FDA warns public vs slimming, anti-obesity pills

MANILA, Philippines - The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sounded an alarm yesterday regarding several banned and unregistered slimming and anti-obesity pills sold on the Internet and in stores all over the country.

These products “may contain harmful ingredients,” FDA acting director general Dr. Kenneth Hartigan-Go said. He noted that from 2010 to 2012, the FDA has banned and confiscated at least 26 slimming products marketed as oral capsules or coffee drinks for containing “amphetamine, sibutramine and steroids.”

He listed the products as Hokkaido Slimming Pills, Ballet Dancer Fat Reducing, Bio-Lissom Fat Reducing, Brazilian Slimming Coffee, Cell Life Slimming Coffee, Elegant Shape Fat Reducing, Goodliness Fat Reducing, Happyslim, Leisure 18 Slimming Coffee, Lightness Fat Reducing, Maggie Fitness Essence, Me i Shen Ting Anti-Obesity, Modeling Fat-Reducing, New Original Lightness Fat-Reducing, Pearl White Slimming, Perfect Figure Slimming, Perfect Slim Fat Reduction Cosmetic, Perfect Slim Purely Natural Fat Reduction Cosmetic , Pill for Weight Reduction, Pretty Model, Qiaomei Fat Binder, Qi Xian Nu, Seven Days Miracle, Shaping Body Fat Loss, Slim and Beauty Slimming, Slim Up Extra Whitening and Reducing, and Xianzimei Fat Reduction.

Go warned that amphetamines could cause “irregular heartbeat, confusion, urine retention and painful urination, hyperthermia, hyperreflexia (excessive nervous system response to stimuli), muscle pain, severe agitation, rapid breathing, and tremor.”

Sibutramine, on other hand, has been shown in a study to increase the risk of “non-fatal” heart attack and stroke as well as death by 16 percent. The same study showed that the users did not lose much weight.