Xenical (Orlistat)

Xenical is a kind of drug that is prescribed to people that want to shed weight and keep it at the lost level. The drug is available in capsules and you need to take it together with the meal that contains fat. This medicine stops the function of enzymes that are used to decompose fat and so, it reduces the absorption of fat by your body. Pain in stomach, gas, and need to bowel are the side effects of this medicine.

Xenical reduces from your diet the inhibition of fat. Lipases are enzymes that are situated in intestine and stomach. They decompose fat into little molecules that are later emitted from digestive tube. Xenical is fastened to lipases stopping their function and reduces the absorption of fat. The drug can not affect on proteins or carbohydrates.

It is proved that people slim down after taking Xenical. Approximately 12.4 lb were lost during 6 months of diets and taking the medicine. When people that just were on a diet, lost 6.2 lbs. During of year taking medication and dieting, people are loosing 13.4 pounds, when those that didn't take a medicine but were dieting, lost 5.8 lbs. People, who were taking it during a year, had decreasing of cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar, decrease of LDL cholesterol, when people that didn't take the medicine had an increasing of these factors.

It was discovered during studies that Xenical made better some actions of control of diabetes, like A1c hemoglobin and fasting glucose. Lots of patients could decrease and interrupt using of their diabetes drugs. The researches had also showed that the medicine can help people who have obesity to prevent type 2 diabetes.


During some studies it was discovered, that Xenical can help to keep off weight if it was lost. 52% of patients that didn't take the medicine regained their weight that they had lost during some time, and only 26% of people that were taking the drug, had gained it.


Xenical (orlistat) is a drug prescribed to patients that want to lose weight. A frugal and developing loss of weight is observed when it goes in combination with low-calories diet.

People can take Xenical if their body mass index (BMI) is 30 or more, or it is 27 or more, or if there are any of the following risk factors:

• Diabetes
• High cholesterol
• High blood pressure

Xenical had received an approval for giving aid to people that want to be slim and keep it stay the same. It also has an approval to help people that had obtained the results and they want to keep them on the same level.

Kids that are 12 years old or older are allowed to take Xenical to cure overweight. Your children's pediatrician should know about positive and negative sides of this medicine. Some vitamins can be not absorbed in total when taking Xenical. This is very important for raising children.

Xenical can be proposed by your doctor as a medicine for curing something else, except weight loss. Right now, Xenical was not approved universally for off-label use.


One capsule of 120 mg Xenical is recommended for adults and children that are 12 or older if they want to lose weight and maintenance it after. The medicine should be taken three times a day with fat-contained meal. To increase effectiveness of medicine, you need to take it with meal or up to one hour after nourishing.

You need to skip taking Xenical if you didn't take meal or took a fat-low meal. It is necessary that the drug is taken according to the suitable and right diet plan.

Some vitamins from the diet could probably be less absorbed during Xenical medication. So we recommend you to take a multivitamin one time a day, after or before two hours you took Xenical. Some people find that the best time for taking multivitamin is during a bedtime.

You should consider the following rules during Xenical treatment:

• The dose of Xenical is in capsules. You need to take the drug three times a day with each meal that contains fat.
• The food that you take with Xenical should be fat-low and with small amount of calories. Side effects from Xenical will increase if you eat food with fat. The content of fat that you take during your diet should be decreased on 30 percent.
• Xenical dose should be skipped if you didn't eat or you have eaten a food that doesn't have any fat.
• If you think that your dose of Xenical is not appropriate, you should consult your nurse, pharmacist or a doctor.
• Your healthcare could tell you what to do if you want that medication gives you benefits.

When you begin taking orlistat, you should tell your doctor if you have any allergies to the drug, or if you are allergic to something else. There are some inactive ingredients in the medication that can cause problems to your health or give allergies. The pharmacist from your drug store should know all the details.

Your maintenance of blood sugar can be improved more during weight loss, if you are diabetic. You need to control your blood sugar on a regular basis and report the results to your doctor. May be you will need to adjust your drugs and diet.

Your doctor needs to know the medical history. You should pay more attention if you have problems with kidney, like calcium oxalate stones in kidney, hyperoxaluria or other. It is important to tell if you have any eating disorders or hypothyroidism.

At some medical condition it is forbidden to take the medicine. If you have any problems with stomach and digesting food, like chronic malabsorption syndrome or gall bladder problems, like cholestasis.

You shouldn't take this medicine if you are pregnant. Your doctor will give you more details. The studies didn't show if it goes to breast milk. Before you breast feed your child, talk to a doctor.


An urgent medical help is needed if you noticed some allergic reaction. It can be swallen tongue, throat or lips; if it is difficult to breath; urticaria.

If you want to vomit, you experience nausea, you have a strong pain in your stomach that is going to your back or you noticed a quick heartbeat, you should call your doctor right away and stop taking this medicine. This could mean that you are starting to have pancreatitis.

The common side effects from taking orlistat can be the following from the list given below. Orlistat is working this way by causing these symptoms and it can mean that the medicine works in a right way. They can happen usually to people taking Xenical and will go away during your treatment:

• fatty or greasy excretions;
• oil of brown or orange color in your excretions;
• pain in stomach, diarrhea, pain in the rectum, vomiting or nausea;
• spots on your underwear;
• oily emissions, gases with emissions.;
• not able to maintain bowel, uncontrolled excretions or crucial need to go to the toilet;
• an often wish to go to the toilet;
• a desire to scratch, dark colored urine, excretions, yellow eyes and skin, appetite loss, adynamia

There are some other orlistat side effects:

• pain in head and back;
• dither, pharyngalgia, high body temperature;
• pain in teeth gums;
• coughing, runny and stuffy nose;
• mild eruption on skin.

We listed not all the side effects that can happen to you. Your doctor will give you some advises on what to do if you have any of these.


The ingredient blocks pancreatic and gastric lipases. They are the enzymes that crash triglycerides in alvine. When the activity of enzyme is stopped, triglycerides that appear from your dieting can not be hydrolyzed into fatty acids that can be absorbed. They just go out with excretions. But systematically the organism absorbs small amounts of orlistat. After you took a pill for the fist time, the local lipase is inhibited in the limits of the digestive tract. First trace of these discharges is by excrements.

The dietary fat is prevented to be absorbed only by 30% if you take a 120 mg pill before food intake three times a day. As for the nonprescription 60 mg dose, it is only 25%. It will not give any effect if you take a higher dose.


It became very popular in the late 20s to use Gull's disease medication for loosing weight. Amphetamine started to be popular in 30s to use for loosing weight. They increased activity, and reduced appetite by pressing people to act more energetic and move loosing calories. When the time was passing by, and the 60s began, people started to mix these stimulants with laxatives, barbiturates and thyroid hormones. It was proved that these pills help to lose weight but at the same time, they bring difficult risks for health and life.

FDA approved Phentermine in 1959. Nowadays on the market it is still the main medicine for weight loss. As the time passed, the new tablets for diet started to appear on the market.

But in February 2007, Orlistat, Xenical's active ingredient was approved by FDA as a drug sold by prescription for treating obesity. The original formulation of Orlistat was produced by ClaxoSmithKline with a brand Alli.

Generic Xenical is an over the counter drug that you can by in the internet. Orlistat was the primary sanctioned by U.S. government medicine that could be sold with no prescription.

Generic Xenical is world-wide popular on the market of diet pills, even if it is some years old. Most of the loosing weight tablets are restraining your appetite, but Orlistat is a blocker of lipase. It stops the digestion of fats that you eat, so they are not absorbed by your body.


GlaxoSmithKline is a manufacturer of Xenical. Xenical does not have any generic versions in America.

December, 2009 was the due date of Xenical's first patent. This explains the non existence of generic version of the medicine. We are assuming that the other patents for Xenical protect the drug from the generic competition, because some of them are due to July 2018.

With a huge number of patents that are listed, it becomes difficult to understand which from the list of patents protects the drug from generic competition. Still no one can make a forecast of the date when there will be a generic version of the medicine.

Orsoten is an orlistat that is available in Russia. In India, they produce generic Orlistat. The brands are Orlica, Olistat, Reeshape and Obelit.


Xenical has a lot of negative drug interactions including such commonly prescribed drugs as Warfarin, meds for treating diabetes of I and II type and Cyclosporine. All these medical preparations taken along with Xenical weight reducing tablets may cause the following consequences - increasing risk of severe allergic/adverse reactions and decreased Xenical efficacy. In order to prevent such scenario talk to your healthcare provider prior to using Xenical with any medications, especially for the first time. It will be recommended to adjust a dosage of Xenical or the second simultaneously used medication or to cease taking this drug.

• Amiodarone (Cordarone)
• Cyclosporine (Gengraf, Sandimmune, Neoral)
• Diabetes medications
• Thyroid medications:
  • Liothyronine (Cytomel)
  • Liotrix (Thyrolar)
  • Levothyroxine (Levoxyl, Levothroid, Tirosint, Synthroid, Unithroid)
  • Thyroid (Armour Thyroid, Nature-Throid)
• Vitamins
• Warfarin (Jantoven, Coumadin)

Cyclosporine
If you decide to use Xenical along with Cyclosporine, you are to expect decreasing efficacy of the last one. Usually it is better to wait at least 3 hours after Xenical intake before using Cyclosporine.

Amiodarone
Amiodarone taken at the same time with Xenical may turn to provide less effective due to the interference of Xenical with its absorption from digestive tract. Do not use these medications simultaneously.

Thyroid preparations
Hypothyroidism (a disorder when a body has a low thyroid function) can occur when Xenical is taken with any thyroid medications used to prevent this disorder. You are to adjust the dosage of a thyroid drug if you need to use it along with Xenical pills. Make sure you take a thyroid drug at least four hours after the intake of Xenical.

Use of antihyperglycemic drugs
Xenical is commonly prescribed for patients who need to lose weight, including people diagnosed with diabetes. Lower doses of diabetes drugs have to be assigned in a case of a simultaneous intake of Xenical with any antihyperglycemic meds. After cessation of Xenical use, you are to start taking the doses of diabetes drugs prescribed before weight loss.

Warfarin
Consult a doctor before taking Xenical with any medication containing Warfarin. Since the simultaneous intake of average doses of these drugs may cause the decreased efficacy of Warfarin and eventually may lead to vitamin K deficiency.

Vitamins
If you are to be on a diet rich in vitamins and at the same time you want to cut off weight with Xenical, keep in mind that the use of this drug may lead to significant vitamin deficiency. Especially this fact is referred to liposoluble vitamins A, D, K, E and beta-carotene. If you need to take multivitamins, use them once per day at bedtime (make sure the interval after the use of Xenical before multivitamins is at least 2 hours).

Conclusion

Bear in mind that Xenical may also interact with negative consequences along with other drugs which were not listed above. It is better to consult a therapist prior to using any new drugs with Xenical pills simultaneously.