Reductil and Xenical can actually end up not only saving lives but even money

Professor Michael Lean of Glasgow University has warned that doctors in Scotland are handing out prescriptions for the weight loss drugs Reductil and Xenical without giving the people receiving them clear and concise advice about how to use them. His statements come in light of the fact that 110,000 individual prescriptions were issued last year for weight loss drugs which is 25 times more than it was a decade ago.

The huge increase in the use of weight loss medication in Scotland has much to do with the chronic obesity problem there and many people believe that the Scottish Executive has not done enough to curb the problem. Lawmakers in both Scotland and England have been criticised for failing to deal with food manufacturing companies who continue to churn out extremely high calorie unhealthy food products.

Professor Lean said that while the use of weight loss drugs signified an increase in weight problems all over Scotland he said that they were still a “price worth paying” because they prevented more serious and financially costly health conditions from developing later in life. He did however stress that along with weight loss medication people with weight problems should be told that it was imperative for them to change their lifestyles and eating habits if they were serious about long term weight loss.

Scotland is only just behind the United States of America when it comes to the statistics for overweight people in the developed world. Around a quarter of the adult Scottish population have a BMI of 30 plus classifying them as obese.

The problem of obesity in Scotland is not just a health problem but also a huge financial one now. The number of individuals who end up in hospital due to obesity related illness has shot up in the last decade putting a huge drain on the Scottish health budget. The use of weight loss medication such as Reductil and Xenical therefore can actually end up not only saving lives but even money in the long term.

Another Scottish doctor Dr Ewan Bellin along with Professor Lean also commented that the Reductil and Xenical weight loss medications were “safer than aspirin” and also “highly effective”.