John Morton, MD
John Morton, MD, director of bariatric surgery and surgical quality, Stanford Hospital & Clinics, and associate professor of surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, California.
I recently reported on the two newly FDA-approved weight-loss drugs, Belviq and Qysmia, which have been getting lots of buzz.
Know what’s not getting lots of buzz, though?
The growing evidence that many prescription medications include weight gain as a side effect.
There’s even a special name for the plumpness caused by medicine—iatrogenic fat.
Have you been gaining weight? Before you ask your doctor about which medications to start taking (such as Belviq and Qysmia), ask your doctor about which drugs to stop taking. There often are substitute drugs and natural treatments that don’t include weight gain as a side effect. I’ll get you started with a list of some of the drugs that could be making you fat…
Some experts suspect that our growing obesity problem in the US could be due, at least in part, to the fact that laws changed in the 1990s, allowing pharmaceutical companies to market drugs directly to consumers through TV and print ads.
You’re probably wondering whether one of your drugs is fueling your battle with the bulge. To find out which medications are the worst offenders, I called John Morton, MD, director of bariatric surgery at Stanford Hospital & Clinics in California, an expert on weight gain and weight loss who has been outspoken about the iatrogenic nature of some people’s weight gain.
Though the amount of iatrogenic weight gain varies depending on the drug and how long you’re on it, it’s generally unremitting and progressing, Dr. Morton said. So before you start any new medication, ask your doctor four critical questions…
Will this make me gain weight?
How long will I need to take this?
Are there any natural treatments that I can try instead that won’t make me gain weight?
Are there any other types of medication that I can take instead that won’t make me gain weight?
If you have to be on a drug that may lead to weight gain, make an effort to eat healthier foods and exercise—more than you normally would if you weren’t on the drug. Then you can cancel out the side effect and potentially stop the problem before it starts!