THE history of diet drugs is littered with disappointments. One product after another has been launched with great fanfare, only for their limited effectiveness – and sometimes severe side effects – to surface later on.
So it is a breath of fresh air to see an obesity treatment working better than expected. The treatment is not a drug, but a surgery called gastric bypass. Even though it forces people to drastically cut down on food, somehow they are not left ravenously hungry (see “Lessons in longevity”).
Now researchers are trying to develop drugs that blunt appetite in the same way without…
