According to the prescribing information, MEVACOR should not be used by anyone allergic to any of its components, people with liver disease, or by women who are pregnant, breast-feeding or likely to become pregnant. It is recommended that liver function tests be performed in all patients prior to daily use of MEVACOR 40 mg or more.
Muscle pain or weakness in patients taking prescription MEVACOR should be reported to a doctor because these could be signs of a serious side effect. Patients should tell their doctors about other medications they are taking in order to avoid possible drug interactions.
The most common adverse events reported with MEVACOR 20 mg taken once a day were diarrhea, flatulence, headache and myalgia.
Nicorette, NicoDerm CQ and alli trademarks are either owned by and/or licensed to GSK or associated companies. Xenical is a registered trademark of the Roche Group.
OTC MEVACOR would be marketed in the United States by GSK Consumer Healthcare, a GSK division with a well-established record of bringing informed access to OTC medicines.
In 1996, GSK Consumer Healthcare launched the first OTC nicotine replacement therapies, Nicorette and NicoDerm CQ, together with an innovative Committed Quitters behavioral support program. Through increased access to GSK’s smoking cessation brands and support, more than five million adults in the United States have quit smoking.
In 2004, GSK Consumer Healthcare acquired the OTC marketing rights to orlistat in the United States from the Roche Group (orlistat 120 mg is marketed as the prescription product Xenical(R) by Roche). In June 2007, GSK Consumer Healthcare launched alli in the United States, the first FDA-approved OTC weight control medicine. alli (orlistat 60mg) provides overweight adults a proven weight loss medicine and a comprehensive, tailored, behavioral support program.
The study authors, led by Marion J. Franz, a registered dietitian and health consultant with Minneapolis-based Nutrition Concepts, say that diet and exercise regime changes can work over time if people keep them up and have realistic expectations.
The studies analysed varied in their weight-loss tactics, in some, participants were given only general advice on cutting pounds, while in others, they received exercise advice or actual help with boosting their physical activity levels, but no help with diet.
In trials that focused on diet, some emphasized calorie reduction alone, and some used a combination of diet and exercise; in some participants were given meal replacements or weight-loss medications such as orlistat (Xenical) to enhance their diet changes.
Overall the team found diet-focused trials were most successful and advice-only and exercise-only studies produced “minimal” weight loss.
It was found that in those which used calorie-cutting alone and in those that added exercise, weight loss typically hit a plateau after six months, and participants on average gained a few pounds back.
The researchers say people should be prepared for their weight loss to taper off and the goal should be maintaining whatever success has been achieved.
Franz and her colleagues found that weight-loss medication appeared to help retaining the weight loss over the longer-term.
Franz and her colleagues say dieters often become frustrated because they think that if they maintain the low-calorie habit, the pounds should continue to fall off, but this does not appear to happen even when weight-loss interventions are continued.
Experts say exercise is important for cardiovascular health and general health and fitness and the key factors in weight loss are restricting the diet and promoting exercise.
They say however that it takes a lot of exercise to burn off excess calories - an average-weight person will burn about 100 calories walking a mile - so reducing calories is important in attempting to lose weight.
The weight-loss equation comes down to calories in versus calories out and it takes a deficit of 3,500 calories to lose a pound of fat; to lose just 1 pound a week a person will need to create an average 500-calorie deficit each day.