Over-The-Counter Weight Loss Pills and Dietary Supplements
You can find them at your local store, at a supermarket, at a health food store or online. They promise to help you lose weight and keep you healthy at the same time.
That’s why more and more people tend to choose them, thinking that if they contain natural ingredients they can be a safe alternative to diet pills. But are they?
What people don’t know is that these pills and supplements are still drugs and can be as harmful as diet pills or even more. That’s why their use should be closely monitored by a doctor. Some of them may contain very harmful substances, like:
- Ephedra and its substitutes. Ephedra acts like a stimulant which constricts blood vessels and increases the blood pressure and heart rate, leading to heart attacks and in some cases, death.
- Gamma-hydroxybutyrate. Another substance that these pills contain, that is considered highly risky and to be used with precaution, is gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB). The side-effects can be: headache, nausea, dizziness, somnolence, vomiting, urinary incontinence, confusion, dyspnea, tremor, vertigo, blurred vision and others. An overdose from these pills can be fatal.
Given the fact that most dietary supplements are indeed made out of natural substances, the side-effects that these supplements can generate are very atypical.
The FDA (US Food and Drugs Administration) regulates all of these pills and supplements, providing information to the consumers about their ingredients and side-effects. Not doing your homework before taking these pills and supplements doesn’t have an excuse anymore.
Over-the-counter pills and supplements can be effective when taken as prescribed by a doctor or a nutritionist. Still, don’t think of them as a magic wand that can transform you body over the night.
It is true that they can speed up your metabolism and burn fat at a higher rate, but to get the maximum benefits from them means also doing light exercises and having a proper and balanced diet.
If you are taking any other medication for a disease, you might want to check with your doctor before including these pills into your weight loss program.
Also, don’t buy the cheap versions of these pills or supplements: they might not be as effective as the real ones and can also be risky for your health.
RSS Trackback URL 19. November 2010 (15:34)
Filed under: Diet Pills by Alice in Dietland
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