The Sickening Truth About Diet Pills
The Seattle Times has a superb article that delves right into the reality of the whole diet pill industry (via Big Fat Blog).
After being prescribed Redux and a drug combination known as "phen-fen," Melum developed heart damage so severe that in 2002 surgeons had to cut open her chest and heart and install an artificial valve.She is a tragic testament to what can go wrong in a system where the powerful pharmaceutical industry influences what constitutes a disease, who has it, and how it should be treated.
Before taking the drugs, Melum was overweight but healthy: Her cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar were all normal.
There is an excellent graph outlining the phenomenal revenue of some of the drug companies - with Pfizer topping the list with net sales of $52.5 billion during 2004. When one looks at the sums of money involved in the pharmaceutical industry it is difficult to believe that there is any altruistic motivation at all here. Despite being companies in the business of "making people better" - they are still, after all, businesses.
What truly blows the lid on this, is the changing definitions of various diseases. The definition of "overweight" was altered in 1998 by the NHLBI - it went from a BMI of >= 27 to a BMI of >= 25. All of a sudden this gave an instant increase of 43% more overweight people in the US. More fodder for the drug companies?
Apparently more than 70 weight loss drugs are in development. Let's leave the final word on this to Tami Melum (the human story behind the article).
"You may be a little overweight," she said, "but at least you have your health."
Is Xenadrine bad for your you?
ReplyRobin, currently Xenadrine is listed by the FDA as "GRAS" (Generally Regarded As Safe). The key ingredient in Xenadrine is Norambrolide, a cAMP Accelerator. cAMP is used by the body to help communicate hormonal chemical information from cell to cell.
One of the side effects cAMP is that it amplifies the stimulant effects of caffiene. This bascially reduces Xenadrine to a caffiene pill with unknown side effects beyond a simple caffiene pill. In short, I wouldn't dare put the stuff in my body.
Replyinformation was accurate. diet pills don't work
Replyi have ordered the 'PINK PATCH' from pinkpatch.com do you have any information regarding the safety of this product and if this actually works and how.... it is all told on their website but was just wondering if u could back this up for me??? it states that it is ll 100% natural herbal ingredients but u cannot use this whilst breast feeding or pregnant???
Replythanks samantha kayhan
Samantha, I don't have any information about the pink path. But I do know that there are many herbal supplements that you shouldn't use/take while pregnant or breastfeeding. What can be perfectly safe for you may not be safe for your baby.
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