Diet Pills
America is a nation with a problem, a weight problem. Over one third of the United States population is over weight (Cameron 202). To combat this problem many people have chosen to take prescription diet pills. While medical experts continue to affirm that diet and exercise should remain the first line of defense in treating obesity, the use of drugs continues to receive attention in both the lay and professional literature. In fact, by 1996 doctors had written eighteen million prescriptions for the drug combination fenfluramine and phentermine. The major concern regarding the use of these drugs are their potential for producing life-threatening changes in cardiac valves (Gray 70). Diet drugs are far more dangerous than being slightly over weight, yet doctors continue to write prescriptions for drugs they know little about for people they know even less about. Many doctors feel that any side effect from any diet pill is safer than the risks that come with being obese. "Doctors, who have met with patients only once, will give out prescriptions for diet pills without a complete medical history, stating that there are many more side effects from being over weight than there are from taking diet
Pharmaceutical companies also claim "There is no conclusive evidence of cause-effect relationship between the use of the drugs fenfluramine and phentermine and development of heart valve disease (Mixing Diet Drugs 30). I have lost ninety pounds over the last three years, and it was done the old fashion way, diet and exercise. "A woman who wanted to lose fifteen pounds before she was to be married went to a doctor, who did not even take her blood pressure, and received the fatal prescription. As a person who has fought a weight problem all my life, and has a heart condition, I would never take a diet drug. Three years ago, you could hardly pick up a magazine or newspaper without catching the buzz about a pill called Redux that was going to revolutionize the way Americans lose weight. What Americans need is education about losing weight; we need to learn what options are out there for us besides putting drugs in our bodies. The people receiving the prescriptions for diet pills are mostly white women who are not more than ten to fifteen percent overweight. These companies claim that the drugs were all tested in Europe for at least a year and no problems with side effects were found (Welch 42). I still have a lot of weight to lose, yet I am healthier now than I have ever been. According to Katherine Cameron of Nutrition Today "By the 1970's the FDA knew there was a problem with diet pills; early diet pills caused mood swings personality changes and their use was wide spread and indiscriminate" (Cameron 207). We also need to start learning about the prevention of obesity rather than continue to spend billions of dollars on the treatment of obesity. "The public health effectiveness of phamoctherapy for obesity in reducing morbidity and mortality in the general population of obese persons is quitemodest" (Williamson 278). This is just another way of saying that the drugs are not doing the job they are supposed to do; they are just killing people. Diet pills should be taken off the market now; we have to start the education of American concerning weight loss sometime and we should start now, before we lose any more friends.
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