If you decide to take diet pills to help boost your weight loss efforts, in most cases the safest and most effective drugs are available only by prescription, warns MayoClinic.com. Most over-the-counter diet pills have unsafe or ineffective ingredients, but even prescription diet pills and Food and Drug Administration-approved over-the-counter remedies carry a risk of potentially serious side effects, so be careful before taking any diet drug, especially if you have a pre-existing health condition such as diabetes or hypertension.
OTC Basics
The only over-the-counter diet pill approved by the Food and Drug Administration is Alli. Alli consists of the drug orlistat, which blocks fat from being digested in your food and passes it out through your bowel movements, according to PubMed Health. Many over-the-counter diet aids such as bitter orange and hoodia are possibly unsafe and lack sufficient evidence to prove that they are effective for weight loss. Some diet supplements, such as green tea extract, are safe but might not necessarily help you lose weight.
Banned Supplements
The Food and Drug Administration banned several over-the-counter and prescription diet drugs in the 1990s and 2000s. Officials declared the appetite suppressant fenfluramine, found in the now-banned prescription fen-phen, responsible for severe and sometimes fatal heart and lung damage. Over-the-counter diet aids such as ephedra, ephedrine alkaloids, ma huang, country mallow and heartleaf also are banned due to the potential to cause serious cardiac problems.
Prescription Appetite Suppressants
If you need to lose a significant amount of excess weight, your doctor might prescribe appetite suppressants, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. The most popular prescription diet aid in the United States is phentermine, which helps decrease your appetite. Diethylpropion and phendimetrazine are two other FDA-approved appetite suppressants. But all of these drugs are not suitable for long-term use; you should not take appetite suppressants if you have a history of substance abuse or high blood pressure.
Prescription Fat-Blockers
You can lose an additional 5 to 7 lbs. per year by using prescription orlistat or Xenical, according to MayoClinic.com. Xenical consists of 120 mg of orlistat and works similarly to Alli, but orlistat might cause severe liver damage in some people; if you experience jaundice, dark-colored urine or light-colored stools while taking Xenical or Alli, you should immediately call a doctor. Also, if you eat high-fat meals while taking orlistat you are more prone to suffer loss of control of your bowel movements.
Member Comments