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Quotes about Diet Drug from the world's top natural health / natural living authors

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"A year later, the FDA pressed Wyeth to remove Redux and a similar diet drug called Pondimin from the market after doctors reported that they were injuring the heart valves of as many as a third of the patients who took them. By then millions of Americans had taken the drugs. The pills were later linked to dozens of deaths. Scientists rely on a system of self-policing to prevent science from being turned into science fiction. Most scientific journals employ this safeguard, which is known as peer review." - Melody Petersen, Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs (Get the book.)

"These people will keep going to doctors until they find one willing to write a prescription for a diet drug, and they usually don't have to search for long. Or, lured by the promise of near-magical weight loss, they pick up some ma huang or another dietary supplement at the drugstore. It's not surprising that the diet-drug indusrry is robust; not only is the idea of easy weight loss appealing, but the National Institutes of Health recommend that most obese Americans should undergo drug treatment, which means that 100 million Americans could be on drugs for obesity." - J. Douglas Bremner, Before You Take that Pill: Why the Drug Industry May Be Bad for Your Health (Get the book.)

"I have found that a combination of lifestyle change with any diet drug will allow a person with type 2 diabetes to eliminate medication or greatly reduce the amount needed almost immediately. Why Not Diet Drugs? The notion that diet drugs—like HCA or any other type— have an effect on type 2 diabetes might be hard to believe. Aren't these drugs aimed at making you lose weight by eating less? The answer is yes. Since the drugs make you lose weight, they have other effects on the human body as well. Several studies have shown the positive effects of diet drugs on type 2 diabetes." - Dr. Vern Cherewatenko and Paul Perry, The Diabetes Cure : A Natural Plan That Can Slow, Stop, Even Cure Type 2 Diabetes (Get the book.) "I have had the opportunity to see the effects of virtually every diet drug ever marketed on type 2 diabetes. I have found that a combination of lifestyle change with any diet drug will allow a person with type 2 diabetes to eliminate medication or greatly reduce the amount needed almost immediately. Why Not Diet Drugs? The notion that diet drugs—like HCA or any other type— have an effect on type 2 diabetes might be hard to believe. Aren't these drugs aimed at making you lose weight by eating less? The answer is yes." - Dr. Vern Cherewatenko and Paul Perry, The Diabetes Cure : A Natural Plan That Can Slow, Stop, Even Cure Type 2 Diabetes (Get the book.)

"Leo Lutwak, the lead FDA medical reviewer for the diet drug Redux (dexfenfluramine, an appetite suppressant), objected to approval of the drug. "I, as the primary reviewer, felt the drug had low effectiveness and very high risk for neurotoxicity and 72 pulmonary hypertension," Lutwak told the Los Angeles Times. In particular, Lutwak was concerned that the drug would cause pulmonary hypertension, a rare and potentially fatal respiratory disorder. Lutwak was not alone in his objection to the drug. His immediate supervisor at FDA, Dr. Solomon Sobel, opposed market approval." - Jonathan W. Emord, The Rise of Tyranny (Get the book.)

"Beware of the latest diet drug Orlistat, marketed under the name Alii and sanctioned by the FDA. This new wonder drug is actually a lower-dosage version of the old prescription drug Xenical, which has never shown to have any effects on fat reduction. Alii is the first drug of its kind sold without a prescription, and it is selling like hotcakes. But instead of enjoying a real hotcake, you may experience extremely unpleasant and embarrassing side effects, including gas with oily spotting, loose stools and abdominal pain." - Andreas Moritz, Timeless Secrets of Health & Rejuvenation: Unleash The Natural Healing Power That Lies Dormant Within You (Get the book.)

"We'll talk about a variety of other dangerous diet drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter a bit later, but for now, the story of fen-phen will demonstrate not only the dangers of a specific diet drug, but also the the duplicity and double-dealing of a major drug company. FEN-PHEN THE FAT KILLER ~ THE HUMAN KILLER In case you have not heard of the prescription diet drug commonly known as fen-phen, the drug refers to the use in combination of fenfluramine and phentermine." - American Medical Publishing, Prescription Medicines, Side Effects and Natural Alternatives (Get the book.)

"But if a drug compound with tissue-toughening properties interferes too often, the pump strains, puts a heavier load on other heart and lung functions, and can even shut down from overwork. The diet drug Redux was a grim case in point. Marketed by American Home Products (AHP), Redux worked by stimulating the release of the neurotransmitter serotonin, leading to appetite suppression. Unfortunately, Redux stimulated too much serotonin, and in the wrong organs — in the heart and in the lungs." - Greg Critser, Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies (Get the book.) "The most intriguing and troubling of these are the SSRIs, which, because of their passing resemblance to Redux, the diet drug whose serotonin-releasing properties caused primary pulmonary hypertension, have fallen under recent scrutiny. There are, to be fair, very few cases of SSRI-induced fatalities from pulmonary failure. But there is a persistent pattern, and it has not, so far, received much attention from the health media. The same can be said for a number of other drugs: there is no money for seemingly obscure drug-safety issues. But there are risks." - Greg Critser, Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies (Get the book.)

"Bear in mind from back in Chapter Two that Adderall was already taken off the market, under a different name, back in the 80s because of the dangers it displayed as a diet drug for adults. And now the latest manufacturer of the same amphetamine cocktail has the nerve to call stimulant treatment for children safe! Below this statement, the next paragraph begins with, "It is believed that medications like Adderall-XR may help restore a chemical balance in the areas of the brain that control our ability to focus and pay attention to tasks." - Fred A. Baughman, Jr., M.D. and Craig Hovey, The ADHD Fraud: How Psychiatry Makes "Patients" of Normal Children (Get the book.) "It hit the scene in a big way during the mid-90s, when Shire Pharmaceutical decided to overtake Ritalin with a product of its own and launched a multi-million dollar campaign to promote Adderall, a mix of amphetamine salts that had been a big money maker as a diet drug in years past but was taken off the market in the early 1980s because so many women became addicted to it (as we detailed in chapter two). Despite its sordid history Adderall, like Dexedrine before it, made a comeback as an ADHD drug, too dangerous for dieting adults but perfectly okay for fidgety kids." - Fred A. Baughman, Jr., M.D. and Craig Hovey, The ADHD Fraud: How Psychiatry Makes "Patients" of Normal Children (Get the book.)

"Perhaps the best example of an extremely dangerous diet drug is the now infamous combination of two different drugs called "fen-phen." The "fen" in fen-phen refers to Pondimin (fenfluramine) and Redux (dexfenfluramine), both sold by the American drug company Wyeth-Ayert Laboratories. We'll talk about a variety of other dangerous diet drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter a bit later, but for now, the story of fen-phen will demonstrate not only the dangers of a specific diet drug, but also the the duplicity and double-dealing of a major drug company." - American Medical Publishing, Prescription Medicines, Side Effects and Natural Alternatives (Get the book.)

"These are the things a company would try to affect when making a diet drug. In this purely pharmacological sense, our bodies can be seen as treasure chests of potential drug targets. The whole purpose of the pharmaceutical chemist is to tweak these biological mediators, which, in the case of obesity is to change in some basic way how food is translated first into energy, and then the excess into fat. The wonder of drugs is that they talk the same chemical language as our bodies, opening up or closing targets in the same way a key fits into a lock." - Jacky Law, Big Pharma: Exposing the Global Healthcare Agenda (Get the book.)

"A Mayo Clinic study, for example, linked the diet drug fen-phen to heart disease in women, resulting in a warning against its use from the doctors who conducted the research. An article in a recent issue of Hospital Practice discussed the positive effects of diet drugs on type 2 diabetes, but then issued a warning to doctors who might consider prescribing them to patients. "Given the risks and caveats associated with anorectic drug therapy," the authors wrote, "one might wonder whether the potential benefits are worth the effort." HCA, on the other hand, has no side effects." - Dr. Vern Cherewatenko and Paul Perry, The Diabetes Cure : A Natural Plan That Can Slow, Stop, Even Cure Type 2 Diabetes (Get the book.) "For example, a 1995 double-blind study in New Zealand found that insulin sensitivity was dramatically increased in patients taking dexfenfluramine, a popular diet drug. This insulin sensitivity increased after only one week of therapy and before any weight loss. Other studies have had the same results. Repeated controlled studies have shown "improved glycemic control" among people with type 2 diabetes through the use of diet drugs." - Dr. Vern Cherewatenko and Paul Perry, The Diabetes Cure : A Natural Plan That Can Slow, Stop, Even Cure Type 2 Diabetes (Get the book.)

"In May 1992, the journal Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics published the results of a diet drug study conducted by Dr. Michael Weintraub, a researcher at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. Weintraub's four-year clinical trial, funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, showed substantial weight loss by people who took the two drugs. Although each had been independently approved for weight loss years earlier by the FDA, the agency had never given its OK for their use in combination—meaning they were prescribed together off-label." - Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business (Get the book.) "The country's weight-loss programs, large and small, were swept up by the diet drug craze. Nutri-System Inc., one of the biggest and best known, converted nine of its Philadelphia-area offices to Nutri-RX Clinics that offered the fen-phen regimen and advertised two free months of the pills for dieters who switched from competitor Jenny Craig. Said Nutri-System's vice president of scientific affairs: "I don't believe it's another fad. I think you're seeing a new direction in the treatment of obesity." - Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business (Get the book.)

"Because of the diet drug craze at the time, we invited two well-known researchers, Dr. JoAnn Manson from Harvard Medical School and Dr. Gerald Faich at the University of Pennsylvania to write an accompanying editorial to put the complication in perspective. They wrote that drug treatment of obesity has its dangers, but they also cited the dangers of obesity, and they finally concluded that the risk of taking diet pills was less than the risk of remaining obese.5 Within hours after the commentary was published, the press reported that both Drs." - Jerome P. Kassirer, On the Take: How Medicine's Complicity with Big Business Can Endanger Your Health (Get the book.)

"Eventually, however, the diet drug market would pop. In the summer of 1997, a major journal article from the Mayo Clinic would indict fen-phen in a series of twenty-four cases of drug-induced heart valve damage. And, one year after its glowing endorsement of Redux and pharmaceutical treatments for obesity, The New England journal would call for a moratorium on diet drug use "for cosmetic purposes" and a reconsideration of the logic of approving Redux in the first place. Sales of Redux and fen-phen quickly dropped 40 percent." - Stephen Fried, Bitter Pills: Inside the Hazardous World of Legal Drugs (Get the book.)

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