As the world’s communities achieve a certain degree of progress and advancement, their populations of obese and overweight also significantly increase, creating a great demand and huge expenditures for weight loss programs, including diet pills and weight loss pills. This year, America will probably spend around $100 billion in economic costs for its obese and overweight population of about 127 million (not counting the children); of this, the medical related cost could well surpass $80 billion. Similarly, with increasing levels of affluence, 27.3% of the adults in China are now overweight or obese.
One can therefore imagine the zealousness of today’s scientists to find a safe and lasting cure for this alarming malady. And the prospects are truly encouraging. Scientists are now working at the gene level, and have now isolated a gene in laboratory mice that when silenced results in a radical decrease in fat accumulation. Scientists have also met with positive results in experiments with the gene E4-ORF-1 from the Adenovirus 36, a virus now identified as responsible for some obesity cases.
Medical companies are also developing better lipase inhibitors, where the inhibitors are combined with polymers, which work to eradicate some of the inconvenient side effects traditionally associated with lipase-inhibiting drugs. With these breakthroughs, the world may soon have safe, convenient and effective diet pills and weight loss pills with long-term - even permanent – benefits.