WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Jan. 28 -- I'm Ed Susman, a contributing writer for MedPage Today, and I'm on trial to lose waist.
My trial, a clinical evaluation of an investigational weight-loss drug, will last for a year. During that year, I will be filing monthly reports to update MedPage Today readers on how I am doing.
But first a little history.
I'm almost as excited about being in the trial as my primary care physician who has been urging me to lose weight, even as I keep updating my ever-expanding wardrobe.
I don't know what my body mass index is so I'm not sure whether I am obese or morbidly obese.
I do know that if I lose 60 pounds I will still be overweight. I'm 6-foot-1½ and I weigh about 290. I'm 62 years old.
Excess weight is the main reason I signed up for a clinical trial that will test a new weight-loss drug against placebo. The yearlong, double-blind trial begins for me on Jan. 29, 2008, when I will be randomized into the active agent or placebo arm.
I've already undergone blood tests to determine my glucose levels and to make sure I'm not taking recreational drugs.
I've had an electrocardiogram, which found nothing suspicious. I underwent an echocardiography session that focused on how my heart valves functioned. I've been told that the investigational drug has been formulated to help individuals lose weight much the way fenfluramine and dexfenfluramine (fen-phen) worked -- except without the unwanted damage to heart valves.
In addition to the pill I'll be receiving, I will also be given regular diet and exercise tips and programming, including a device for checking my glucose levels and a pedometer to measure exercise.
My primary care physician has suggested that it is my weight that primarily contributes to my high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol -- all of which are being treated with a handful of medications each day.
Finally, if you see me at a medical meeting with a bag of potato chips in my hand, take them away without waiting for permission.