Diet pills–Are they safe?

The FDA approved prescription medications Belviq and Qsymia are used for weight control. Both drugs are approved for adults with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater. Adults with a chronic, weight-related health condition such as high cholesterol or hypertension and a BMI of 27 or above may also qualify. Many of the diet supplements we see in your local stores are generally recognized as safe for human consumption. But just because these drugs can be purchased without a prescription doesn’t mean that one can use more than the recommended dosage safely, or combine them with other drugs without experiencing serious side effects. Because diet supplements are widely available at commercial outlets or online, people with eating disorders have easy access to these products and are likely to misuse them. In some cases, a weight loss drug or diet supplement may be a useful part of an eating disorders rehab program. But in many cases, these products are being abused by teens or adults who have no medical need to lose weight. In such cases, the use of a diet pill is dangerous, even life-threatening.

One of the biggest risks of taking over-the-counter diet supplements is that one can’t always be certain about the ingredients that a product contains. Because the FDA does not test all weight loss products for safety, there’s no guarantee that each ingredient in every supplement is safe. In a press release issued in 2009, the FDA announced that it had discovered potentially dangerous, unlisted ingredients in sixty-nine weight loss products. Because the manufacturers did not list these ingredients on their product labels, consumers would have no way of knowing that they were ingesting harmful products.  For example, FDA found weight-loss products tainted with the prescription drug ingredient sibutramine. This ingredient was in an FDA-approved drug called Meridia, which was removed from the market in October 2010 because it caused heart problems and strokes. The FDA is only required to step in when consumers report that one of these products is unsafe. Because of this, many say the FDA's regulations are too lax. Why aren’t there laws strictly regulating these potential unsafe over-the-counter diet pills and not just on as-needed basis? As a consumer, one has to be smart but at the same time, these big companies prey on people with distorted body image and someone who’s willing to take the fast route.

Harmful Effects of Diet Pills and Supplements | Futures of Palm Beach. (n.d.). Retrieved November 18, 2017, from https://www.futuresofpalmbeach.com/healthy-diet-exercise/harmful-effects-diet-pills-supplements/

Weight Control. (2017, September 24). Retrieved November 18, 2017, from https://nccih.nih.gov/health/weightcontrol