weight-loss products is safe and effective. It is not known if BELVIQ changes your risk of heart problems, stroke, or death due to heart problems or stroke.
There are some combinations that we know can cause serious or life-threatening side effects. Everything else might do that, we really have no idea. Hell, this medicine might kill you on its own, again we just don’t know. I mean, we can’t be expected to know everything right? Shut up and take the pill fatty.
BELVIQ may slow your thinking. You should not drive a car or operate heavy equipment until you know how BELVIQ affects you.
Maybe you remember that “joke” survey in which women were asked if they would choose to be smarter if it meant that they would have a bigger ass. The joke’s on us because that shit just got real.
Some people taking medicines like BELVIQ have had heart valve problems. Call your doctor right away if you experience trouble breathing; swelling of the arms, legs, ankles, or feet; dizziness, fatigue, or weakness that will not go away; or fast or irregular heartbeat.
I mean, who needs working heart valves, fitting into that size whatever is totes worth it y’all!
Taking too much BELVIQ may cause hallucinations, a feeling of being high or in a very good mood, or feelings of standing outside your body.
Careful, you may miss the signs that our drug is killing you because you’re too busy chatting with the purple spotted elephant. But nobody would take too much right? It’s not like it’s addictive.
BELVIQ is a federally controlled substance (CIV) because it may be abused or lead to drug dependence.
Oh, right, it is addictive. Um… But you’ll be thin. Yes, focus on that. Thin thin thin thin thin thin. (Or, you know, probably not but we’ll get to that.)
BELVIQ may cause your heart to beat slower
Which, if you think about it, might help your heart valve hold out a little longer. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature! (sarcasm level is a 10 out of 10 here)
BELVIQ may cause your red and white blood cell counts to decrease.
Are your current high blood cell counts making you look fat? We’ve got you covered.
BELVIQ may increase the amount of a hormone called prolactin. Tell your doctor if your breasts begin to make milk or a milky fluid, or if you are a male and your breasts increase in size.
Maybe you thought it was one of those hallucinations we talked about but nope, you’re lactating!
Let’s review:
This medicine may cause your heart and brain to slow down, your white and red blood cell count to drop, your heart to be damaged, and non specific life-threatening side effects. And you may become addicted to it. I’m sure the scientists accountants working on BELVIQ were relieved to find out that, even though the side effects might make people want to quit, there’s a possibility that they won’t be able to, and as long as they remain fat the drug is recommended for them and paid for by their insurance.
But what are we risking all of this for?
In a major clinical trial, people taking BELVIQ were able to lose weight and maintain weight loss up to 2 years. In the 2-year study, almost half of people who completed the first year continued on in year 2. All people regained weight but remained below their starting weight.
- Almost half of people (47.1%) taking BELVIQ® lost 5% or more of their body weight after 1 year of treatment, compared with those using diet and exercise alone (22.6%)
- Some (22.4%) lost as much as 10% of their body weight after 1 year of treatment, compared with those using diet and exercise alone (8.7%)
First of all, did you catch that HALF the people dropped out of the study at year one. No news from BELVIQ about why – maybe they wanted to take cold medicine without risking their lives? And nobody maintained their weight loss – the most anyone lost was 10% of their body weight before they started regaining, which every single one of them did, even though they were still on the drug.
We know that almost everyone can lose weight on a diet and almost everyone gains it back within the next three to five years. So based on the research what we are seeing is the beginning of the weight regain that will eventually find around 95% of people regaining all of their weight with many gaining back more than they lost, while perhaps becoming addicted to a drug with side effects that include death, or dealing with the long term consequences of taking the drug, which have not been studied at all.
We’re all dying to know, how does it work anyway?
BELVIQ® helps you feel satisfied with less food by targeting a hunger receptor in the brain.
Of course! Feeding your body less food than it needs to survive in the hopes that it will consume itself and become smaller is difficult. BELVIQ can help you become more adept at completely ignoring your body’s signals by messing with your brain. But exactly how does it do that?
The precise way BELVIQ® produces feelings of satisfaction is not fully understood.
And why would we bother to fully understand how it works? I mean, they’re just fat people, they’re barely human. We don’t know how this works, what we do know is that it seems to stop working between year one and year two, that it’s addictive, and that it may seriously harm or kill people. The diagnosis for who should take this dangerous, addictive, and poorly understood drug is a simple ratio of weight and height and as long as that’s in range insurance may even cover it! Hey, let’s offer a free trial on our website – first one’s free!
Now, I’ve been joking around because that’s one of the ways that I deal with the absolute horror of things like this – but make no mistake, this drug is going to kill people. People who could have lived full, happy lives in the bodies that they have now are literally going to die trying to be thin while this company rakes in millions, even billions, in profits. And if, like the victims of Phen-Fen before it, their surviving family members are able to get a settlement because of this company’s complete negligence, it will be cold comfort for them, and just a drop in the bucket of profits for Eisai pharmaceuticals. Right now some doctor somewhere is probably recommending this to an unsuspecting fat person who will take it because they trust their healthcare practitioner not to put their life in danger for no good reason.
The “War on Obesity” is being fought whether we like it or not and, to me, is seems clear that they don’t care if they shrink us or kill us, as long as they don’t have to look at fat people anymore (you know, for our own good.). If they want a war on obesity I will fucking give them one and for me that includes never, ever supporting these companies because it’s truly life and death.
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If any more proof were needed that the end game is “there’s no good fatty like a dead fatty,” this is it! The very sad thing is there will be fat people, ground down by a lifetime of fat phobia and stigma, who will willingly take this monster of a drug. The whole thing makes me so angry!
Off topic, I know, but I still wanted your opinion on whether or not this is body shaming — or close to it.
When I go with my mom and step-dad to visit his adult children, one of whom is very fit, the conversations pretty much always turn into discussions about fitness/health/exercise, etc.
My nearly-300 pound self just sits there in silence.
Last time, the fit son, not surprisingly, started yammering on and on about love handles, why they’re called that and such. He then talked about how we live in a fast-paced world, being so busy, and people’s priorities aren’t in order, which is why they don’t exercise/stay fit, whatever.
I’m a naturally quiet person, so I just listen but do find it annoying that the conversations always winds up gravitating towards fitness.
I can’t help but wonder if that’s how the son validates his existence in this world, which is why he yaps so much about it.
I don’t feel I have the right to tell people what to chat about, so I keep my comments to myself unless asked, something that has yet to happen.
Step-dad also made an assholeish (spelling?), ignorant comment when a fat kid appeared on TV and there were weights in the background. “He obviously doesn’t use those!” is what I had to hear.
I’m not Ragen. I don’t even play her on television. But a couple things stand out for me that make me want to jump in here and say something.
Let’s see… every single time you go to visit this person, the topic is turned to one in which you don’t participate spontaneously and are never asked your opinion about. It includes a lot of discussion about one person’s constant battle not to look anything like you. Nobody seems to either notice or care that you are clearly silenced by this conversation.
Since I haven’t heard the content of the conversation other than your stepfather’s seriously body-shaming remark about the boy in the commercial, I cannot comment on whether the entire conversation is body shaming (though I know these conversations usually include at least a heaping dose of it), but I can tell you this for certain: it’s extremely rude to exclude someone from an entire conversation. To do so repeatedly is beyond rude. It’s also extremely rude to focus all the conversation in an entire visit from the family on oneself to the exclusion of others.
Somebody seriously needs to steer the conversation in a new direction.
Good comment there. While it doesn’t do anything to change their minds concerning your right to live and be happy, have you considered inserting yourself into the conversations and steering them towards other subjects? Bring up a great book you’ve read recently, or current events, science news, or some other topic that requires more active thought and deeper involvement in the world around us, and see what happens.
They want to focus on superficial physical traits, but there are so many intellectual aspects to explore. If they don’t want to explore those, it says far more about them than weight says about you.
Personally, I would stop going to visit these people. They are rude and boring. If they are not actively improving your life, why are you going there?
I think my reply to those conversations would be to go get a doughnut or something similar and eat it with relish right in front of them.
I wanted to address this comment of your family member’s: “He then talked about how we live in a fast-paced world, being so busy, and people’s priorities aren’t in order, which is why they don’t exercise/stay fit, whatever.”
This is a logical fallacy. If we’re so busy, then that means we haven’t got time to slow down, or sit for a minute. We’re always on the go, always “exercising”, so his “priorities” nonsense is just that.
Can’t stand contradictions!
Yeah, they’re shaming you. Next time they start in, just stand up and say, “I’m gonna go read a book.” Bonus: From their kitchen, call, “You guys got any Chocodiles? Where d’ya keep the booze around here?”
Another fun tip: no matter what you’re actually reading, slip on a dust jacket for ANYTHING with some guy soon to be getting it on with a werewolf (or presently getting it on), whether the dust jacket fits or not. Hell, print out the jacket front and back and slap it on your iPod.
If you hear any more comments like your stepdad made about the kid on TV, flip him off and tell him to shut up so you can pay attention.
This is a subject on which I finally decided to ready the nuclear option. Take no shit, give no fucks, and if people think I’m obnoxious when I simply speak up, they have no idea.
Thanks for the feedback, everyone.
It’s not like they chat with me any other time then leave me hanging when the subject of health/fitness comes up — I’m not a social person, so I won’t go out of my way to talk to them, and they don’t go out of their way to talk to me besides the standard, “Hello. How are you?” and, “It was nice to see you!” stuff, along with a little chit chat here and there.
I noticed that, when the fit son is yapping about working out, healthy foods, et cetera, he will sparingly look me in the eye.
This could be because he doesn’t look at me much period or he’s just focused at the topic on hand. Hell if I know. LOL. Perhaps I’m overthinking, as usual?
The whole thing obviously bothers me at least a little, otherwise I wouldn’t be posting here, but I don’t allow it to bother me too severely.
When my step-dad and his two sons were getting into a debate about politics on the previous visit, I gladly helped myself to a second ice cream cone.
For some odd reason, I can clearly imagine the fit son secretly…wanting BBW women, though he most likely doesn’t find fat appealing.
He married a thin girl, after all. I wonder how many men, if any, marry/otherwise commit to thin women, but secretly desire BBWs or even SSBBWs. Haha.
I agree with just leaving the room. I had to do that recently when the conversation at a family gathering turned horribly racist – I just got up and went into the kitchen to get a refill on my drink and just wait until the topic changed.
And if they ask you where you’re going? You could say, “I’ll be back when the conversation isn’t about ‘how not to end up like me’.” It may take some rehearsing to get to this point, but it might be worth it to shut things down.
Novo Nordisk is currently seeking — and expected to acquire — approval to sell one of its diabetes drugs as the latest miracle fat cure. http://blogs.wsj.com/pharmalot/2014/09/10/fat-chance-novo-hopes-to-sell-its-injectable-diabetes-med-as-a-diet-drug/ The briefing documents (linked in the article) are … I don’t know. Instructive? Interesting? Rant-worthy?
Ugh. Victoza carries a black box warning that it may cause thyroid cancer. It also carries a risk of pancreatitis, and they just don’t know but it may cause pancreatic cancer. There is a big debate on that one. It does cause nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and the like.
The natural GLP-1 that your body produces has a two minute half-life. The artificial GLP-1 is much, much longer. And, wonder of wonders, there are GLP-1 receptors all over the body that no one seems quite sure what they do at this time.
If this drug is needed to control diabetes, then the doctor and patient need to do the appropriate risk-benefit analysis.
Personally, I wouldn’t consider it for weight loss.
Diabetes in Control, Jan 23, 2012 lists a 6% weight loss in 56 weeks on a low calorie diet (1200 to 1500 calories). It isn’t even that impressive nor does it hit the magic 10% that is supposed to cure everything up to and including the crack in the Liberty Bell, but anything to make a buck I guess.
Just one thing to say here – Fen-Phen.
I don’t know how much good it’ll do, but I’m going to pray that nobody is killed by this crap.
Unfortunately, that’s the only way to get it off the market.
But you totally forgot this fabulous side effect that should have all fat men double dosing – “penis erection lasting longer than 4 hours.” Woohoo, skip the gym! We can screw like 18-yr-olds again!!! Eep, my heart 😦
I have an idea what the slowed thinking is like from a side-effect of my anti-depressants and even when it’s mild it’s frustrating and a previous anti-depressant it was worse. It was getting too much and luckily was able to swap to a new brand. I’m very glad for the NHS here in Scotland for that. Although it doesn’t sound like one of the worst side-effects there it can be somewhat debilitating. It’s had me struggling to do simple maths in my head, a skill I’d previously taken as extremely easy.
At the moment I’m taking a few years out of being a student to try and get to a point I can function better with my depression, so most of my time is spent reading stuff online, books or playing computer games.
The slowed thinking made it near impossible to focus on these things which makes it extremely frustrating being unable to do something I could have managed the week before.
They actually tell you that this stuff stops working within two years and it’s addictive, plus hallucinations, heart damage, brain fog, and can kill you if taken with OTC cold medications… but most people won’t bother learning about the fine print. They’ll take it with their cough medicine and die. They’ll operate heavy machinery or drive while taking this stuff for the first time and get in an accident that kills them and/or someone else.
Worst of all, people will say the human carnage is worth it because a few more people will lose just a few more pounds over the very short term.
Oh, and even though the testing and literature both say flat out that the weight loss won’t stick around even if you are addicted to the drug and continue to take it all your (possibly vastly shortened) life, it will still be your fault when the weight creeps back on.
Now there’s a great joke.
You have amazing timing. Thank you! My mom is completely on the BELVIQ bandwagon. Not to mention that her “doctor” prescribed it when she is on several contradictory medications, not to mention that she has having foggy thinking, not to mention that she has had a mystery cold all summer long but she brags and brags about the 2 lbs she’s lost since June (the weight of a really good pee is what I tell her).
Of course she’s concern trolling me to get on this “wonder drug.” Not a chance, but of course while she has all the above symptoms she’ll remind me of my chances of a heart attack (numbers are fine), remind me that my dad died of a heart attack (he did, but he was 150lbs and shoveling snow, I’m 290 and live in Arizona) women aren’t going to want to date me (I am asexual by choice). So she’s concern trolling me to give up ME to make myself sick to lose the weight of the contents of my bladder in two months?
My mom has a thick head, but this blog post is so well written, so rational and so on point…I think it just might get through to her the next time she tries to push a dangerous drug on me.
THANK YOU!
SJ
“BELVIQ – Because we didn’t do enough damage with Fen-Phen!”
(Or was that Phen-Fen?)
Really, when you think about it, we have a long history in this country of doing patently unhealthy things in the name of weight control. I wonder just how many young people, and women especially, take up smoking because it helps them control their weight. Yeah, what’s an increased risk of cancer and emphysema later in life, compared to the risk of possibly putting on some weight in the present? Oh, and bonus benefit! Chemo is GREAT for helping people lose weight!
Remember those classic old ads for our “old friend, the tapeworm,” as a “natural” weight-loss aid? What could be better than playing host to a dangerous parasite, in the name of having a thinner waist and smaller tush? What’s scary is that there have been recent cases of people selling tapeworm eggs as a weight-loss aid.
The latest miracle weight-loss drug might kill you, but at least you’ll look good for the open-casket viewing!
I’m SO glad you write about this, Ragen. The first time I saw it, I was horrified! I looked around the room to see if anyone else was sharing my shock, and I was alone. The health effects for this drug and its limited ‘help’ are ghastly. The fat-shaming of their ads is also incredible (“Am I hungry? Am I satisfied? Have I had enough?”).
I honestly believe this is the drug that has brought the shit fully all over the fan. This was just so insanely egregious…and people act like it’s all cool because…you’ll be thin!
Goodhart’s Law: Any measurement which is used to guide policy will become corrupted.
In this case, you have not being fat used as evidence of health, and as a result, people are encouraged to risk wrecking their health in order to not be fat.
To that, let’s add Stafford’s Heuristic: “The purpose of a system is what it does.”
BELVIQ does not make fat people into thin people.
It does cause neurological and cardiac damage, addiction, and eventual death.
What, by Stafford’s Heuristic, is the purpose of BELVIQ?
Now apply that to the entire weight loss industry.
Well said.
For at least a little while it looked like the FDA was going to be stricter about approving ineffective diet drugs with harmful side effects… Looks like they’ve given in now.
Reblogged this on simonjisforjenius and commented:
I really wish my “first” blog was my original thinking but those of you who know me know of my issues with my Mom and her new “miracle.” Ragen says what I should have been saying all summer long:
This is a perfect example of how the FDA is in bed with Big Pharma. Their goal is for drug companies to make money, as much as they can possibly bleed from consumers. Protecting the health of the American people is not a concern for the FDA.
Greed trumps all in corporate and governmental America.
I suspect that a lot of the people at the FDA are typical Americans– they believe that fatness is an emergency, and that it’s appropriate to take serious risks to not be fat because being fat is so dangerous.
Money probably isn’t the only motivation.
How difficult is it to understand that money is the representation of an abstract concept and not more valuable than people’s lives, and that being fat is not the same as an aortic aneurysm?
Apparently, it’s very difficult to understand such things when you’re living in a society that’s in the grip of a multi-generation moral panic.
which my husband’s uncle has
Isn’t that the truth!
Good glory. I am still gobsmacked with sad regularity over the cognitive disconnects related to the weight loss industry. All of those negatives and the ONLY “benefit” to me is that I *might* lose 40 lbs. for two years, then gain it back? DA FUQ?????
I desperately needed to read this today, thank you.
I wish weight loss drugs were illegal… I swear!! When I was in my 20’s I had a doctor convince me that I needed to lose a lot of weight or I was going to die soon because my liver wasn’t functioning at 100% per a blood test. She prescribed phentermine and I lost from 240 to 185 in about 3 months… and developed a tachycardic arrhythmia in my heart. I stopped the drugs, got under the care of a cardiologist, and found out my liver was functioning perfectly fine but now I have a heart condition that I didn’t have before. Fucking awesome. I also gained back all the weight and some… I weigh 240 right now but I just had a baby and I lost a ton of weight in my 1st trimester due to morning sickness… I was 255 when I got pregnant which was where I held steady for a few years. So yeah, all it did was make me less healthy than I was before I started.
“Horrifying” is too mild a word for what I felt reading this. As someone living with congestive heart failure, I am speechless at the cavalier manner in which this description treats heart damage. Swelling in arms and legs, dizziness, trouble breathing, fatigue and weakness that will not go away — yes, I had all those, and they nearly killed me before I went through two major surgeries to get an implanted cardiac resynchronization device, and believe me, NO-ONE wants to play around with damaging their heart.
And that’s just ONE of the side effects of this poison.
How dare they?
Interestingly, if you have a look at PubMed, which is handled by the NIH, a lot of doctors damn near criminalize the stuff. I wonder how many medical systems insist that their providers prescribe the stuff thanks to an agreement either with the drug company, or a particular distributor?
This piece, btw, was a very interesting read.
I had the hallucinations and the heart probs all while simply dieting. I don’t need a drug to do it for me.
Srsly, this drug is just more bad news.
Even if there weren’t any health risks from taking this drug, any possible efficacy of it is based on the fallacy that fatness, or “overweight,” is caused by uncontrolled hunger, and that diet failures are the result of same.
I really, really don’t understand why scientists would still believe this.
Well, we’re all fat simply because we just can’t stop stuffing our faces all the time, don’tchaknow. Never mind that I’m sure most of us can name at least one–if not more–thin person who eats more than we do, but stays thin because of having a faster/more efficient metabolism. Why is it so hard for some people to believe that every BODY is different?
I don’t know about you guys, but when I read this article, all I could think of was Happy Fun Ball…
http://www.dirtybutton.com/videos/780-happy-fun-ball/
I miss Phil Hartman.
It’s happy, it’s fun! I love that video!
And I echo Helena’s statement.
“Do not taunt BELVIQ. BELVIQ contains an unknown substance which fell to Earth, presumably from outer space…”
I love Happy Fun Ball, and still want one from the day that show first aired, but I don’t know if that ad is ever going to be the same.
OMG that’s hilarious!!!!
So a 300lb person could loose as much as 10% short term before gaining *some* back…. that means 2 years later that person will be around 280lbs. Wow! Thats worth risking your life for! That really is horrifying. Just… wow, I’m going to look at videos of babys and dogs now.
I am willing to bet that no one is asked to sign a conditions of use contract for this addicting substance. This is opposed to “Pain Contracts” that people with chronic pain are coerced into signing despite no evidence of substance abusing behavior while taking medication for an actual medical condition!
I wasn’t aware of ‘pain contracts’ and looked it up. Thats seriously fucked up. I shall now watch even more videos of babies and pets.
I don’t think it’s problematic. Doctors have an ethical responsibility to “first, do no harm.” That means that they can’t ethically give narcotics knowingly to patients who have a substance abuse issue or who are prone to obsessive or compulsive behaviors, for instance.
I would venture to say that this document exists most likely because someone somewhere successfully sued his or her doctor claiming that it was the doc’s fault that they developed a dependence on a painkiller.
No they don’t have that responsibility. In my research to report a doctor, I came across the Canadian Medical Association’s Code of Ethics. Nowhere does “first do no harm” appear in any form, and docs have the authority to fire patients for not taking meds and being ornery.
Click to access PD04-06-e.pdf
Have a look, it’s a real eye-opener. Links to USA and Britain are here: https://www.cma.ca/En/Pages/code-of-ethics.aspx
Nope, they pretty much exist to remind patients how vulnerable we are, and to remind doctors that they’re in a similar position. As I said before, what I would like to do to assholes who sell or steal prescription drugs is probably a felony to simply type.
I respectfully disagree. People experiencing chronic pain should not be treated as if their need for narcotics is suspicious. When a doc says sign this or I won’t give you the meds you need to function such contract is made under duress. Of course, like I said before, this is a new concept to me, so these are just my own thoughts.
It’s actually not biologically possible to become addicted to an opiate while in enough pain, to the best of my knowledge. That’s why I can take 90 oxycodone a month and only experience drug tolerance. When I need to back off, I don’t even notice. I honestly have a more difficult time getting off chocolate, or mung bean-filled sesame balls, or a really good book than I do stopping opiates. Why? Because my functional, pleasant, medicated pain level would make the average person crumple to the ground, unable to so much as scream. Thanks, fibromyalgia and autoimmune disease. You’re great!
What I think of the FDA and people who sell or steal prescription drugs, and thus inspire the government to treat me like a criminal, is probably a felony to even type. (Nothing but sympathy for addicts, though. It’s a neurological and/or psychological condition that requires treatment, not punishment.)
(I’m full of anger and pain right now, btw. Long story I really don’t feel like explaining, but I’m gathering my strength for a storm.)
I am one of those fat people who would have done anything to lose weight. I’m 5’7″ and 240lbs. I was prescribed weight loss drugs which permanently damaged my body. I will suffer with the consequences and have episodes of poor health for the rest of my life because an arrogant, idiot, endocrinologist thought that losing weight was more important than testing for autoimmune disease. Yes, I have an autoimmune disease and it was left untreated for years because of my weight. I have permanent joint damage now but it wouldn’t be nearly as bad if the doctors ignored my fat and listened to me.
What even the fuck, right?
Have you spoken with an attorney? I doubt you’d be able to file for criminal negligence unless you can prove you informed the pitstain of your symptoms and they deliberately ignored you. However, depending on how long it’s been, you should be able to file civil charges if you haven’t already. Also, did you report Dr. B. O. Skidmark to your state or other relevant medical board? That you can do no matter the timeframe.
{{{{{GENTLE HUG}}}}} Autoimmune disease SUUUUUUUUUCKS. Given what happened to my nearly two decades of art training when my arthritis was diagnosed (on top of lifelong fibromyalgia), I completely sympathize with you. ❤
No. I had to sign a waiver that was too large to read at the time. I was 19 so I just signed the waiver trusting the doc in question. I have no way to prove he deliberately ignored me. So, that brings me to where I am now, nearly 15yrs after the fact.
I. Hate. Those. Things. But an interesting fact is that those waivers can’t stop a serious negligence or malpractice suit, and if you don’t want to do that (because they can take years, and they’ll eat everything you have and everyone you love), then you can still report him to the appropriate licensing board.
I’m completely serious. If you’re in the US, just Google your state medical board. They’ll investigate–hopefully the files are still there, or you have documentation–and if they find him guilty, the punishment could be anything from censure (think three strikes, or however many), to suspension of his license, to just taking it away forever. Kind of a pain in the ass to do, but worth the time. I reported some psychiatrists, and I need to report my old GI guy (who ignored gallbladder failure for, like, 5+ years because I didn’t have stones).
Think of it as, you took your puppy to be groomed, and got back a basket of angry cobras. You had a service with specific needs, and he blew it. (Can you tell I don’t take shit like this lightly? Comes from illegally being used as a lab rat as a child.)
Thanks for the advice. 🙂
No probs. 🙂 Good luck!
so what finally happened about your gallbladder?
I haven’t complained to the medical board about him. Perhaps I should.
I can’t stop laughing at “Dr. B. O. Skidmark”.
When I logged out of my email, I saw this: http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/artificial-sweeteners-linked-to-obesity-epidemic-scientists-say-1
Apparently artif. sweeteners are not as safe as they thought, and muck with the gut microbes and cause insulin resistance. Another junk down the drain. In the words of Dr. Malcolm Kendrick:
“A groundbreaking study has found that (insert name of drug here) does not kill people from the disease it is supposed to be preventing. Internationally famous opinion leader (insert name of opinion leader here) says this is a landmark study and strongly recommends that (insert name of drug here) should become the drug of choice for (insert name of disease here)”
from http://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2014/04/29/the-dog-that-did-not-bark/
If this is the pr they air— I wonder what the “negative” results they hid from the FDA are? Here they boldly state it damages heart valves and can cause a stroke—all things Fen-phen hid from the FDA. I wonder how many of those who dropped out actually dropped dead.
Also, I think any damage and/or deaths that have/are/will occur due to use of this shite will be blamed on the fat person’s
supposedly already bad health. Meanwhile I happened to read on a so-called social justice contemptible garbage about how there is no such thing as fat eliminationism– well if purposely giving drugs that kill fat people isn’t eliminationism then I don’t know what is. This is not about the straw argument ” last acceptable prejudice” garbage that bigots spew, but acknowledging a part of the systemic systems of oppression against fat people.
Thank you for your post on this Ragen. Every time I see this ad it is heartbreaking (literally) and infuriating.
A drug that causes weight loss and hallucinations? The creators of Belviq must have never seen Requiem for a Dream. Which makes me fear for those who take this pill, and hallucinate their fridge is trying to eat them or has sharp teeth, like Ellen Burstyn’s character in the film.
I’m a survivor. In April of 2015, I went to my doctor to ask for Belviq. He took my vital signs. He saw that my pressure was elevated. He then felt it was necessary to do an EKG. He put me on Belviq. In November of 2015, I was air lifted to a hospital for emergency surgery due to a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. I’m one of the lucky few that survived. I’m thinking about calling a lawyer.