Diet Pill Pitfalls
Diet pills can be broken down into two classes:
prescription, anti-obesity drugs (long and short term)
which can only be prescribed by your doctor for severe
obesity, and the other being herbal which is not FDA
approved and can be bought without a doctor's
prescription. The best thing to look for about a diet
pill that's safe and effective is did it pass any
clinical trials from an independent research lab,
since No diet pill has any FDA approval. The more
clinical trials that a specific diet pill passes is
even better for the consumer's peace of mind and
reassures the consumer that the product does indeed
work. At this time I know of only one diet pill that
fits this description by passing all 8 clinical trials
it entered. The product is called Proactol and it
removes 27% of the fat in each meal from your system,
so you will lose about 14 pounds in less than a month
without exercising. Another craze is called Hoodia.
All you need to know is it suppresses your appetite
for a couple hours at a time and you eat less, hence
you lose weight. Very little clinical trials have been
used in testing this theory of suppressing one's
appetite for any amount of time. Yet people buy it in
the truck loads and say that it works for them. The
caveat with Hoodia is that hundreds of companies are
selling practically sawdust and telling you that it's
really Hoodia. Real Hoodia comes only from South
Africa and you should definitely be weary of this
product and who sells it whether online or in your
brick and mortar stores. For instance,
Yesweightloss.com is a very reputable diet pill
resource site which teaches you what to look for when
buying real Hoodia, and they make it even easier for
you by listing only the reputable Hoodia website
retailers that don't do the bait and switch on their
customers.
Side Effects
The pitfalls with diet pills are quite a few
unfortunately. They are not all created equally.
Prescription diet pill drugs like phentermine or
adipex can cause: fast heart rate which is not what
you want, enhanced alertness, rise in your blood
pressure, heart palpitations, insomnia and
restlessness. there are 18 other side effects but I
think you understand my point. Many of these
prescription diet pills can only be taken for short
term like less than 12 weeks due to drug tolerance.
Non prescription diet pills have much less serious
side effects and you should most definitely avoid
ephedrine or ephedra (Ma Huang).
Another prescription diet pill, Orlistat, blocks
absorption of dietary fats, and as a result may cause
oily spotting bowel movements, oily stools, stomach
pain, and flatulence. A similar drug, designed for
people with Type 2 diabetes, is Acarbose which
partially blocks absorption of carbohydrates in the
small intestine, and produces similar side effects
including stomach pain, and gas. Fat soluble vitamins
are blocked when using some prescription diet pills
which can be very unhealthy for you, while Proactol, a
non prescription herbal diet pill does not block any
fat soluble vitamins you ingest.
Mechanisms of action
Prescription diet pill drugs operate through one or
more of the following mechanisms:
- Increase your body's metabolism.
- Suppression of your appetite.
- Interference with your body's ability to absorb
specific nutrients in food. For example, Orlistat
blocks fat breakdown and thereby prevents fat
absorption. The over the counter fiber supplements
glucomannan and guar gum have been used for the
purpose of inhibiting digestion and lowering caloric
absorption.
- Anorectics (also known as anorexigenics) are primarily
intended to suppress the appetite, but most of the
drugs in this class also act as stimulants, for
example, dexedrine.
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