Diet & Weight Loss: Would You Risk Heart Attack or Stroke To Take A Diet Pill?

I have taken Phentermine for a number of years with monthly checkups with my doctor. It's interesting that people don't care to find blame with known causes of illness side effects and pin their problems on the easiest 'unknown'.

I didn't even realize Phentermine was still being prescribed. Fen-Phen has been off the market since the late 90's, I just assumed Phentermine was also not being used. I was shocked when I looked it up and found that it is still being used as an appetite suppressant.

I'm sorry for what happened to you, and I think you should continue to speak out about the risks and dangers of this drug. Even if just one person who is considering (or taking) Phentermine reads your story and decides not to use it, you've potentially saved someone from going through the pain you have be through.

I hope you continue to make a full recovery.

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
Also at Catherine-Morgan.com ( http://catherine-morgan.com/ )

I took Phentermine on and off after each of my three pregnancies. I used it on and off for 10 years - until 2007.

I had a stroke that year at 41.

I did have other risk factors - smoking, high cholesterol, etc - but they ran so many tests and couldn't find a smoking gun.

I asked about the phentermine, but it was waved off. I am convinced this extended use is what caused my stroke.

I don't know alot of technical terms but my stroke was in the right front part of my brain. The same place I was waking up with searing headaches alot while I was taking Phentermine.

They did the procedure where they put a shunt in my groin and run the tube up to my brain to dissolve the clots. They worked on me for 6 hours. I had one or more large clots, plus many others. Thanks to the quick action of the hospital and surgeon, I am mostly recovered with only small speech and mobility problems.

I feel like I have a story to tell that nobody wants to hear.

Those of you who take Phentermine, Please don't take it for more than 6 months. I know it's hard to break away from it because it does kill your appetite and has a stimulant effect.

I'm convinced it's dangerous.

I didn't have any cardiac problems after taking it. I really think the problems people had may have been partly due to them not eating properly while on it. Often friends of mine would go days without protein because they weren't hungry.

I lost weight and was able to have a normal relationship with food rather than the binge and crave relationship I have most times. I was able to eat a small salad and feel satisfied. I didn't emotionally crave food even when I just ate.

I had to go off of it abruptly when I lost my job and my insurance and the weight crept back on due in part to depression from being jobless, single and hundreds of miles away from home.

Middle-Aged-Diva

I have to agree with Kate.si

Women who don't have weight issues can't possibly understand--it can be explained to you a million times but unless you have the same issue there is no way you can get it-- so it's easy for them to sit in judgment.

It's just like I am with drug and alcohol addicts--I don't get it and will never get it. All they can do is tell me what it's like but I can not possibly relate. At all.

I also took fen-phen years ago and it was a miracle drug for me as well.

I remember thinking "oh, THIS is the relationship 'normal' people have with food!" That's how stark a contrast it is.

So why would we take a pill? Because it's the thing that normalizes our brain and body's relationshp with food.

I wouldn't take it now, because I DO believe the health warnings, but I can tell you that it was the best thing I ever did to lose weight. Unfortunately, the risk is too great.

I would caution you against thinking you have the answers when you don't have the problem.

I never think pills are the answer to weight-loss. And I hadn't heard about this one, but I did just find this on the Internet...

Online hCG Sales Spark Warnings from Nationally Recognized Weight Loss Center
Online buying of hCG for rapid weight loss has become increasingly popular with a growing number of sites offering the product for sale with little or no physician supervision, but a nationally recognized weight loss center in Oklahoma City urges caution when purchasing hCG online. The Broadway Clinic points to concerns about safety, efficacy and even potential legal issues related to such online purchases.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/hcg/online/prweb4145...

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
Also at Catherine-Morgan.com ( http://catherine-morgan.com/ )

The hot new trend (at least around my town) is HCG. My sister is on it & has dropped the last 15 pounds of baby weight that she's been struggling with in less that two weeks.

I'm sure she looks great & they assure her that it's safe ... but there aren't any long-term studies, so it kind of scares me.

Anyone ever try HCG? I'm curious if you gained the weight back or how everything went for you?

I'm just gonna jump on the judgmental wagon that you fell off of but you are a seriously bad person for saying medication is the lazy option. It is not a lazy option. Medicine is as old as humanity. Just because it comes in plant form doesn't mean it was always known to be helpful. You think people didn't die figuring out which plants were helpful, which were tasty and which were harmful? Are you kidding?

So now that we have the ability to manufacture medicine people who take it are just sheep. Penicillin? Polio vaccine? Small pox vaccine? Non-cillin antibiotics? Because it's for another problem, which yes MAY have natural solutions but not always, people are lazy sheep if they choose it? How horrible of you to even suggest that. I probably wouldn't take a diet pill, however I do take other medication that I do need to function. There is no natural cure for me unless you want to count death. There is no natural cure for what would kill my mother were she not on medication developed in a laboratory. Did you think aspirin goes from willowbark to tablet form via osmosis?

How dare you tell any one that you know nothing about that even TRYING something they think may help them is lazy. How dare you. "From your research." What exactly do you think qualified medical research consists of? A quick check on the internet? No, it consists of patient studies after years in a lab. The same thing people used over millenia of evolution to evaluate what IN NATURE was good for you or going to kill you is the same process that laboratory created drugs are made under: trial and error.

That liquid diet your friend was on isn't natural. That was a system developed by a doctor in order to shock the body into giving up weight by denying it solid food calories. It's the same diet that people that have the lap band or stomach stapling go on. Do you think it just magically came into existence without someone doing a study on what a liquid diet does to the human body? Did you know that a lack of solid food can cause the bowel to shut down? So at the risk of intestinal atrophy and future permanent digestive complications your friend went on the liquid diet which is why ALL special diets should be under the supervision of a qualified medical professional.

Fluoride was never listed on the periodic table of the elements. Even a cursory middle school science class would tell you that the element is fluorine and that fluoride is a type of substance that may contain fluoride or in the case of drinking water an ionic version of fluorine. That's what "-ide" means as a suffix. Oxide, fluoride, iodide, sulfide. You know nothing of even basic chemistry so don't even think to comment on anyone else's use of it.

Again, how dare you.

I am aware that obesity is a huge problem but I am intrigued to know why you went down the route of taking a pill in order to lose the weight rather than a more safer conventional method such as exorcise and healthy eating. Surly by starving yourself of nutrition and substance you could potentially cause a whole leap of other health problems.

Would you consider it to be well worth the risk? is your pursuit of beauty and a slimmer waste line worth risking your life for. No disrespect intended but the fact you know the drug is untested and you would still take the drug if it was offered to you today astounds me.

By getting into a healthier routine not only would your body improve but your general health happiness and life expectancy would increase dramatically. A pill will only last as long as its available and in Fen-Phen's case the risk seems to out way any possible good.

The truth is we do not know what's inside the drugs and pills we take on a regular basis. We take things believing them to be magic cures but its the lazy option. They are only short term and we cannot trick our own bodies. something has to give. I personally believe our bodies run like motor vehicles. If you put in the right amount of the right fuel we will run at our full potential. if we use a super fuel our car is not familiar with what damage are we doing to it and happens when that super fuel runs out. The Lazy route might seem like a good option when we are in a desperate situation but its just a quicker way of wearing down our tyres.

My friend was obese and she took what seemed to me at the time as an extreme diet that she was recommend it by her GP. she ate nothing for 12 weeks but soups milkshakes and specially designed chocolate bars then she was slowly introduced back onto solid food one meal at a time. Eventually she was eating healthy meals everyday. she lost around 7 lb. a week!!!! the milkshakes and soups she consumed contained her 5 a day and kept her at reasonable health with no risk. it cost her around £30 a week to buy her sachets which i think is relatively cheap considering she wasn't consuming any real food and the outcome was unbelievable.

Would you ever consider something equivalent to this?

please do not feel anything i have said is a personal attack on you. I would just like to understand and know more about the reasons why you took the diet pill and why you still would take it knowing the risks it could have on your life.

In my eyes these companies are exploiting people who are in dyer need of change for their personal health and happiness. This is just another ploy and quick fix that gives the consumers what they want without being responsible for what they actually need.

The national health services and pharmaceutical industries are money making businesses and this is what we need to remember. they use PR to market these miracle pills in order to make money. and in actual fact if the consumer does have a reaction to the drugs they end up making even more money through the consumers health insurance.

Im a firm believer that we are what we eat. what we put into our bodies effects the way we function. i would recommend everyone to research the ingredients of the medicines and products we use. for example...fluoride.

..something dentist prescribe to strengthen teeth. its in our toothpaste, baby formula, water and so on and so on. type it in in google or even youtube and what you get back is astounding.

the 'substance' referred to as 'Fluoride' is a misnomer - there is no such substance listed in the periodic chart of the elements, nor in the prestigious CRC handbook, nor in the sacred 'bible' of the pharmaceutical industry - the illustrious 'Merck Index'. Instead, we find a GAS called Fluorine - and from the use of this gas in various industries such as aluminum manufacturing and the nuclear industry -certain toxic byproducts are created which have 'captured' fluorine molecules. One such toxic, poisonous 'byproduct' is called sodium Fluoride - which according to the Merck Index is primarily used as rat and cockroach poison and is also the active ingredient in most toothpastes and as an "additive to drinking water

".Fluoride was used by Nazis to sterilize inmates and make them docile. Fluoride a key dumbing down ingredient of Prozac and Sarin nerve gas -- poisons of choice for tyrant ratshttp://www.greaterthings.com/Lexicon/F/Fluoride.ht...

from my research fluoride turns water within our body to cacium and creates a shell around our pineal gland within our brain -google this for more info.

just think if such substances like this which we believed for so long to be good for us are actually detrimental and are being put into our everyday products and foods. the list is endless for possible harmful substances put in our medications.

pick up a pill packet now.How many ingredients are you actually familiar with?????

anyway its seem i have waffled on long enough... just be aware that not everything is as it seems and the natural way is always the best way even if it does take twice as long and is twice as hard. We are our own carers and responsible for what we put inside our bodies. dont be another naive sheep like too many people now days

Thanks Jude...That's a scary story, but I'm glad you're ok.

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
Also at Catherine-Morgan.com ( http://catherine-morgan.com/ )

No, taking Meridia is not worth the risk esp for a 9 lbs loss (absurd!)

Years ago when Fen-Phen was popular my gyno put me on it. After 3 weeks of taking it (and loving the weight loss) I had sudden heart attack symptoms. The only thing the doc and pharmacist could say was, "stop taking it." Duh!

btw, this is a very informative article!

Jude Cowell

Hi Any, thanks for your comment. I'm just wondering...Did you have any cardiac problems after taking Fen-Phen in the 90's? When you say it was a "wonder drug"...Did it help you lose weight? Were you able to keep it off? Just curious.

I guess my biggest problem with Meridia is the fact that the benefits don't really seem that great (a 9 pound weight loss), and the risks are very serious.

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
Also at Catherine-Morgan.com ( http://catherine-morgan.com/ )

I took Fen-Phen in the 90s; and it was a wonder drug. It made me not hungry and I also didn't eat when I was bored or sad. I always felt that more research should have been done regarding what was causing the problems. I suspect it was because people weren't eating or drinking anything. I know of men and women who were taking it at the same time and told of forgetting to eat until 10 at night. I took it for almost a year and then lost my job and my insurance coverage. I'd take it again if it was offered because I don't believe the hype. I don't think it was good science to release it without studying why pulmonary hypertension was occuring nor was it good science to permanently pull it off the market without finding out the same thing.

A lot of drugs have scary side effects. My favorite uncle takes a drug for his heart that has caused macular degeneration. I have another that is taking one that causes his skin to be so papery that he's had to give up any active hobbies and now just sits in a chair.