Risks of slimming pills

Striving to be within the range of ideal weight for one’s height is always an important goal to remain fit, healthy and well. But resorting to unsafe means to achieve it is worse than the overweight problem itself.

A patient came to see us in our clinic recently and told us that she was able to buy some weight-reducing pills online, but she developed some symptoms after taking a few pills. She experienced palpitations and she could feel her heart pounding even while at rest. When we checked her blood pressure (BP), we found out that it was quite high for her age. Her heart rate (HR) was also fast (tachycardic).

We advised her to stop taking the slimming pill; when she came back a week later, she was feeling much better. Her vital signs (BP and HR) were also back to normal. We attributed her BP and HR problem to the slimming pills she took.

Warnings to the public

Time and again, our Philippine Food and Drug Administration (PhilFDA) has been issuing warnings to the public about unscrupulous vendors who sell slimming pills, the components of which are not known. Sadly, some doctors even dispense these drugs to their patients.

A few years ago, we wrote in this column about a licensed physician, who was into this practice. He was a popular physician who had several weight-reducing clinics operating in the big malls. We called him up and warned him that if he didn’t stop this unsafe practice, we would expose him and file a complaint with the Professional Regulations Commission. It was a good thing that he heeded our advice.

The safety of slimming pills has always been an issue even with drugs that have been previously approved by the various FDAs. Previously, some slimming pills containing substances like amphetamine and sibutramine were approved for use if they had a doctor’s prescription. But since 2010, because of the many reports of serious side effects, the PhilFDA has been issuing recall, seizure and ban of these products. There were at least 26 of these slimming or anti-obesity products, which have been recalled and whose registrations were canceled. But we hear that unscrupulous marketers have resorted to illegal online marketing to sell these products.

Banned products

These products are being marketed online as oral capsules or as coffee drinks. To know these banned products, one can log on at the PhilFDA website (wwww.fda.gov.ph) and type the name of the product in the search bar. To report any unregistered or banned health products that are still being sold, one may contact them by e-mail: [email protected].

Many of these pills contain amphetamine, which has similar though milder effects than shabu. It also causes cardiac arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat), confusion, urine retention and painful urination, hyperthermia, hyperreflexia, muscle pain, severe agitation, rapid breathing, and tremor.

If one takes them for a prolonged period of time or in big doses, the PhilFDA warns that they may produce more serious symptoms such as psychosis, anuria, cardiogenic shock, cerebral hemorrhage, circulatory collapse, extreme fever, pulmonary hypertension, renal failure and rapid muscle breakdown. Fatal amphetamine poisoning causes convulsion and coma.

Sibutramine is used to be a popularly prescribed weight-reducing drug, which was really very effective. But it was pulled out from the market when a well-designed study showed that it increases the risk of serious heart events, including nonfatal heart attack and stroke, and death, by 16 percent compared with another group given placebo (dummy pill).

Having excess fats in our body is not good. But shaving them off with unsafe reducing pills can lead to many potentially serious complications we didn’t sign for.