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"Diet pills may seem like a quick fix, but the risks are heavy.Ads that promise a slimmer figure by popping a pill--no ercise or healthy eating required!--are everywhere, from newspapers and magazines to TV and... Diet pills may seem like a quick fix, but the risks are heavy.\n\nAds that promise a slimmer figure by popping a pill--no ercise or healthy eating required!--are everywhere, from newspapers and magazines to TV and the Internet. Clearly, the claims work to lure in people: Consumers bought $1.67 bullion worth of weight-loss supplements in 2007 alone, according to Nutrition Business Journal. Recently, however, diet pills have come under fire for their potentially harmful (and sometimes even fatal) effects. Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration discovered that 69 different over-the-counter weight-loss supplements, including ones advertised as \"natural\" or \"herbal,\" were secretly spiked with potent pharmaceutical ingredients that could cause serious health complications, such as seizures and strokes. A few months later, fourteen products within the Hydroxycut brand--one of the top-selling weight-loss supplement lines--were recalled because of reports of liver failure and heart problems among users.\n\nAccording to experts, hidden ingredients are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to dangers associated with weight-loss supplements. \"I saw a patient who was taking Hydroxycut and another medication at the same time, and the patient came to the hospital with jaundice and hepatitis,\" says Ann Scheimann, M.D., a pediatric gastroenterologist at Johns Hopkins Children's&amp;amp;#xC2; Center in Baltimore, Maryland. \"Dietary supplements aren't regulated. When you buy them, you're taking a risk.\" Pills can also have a diuretic effect causing the body to lose fluids and disturbing electrolyte levels. Furthermore, using laxatives--even herbal ones like senna--as a weight-loss tool can weaken bowels and make them dependent on pills. \"Eventually, you'll be unable&amp;amp;#xC2; to move your bowels without them,\" says Scheimann.\n\nCapsules that claim to boost metabolism may hike up your blood pressure and heart rate to dangerous levels. \"Even in the short term, the potential effects of increased blood pressure and heart rate are stroke and cardiac ischemia, which is when blood stops flowing to the heart muscle,\" warns Laurie Mitan, M.D., an associate professor at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio. \"We've had teens hospitalized in our ICU with cardiac ischemia after using diet pills just one time!\" Even Alli, the only over-the-counter weight-loss pill approved by the FDA, doesn't provide a quick solution: If you don't stick to a reduced-calorie, super-low-fat diet while taking Alli, you could end up dealing with messy side effects (hence the drugmaker's suggestion that first-time users wear dark pants). And while it's approved to be sold at pharmacies nationwide, Alli is currently undergoing a review by the FDA because of reports of liver failure."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.teenvogue.com/story/the-dangers-of-diet-pills>