Fen-Phen is the most popular weight-loss therapy in the United States in 1990s, which is a combination of fenfluramine and phentermine. These two drugs were developed by American Household Products Company, one of the top ten pharmaceutical companies in the world, and approved by FDA. Throughout the 1990s, about 6 million people used this therapy to lose weight.
This treatment was later found to be seriously harmful to health. Fenfluramine is a slimming drug, which acts on the central nervous system and suppresses appetite by increasing satiety. The United States approved the drug for the treatment of obesity on 1995. Many studies have confirmed that fenfluramine can cause serious side effects such as heart valve damage, central nervous system damage, pulmonary hypertension and finger necrosis, and 30% dieters who take fenfluramine have abnormal electrocardiogram. The FDA had to withdraw the drug from the market in September, 1997, and reminded all patients who have been taking fenfluramine for a long time to go to the hospital for cardiac ultrasound examination immediately, regardless of whether there is heart valve damage or not.
1In August, 1999, the court ruled that the American household products company compensated a woman who suffered from heart problems due to the use of Fenfen diet therapy for 23.3 million US dollars. Since then, American household products companies have been forced to agree to compensate all dieters who have heart problems due to Fenfen weight loss therapy * * * 3.75 billion US dollars. However, the problem of compensation for lung and central nervous system injuries has not been finally solved.
Coincidentally, the diet drug 1998 introduced by Meridia Abbott, another big American pharmaceutical company, is being sued by consumers because of its serious side effects and even death. In 2002, Meridia was completely banned in Italy. It is reported that the side effects caused by Meridia include: high blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, myocardial injury, neck pain, chest pain, general pain, hyperactivity, anxiety and stroke.
In the United States, the listing of a drug is often developed by a number of doctors and masters who have been strictly trained in various professions after years of research, many clinical experiments and hundreds of millions of scientific research funds. Even so, there are countless drugs that cannot pass the eyes of the FDA and cannot be listed. Large pharmaceutical companies are more likely to produce products and have a good reputation because of their strong technical strength and funds.
It can be seen that American household products and diet pills developed by big pharmaceutical companies like Abbott may bring such great trouble, not to mention some small companies in China that are unknown, backward in technology and management, and don't even know what modern medicine is. These small companies produce diet pills, diet health care products and other things, mostly under the guise of pure Chinese medicine preparations and pure natural formulas, taking advantage of Chinese people's misunderstanding of natural products and misleading consumers through advertisements.
Why do you say that? Because there are many ingredients in natural products, people's understanding and research on their pharmacological and toxicological effects is simply a mess, and no one knows what is going on. If you don't know anything about pharmacology and toxicology, then the diet pills and health products made from this natural formula are not bad even if they are not dead. How is the weight loss effect?
The problem is that many consumers don't realize this and think that natural products are just fine. They don't know that many natural products also contain ingredients that have serious side effects on the body, and they won't investigate whether the manufacturers have figured out the pharmacological and toxicological effects of natural products. Especially if the product is not in the form of prescription drugs, but in the name of health care products and slimming tea, it is easier to mislead consumers.
In the early 1990s, 37-year-old Joan Greer wanted to lose weight by drinking healthy slimming tea. A few months after she drank a super slimming tea, the sports woman suddenly died in her sleep.
Experts agree that this super slimming tea is the chief culprit leading to Joan Greer's death, because the main component of super slimming tea is senna, which is a laxative. Long-term use will lead to a serious imbalance of electrolytes in the body, leading to arrhythmia and heart failure. Another example is ephedra, the active ingredient of ephedra is ephedrine, which is an irritating drug. By acting on the central nervous system, it can accelerate metabolism and achieve the purpose of losing weight, but it will damage human organs.
At the end of February this year, Rand Clinical Research funded by the National Institutes of Health published a report on weight loss, physical improvement and safety of ephedra and ephedrine. The report shows that taking ephedrine, ephedrine plus caffeine, or other health products containing ephedrine and caffeine can lose weight in a short time, and caffeine has little effect on losing weight. Compared with the control group, taking ephedra (ephedrine) can lose an average of 2 kg per month within 4 to 6 months, but the effect over 6 months is not clear. The existing data do not support that ephedra (ephedrine) can improve physical exertion, but ephedrine plus caffeine can slightly improve physical exertion in the short term. However, the possibility of side effects such as nausea, vomiting, anxiety, mood swings, hyperactivity disorder and palpitation in all weight-loss health care products containing ephedrine and ephedrine plus caffeine is 2 to 3 times that of the control blank.
It is reported that at least 54 deaths and more than 1000 complications have been related to ephedrine abuse since the mid-1990s. Most of these people are young people, and some people get sick or die after taking ephedrine for only a few weeks or even days. Two pregnant women also miscarried because of taking ephedrine.
Therefore, scientists believe that the risks of ephedrine may far exceed the benefits to the human body. Another example is diuretics, which can lose weight quickly by urinating a lot and have become the favorite of some dieters. But clinically, the side effects of these drugs are very obvious, including dry mouth, arrhythmia, fatigue, nausea and vomiting. Obviously, many so-called natural slimming health foods are drugs with great side effects.
The problem of prescription drugs and natural products is not the whole problem of weight loss products in China at present. Man-made hidden dangers are sometimes as harmful as immaturity of scientific research and technology. Throughout the year, summer is the best-selling season for slimming products. In order to show off their figure, slimming has become a top priority for ladies. Therefore, advertisements for various weight-loss products are overwhelming.
According to the introduction of the market circulation rules of the State Administration of Pharmaceutical Products, there are three major problems in the advertisement of diet pills. First, advertisements are exaggerated, and impossible promises such as "medicine will cure the disease", "radical cure", "one box will work", "invalid refund", "insurance company will underwrite", "guarantee the success of losing weight" and "never rebound" are flying all over the sky, and all manufacturers are like Hua Tuo. Second, the starting point is wrong. The focus of weight loss is not health but fashion beauty, so some fashion people who don't actually need to lose weight have joined the ranks of slimming-catching up with fashion is beauty. Third, the promise is not true. Taboo descriptions and key tips in slimming products are vague, obscure, and unclear in pharmacology, even deliberately concealing side effects or misleading publicity. This "factor", that "gene", new terms and concepts are unheard of. It is strange that dieters are not confused under the banner of pseudo-technology and the effect of star advertising.