"Losing money and getting sick" when taking weight loss pills

(Baonghean) - Losing weight to maintain health and shape is necessary, however recently many people prefer to use functional foods that have the effect of rapid weight loss. This not only has the opposite effect but also endangers the health and life of the user.

Risks of weight loss pills

Recently, netizens were in an uproar when on Facebook, a user named Nguyen HA shared a status saying that she was “feeling confused when she had to be hospitalized with liver enzymes increased 200 times”. The reason HA gave was because she regularly used weight loss pills bought online from an acquaintance.

Weight loss drugs and dietary supplements account for a large market share in pharmacies. Photo: TN

For more than two years now, she has been using this weight loss pill as a “miracle drug”. HA continued to share: “The other day, while walking, I suddenly felt weak in the legs and fell down in the school yard and fainted. When I woke up, I found myself in the hospital. After doing the tests, I was diagnosed with acute hepatitis when the GOP index (liver enzyme index) increased beyond the allowable threshold, many times higher. Now my eyes and skin have turned pale yellow. It is truly “misfortunes never come singly”.

Weight loss pills are popular and are sold at all drugstores. Photo: Thanh Nga

This is one of the cases with obvious complications due to taking weight loss pills for a long time, however, most people often stop taking the pills after a short time of following the "no need to reduce food intake, no need to exercise" route, because they feel very tired, have a poor appetite and lose weight quickly. Ms. Lam Oanh in Hung Loc commune (Vinh city) said: "I only took 3 pills but could not work, felt extremely tired". Although Lam Oanh lost 3 kg in just one week, after stopping the pills, she ate more to compensate, because she always felt dizzy and had low blood pressure.

So after two weeks of stopping the diet pills, her weight index tended to increase compared to before taking them. So it was a waste of money, because a bottle of diet pills that Lam Oanh was advised to use by a friend cost up to 800 thousand VND.

Unlike the cases of implementing the super fast weight loss method mentioned above, nowadays many people use functional foods (FF) to lose weight, with the formula of replacing meals or eating with main meals. Following this method, many people have lost 8-10 kg in just 1 year.

Ms. Tran Thi Hai Yen (Hong Son Ward, Vinh City) said: "My friends and I have been using this method for many months and found it effective. However, I am still wondering if I can maintain my lost weight if I stop using this product, because this dietary supplement is not cheap."

But what Ms. Hai Yen and many people are wondering is whether the advertised dietary supplement with the main ingredient being genetically modified grains is really good for health, and whether long-term use will cause harm to the body.

Quality cannot be verified

According to the owner of a pharmacy on Nguyen Phong Sac Street (Vinh City), all the weight loss drugs sold at the pharmacy have clear origins, and are imported from Taiwan, many of which are produced domestically. The store owner said: “Currently, many people are asking to buy Lishou, a weight loss drug that gives clear results after 3 days of taking it. “However, users feel very tired.”

However, when asked why it is still selling well and still circulating, the pharmacy owner said: "Because it still has clear records, so it cannot be said that this is a floating drug. The only thing is that it has side effects such as loss of appetite, fatigue and diarrhea." And the store owner added: "You should not use any weight loss pills, because there is no medicine here that reduces weight slowly. There is only the type that reduces weight quickly, losing 3-4 kg in 1 week is easy."

Unlike the weight loss pills sold in pharmacies, dietary supplements are sold through a separate sales system and are promoted very scientifically, so more and more people trust them. Attending a sales session of a dietary supplement brand, listening to the staff here instructing on how to use dietary supplements to bring the body to the ideal weight, it sounds very "pleasing to the ear", however, when tracing the origin of the product, the staff only said "there is a single sales system in Ho Chi Minh City and it is imported from the US".

Doctor Hoang Quoc Son - Acting Head of the Food Safety Department said: "We cannot conclude that the dietary supplements currently circulating at drugstores are of poor quality, because in reality there has been no inspection of this product at drugstores or small food stalls specializing in selling dietary supplements."

"In the near future, we will consult with the Department of Health inspectors to have a mechanism to more closely inspect the consumption and promotion of dietary supplements in the province," said Mr. Son.

Thanh Nga