THE DANGERS OF DIET AIDS
About a month ago, I stepped onto my bathroom scales. When I looked down at the numbers, my fears were confirmed: I had gained 5 pounds. Overcome with a desire to shed this unwanted extra weight, I decided to join millions of Americans just like me, and buy some sort of diet aid to help me along. I had no idea what to look for, what to avoid, and possible side effects, so I began to research the different types of diet aids, both chemical and herbal, and was hit with some very disturbing facts.
It has been estimated that nearly 10 million women in the U.S. buy over-the-counter diet aids.(Cottrell, 99) Diet aids come in the form of pills, tablets, capsules, powders, milkshakes, herbal teas, and candies. They work in one of two ways, either by suppressing the appetite or by producing a feeling of fullness that encourages the eater to limit her food consumption.(Cottrell, 99) This feeling of fullness is often brought about by the ingredient guar gum, which forms a gel in the stomach. It has not been proven, though, that guar gum has a benefit for weight reduction.(Cottrell, 99)
Amphetamines, which suppress the appetite, are a common ingredient in many over-the-counter diet aids. They are also commonly found in other drugs such as Speed, Crystal, White Crosses, 357 Magnums, Black Beauties, Crank, Ice, and Meth, most of which are illegal.(Cottrell, 99) Amphetamines increase heart and breathing rates and blood pressure, and dilate pupils. Users can also experience a dry mouth, sweating, headache, blurred vision, dizziness, sleeplessness, and anxiety.(Cottrell, 100) Extremely high doses can cause usersto flush or become pale; they can cause a rapid or irregular heartbeat, tremors, loss of coordination and even physical collapse.(Cottrell, 101) Toxic psychosis, delusional thinking and even death can also occur. Long-term heavy use of amphetamines can lead to malnutrition, skin disorders, ulcers, and various diseases that come from vitamin deficiencies.(Cottrell, 101) Lack of sleep, weight loss, and depression also result from regular use. When people stop using amphetamines abruptly, they may experience fatigue, long periods of sleep, irritability, extreme hunger and depression.(Cottrell, 101) The length and severity of the depression seems to be related to how much and how often the amphetamines were used.(Cottrell, 101)
Another common ingredient that is chemically related to the amphetamine, is Phenylpropanolamine (PPA), the only FDA-approved over-the-counter weight loss drug.(Cottrell, 100) PPA, the active ingredient in Dexatrim, Acutrim, and most other diet aids, acts on the appetite center in the brain, the hypothalamus, reducing the desire to eat.
Recently, another weight loss supplement has stepped into the ever-increasing market. This drug, called Stimulife 750, is a supposedly all-natural herbal supplement that promotes weight loss without any effort from the client. Both the parent company – Stimulife International – and various distributors of Stimulife 750 make bold blanket statements such as “Stimulife 750 has everything good and nothing bad,” which set the success of the pill far higher than is possible. Furthermore, these individuals attempting to sell the product use a variety of marketing techniques to encourage purchasing the supplement; however, they provide no scientific evidence to support the claims they make regarding the safety and effectiveness of the product. By appealing to the clients’ desire for a natural and easy way to lose weight, providing pseudo-scientific statements to convey a sense of authenticity to the product, and befriending the client by seeming to care for their best interests, the distributers attempt to woo more clients. However, Stimulife 750 contains many ingredients included in other “unsafe” weight loss supplements and scientific research shows no clear evidence that Stimulife 750 is any more effective or safe as other diet pills.
Amphetamines produce feelings of euphoria, relieve fatigue, improve performance, increase activity, and suppress appetite. Euphoric effects associated with the use of amphetamines, increase potential for abuse. Consequently, prolonged use of amphetamines may lead to drug dependence and tolerance. Desired effects are only achieved by increasing to higher doses of amphetamine, which can result in an acute overdose. Seizures, hypertension, tachycardia, hyperthermia, psychosis, hallucinations, stroke, or death can be experienced. Additional reports revealed that those who abuse amphetamines were significantly more likely to report using a greater number of illicit substances including nicotine, marijuana, cocaine, hallucinogens, and opiates.
Hodgkins, P., Shaw, M., McCarthy, S., & Sallee, F. R. (2012). The pharmacology and clinical outcomes of amphetamines to treat ADHD. CNS Drugs, 26(3), 245-68. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.2165/11599630-000000000-00000
Weight loss is a goal only a few have the knack and the ability to achieve, either via an efficient workout regimen or dieting, or both. Mostly, a combination of both works best and offers tremendous and desirable results. What about the rest? You don’t have to be left out of the fold anymore, because you can now use one or a combination of the many dietary supplements available today. However, as of now, our scrutiny is directed towards two; advocare catalyst vs thermoplus.
Like other amphetamines crystal also causes increased brain activity, decreased appetite and general sense of well being- that can last for approximately 6-8 hours.
Amphetamines also known as “speed” or “ice” Typically includes positively prescribed subjective effects such as an increased state of arousal, euphoria, increased energy and talkativeness, but also negative emotions including anxiety, paranoia or auditory and visual hallucinations. We do see that there could be beneficial and negative effects from this drug relatively speaking, but why do we classify amphetamines as harmful or harmless? Does the end outweigh the means? Let us look at a few scenarios.
“Sugar addiction is a rapidly growing epidemic (Teitelbaum, 2010).” According to researchers, on average an individual consumes one-hundred pounds of sugar each year. Americans spend billions of dollars a year on gym memberships, healthy foods and beverages, and exercise equipment. Despite the economic strain, Americans continue to make room in their budgets for weight loss products.
“…So many people want to know about diets because so many people are going to try them, but they don’t work … some weight will be lost temporarily.” Harvey Diamond, author, was speaking. “But let me ask you something – do you want to be healthy temporarily? No. But you want to lose weight temporarily. They’re – They have failures built right into them.”
A million types of fad diets promising people to lose weight by using drugs or specific diet plans such as 5:2, paleo, hormone cure, virgin, bulletproof. Moreover, each type of fad diets has own specific style. Studies show that 108 million people in US following fad diets (ABC News Staff, 2012). The fad diets are the same as fashion that people use it enthusiastically for a period of time to give them beauty, elegant and perfect appearance. A fad diet is the most dangerous type of diet and it causes many health problems. This paper will look at two areas, which are physical and mental problems. Fad diets is becoming more popular because the consumers spend a huge amount of their money to follow specific type of diets to lose their weight
With reference to the Scientific American article, the central tenet of a weight loss plan is stated to be a balanced diet. Restricting food groups is listed as a key mistake by dieters that should be avoided for health reasons. Eliezer often men...
According to recent statistics, every year Americans spend about $50 billion on products and services promoted to help them lose weight. Many of the overweight and obese people that join commercial weight loss programs are looking for a quick fix to lose the weight, such as fad diets and dietary supplements that are marketed to burn fat fast. However, many of these diets offer little success or success for a short time, resulting in many gaining the weight back a short time afterwards. Fad diets are “a trendy practice that has widespread appeal among a population. After a period, however, people lose interest in the practice, and it becomes no longer fashionable. People often lose weight while following fad diets, but usually regain much of
The appetite suppressors help reduce over eating and help people make healthier choices of what to eat. Normally when someone is really hungry they do not care what they eat as long as it is a lot. By controlling a person’s hunger, diet pills effect a person’s eating habits. So they help people make better choices on what to eat and how much. The way that diet pills help control hunger is by fooling the brain into thinking it is full. The brain needs a lot of energy to function and the brain gets that energy from sugar. When the blood sugar level is too low the body reacts by sending a signal to raise the blood sugar level by creating hunger. Some diet pills use a combination of amino acids and polysaccharides to supply the brain with unique intermediate metabolites, which are chemical compounds t...
A sad fact in American society is that thousands of people search for the elusive dream of being thin. On any given day, one finds neighbors, friends, and relatives on some kind of diet. Dieters assume various disguises, but the noteworthy ones are the "bandwagoneer," the "promiser" and the "lethal loser."
Amphetamines are typically used to provide the same effect that pure adrenaline does. The drug is specified for people with attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity as well as narcolepsy, although if you decide to abuse the drug and use it for recreational purposes you may start to feel paranoia and nervousness. Using amphetamines can also put a strain on the circulatory system by causing the user's blood pressure to increase suddenly. (Amphetamine) Long term psychological effects of the drug can cause something called amphetamine psychosis which is much like paranoid schizophrenia. This could lead towards hallucinations, paranoid delusions, and obsessions. (Amphetamine)