Diet Pills

Diet Pills.. The Bare Facts

The advertisers claim you can, “feel more alive”, “melt away the pounds” and “boost your energy levels”.. But is this really true? Or just more hype from the billion pound industry? Why bother exercising when you can just take a little pill and never worry about your weight again? Okay enough with the weight loss questions. Several diet drugs over the last decade have been widely associated with the causes of major heart problems, and other helth related issues. It may sound extreme, but in some cases diet pills have resulted in death.

There are many different types of pills and they can come in many different varieties including prescription drugs, over the counter drugs and herbal supplements.

Firstl I am going to talk about prescription drugs these are only available with a doctor’s prescription. Meridia and Xenical are prime examples. This ‘group’ of drugs are carefully regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, and their use is closesly monitored by the prescribing doctor.

These diet pills work in different ways depending on the ingredients they contain.

Appetite suppressants such as sibutramine (Meridia), diethylpropion (Tenuate) and phentermine (Adipex-P, Fastin, Anozine-AM etc.) affect the appetite-regulating region of the brain called the hypothalamus. They work by blockingthe re-uptake of the chemicals serotin andnorepinephrine, which create that feeling of ‘fullness’ you experience ater eating a big meal. (Like a sunday lunch for example) With more of these chemicals circulating your brain, you feel full, so you eat less.

Presctiption fat blockers, such as orlistat (Xenical), inhibit (prevent) the action of an enzyme called lipase. When we eat foods with fat in them , lipase normally breaks down the fat when it gets to the intestinal tract. With a lipase inhibitor in effect, a percentage of the fat we ingest is removed from the body through bowel movements instead of being broken down and absorbed.

Many prescription drugs are used as diet aids even though that was not their intended purpose. Some antidepressants are used “off-label” as diet aids because they have been shown in studies to help patients lose weight and keep it off for several months. Researchers are also studying certain drugs normally used to treat epilepsy (topiramate and zonisamide) and diabetes (metformin) for theur weight-loss potential.

Prescription diet pills aren’t for the person who wants to shed a few pounds to fit into a holiday party dress or a tuxedo. Only people who are “obese” (those who are 30% over their ideal weight), or have a Body Mass Index (BMI – Please see the ‘Am I obese?’ section) of 30 or more, or people who have a history of high blood pressure or diabetes are good candidates for prescription diet medications, according to the National Health Service (NHS).

Over-the-counter drugs are available without a doctor’s prescription, right in your local boots/superdrug, and are also regulated by the FDA. “Products considered by the FDA to be over-the-counter weight controll drugs [as opposed to dietary supplements] are primarily those containing the active ingredient phenylpropanolamine (PPA)”. In 2000, the FDA requested that drug manufacturers voluntary reformulate PPA containing products in the wake of evidence that phenylpropanolamine can increase the risk of strokes, so thankfully there are few diet drugs on the market that still contain this ingredient. Over the counter drugs so fall under the jurisdiction of the FDA’s Centre of Drug Evaluation and Research.

Some of the over the counter pills (such as Xenedrine, Dexatrim and Zantrex-3) once used a powerful combination of the stimulant ephadra and caffine to help users shed pounds. They reportedly worked in combination by increasing the amount of energy your body uses – this process is also known as thermogenesis, (it is thought that caffine increases metabolism by increasing the breakdown of fatty acids) which can also reduce your appetite (ephdrine acts on the hypothalamus). But since late 2003, when the FDA banned the sale of ephedra-containing drugs due to evidence of increased risk of heart attack, these formulations have replaced ephedra with a mixture of vitamins (such as thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin B-6, folic acid), an ephedra-like substance called synphrine that is found in certain fruits, and caffine. The combination reportedly increases energy while boosting metabolism.

Herbal diet supplements are also available without a prescription. You’ll typically find a huge variety of these in health food and nutrition stores as well as in regular supermarkets. Herbal supplements are often labeled “all natural” and are considered by the FDA to be food products as opposed to drugs. As such, they fall under the jurisdiction of the FDA’s Centre for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and are regulated differently from ‘over the counter’ drugs.

Here are some of the more common ingredients of the herbal diet supplements and their reported weight-loss effects:

• Herbal ephedra, caffine, guarana and country mallow – Increase metablism.
• Guar gum, glucomannan and psyllium – Cause a “full” feeling.
• Hydrocitric acid, green tea, conjugated linoleic acid and pyruvate – Slow fat production.
• Chitosan (or chitin – substance found in the exoskeleton of shrimp and other shellfish) – Block fat from being stored.

There is also a selection of diet aids that are applied by patch as a powder or in liquid form. These types of drugsfall into any of the above categories. It is only the delivery method that is unique.