THE BASICS OF THE CONTRAVE

Contrave relies on a specially-formulated pill to drive weight loss. Its creators also claim that it’s the most prescribed medication in the weight loss industry. While we cannot find anything to back that up, we do know that the drug has two main components: an appetite suprressant and an antidepressant. Instead of burning fat, like many diet pills, Contrave targets what it believes to be the true culprit: overeating.

Since it does not target your weight, Contrave only works when accompanied by a healthy diet and regular exercise. The company is very clear about its ability to affect weight loss unaided. As this drug is only available by prescription, you cannot access it without a doctor’s recommendations. However, most doctors only prescribe this drug to individuals who suffer from an obesity-related illness or those have BMIs of 27 or greater.

CONTRAVE INGREDIENTS AND SIDE EFFECTS

While the FDA approved this pill for human use, it still has some questionable ingredients:

• Naltrexone Hydrochloride: Doctors prescribe this drug to combat opioid dependence. This ingredient has plenty of potential side effects: nausea, anxiety, insomnia, muscle aches, suicidal thoughts, bone pain, hallucinations, and hives. Drugs.com also believes it to be strongly linked to hepatic damage.
• Bupropion Hydrochloride: Doctors prescribe this drug to treat anxiety, depression, and addiction. By changing brain chemistry, it ramps up endorphin production. Side effects include restlessness, insomnia, vomiting, nausea, sweating, headaches, high blood pressure, erratic behavior, and erratic memory loss. When coupled with a diet, however, this ingredient is an effective weight loss aid
• Microcrystalline Cellulose: Refined wood pulp used in food and pharmaceuticals as an anti-caking agent or stabilizer.
• Hydroxypropyl Cellulose: A polymer used as a coating agent throughout the pharmaceutical industry.
• L-Cysteine Hydrochloride: An uncommon form of L-Cysteine used as an antioxidant. It’s typically synthesized from human hair or goose feathers.
• Crospovidone: An inactive ingredient that aids in drug absorption.
• Magnesium Stearate: A soap used as a release agent or lubricant in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries.
• Hypromellose: A semi-synthetic polymer used as an alternative to animal gelatin. Most commonly seen in eye drops.
• Edetate Disodium: A substance used to remove heavy metals from the blood. It’s typically prescribed during medical emergencies.
• Colloidal Silicon Dioxide: A substance better known as sand. Silicon dioxide features heavily in pills as an absorbent or anti-caking agent.
• Aluminum Lake: Science.Ca describes this substance as “a color additive, typically blue.”

Due to the depressant effect of some ingredients, taking this pill can increase your risk of suicide. So, if you take Contrave, consult your doctors about any mood changes.

THE OWNERS OF CONTRAVE

Takeda Pharmaceuticals markets and manufactures Contrave. You can reach them by:

Phone: (877) 825-3327

Snail Mail: One Takeda Parkway, Deerfield, Illinois 60015

CUSTOMER REVIEWS OF CONTRAVE:

You can find dozens of reviews online. Here are some snippets from customer reviews:

“”Nightmare drug! I felt so sick. I took this for a week and the side effects were so horrific I threw it in the trash.”

“Been taking Contrave for 3 weeks. Excellent experience so far. Down about 12 lbs in 5 weeks with the last 3 of those weeks on Contrave.”

“Been taking Contrave for 3 weeks. Excellent experience so far. Down about 12 lbs in 5 weeks with the last 3 of those weeks on Contrave.”

“”I have been on Contrave for 1 month and have not lost an ounce. I am taking it two times a day. ”

While some customers lauded this pill for its weight loss effects, many others criticized the pill for leaving them anxious and fatigued. Furthermore, these side effects were severe enough to leave some patients bedridden. Drugs.com compiled a list of customer ratings and found the average score to be 6.7 out of 10.

The only thing consistent about Contrave is its inconsistency. In fact, a minority of customers reported that this “weight loss” pill led to weight gain. As it’s offered on a prescription basis, you cannot receive a refund for this product.

ADVANTAGES OF THE CONTRAVE DIET PILL

Common prescription or not, there are only two advantages to the Contrave diet plan:

• It’s evaluated and approved by the FDA.
• Many of the pill’s ingredients are proven staples of the diet industry.

DISADVANTAGES OF THE CONTRAVE DIET PILL

The disadvantages of Contrave are numerous:

• Only two of its ingredients are thought to contribute to the pill’s effectiveness.
• Taking this pill leads to a wide variety of side effects such as irregular heartbeat, suicidal thoughts, insomnia, and vomiting.
• The company which created this pill, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, admits that they know little about what makes this pill work.
• The pill requires you to limit your diet to nutritional foods and increase your baseline activity levels. Therefore, you could achieve weight loss without the use of the pill itself.
• You cannot use Contrave sans prescription. Furthermore, doctors only prescribe this pill to those fitting a very limited profile.
• This pill costs between $55 and $200 per month. For those without insurance, prices may be even higher. This is quite expensive for a pill that known for producing inconsistent results.
• Takeda Pharmaceuticals features in multiple major lawsuits. The company has a reputation for developing dangerous, ineffective medications. One notable suit ended with a $2.37 billion-dollar settlement for bladder cancer sufferers. Another resulted in the company paying a steep fine after investigators discovered that it purposely obscured the cancer risk in one of their drugs.

DOES CONTRAVE WORK?

Before picking up Contrave, you need to look at customer reviews and side effects.

Not only does this drug produce serious side effects, it’s also not understood by its creators. As this pill only works in conjunction with diet and exercise, it’s difficult to determine the effectiveness of this pill. A series of recent lawsuits against Takeda also make it difficult to trust this product. Even though it requires a prescription, and asks you to make many sacrifices, there’s no proof that this pill produces notable weight loss effects.

With all this in mind, DIETSiTRIED cannot recommend Contrave as an effective weight-loss strategy.