FDA Warns Against Diet Pills – Lists Most Dangerous

If you plan on indulging this Christmas season and taking off the pounds in the new year, ditch the pharmacy aisle and bring out the treadmill instead. Quick-fire ways of curbing your appetite and strange concoctions that trick your stomach into thinking it’s full are never a great plan for healthy weight loss. You may have some immediate results using diet pills or drinks that promise “10 lbs in Two Days” or “Lose Inches Without Changing Your Diet,” but miracle cures often harm your body more than they help. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week announced that there is a range of diet pills being sold nationwide, as well as over the internet, that are now considered unsafe.

While most diet pills seem too good to be true, there are people that pressure their bodies into losing a certain amount of weight in a small period of time and rely on fast-acting drugs, no matter what the cost (health or otherwise). Most products on the market haven’t been officially approved by the FDA, but their safety hasn’t been disproved either.

This is not the first time the FDA has stepped in to warn the public about the possibility of harm to health regarding diet pills. In 2002, the FDA alerted the United States about the threat of Chinese weight loss products specifically bottles labeled Chaso Genpi and Chaso (Jianfei) Diet Capsules because of their potential health risk to the public. Again, in 2006, the FDA stepped up and issued a warning for two dietary supplements that were unapproved for weight loss. Emagrece Sim Dietary Supplement, also known as Herbathin Dietary Supplement, or the Brazilian Diet Pill were found to contain multiple active ingredients from prescription drugs (like controlled substances) that could enhance the drug’s side effects rendering injury or death and were not allowed to be brought into the United States.

Some of the active ingredients reported this week by the FDA as harmful include a controlled substance named sibutramine which is a chemical in the obesity drug Meridia, but is used here up to triple a regular recommended dose. Sibutramine can cause conditions such as seizures, high blood pressure, palpitations, heart attack or stroke. Also dangerous are an anti-seizure medication called phenytoin, rimonabant a drug that is currently only approved for use in Europe but has been associated with 5 deaths and 720 negative reactions just in the last two years, and phenolphytalein once a chemical laxative, it was recently recalled for it’s potential cancer risks.

With over 25 different products in question, the FDA still has a lot of work to do in terms of studying specific ingredients, the dosage, and the safety of combinations of each drug. Most of these pills are marketed as “dietary supplements” and are primarily sold over the internet. The labels do not list any of the dangerous ingredients mentioned here and are therefore endangering many consumers by labeling the products as “herbal” or “natural” increasing suspicion.

Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the FDA, Janet Woodcock, M.D., explains why the FDA is blanketing their recall over all suspected diet pill culprits: “These tainted weight loss products pose a great risk to public health because they contain undeclared ingredients and, in some cases, contain prescription drugs in amounts that greatly exceed their maximum recommended dosages.” She continues to standby the FDA’s decision, “Consumers have no way of knowing that these products contain powerful drugs that could cause serious health consequences. Therefore FDA is taking this action to protect the health of the American public.”

The FDA also advises the public that anyone who has used or is using any of the supplements on the list (see below) to discontinue use immediately and please seek help through your healthcare professional as soon as possible. If weight issues are still a major concern of yours, consult your doctor on healthier ways to keep your weight where you want it. The end result is don’t trust a magic pill to dissolve your holiday gain away, do it the old fashioned way with a good diet and regular exercise and if you must rely on prescription drugs to help, make sure they are taken under close supervision of your doctor and will safely mix with any other medications you may be taking.

The FDA’s list of tainted and recalled diet pills:

* 2 Day Diet
* 3x Slimming Power
* 5x Imelda Perfect Slimming
* 3 Day Diet
* 7 Day Herbal Slim
* 8 Factor Diet
* 7 Diet Day/Night Formula
* 999 Fitness Essence
* Extrim Plus
* Fatloss Slimming
* GMP
* Imelda Perfect Slim
* Japan Lingzhi 24 Hours Diet
* Lida DaiDaihua
* Miaozi Slim Capsules
* Perfect Slim
* Perfect Slim 5x
* Phyto Shape
* ProSlim Plus
* Royal Slimming Formula
* Slim 3 in 1
* Slim Express 360
* Slimtech
* Somotrim
* Superslim
* TripleSlim
* Venom Hyperdrive 3.0
* Zhen de Shou