ED Information

-Diet pills are much less closely monitored than ordinary drugs - ordinary drugs have to be proved safe before they are used, diet pills don’t and need to be proved dangerous before they are removed from the market.

-Most diet pills are addictive, and so once you start using them it is very hard to stop. Some contain laxatives which fool you into thinking you’re losing weight when in fact it’s only water weight.

-Many diet pills use words such as “herbal” and “natural” to fool you into thinking they are harmless. However they can contain too much of a vitamin, mineral or herb and therefore can be toxic.

-Diet pills cause a wide range of side effects including nervousness, restlessness, insomnia, high blood pressure, fatigue and hyperactivity, heart arrhythmias and palpitations, congestive heart failure or heart attack, stroke, headaches, dry mouth, vomiting and diarrhoea or constipation, intestinal disturbances, tightness in chest, tingling in extremities, excessive perspiration, dizziness, disruption in menstrual cycle, change in sex drive, hair loss, blurred vision, fever and urinary tract problems.

-Overdoses can cause tremors, confusion, hallucinations, shallow breathing, renal failure, heart attack and convulsions.

-Ephedra (Ephedrine Hydrochloride) is a drug used for treating asthma and allergies, and is also a well known diet pill which has been banned due to adverse side-effects including hypertension (elevated blood pressure), palpitations (rapid heart rate), nerve damage, muscle injury, severe depression, anxiety, psychosis, stroke, memory loss, heart rate irregularities, insomnia, nervousness, tremors, seizures, heart attacks, and death.

-Fakes - there are a lot of fake diet pills on the market which can be made of things such as chalk, flour and sugar; there are also “diet pills” which are actually other drugs, for example painkillers. These can be lethal. An example of this is that two thirds of hoodia pills on sale in the USA are fakes.