Weightloss Pills - do over-the-counter pills really work?

Weight loss in capsule form? One a day to drop pounds and gain energy? It's a miracle! No, it's an illusion; though they sound good, over the counter weight loss pills are expensive, rarely effective for maintaining long term weight loss and can even damage your health with harmful chemicals and additives.

Also known as 'diet pills,' weight loss pills are basically capsules filled with herbs, chemicals and 'natural additives' that promise to help you lose weight. But what's in these pills is not always what you want to put into your body; the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rarely approves all the ingredients and has a hard time tracking and banning the ones that do exist.

Read on for the truth behind weight loss pills:

• A lot of weight loss pills contain large amounts of caffeine, which acts as a diuretic and will briefly speed up your heart rate. The caffeine can make you jittery and have serious effects on those who already suffer from hypertension; caffeine should never be taken for long periods of time as this increases the risk of addiction, headaches and heart arrhythmia.

• The ingredients in some weight loss pills have been proven to damage various organs and cause health problems. The popular chemical enhancer ephedrine was blamed for Rashidi Wheeler 's collapse and heart failure in August 2001; the Northwestern University football player ingested an ephedra-based sports drink before working out with his team and the stimulant was too much for his body to handle.

Pills that promise 'all natural' and 'herbal' ingredients should be approached with caution as these rarely contain any substances that have been tested and approved by the FDA, meaning these pills simply do not work or worse, that they are not appropriate for human consumption.

• Kava Kava (Piper Methysticum) is marketed as a 'metabolizing fat-burner.' In reality, this herb is proven to cause liver damage. Outlawed by Canada in 2002, the FDA has issued numerous warnings about the dangers of ingesting Kava Kava. According to the Weight Loss Institute, 'several patients who used kava products had liver failure and needed subsequent liver transplants.' Ingesting Kava Kava results in reduced protein levels, blood cell abnormalities, muscle weakness, visual impairment and severe liver damage.

• E phedra, also known as ma huang, was one of the most popular herbal ingredients in weight loss pills until the FDA discovered it caused blood pressure to skyrocket, resulting in cardiovascular damage and seizures.

Not only do most diet pills not work, but you risk side effects from these additives that have not been approved either for human consumption or for the purpose of weight loss. For example, pills that include laxatives can cause diarrhea, cramping and flatulence. Take caution and read the bottle before ingesting any capsules.

For more information on diet pills see the section on this topic.

© The Pink Fridge Online Magazine 2008 - Weight Loss

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