Dr. Ben Krentzman on Diet Drugs and Weight Control - Info on Diet Drugs and Weight Control

Written by HealthyPlace.com Staff Writer

Bob M: Many people, as you mentioned before, who diet, complain that keeping the pounds off is very tough. What is the correlation between taking the drugs and the need to exercise?

Dr Krentzman: There is very little use in moderate exercise. Since I am the only person who is trying the medicines without diet or exercise, and it works, this is an unstudied field. Moderate exercise can lower weight 5 or 10 pounds with diet. Then you must do this all the rest of your life.

Bob M: We are taking audience questions for Dr. Krentzman. If you're just joining us, Dr. Krentzman is an M.D. He's a nationally known weight control specialist and has written articles for professional journals as well as being interviewed as an expert on the subject by Time Magazine and I believe, he also recently appeared on the CBS newsmagazine, 48 hours, on their show on obesity.

Tina: Do your patients change their diet and exercise habits in addition to taking the drugs? Do they continue these changes after their weight loss?

Dr Krentzman: My patients sometimes change these habits. I ask all my patients to NOT DIET for the first 8 weeks. In this way I can tell if the medicines are working. If they diet, they WILL lose weight. But I won't be able to tell if the medicine helped. I tell my patients that exercise is good and very healthy and will help them to live longer.

Bob M: What about diet products like Herbal-life and herbs, etc. How effective are they?

Dr Krentzman: No better than dieting without them.

Bob M: To change the subject slightly for a moment. There have been articles recently tying obesity to depression. Can you address that?

Dr Krentzman: I have not seen any studies which show that the obese get more depressed than the thin. One big study by Stunkard gave psychological tests to 300 people before surgery and 600 random people (thin and fat). A year later they retested them and found both groups had the same amount of problems. The surgical group had lost an average of 60 pounds. Divorce, jobs, hospital admissions, illness, mental testing, all were the same. Obese people are not crazy. They are just obese.

Bob M: No. I am not saying they are crazy...and I don't consider being depressed as crazy, but I have heard overweight people say they are depressed and seen stories relating the two.

Bob M: Here's an audience comment on that subject...while we're waiting for Dr. Krentzman's reply.

Diana: Some depressives overeat while depressed, so it wouldn't be surprising.

River: Overweight people seem more unhappy, if only because we have such an image-conscious culture. It is depressing to be fat.

Dr Krentzman: I agree with River. Our culture has a lot of bigotry built in about being fat. I am saying that obese people get depressed with the same frequency as the nondepressed.

Geonurse: The Florida Board of Medicine just banned fen-phen for 90 days. What is your view on that?

Dr Krentzman: Yes, Geonurse, I believe that they have been pressured to do this and to allow those people succeeding in keeping weight off to go ahead and die. For the very overweight that is the alternative. Those 300,000 deaths per year loom large against the lack of the expected Primary Pulmonary Hypertension death increases. Today, I called a friend who is a pulmonary specialize in a 6 man group. He said he had never seen a case of PPH in his 25 years and neither had any of his partners. It is so rare, he never expects to see one. None of his literature tell of an increase in the number above normal. Where are all those dead bodies the media lead us to expect?

Bob M: Is there a different reason for obesity in men vs. women and are diet results different when it comes to the two groups?

Dr Krentzman: Not in my program. We have 60% success in both men and women. I cannot yet answer about reasons because there has been too little research in this area. Until recently obesity was a stigmatized condition and no real money or research was done. This is why my program of not dieting is a landmark. Strangely enough, no one else has done it.

Bob M: I just noticed that Dr. Krentzman has been with us for nearly 2 hours. So we are going to call it a night. I want to thank you Dr. for joining us tonight. There are many more questions the audience has, so I'm hoping that sometime in the next 2 mos. we can have you return. For more info you can visit Dr. Krentzman's very complete obesity/weight control website.

Bob M: Good Night.

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