More and more people each day decide to buy diet pills in order to lose weight. All these beautiful commercials present us those long lasting images of perfect bodies but they sure do not tell us a thing about the potential dangers of diet pills. Just because you hear those pills are over-the-counter or "of herbal origin" it doesn't mean they don't have side effects.
Always think before you take any kind of pill especially if you are on medication from your doctor. Diet pills can have major interactions with the drugs you already might be taking so do not forget to ask your doctor if it is OK to start weight loss pills.
A major substance of many diet pills is caffeine. Despite its so wide spread use, caffeine can cause some of the dangers of diet pills. As it increases your metabolism and makes your heart beat faster it can make you feel jittery, dizzy and sleepless. On top of that, especially if you suffer from certain medical conditions or you are caffeine-sensitive, it can even cause irregular heartbeat and chest pain.
Some weight loss capsules contain a substance called synephrine or citrus aurantium. In common words this is derived from bitter orange and is used after the ban of ephedrine as a safe alternative. It is not as innocent as they promote it to be! Problems with the gastrointestinal tract-colitis- and heart conditions have been reported in people taking supplements containing synephrine.
Other diet tablets contain white willow bark. This has been used throughout ancient times and it has been found that is similar to aspirin. The active ingredient is salicin. The danger of these diet pills surface when aspirin sensitive people come to consume them. A series of side effects can also occur as with aspirin such as stomach pain, ulcer formation etc. A potential serious danger is salicin being consumed by people taking blood thinners and/or aspirin. This combination could tamper with your coagulation ability and could result in heavy bleeding.
Apart from these dangers of the above diet pills there are hundreds of ingredients inside them and since most of them lack original scientific researches it is unclear whether they are safe or not. One might add here that all prescribed pills can have side effects. This is true but the major difference is that prescribed drugs are scientifically proven to work, have well known side effects and doctors know how to manage them.
Always read the package of any diet pills you might consider to buy and be aware that what you are taking is by no means safer than a prescribed pill.
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