Pink Grenades, Reductil, DNP, Xenical, Orlistat, Slimex, Slim Trim, Sibutramine, Thermobol, T Fuel, Ephedrasil, garcinia cambodia, raspberry ketone, green coffee extract, diet tea, L-Carnitine, fat burners and other supplements: the list of options and claims for weight loss products goes on and on.
Not surprisingly the area of diet pills is, quite literally, a minefield for anyone looking to use prescription-strength medication for losing weight. Many of the products are harmful and contain substances which in some form or other have been banned for consumption in the UK.
DNP is a chemical similar to the explosive TNT that killed a young student last month and which, when taken as ‘diet pills’, has claimed the lives of at least five others in the UK. It is increasingly being marketed across the Internet to body builders and slimmers.
Reductil (containing the active ingredient sibutramine hydrochloride monohydrate or Sibutramine) was a revolutionary anti-fat pill taken off the UK market in 2010 after it was linked to an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Just a quick tour of the Internet shows that dangerous products are available left, right and centre on the web - sometimes appearing on cleverly-designed websites appearing as UK companies, when in reality they are outside of British regulation.
The bottom line is that everyone wants a quick fix. But you need to do a little homework to make sure what you are taking is effective, and safe.
Police raiding illegal ‘laboratories’ where different chemicals get formulated into diet capsules have found things like cement or sulphur being used. The illegal producers mix up their potions at random in cement mixers, with the stuff on the floor being swept up and shovelled back in.
As Danny Lee-Frost, head of enforcement at the UK’s Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) puts it: “In the spring, women will go online and buy a couple of months’ worth of tablets which they think will help them fit into their bikini…But buy from websites like these and you don’t know what you are getting. These pills can cause strokes and heart attacks. They are dangerous.”
There’s no doubt there is an obesity problem in the UK, so read on if you want to find a safe, convenient and painless way to lose weight.
The good
Doctor Matt recommends Xenical capsules containing the active ingredient Orlistat, a type of medicine called a lipase inhibitor. Xenical has been proven to lead to 5% to 12% weight loss in the majority of patients over a year and works by preventing a third of consumed fat from being absorbed by the body. It’s been clinically trialled over a long period for the management of obesity and its effects begin two weeks after starting treatment.
Xenical (Orlistat) works by preventing gastric and pancreatic lipases from working. It is taken at mealtimes to prevent fat that is eaten in the meals from being broken down and absorbed by the body. This means the body cannot use the fat as a source of energy, or convert it into fat tissue. Instead, the fat is excreted in the faeces. This helps weight loss and clinical trials showed it also has a healthy effect on other aspects of the metabolism such as systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, serum HDL cholesterol and serum LDL cholesterol.
The harmful Reductil (Sibutramine) on the other hand, works by altering the chemical messages that control how the person taking it feels and thinks about food, effectively making them eat less.
When taking any weight-loss medication it’s important for a doctor to give advice about possible interactions with other medicines and the need to top up other vitamins in the body.
The bad
You should be careful when taking any supplements for cleansing or detox. Examples of these are Body Biotics, Colon Health, Papaya Pro, Liver Strength or Nano Red using bitter herbs such as dandelion to stimulate and cleanse the liver. They might have short-term benefits in terms of weight loss from water or laxative effect. But they can be dangerous and carry risks of dehydration, electrolyte imbalance and more. Your body is fine tuned to excrete toxins by itself so interfering with this balance requires at least some medical knowledge.
Often a person with chronic constipation already has some damage to their gut lining and many herbal laxatives work by irritating the gut further.
Other remedies you can buy over the counter such as raspberry ketone or garcinia cambodia may not be harmful - when taking in the prescribed amounts. But even if they are marketed as clinically proven, natural weight-loss products, the evidence is pretty sketchy.
As of April 2015, the results of only one small clinical trial with raspberry ketone-type supplements had been published. The results from 45 people show an average weight loss of 4.2 pounds (1.9 kilograms) compared to the placebo group of 0.9 pounds (0.4 kilograms). The eight-week trial used a multi-ingredient supplement with raspberry ketone, caffeine, bitter orange, ginger root extract and garlic root extract, as well as other herbs, vitamins and minerals.
If you want to indulge in some of these supplements, you’ll be safer following the instructions carefully and buying them from a well-known UK source such as Holland & Barrett, Nature’s Best or Solgar.
And the ugly
The aforementioned Reductil and Sibutramine are prescription medicines that have been banned in the UK. There are some other weight loss supplements that you should never try.
Caffeine and ephidrine are common ingredients used in fat burner pills. Ephidrine or Ephedra sinica as it appears in Chinese herbal supplements is a stimulant related to amphetamines and it is banned in the UK. All fat burners come with a warning of side effects that can include insomnia, elevated blood pressure, tachycardia, cardiac arrhythmias, angina pectoris and gastro-intestinal problems. Another one popular with bodybuilders ECA stack (a common name used for a compound of caffeine and aspirin with ephedrine) is similarly harmful. The US Food and Drug Administration has received over 18,000 reports of adverse effects in people using ephedrine.
Trying to use medication prescribed for attention deficit disorder, thyroid disorders or diabetes, to lose weight, carries the risks of addiction, relationship or financial problems as well as heart, lung and kidney problems that far outweigh any benefits. Taking any drugs other than prescription weight-loss drugs intended for weight loss is a mistake with deadly consequences.
Some people even use smoking as a diet strategy - since nicotine is an appetite suppressant - but this is a mistake. The health risks of smoking far outweigh any possible benefits.
Can prescription medication really make me last longer during intercourse?
A recent survey of several thousand British men found that 10% of them often have, or sometimes have, problems with premature ejaculation (PE).
Correct techniques for using your blue and brown asthma inhaler
A recent study found that only 10% of people are able to demonstrate the correct asthma inhaler technique, although on average 75% of patients say they can use it the correct way. In tests the amount of medication entering the lungs was shown to vary from 33% in the best case to 0% at worst. Other research found that 91% of doctors and other healthcare professionals who teach patients inhaler use, "could not demonstrate all the recognised steps" in taking inhaled medication.
Are some foods more effective than HRT for the menopause?
If you have some of the symptoms of the menopause it’s always a good idea to understand the underlying changes in the body and how certain foods can have effects on hormones. Oestrogen and progesterone are hormones that play an important role in a women’s body. It is the fluctuating levels of these hormones that cause the physical and emotional symptoms of the menopause such as hot flushes, night sweats, loss of libido and sometimes anxiety or mood swings.
