Imported Weight Loss Prescription from South America Are Dangerous to Dieters

Dieters and healthcare professionals need to be made aware of the range of significant effects of these weight loss pills to allow them to identify and treat those consumers presenting unexplained side effects, medical issues and symptoms.

While the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has barred the majority of amphetamine-based appetite suppressants, many are still prescribed in other parts of the world, including South America. The second most often prescribed amphetamine-based appetite suppressant worldwide is fenproporex. It is known to be addictive and is rapidly converted into amphetamine in the body. The international availability of fenproporex, combined with Internet sales and other illegal markets, have led to its availability in the U.S.A., despite an FDA ban. Most medical professionals in the USA are unaware of the existence of these diet medication combining fenproporex and benzodiazepines, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, diuretics, laxatives, thyroid hormones and other substances.

Findings reported by Dr. Pieter Cohen from the Department of Internal Medicine at the Cambridge Health Alliance in the US and Harvard Medical School, have recently been published online in Springer's Journal of General Internal Medicine. To illustrate the risks posed by taking these diet pills, Dr. Cohen reviewed two case reports of patients taking appetite blockers containing fenproporex, illegally imported from Brazil. In the first case, a 26 year-old woman suffered from intermittent chest pains, palpitations, headaches and insomnia for two years. She consulted her doctor numerous times over the two-year period for these unexplained symptoms. Her urine tested positive for amphetamines and benzodiazepines, and both fenproporex and chlordiazepoxide were present in her pills. Her symptoms disappeared after she stopped taking the imported pills. In a second case, a 38 year-old man tested positive for amphetamines after an occupational urine screening test and was suspended from work. Both fenproporex and fluoxetine were detected in his imported appetite depressors medication. While he was taking the appetite blockers drug he also experienced insomnia and palpitations, symptoms which disappeared after he stopped taking the prescription. In both cases, not all the substances detected in the pills matched the ingredients on the weightloss product's labels.

Because of the ease of availability of these appetite suppressors weightloss pills over the Internet amongst others, the health and economic consequences of weight-loss pill use are likely to be widespread within certain communities in the US, according to Dr Cohen. He recommends that health professionals be made aware of the composition and dangers of the fenproporex-based weightloss meds imported from South America. He concludes that "Given the wide variety of potential adverse effects from the medications included in these diet medication, patients attempting todrop weight who experience unexplained side-effects should be specifically questioned regarding the use of imported weightloss pills."

Clearly there is demand in the USA for effective diet pills, however customers should not resort to unsafe and illegal overseas pharmacies, rather, there are strong appetite depressors diet products right here in the USA, without the illegal drugs that show up regularly in drug tests. Consumers should conduct research for top rated safe diet pills sites.