Well, we seem to have missed something for a change. Apparently a new slimming pill was launched over the counter a couple of weeks ago and it sold out within 3 days – all 50,000 packs flew off the shelves.
The “new” treatment is called Capsiplex and it contains the active ingredient Methylcellulose. Methylcellulose has been available for a number of years and it is used to treat diarrhoea and constipation. You might think that it is a bit weird that the same medication is used to treat two diametrically opposed conditions but it will have different effects based on the amount of water that you drink. Methylcellulose has also been prescribed to treat obesity by acting as an appetite suppressant. We are not entirely sure how effective this has been but we are looking into offering this to patients of The Online Clinic. If we can get some reliable clinical data that would give us confidence that the treatment works then we will seriously consider offering as a treatment option.
At the current time only Xenical (orlistat) is available to prescribe as a diet pill and only Appesat is offered as an appetite suppressant. We were slightly sceptical about Appesat if the truth be known but we decided to give some patients the option of trying it and it seems to have been a success, with a number of repeat orders coming through already and we have only been offering it for two weeks.