12 Jun Real Talk | Phentermine
Dr. Brian Murphy discusses Phentermine.
What do primary care doctors say about Phentermine? Oh man, I’ve heard a lot of it. The one thing I’d always chuckle at is when they say Phentermine is just legalized speed. Okay doc, well first off it’s not speed. Speed’s an amphetamine. Anybody that’s taking amphetamine, go have them do a drug screen. It will come back negative. Phentermine is not an amphetamine, so quit calling it legalized speed because it is not. It is a matter of fact less like speed than Pseudofedrine is. So if you’re giving them Claritin D, Allegra D, Actifed, Pseudofed, Zyrtec D, guess what? You’re kind of giving them legalized speed because you can actually make speed out of that stuff. Cannot make an amphetamine out of Phentermine. Phentermine is a non-convertible reaction. Just ask the druggies, they don’t even steal when they break into the pharmacies. They just leave that stuff alone. They don’t even want that stuff. Non-addicting, non-amphetamine. Cannot make it an amphetamine. Now, they’re going to clear out the Actifed Pseudofed rack, okay, because you’ve been giving them that, okay, because that’s actually more like an amphetamine than Phentermine is. So you’re the one giving them legalized speed, not me. I don’t give amphetamines for weight loss. So please stop calling it. Now what is Phentermine? Is it a stimulant? Yes. Is caffeine a stimulant? Yes. Is Pseudofedrine a stimulant? Well, half the people say it is. The other half, no. When I take Pseudofedrine, kind of makes me drowsy. Other people get kind of wired up with it. Is amphetamine a stimulant? Yes. Okay, well, where do we give amphetamines to? Treatment of ADD and narcolepsy. Well, let’s skip the narcolepsy one. Let’s go straight to the treatment of Attention Deficit Disorder. An area that comes in under different seminars, you know, ADD, ADHD, whatever, but it’s still a treatment for attention deficit and we still use it. And you know what’s interesting about this? Because Phentermine gets a lot of bad press and you know, other physicians, they say it’s legalized speed. Let me ask you a question, Doc. Why are you giving it to children? You’ve been doing this for, I don’t know, 15 years of their lives. You’ve been giving amphetamines to children for treatment of their ADHD and their ADD and you’re worried about Phentermine? Aren’t you worried about the long-term side effects from giving a child amphetamines for 15 years? Is that thought not occurred to you? Well, it probably hasn’t. The reason why it shouldn’t bother you too much because there is none. Amphetamines, Phentermine, pseudoephedrine have been legal in the United States since 1959. So, I’d say the majority of people that started taking it back then, well, they’re no longer with us and they probably all died because their heart stops. But it wasn’t because of Phentermine. Now, they, people will say Phentermine gives me the shakes. No, it does not. It does not give you the shakes. Hypoglycemia gives you the shakes. Phentermine tends to block those quite a bit. So, it doesn’t give you the shakes. Does it keep you up at night? Yes, but sodas, coffee, espresso, tea, drink too much of that. It’s going to keep you up too. But these are all of a stimulant class. Other medications are out there. They’ll keep you up. You can take prednisone. That tends to keep me up all night long and wire me out. I can’t take prednisone. I’m not going to sleep. It’s not really a stimulant though. So, a lot of medications do have that. Does Phentermine block your hunger? Yes. It does a wonderful job. Do it. Can you become tolerant to it? Yes. It is truly a medication you need to work with. I have told all my patients this once. If I told them once, I’ve told them a thousand times. I’m sure a thousand forgot it. Take it as you need it. If you don’t need it, don’t take it. It is not a medicine there you have to take every day for the rest of your life. It is there to assist you. It is there to assist you with the pain of hunger. I do incredibly well with the pain of hunger. I don’t need to eat and drives my family crazy when I go to an event. I’m like, no, I’m not eating anything. Well, you got to be hungry. Well, not really. I just don’t feel like eating. You know, I’m not sick. So, quit worrying about me. I just don’t want to eat. I don’t want to eat because I don’t want to gain the weight because I don’t want to have to go to the gym and exercise this nonsense off. So, I’m pretty good about it. But if you can’t truly control that appetite, which is overwhelming at times, that’s where Phentermine comes in. Can it alter your moods? Yes, Phentermine can. You’re not going to read about it. There’s not a lot of literature that says that it is a mood altering substance, but it is. It is a somewhat of a pseudo neurotransmitter. It is not unlike dopamine. It’s not unlike serotonin. It’s not like norepinephrine, but it is mood altering. And about 10 to 15% of the people make some irritable. And it’s not an irritable thing from the hypoglycemia. They’re just irritable because they’re taking it. But you won’t find any of that information really published in the literature that much. There’s just really not out there, but trust me, it can. And it’s pretty impressive when it does. The interesting thing about it is you can actually be on it for seven, 10 years, and all of a sudden one day have an out of body experience. And I don’t know why I’m so irritated all the time. And it’s Phentermine. And what are some other medicines we can switch you to when that does occur that would really negate that? We don’t like to do it. They’re quite expensive at this time. They used to be cheap, but that’s another pharmaceutical conversation why the price on that went up. But no, Phentermine works pretty good for that.
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