DIET
DRUGS
General Philosophy
More than 150,000 Canadians took the diet drugs, sold under the names
Ponderal and Redux before they were removed from pharmacies in 1997.
International studies showed that taking the drugs for more than three
months put a patient at much greater risk of developing leaky heart valves or of
contracting the normally rare Primary Pulmonary Hypertension, or PPH. The disease causes
shortness of breath, dizziness and heart failure. PPH kills 60 per cent of its victims
within two years.
What is Primary Pulmonary Hypertension?
Primary pulmonary hypertension is a high blood pressure inside the
circulation in the lungs and when patients have high blood pressure inside the lungs, it
puts strain on the right side of the heart and eventually the right side of the heart
fails and eventually, the patients die.
Only 50 per cent of people diagnosed with this disease survive more than
five years. Outside of a lung transplant, there is almost nothing doctors can do, although
new drugs are currently being tested.
Primary pulmonary hypertension or p.p.h. is an extremely rare disease.
It strikes only one to two per million in the normal population. Among people taking the
diet drugs the risk increases by 23 times, that translates to 23 to 46 people per
million, about the same risk of a person having a severe allergic reaction to penicillin.
Alternatives?
The basic problem is always a reluctance to take significant action to alter lifestyles
and diets. Call it laziness, lethargy, poor motivation, habit, training, whatever the
reason, we must choose another alternative.
If you make weight loss and healthful lifestyles a game, a hobby, this "lifestyle
issue" can be fun and rewarding, with less of a desire to win )or lose) the diet drug
lottery - a small chance that pills will really work for you, or harm you.
Forget the magic cure search. Rather, spend the time researching the net for awesome
recipes, going for a walk, or practicing your tai chi.
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