Weekend Beat/
Dieting to Death: Internet Weight Loss Pills Dangerous
July 30, 2005
Gorging oneself on chocolate cake while still shedding
those excess pounds is many a dieter's dream.
But think twice before turning to a quick fix like
slimming
pills. These products are not only ineffective,
they can also be downright dangerous, experts warn.
As of June 15, 117 people living in 33 prefectures
had suffered health problems after taking Tiantiansu
Qingzhi, a slimming product reportedly made in China,
according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
The product contains substances that are not approved
in Japan. And since such diet products are readily available
via the Internet, more health problems could occur at
any time.
A 15-year-old high school student from Oita Prefecture
bought Tiantiansu Qingzhi last September through an
online store selling traditional Chinese medicine. The
product was inexpensive and popular online. At first,
the girl bought 30 pills that cost 400 yen for 10. The
pills seemed to work so she bought 80 more.
Although she lost six kilograms in three months, the
girl suffered from severe side effects. At first, she
took one tablet per day. But when thirst and dizziness
began troubling her, she decided to take the pills only
on holidays from the second month on, although she sometimes
took two tablets at once to achieve better results.
Her dizziness worsened and she would sometimes collapse.
The student stopped taking Tiantiansu on May 26, when
it was reported that a teenage user from Tokyo had died.
"I was shocked because I'd taken a pill the day
before," she says. "It's no use losing weight
if you become sick. I shall never buy diet products
again."
A couple who consulted the Yamaguchi prefectural government
had purchased the product via an Internet auction using
a mobile phone. The couple, who are in their 20s, bought
a 30-tablet box for 3,500 yen in late March. When they
ordered two more boxes for 6,000 yen in late April,
they received 30 additional tablets for free.
Each took one tablet a day. The husband lost 10 kilograms
and the wife shed 3 kilograms. Yet they invariably suffered
from diarrhea, palpitations or dizziness on the days
they took the pills. They eventually stopped taking
the product and are now recovering.
After receiving reports of side effects from Hiroshima,
Okayama and other prefectures, on May 24, the ministry
requested the operator of the Internet auction to delete
its Tiantiansu display. It also called on consumers
to stop taking the pills immediately and seek medical
advice if they experienced any symptoms.
Employees of major Internet search engine Yahoo! monitor
Web sites and delete any displays of the product. Yet
as many as 20,000 health foods, including pills, go
up for auction each day. But since auctions are user-driven,
Yahoo! says it can't intervene instantly when a proscribed
product is displayed online.
Most of the people who experienced health problems
after taking Tiantiansu were women, according to the
health ministry. Only three were men. Age-wise, those
in their 20s reported the most health problems at 59,
followed by 27 people in their 30s, 26 in their teens
and five in their 40s. Fukushima Prefecture had the
highest number of cases at 13, while Tokyo, Kanagawa
Prefecture and Saitama Prefecture had seven each, followed
by Osaka Prefecture with six. Since many of the cases
were reported before the ministry took steps to end
the problem, the worst of the crisis is believed to
be over.
In another case, more than 100 people suffered from
problems caused by another diet pill, Onshido Genpi
Kono, in the summer of 2002. One person died, and the
case made headline news. About 790 cases of harm resulting
from so-called health products have been reported since
then, according to the ministry.
Back in 2002, half of the customers whose health was
damaged had bought the product online, while the rest
had purchased it over the counter. In the case of Tiantiansu,
however, most of the pills were sold on the Internet.
Mail-order sales of health and beauty related items
have increased fivefold since 1998, according to a spokesperson
for Fuji Keizai, a market research company based in
Tokyo.
If a health product contains pharmaceutical or psychotropic
substances, its unauthorized production, sale, transfer
and advertising, even on the Internet, violates the
pharmaceutical law as well as the narcotics and psychotropics
control law.
However, "Unless a product is sold in an organized
way, it is hard to expose the distributors," says
a spokesperson for the ministry's Compliance and Narcotics
Division.
If the ministry announces the name of a product and
warns people to refrain from taking it, the sellers
quickly take flight. In one case, when the authorities
finally traced the distributor's address, the place
turned out to be empty.
In the case of Internet auctions, the seller and producer
of a product are often not the same. Sometimes the seller
regards the product as harmless. "Although we must
nail those who are at the bottom of all this, it isn't
easy," the spokesperson says.
Tiantiansu contains sibutramine, a therapeutic agent
for obesity yet to be authorized in Japan; the psychotropic
drug mazindol; as well as phenolphthalein, a laxative
said to cause cancer.
The mazindol detected in Tiantiansu is a form of appetite
suppressant, according to Taiichiro Okajima, deputy
director of the Kokura National Hospital in Kita-Kyushu,
who is in charge of an outpatient clinic for obese patients.
Although it is approved in Japan, Okajima says the drug
is prescribed by doctors to motivate severely obese
people to start losing weight. "The drug affects
the brain and suppresses the appetite. It is dangerous
unless used with caution," he warns.
Doctors prescribe 0.5 milligrams of mazindol a day
and if it produces no effect, increase the amount to
1.5 milligrams a day but stop after three months to
prevent addiction.
Sibutramine is also an appetite suppressant and is
still under clinical trial in Japan. Although it is
used in the United States, it is not frequently prescribed
since it has side effects such as raised blood pressure.
The drug can also lead to heart disease.
Although mazindol is authorized in Japan, it should
not be used simultaneously with other psychotropic drugs.
Okajima says these chemical substances cause a number
of side effects and even if users lose weight temporarily,
they will regain it once they stop taking them.
"Tiantiansu contains laxative agents. But laxatives
cause weight loss only because fluid, not fat, is discharged,"
he says. "I want people to know that they cannot
lose
weight by taking pills."
Source: http://www.asahi.com
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