A weight loss drug is being hailed as a "holy grail" pill because testing has shown that it does not increase a patient's risk of heart disease.

The drug Lorcaserin is marketed under the name Belviq in the US, but pharmaceutical regulators in the UK and Australia have yet to approve it.  That might change if there's a growing demand for the drug.

The drug is an appetite suppressant that is taken twice a day, stimulating brain chemicals to induce a feeling of fullness.  The US study involved 12,000 patients who were either overweight or obese.  Half were given a placebo, but the half who took Belviq lost an average of four kilograms in 40 months.  Doctors performed tests for heart valve damage on 3,270 participants in the Belviq group, but they identified no significant problems.

"Among overweight or obese patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease or multiple cardiovascular risk factors who were being treated with dietary and exercise interventions, those who received lorcaserin had better long-term rates of weight loss than those who received placebo at a median follow-up of 3.3 years," wrote researchers in the study published by the New England Journal of Medicine.  "The higher weight-loss rates were achieved without an accompanying increase in the risk of cardiovascular events." source: https://www.uldiving.com/ live casino australia

But even though some in the UK are calling it a "holy grail" of diet pills, it doesn't replace dieting and exercise.

"I think it is the thing everybody has been looking for," said Tam Fry, of Britain’s National Obesity Forum.  "I think there will be several holy grails, but this is a holy grail and one which has been certainly at the back of the mind of a lot of specialists for a long time.  But all of the other things apply - lifestyle change has got to be root and branch part of this."