Uncover The Dangers Of Diet Pills

Dangers diet pills....

Let's face it, as a nation, the United States has a weight problem. You can't escape hearing about it ad nauseum in the media or confronting the stark truth when you look in the mirror or step on the scales.

We all know by now that obesity can contribute to a host of serious health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. We all now know that being excessively overweight can shorten our lifespans.

But just as important to most people is the fact that we aren't very happy being fat.

Even if obesity didn't come with health problems, it can leave emotional and psychological scars as overweight people are discriminated against, suffer from lower self-esteem, less energy, less confidence, poorer sex lives, and simply don't tend to enjoy life as much as those people who are in shape with trim bodies.

That explains why weight loss and diet pills are a huge multi-billion dollar industry.

Although many of these diet pills can indeed work, they come with their downside too: the dangers of diet pills.

We can't possible cover in this short article all of the potential dangers diet pills, but we'll go over some of the ones that stand out the most to us so you can make a more informed choice if this is the route you want to go.

And in the event you do decide to use diet pills, it's a really good idea to let your doctor know.

Some of the most prominent dangers of diet pills include:

• possible addiction
• racing heart beats, heart palpitations
• elevated blood pressure
• dizziness
• nausea
• nervousness
• jitters
• insomnia
• depression
• impotence

Again, there are many more potential dangers diet pills than what we've just listed.

Also, it's important to note that there are both prescription diet pills and over the counter diet pills, and each of them will have different side effects and dangers.

The aforementioned list is just a very general guideline.

In addition, keep in mind that just because something is over the counter doesn't necessarily mean it's safer.

For example, herbal diet pills that contained ephedra were sold without a prescription and were then implicated in the deaths of several people before ephedra was banned.

The problem was that powerful stimulants like ephedra could be abused in the wrong hands or be deadly to people with a history of certain medical conditions.

Is there an Alternative Diet Pill?

One substance that is garnering a lot of media attention recently is called hoodia gordonii. Perhaps you've seen some of the coverage on the Today Show with Katie Couric or on CBS's 60 minutes. Or maybe you even read about it in Oprah's magazine or the BBC. Hoodia seems to be a very safe plant used without the typical dangers of diet pills.

In fact, CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl reported that: "It's very different from diet stimulants like Ephedra and Phenfen that are now banned because of dangerous side effects. Hoodia doesn't stimulate at all. Scientists say it fools the brain by making you think you're full, even if you've eaten just a morsel."

In one clinical study done to date, the active ingredient in hoodia gordonii -- called P57 -- caused the participants using it to lose weight, reduce their bodyfat to a statistically significant degree, and they experienced no negative side effects.

Although hoodia does not seem to have any of the typical dangers of diet pills do not assume this means its perfectly safe. Its safety profile has yet to be established with further larger scale and longer term studies.

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