ARE WEIGHT LOSS PILLS SAFE

Are Any Diet Pills Safe?

After all the fuss with Ephedra-based diet pills, it was only a matter of time before the alternatives were examined. Most over-the-counter diet pills tend to be concoctions of same collection of ingredients - basically appetite suppressants and/or metabolism "boosters".

A small study undertaken by the University of California is raising some more questions as to the safety of other "metabolism boosters".

For their study, reported in the American Journal of Medicine, the researchers had 10 healthy adults take Advantra Z, Xenadrine EFX and a placebo on three separate occasions. They then measured participants' short-term cardiovascular responses.
Compared with the placebo condition, Xenadrine boosted volunteers' blood pressure by between 9 and 10 points, on average, the study found. In contrast, Advantra did not appear to affect blood pressure.

And with both products, participants showed elevated heart rates 6 hours after taking the supplement.

These products both contain Citrus aurantium (bitter orange extract). This ingredient is in the same class of stimulants as Ephedra. What is interesting about this small piece of research is that the increase in blood pressure appears to come from the combination of caffeine and Citrus aurantium (and other herbs). Advantra has 8 times the amount of synephrine than that of Xenadrine EFX.

It seems that every diet pill has some kind of side effect - and the sad thing is, the effectiveness of these pills is questionable anyway. The way they are marketed as "safe" herbal pills is deceptive. It is likely that many people reaching for these pills already have health problems to begin with (such as high blood pressure and poor cardiovascular fitness) - which only serves to exacerbate the potential health risks.

Source: The American Journal of Medicine Volume 118, Issue 9 , September 2005, Pages 998-1003