It might be a Temporary Quick Solution, but the Long-Term Effect is Harmful
Tuesday, 05 December 2006
JEDDAH: Najat Qushmaq, a student at a local college, has seen first-hand what diet pills can do to people. For Qushmaq's sister, it started with a few pills a friend brought for her from Malaysia. Then came the headaches, low blood pressure and exhaustion. "My sister knew that it wasn't good for her but she kept it a secret. Then she had to tell us because she got really sick," said the 23-year-old Qushmaq. Her sister eventually required complete bed rest and it took her a month to recover from the damage the pills had done.
When a nutritionist told Walaa Ahmed Kazem that she was underweight, the 23-year-old did not believe him. "He didn't convince me, because I didn't feel like my body was perfect. I thought I still needed to lose weight."
Kazem tried a herbal remedy three times a day for a month. Having experienced dizziness while taking the medication, she eventually quit the pills.
"I was told they were healthy because it's a natural medicine," she said. "Its purpose was not to make you lose weight, but to make your stomach feel full."
Faced with body image issues or actual obesity, many people are turning to diet pills as a quick solution. While drug companies tout slogans like "diet without deprivation," health experts are warning against the effects of these medications. For those taking either prescription and non-prescription medication, there is the risk of disastrous results.
According to Sumaya Saleh Suleiman, a clinical dietician at the Saudi-German hospital, these pills can act in several different ways on the body. One kind of pill blocks fat from being absorbed, while others block carbohydrates. In this way, there are no dietary restrictions put on the person taking the fat-blocking pills.
On the other hand, pills that are appetite suppressants act on the central nervous system and convince your brain that you are not hungry. The result is that the person eats less, and should subsequently lose weight. Other forms of diet pills can increase the basal metabolic rate, which allows people to burn more fat.
In pharmacies, there are at least four kinds of pills for sale. Fat-Block, Xenical, and Chitocal are all pills that claim to block fat from being absorbed by the body, while Reductil is an appetite suppressant. Are these pills the answer to our diet problems? For Suleiman, the answer is almost always no.
While many patients come to her office expecting a quick fix in the form of a pill, most of the time she refuses to give them medication. She usually asks them to try a balanced diet with regular exercise, but many lack the drive and discipline to even try. Instead, they turn to herbal and other forms of diet remedies that are widely available in the kingdom.
In cases where people insist on taking diet medication, Suleiman urged that they must seek the supervision of a doctor, since some of these medications can have dangerous side effects. "These pills can cause heart problems, irregular breathing and even fatal reactions," she said. They can also overwork the liver, causing serious damage or even failure.
Particularly dangerous is the phenomenon of taking herbal and non-prescription medications. "Some of these herbs may contain toxins and damage the liver. I have many cases where patients come to the clinic after using herbs, and they are suffering from diarrhea, vomiting, and dehydration," she said. "With prescription medication, at least there are contra-indication warnings, side effects and dosage instructions. Herbs don't have this."
Dr. Sawsan Majaali, the Nursing Program director and acting vice dean for Students at Dar Al-Hekma College, argues that even the prescription diet pills pose a danger to health.
"These pills can cause depression and hormonal imbalance - they play around with the chemistry of the body," she said. "We're in such a rush to find the 'magic pill' that these pills are not tested in the long run. In fact, the majority of pills are found to be unsafe after some time. They come on the market as 'safe' pills but later on cause side effects. It might be a quick solution for now, but the cumulative effect is harmful."
For this reason, Qushmaq the young college student, refuses to take pills. However, she knows that use of diet pills will not go away. "It's an obsession. The dieters think they can lose all the weight in one week and they don't have the patience to diet properly," she said.
According to Dr. Majaali, it is because they are looking for the 'magic pill'. Unfortunately, said Majaali, drug companies are promising to deliver exactly that. They propose a seemingly perfect solution to struggling dieters - continue with your bad behavior and this pill will take care of your problems.
However, there is no such thing as a magic pill. The only long-term solution for weight loss is the combination of a balanced diet and exercise. Even if diet pills do work in the short term, they cannot reverse the bad habits that always lead to weight gain. So even if one manages to stay healthy while taking diet pills, they will always have to change their habits once they stop taking the pills.
By Aisha Jamal
© The Saudi Gazette 2006
