Pros and Cons of Weight Loss Pills

In everyday life people determine their actions by weighing the good and the bad of that action in order to come to a decision on whether or not to go through with it.  Whether or not to consume diet pills in order to lose weight is one of these situations where people who want to lose weight must see the pros and cons to make sure it something they want to do.

 Taking diet pills when you don’t have enough time in the day to exercise is a much more convenient way to lose weight.  They can also be the starting point in a person’s diet and since, for many of them, you don’t need to have a prescription to buy them.  Without a prescription you also save money from not having to visit the doctor.

There are also downsides to taking diet pills.  Diet pills can’t be used for everyone and studies have shown that people with the most success in taking diet pills are those whose BMI is over 30 and also people with a BMI over 27 who have health problems related to their weight.   Anything below that, including people who only want to lose a few pounds, most likely won’t get very good results.  Another thing is that many diet pills on the market work by curbing your appetite, which sounds like a good thing since a lower intake of calories leads to weight loss, but in doing so it also slows down the body’s metabolism.  When the metabolism slows down it makes it harder for a person to lose weight.  The use of diet pills can also often result in a wide range of unwanted side effects.  The side effects vary from smaller things like nausea, dizziness, and an upset stomach to serious health risks including an increase in the possibility of stroke, high blood pressure, seizures, increased heart rate, heart attack and even death.  These more considerable health risks are known to be seen in diet pills containing the ingredient Ephedra, also known as Ephedrine.  Although this is the ingredient that is mainly spoken of relating to harmful diet pills, users should beware as it is not the only ingredient known to cause severe health complications.

 http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/8475/1/Diet-Pills-The-Pros-and-Cons-of-Diet-Pills.html

 http://libproxy.uta.edu:2067/ehost/pdf?vid=7&hid=111&sid=dbd84634-2450-404c-ba17-6e1900468108%40sessionmgr112

Perfect Body Image

A magical pill that will get rid of our bulges and extra love handles; without exercising and sweat. Doesn’t that sound like a miracle drug that would send anyone out to the stores to make their first purchases. Well, millions of Americans have at least once in their life probably tried a weight loss product. How can we avoid everyday advertisements that taunt us with beautiful bodies and six pack abs. Our fellow Americans can only also envision their bodies and abs replicating those advertised. All they have to do is pop those wonderful easy pills into their bodies and then poof within weeks we will see these wonderful results. Let’s be realistic!

Come’ on if there was really such miracle pill we would all be a size zero with flat washboard abs. But…. the plain truth of the matter is that America is one of the top countries with obesity problems. Our country lives lavishly on our wonderful variety of fast food choices and convenient drive thru services, endowing us with pot-bellies and double chins. So, after consumption we go home sit by the TV and watch this beautiful women or man tell us that we can also look like them, so…. what do we end up doing? We pick up the phone and we call them to rush us a bottle of whatever they are taking.

Many of these so called “miracle pills” have side effects, drug interactions, and unknown reactions that could cause our bodies to become very sick or damage our vital organs. Majority of weight loss medications are not FDA approved and are not regulated by FDA. The FDA will only post updated information on drugs that are suspected to have very adverse side effects and medication that are not recommended. The FDA doesn’t acknowledge herbal and weight medications that are scams and misleading to the public. As consumers it is best to eat balance diets, exercise, and live healthy lifestyles. Individuals that decide that they need to resort to weight loss medications should evaluate the ingredients and make sure they know exactly what they are getting themselves into.

FDA Alert: Brazilian Diet Pills

January 13, 2006,  the  FDA warned consumers not to use two unapproved drug products that are being marketed as dietary supplements for weight loss. Emagrece Sim Dietary Supplement, also known as Brazilian Diet Pill, and Herbathin Dietary Supplement. This drug contains several active ingredients, including controlled substances, found in prescription drugs that could lead to serious side effects or injury. This drugs also contains Fenproporex, a simulant that is not approved for marketing in the U.S. The FDA is advising consumers to not use the Emagrece Sim and Herbathin products and to return them to the suppliers. Emagrece Sim and Herbathin are sold in packages containing one bottle of Formula 1 capsules and one bottle of Formula 2 capsules. Both products are available in five levels (Levels 1-5), and the product labels instruct consumers to begin with Level 1 and continue to the higher levels until they lose the desired amount of weight. Emagrece Sim also has a “Weight Stabilizer” package containing Formula 1 and Formula 2 capsules, to be used after the desired weight loss has been achieved.

Unfortunately, when reviewing the article on the FDA website I did a search on the Brazilian Diet Pill. My findings were very surprising that such a drug would still be sold on the market. I have linked the website that is still selling the product on our links, so if anyone wants to check out their advertisement should really review the page. When looking further into the dietary supplement I realized that some individual would feel that this drug is a miracle pill, because of its weight loss results. The sad problem with the drug is that weight loss benefits don’t outweigh a consumer’s health. Brazilian Diet pills promise great weight loss in a short time span. The real truth is great weight loss with the risk of major health problems from the ingredients. Long-term and short-tem medical complications have not been fully tested and researched, but with ingredients listed it is less beneficial for consumers to take these dietary supplements.

Read more:

http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/2006/ucm108578.htm

http://weight-loss-methods.suite101.com/article.cfm/brazilian_diet_pills#ixzz0UmC1QVRr

FDA’s Weight Loss Product Consumer Alert

On March 20, 2009, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded its nationwide alert about tainted weight loss products containing undeclared, active pharmaceutical ingredients. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has listed more than 70 weight loss products that might be harmful if taken. The FDA states that these drugs could pose a great risk to public health because they contain undeclared ingredients and, in some cases, prescription drugs in amounts that greatly exceed maximum recommended dosages.

Though many products claim to be “natural” or to contain only “herbal” ingredients, but they actually contain potentially harmful ingredients  not listed on the product label or advertisement. Some of the potential risks to consumers are high blood pressure, seizures, rapid heartbeat, palpitations, heart attack.

UNDECLARED ACTIVE PHARMACEUTICAL INGREDIENTS FOUND

1) Sibutramine, a prescription-only appetite suppressant that is also a controlled substance. It was found in many of these products at high levels that can increase the incidence and severity of the listed health risks.

2) Fenproporex, controlled substance no approved for marketing in the U.S. Also, causes arrhythmia (a disorder of your heart rate or rhythm) and possible sudden death.

3) Fluoxetine, a prescription-only antidepressant.

4) Bumetanide and furosemide, potent diuretics( available only with prescription)

5) Cetilistat, an experimental obesity drug not approved for marketing in U.S.

6) Phenytonin, a prescription-only anti-seizure medication.

7) Phenolphthalein, a solution used in chemical experiments and a suspected cancer-causing agent that is not approved for marketing in the U.S.

These weight-loss products are marketed as dietary supplements, are promoted and sold on various Web sites and in some retail stores and beauty salons.  The FDA has inspected a number of companies associated with the sale of these illegal products and is currently seeking product recalls. Unfortunately, inspections and inadequate responses to recall requests may take additional enforcement steps, such as issuing warning letters or initiating seizures, injunctions, or criminal charges.

FDA’s Consumer Recommendation

1. If you use any of these weight loss products, stop taking them and consult your health care professional immediately.
2. Seek guidance from a health care professional before purchasing weight loss products.
3. Report serious adverse reactions or product quality problems to FDA’s MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program at MedWatch

For More Information:

• Protect Your Health Joint FDA/WEBMD resources
• MedWatch: The FDA Saftey Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program
• Questions and Answers about FDA’s Initiative Against Contaminated Weight Loss Products

Information Cited from: www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2009/NEW01977

Over-the-Counter and Herbal Remedies for Weight Loss

Herbal products are more popular than ever. A lot of personal trainers, movie stars, and pop stars have not only gone green, but also natural.  Many individuals are switching to herbal weight loss as an alternative due to its natural remedies versus pharmaceutical drugs. Natural remedies have been around for decades and have been very popular with the Asian society. Many individuals who have been taking modern medicine for weight control have resorted to herbal medicine in hopes of a miracle transformation.   There has been countless studies on benefits of therapeutic benefits and applications of herbs and herbal extracts.  But most of these studies do involve a balance diet and healthy lifestyle in conjunction to herbal medication. Most over-the-counter and herbal products for weight-loss are appetite suppressant. They make are bodies feel not hungry, but we have to keep in mind that long-term these drugs could lead to addition and health problems.

Common over-the-counter weight loss and herbal remedies ingredients

1. Ephedra (ma-huang): active ingredient  ephedrine.  Ephedrine is also used in asthma medications as will as to make methamphetamine, more commonly known as speed.
2. St. John’s wort: herbal product primarily used as an antidepressant, but some use this product with Ephedrine which can lead to dangerous drug-drug interactions
3. 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP): found in over-the-counter weight loss products, this extract from a West African plant seed. 5-HTP us under constant scrutiny for saftey and in larger does, 5-HTP may have a negative effect on liver.
4. Aloe: often used as topical product for wound healing, oral forms of aloe are to herbal weight-loss products. Aloe produces strong cathartic response (producing bowel movements) and are sometimes marketed as “internal cleansers.”
5. Cascara: common ingredient used in weight loss products. One of the few herbs that is approved as an over-the-counter drug by the FDA.  The ingredient is a strong stimulant laxative.
6. Dandelion: a natural diuretic by significantly decreasing body water.
7. Herbal Diuretics: most commonly found in over-the-counter weight loss preparations. Most of the diuretics derived from caffeine.

Above are some of the common over-the-counter and herbal remedy ingredients that you might not under FDA regulation. Keep in mind that there are thousands of herbal products that are used to treat multiple problems, so these are systemic drugs that affect the whole body. Herbal medications are composed of natural ingredients in their physical form, but many individuals don’t realize that many of the these herbal products are ingredients in  processed drugs that are manufacture in other everyday pills consumed. Due to the drug to drug interactions and TOXICITY, so individuals should keep that in mind. The main problem with herbal medications is, like many other health-related products herbal nutritional supplements are not strictly regulated in the United States. manufacturers are not obligated to guarantee the safety, effectiveness or even the true content of the product.

Common Sense Advice for Taking Herbal Medicines

1) Talk to your physician prior to taking any over the counter diet regimes and herbal remedies.

2) Research drugs and meds to choose the best alternative for your body.

3) Make sure that over-the-counter drugs and herbal remedies are not part of the FDA’s Warning drugs.

4) Make sure that if you are currently taking daily medications that you check drug interactions and toxicity.

5) Remember Herbal Medicines and over-the-counter dietary medications are mainly for supplemental purposes.

Healthy diet and exercise will provide the consumer with the most ideal outcome.

All information on this post was found on the following websites, and I suggest readers to search the websites for additional information or questions.

http://www.herbal-supplements-guide.com/

http://www.webmd.com/diet/guide/herbal-remedies

SOURCES: University of Maryland Medical Center. National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements. Vanderbilt University. American Academy of Family Physicians. Supplementwatch.com. PDR Health.

Survey

Dying to be Skinny

There is a saying, “where there is a demand, there will be a market”.  We have all seen at some point how true that statement is.  During prohibition liquor continued to be produced and illegally distributed.  Unregulated, many died from consuming contaminated alcohol.  Moving forward society has been witness to the war governments around the world have declared on illegal drugs.  It’s safe to form the conclusion that illegal narcotics in any form will never be eradicated through law enforcement; the demand for them is too great.  So, what is behind an individual’s insatiable demand for products that are dangerous?  With narcotics it’s a false feeling of utopia.  Many would argue that diet products shouldn’t be put into the same category as narcotics, their basis of such an argument being that diet supplements don’t alter the mind.  However, isn’t risking your life in order to be thin an altered mental state?  It seems that for every door closed on the distribution of dangerous and sometimes fatal diet products that many more doors open.  Consider the following taken from Time Magazine’s article on Asia’s Killer Diet Pills:

But the regulatory palliatives are likely to be only temporary stopgaps. The region is awash in cheap diet aids manufactured in largely unregulated Chinese factories. Classified by many countries as “health food” rather than as pharmaceutical products, which must pass rigorous safety tests before they can be marketed the concoctions are readily imported and sold in Asian pharmacies and natural-medicine shops, even in beauty parlors and spas.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,501020812-333902,00.html

It’s an interesting thought, the hypocrisy behind putting dangerous products in pills and labeling them as “health food”.  Ingredient’s such as fenfluramine, and N-nitroso fenfluramine are great diet pill health supplements.  Fenfluramine was used in Fen-Phen, a popular diet supplement used around the world, and linked to damage to heart valves.

The distinctive valvular abnormality seen with fenfluramine is a thickening of the leaflet and chordae tendineae. One mechanisms used to explain this phenomenon involves heart valve serotonin receptors, which are thought to help regulate growth. Since fenfluramine and its active metabolite norfenfluramine stimulate serotonin receptors 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) this may have led to the valvular abnormalities found in patients using fenfluramine. In particular norfenfluramine is a potent agonist of 5-HT_2B receptors, which are plentiful in human cardiac valves. The suggested mechanism by which fenfluramine causes damage is through over or inappropriate stimulation of these receptors leading to inappropriate valve cell division. Supporting this idea, is the fact that this valve abnormality has also occurred in patients using other drugs that act on 5-HT_2B receptors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenfluramine

Roth BL (2007). “Drugs and valvular heart disease”. N. Engl. J. Med. 356 (1): 6–9. doi:10.1056/NEJMp068265. PMID 17202450

N-nitroso Fhenfluramine has been linked to acute liver damage, and both credited with causing death.  So, what’s the answer?  Governments can close the door to dangerous products when found, but many more replace them.  It’s like swatting at flies while the elephants are charging.  The answer ridding society of the demand and that is done through education.  If a person believes within their heart, mind and soul that a pill promising healthy weight loss is false, a waste of money and possibly fatal, they won’t purchase it.

In conclusion, watch and consider what is being discussed in the following video regarding diet supplements.

http://www.foxnews.com/video/?playerId=videolandingpage&referralObject=3776515

Colon Cleansing

Aside from diet and exercise, many people believe there is a miracle weight loss pill that will give them the results they’ve always wanted. This “miracle pill” is the colon cleanse, also known as a detox. These cleanses are meant to clean out the colon and empty it of built-up waste products in order to gain energy and lose weight. There are two different types of colon cleanse: buying the products or seeing a practitioner.

Ingredients

Ingredients of weight loss pills are often mistaken by consumers. The FDA does require every new ingredient to be submitted to the American Herbal Products Association, however, the ingredients are found to be much more harmful in most cases. Please use extreme caution before taking diet pills and consult with your primary care physician.

“DIE-t” Pills

We live in a world where weight is such an overwhelming personal issue to so many, that believing anything promising a drastic loss in body fat is marketed, and is generally accepted by those seeking an easy solution to their problem.  It’s easy to understand why there are so many pseudo weight loss drugs available, people want, perhaps even need to believe that there is an easy solution for getting that perfect body.  If you have ever heard the phrase, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”, then you understand the truth behind diet pills.  Most fighting fat find it easier to swallow a pill than the truth.  So what is the truth?  If it’s a miracle you seek, get down on your hands and knees and pray to a higher being, otherwise do what is proven to be your best chance at getting a body you are comfortable pushing around, that’s watching your diet and start exercising.  It can be argued that the only true miracle diet pill is the one that leads to a person’s death, but such a drug should be no more acceptable that placing a gun in your mouth.

The reader of this blog should not infer that all diet supplements or miracle weight loss drugs cause death.  However, common sense tells us that abuse of anything is dangerous, perhaps even fatal.  This abuse mentality comes from the belief that if one is good, twenty must be great.  Consider the following example:

A 22 year-old-female arrived in the emergency department in cardiac arrest

after ingesting these diet pills.  Resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.  A

serum toxicology screen revealed the presence of caffeine with a level of

1,500 mcg/ml (lethal-100 mcg/ml). 1

It’s amazing; the deceased in the above example took fifteen times the lethal dose of caffeine which came from mail order diet pills.  It is just one many examples where individuals have lost their life in the pursuit of a quick and easy fix to being overweight.

Mrvos, R. M.; Reilly, P. E.; Dean, B. S.; Krenzelok, E. P.
Massive caffeine ingestion resulting in death.

1988.Vet Hum Toxicol, 30(4), 358 [English]

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/Plantox/Detail.CFM?ID=19290