Introduction
These days, skinny bodies are viewed as an aesthetic ideal, and many individuals yearn to be thin. As a result, diet pills are widely available, and some are even easy to get without a prescription. Do these diet pills actually work and pose no risk to our health?
What are diet pills?
Additionally, it was discovered that the weight loss remedies that doctors themselves recommended were risky and useless.
Diet pills have been very popular with people who want to lose weight for years. And by ingesting it, people expect the following effects:
- Feeling full even if you don’t eat much
- A decline in appetite for food
- Non-absorption of fat
- Metabolic acceleration for fat burning
People’s bodies slow down the process of making and storing fat in their bodies.
However, among the various diet pills that exist in the world, not all of these needs can be satisfied. Instead, diet pills have a wider range.
Fat inhibitor: A drug that functions to reduce the amount of fat absorbed by the body through food when people eat to help them lose weight and is made to work in the gastrointestinal tract.
Appetite inhibitor: This kind of diet pill stimulates people’s brains to reduce their appetite and make them feel full.
Stimulants: Stimulants affect people’s central nervous systems to suppress appetite and increase energy production (Bonneau, 2022).
How do diet pills work?
Panchal (2021) states diet pills work in many different ways, and they can give you more energy, which helps people burn a lot of calories by allowing them to walk more during the day and move their bodies a lot.
Concentration. Diet pills help people focus on exercising while they exercise, which also allows them to burn more calories.
Calorie burn. Diet pills may have natural ingredients that improve people’s capacity for burning energy that is embedded in their bodies, which helps them burn additional calories.
Makes you feel less hungry. It makes people feel fuller and reduces their desire to eat snacks.
Fat-binding properties. Among the various weight-loss drugs, there are certain pills that combine fat from food with dietary fiber to remove fat. This allows the combined mass to be released without being absorbed by the human body.
Carb Brokers. In addition, there are pills that help you lose weight as a way to prevent digestive enzymes from causing parts of carbohydrates from food to be released out of the body through the intestines without being digested in the human body.
An appetite suppressant. Among various diet pills, diet pills containing Hoodia gordonii, which is a plant ingredient, are known to help people lose weight by suppressing their appetite. However, there are limited studies that can prove that this actually works.
A metabolic promoter. There are also certain diet pills that have capsicum and chili, which speed up a person’s metabolism and help them burn more calories and lose weight in the process.
Fat breakdown. Also, there are diet pills that inhibit digestive enzymes that help break down fat in the human body, preventing their bodies from absorbing fat. But these pills can only be prescribed to people who change their lifestyle for a diet and fail to lose weight despite doing a lot of physical activity.
What are the side effects of diet pills?
According to Heid (2018), the following are the potential side effects of diet pills:
Heart damage
Many of the diet pills promote the human body’s heart rate and metabolism, allowing it to burn a lot of energy, says Dr. Moyard. Diet pills can cause malfunction or damage to the heart valve and an irregular heartbeat because they artificially increase a person’s heart rate through this drug.
Stroke risk
Many of the substances usually found in diet pills are stimulants and are present to stimulate the heart to beat faster. And this stimulation can cause bleeding or strokes in a person’s brain.
Impaired liver function
The liver is an important human organ. The human body uses the liver to process nutrients in food and also uses the liver to stabilize blood sugar and wash away toxic substances present in their bodies. However, taking diet pills may make the liver unable to perform these functions properly, says Dr. Moyad.
Itchy and red skin
Dinitrophenol (DNP), a dangerous chemical that is banned from being added to diet pills, is still easy to find in diet pills.
It causes damage by excessively promoting a person’s metabolism and heart rate. However, the most frequent side effect of DNP is inflammation of the skin and itching due to allergic reactions. In addition, taking this diet medicine can cause liver damage and turn the skin yellow.
Impaired vision
It has been found that cataract-related vision problems can be caused by DNP.
Cataract is a turbid defect in the lens of the human eye, and by using DNP, it can affect blood cell production and changes in health to promote cataract development. Researchers say that not only can it cause permanently impaired vision, but it can also develop into a problem with what they perceive.
Dizziness and ringing in your ears
If you look at the phrase “green tea extract” on the label surrounding the diet pills, you may think it’s “natural” and harmless to our bodies.
Citing studies related to poor iron absorption, dizziness, increased blood pressure, ringing in the ears, and liver damage, green tea extract is said to be one of the 15 supplementary ingredients that must be avoided. However, drinking plain green tea is not harmful to the body.
It can also be confirmed by consumer data from the U.S. National Institute of Health says that many of these side effects are related to green tea extracts.
Conclusion
If you want to lose weight now, instead of thinking about losing weight in a short period of time by taking diet pills that are likely to have side effects, focus on building healthy habits and working on them in the long run. Steady exercise, plenty of sleep and water, and a vegetarian diet will help you lose weight and make your body healthy.
References
Bonneau, Claire. “The Truth behind Diet Pills — They Don’t Work and Can Be Dangerous.” HealthMatch, 2 Nov. 2022, healthmatch.io/weight-management/the-truth-behind-diet-pills#overview. [Accessed 27 April 2023.]
Panchal, Bhupesh . “Guide to Weight Loss Pills and Supplements | Holland & Barrett.” Www.hollandandbarrett.com, 6 Aug. 2021, www.hollandandbarrett.com/the-health-hub/weight-management/weight-loss/guide-weight-loss-pills-supplements/. [Accessed 27 April 2023.]
HEID, MARKHAM. “6 Serious Side Effects of Taking Weight Loss Supplements.” Men’s Health, 6 Feb. 2018, www.menshealth.com/health/a19547146/weight-loss-supplement-side-effects/. [Accessed 27 April 2023.]
