Diet Pill Safety
There are several prescription and over-the-counter pills available that claim to help you lose weight safely. But there are some warnings you need to know before taking diet pills.
One prescription diet pill is called Orlistat, brand-name Xenical. It blocks your body from absorbing fat. However it can also decrease absorption of important vitamins. It can also cause problems in people with chronic malabsorption syndromes or gallbladder problems. People with a history of kidney stones, diabetes, anorexia or bulimia should ask their doctor if these conditions would interfere with taking Xenical. If you take other weight loss medications or cyclosporine, you
should also talk to your doctor before taking Xenical.
If Xenical or Orlistat is taken with a high-fat meal, there is a bigger chance of digestive issues, such as oily or fatty stools, gas, or an inability to control bowel movements.
Another prescription diet pill with important warnings to consider is Meridia, also called Sibutramine. Meridia affects
brain chemicals that are related to appetite. Its best-known side effect is increased blood pressure.
Another warning related to Meridia is that you should not take it with certain antidepressants. You should also talk
to your doctor before taking Meridia if you have heart disease, irregular heartbeats, congestive heart failure or a stroke history. Some side effects of Meridia include tremor, nervousness, headache, insomnia, dry mouth and constipation.
Phentermine, half of the banned prescription diet combo known as “phen-fen”, is still available on the market as an appetite suppressant. Its side effects include nervousness, irritability, nausea, headache, constipation and sleep issues. An important warning for phentermine is that it’s only approved for short-term use, and it doesn’t seem to work for everyone as well as it did when combined with the now-banned medication fenfluramine.
When it comes to non-prescription diet pills, their effectiveness is not well known. Supplements such as chromium,
guar gum and chitosan have not been proven effective for weight loss. Others can be downright harmful, such as bitter orange, a dietary supplement that the Consumers Union warns carries risks similar to that of ephedrine. Ephedrine was the active ingredient in ephedra, the herbal diet supplement that was banned in 2004 due to several deaths linked to it.
The most important warning to consider about diet pills, whether prescription or over-the-counter, is to be wary of where you purchase them. There are many web sites that claim to deal in prescription diet pills, but there is no proof that you are actually getting what you pay for. The pills you receive may have less of the active ingredient than you expect, or they may contain a harmful substitute. The same goes for non-prescription diet supplements. To be on the safe side, only get prescription weight-loss medication from a doctor-recommended pharmacy, and only purchase over-the-counter supplements from reputable drug and nutrition stores.
