Contrave Diet Pills Can Be Quite Harmful to Your Health

The FDA has approved three new prescription diet pills since 2012: Belviq, Qsymia and Contrave.  All three are designed to curb the appetite to help keep people from overeating.  That being said, none of them is intended to be used as a stand-alone weight loss solution.  All must be used in conjunction with a regular diet and exercise plan in order to get the results you are looking for.

Beyond this general warning, there is reason for concern with the use of Contrave diet pills, as the drug combines two very powerful medications that can have serious side effects.  Contrave combines bupropion (Wellbutrin), a prescription antidepressant, and naltrexone, an anti-addiction drug. 

While the two drugs are known to work in combination to curb appetite by blocking certain receptors in the brain, their exact function in terms of Contrave can not be fully explained by medical experts.

Is Contrave Proven Effective?

While weight loss figures vary from individual to individual, in general people who take Contrave have been found to lose 5% to 10% of their starting weight.  While this may not sound overwhelming, it can make a big difference for those who are considered obese, where losing just 10% of their starting weight can drop them into the overweight category. 

Likewise, those categorized as overweight but not obese, could drop into a healthy weight range by losing 10% of their starting weight.

This would seem to indicate that there is some level of success with Contrave, however when you consider the fact that this weight loss is only possible in conjunction with a diet and exercise plan, the overall effectiveness of the drug is questionable.  It can give those struggling with simple diet and exercise routines an extra push, but is that truly worth the possible risks?

You can very likely lose 5% of your weight with diet and exercise alone as long as you stick with it.

What about the side effects?

While the most common side effect of Contrave is nausea, other possible side effects can include constipation, headache, vomiting, dizziness and insomnia.   There were other side effects reported to varying levels, depending on the individual.

Far more troubling, however, are the known adverse effects of the antidepressant and anti-addiction drugs that make up Contrave.  These can include suicidal thoughts, neuropsychiatric symptoms, seizures, increase in blood pressure and heart rate, allergic reactions and angle-closure glaucoma.

While these side effects may not occur in all individuals, the potential severity of these symptoms only increases the risks involved with taking Contrave.  If you are considering taking Contrave, you should consult your doctor and only take it under his/her specific instructions.

Any drug for weight loss should be an absolute last resort, especially if you are merely overweight and not obese.  The potential risks simply outweigh the rewards in our opinion.

So what's the bottom line here?

Because it is a relatively new medication, there is still much we don’t know about Contrave diet pills.  As with so many medications, especially the newer ones, the long term effects are unknown.

Experts advise that you should not be taking these medications for extended periods of time, which is a good thing, but keep in mind once you stop taking the drug the effects are gone as well.  So you might be subjecting yourself to months of harm only to gain back the weight you loss while on the medication, if not more.

The bottom line with this drug, as with any prescription weight loss medication, is that every possible caution should be taken.  It is understandable that you want to lose weight, but you shouldn’t be willing to do so at the risk of your health.   There are better, safer ways to drop those excess pounds without introducing such potentially dangerous chemicals into your body.

Before resorting to weight loss pills, make sure you exhaust any and all other possibilities, including a healthy diet and exercise plan and all-natural weight loss products such as green coffee extract, garcinia cambogia and other natural herbs that can help you shed the pounds without the use of synthetic chemicals.

If you absolutely have to be on a medication like Contrave, then by all means do it.  But make sure you are aware of all of your options before you take the potentially dangerous plunge into the world of prescription diet pills.

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