Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Diet Pills, Are They Harmful?

By Ricardo d Argence

If you've ever skimmed the pages of a fitness publication, you couldn't have missed all the ads for diet pills. It seems that diet pills get the most attention. Which should cause one to wonder if diet pills do more harm than good.

If you have previously struggled with your weight, loosing weight effectivly with the help of diet pills is very appealing. Even though they have some benefits, the overall risks should be taken into account before use. Make sure you are aware of the risks before consuming any type of diet pill.

You may consume less calories while taking diet pills, but you will also have less energy and slower metabolism. And slower metabolism is often a cause of obesity, since the body stores and doesn't use as many calories.

Ephedrine, which in high doses can cause a heart attack or stroke, is often found in diet pills to increase metabolism. Those who have high blood preseure, heart or thyroid problems should avoid taking this drug. Severe illness and even death have occured becauase of the use of these products.

A usual ingredient in the diet pills is caffeine. Since caffeine raises blood pressure and your heart rate, and this can cause heart attacks or strokes, you should always avoid products that contain more than 300mg of caffeine.

Symptoms of diet pills can be few to severe depending on what is in them. Some diet pills, especially the stimulant based diet pills, are habit forming and as such can be abused. Abuse of these drugs may lead to dependence. Check with your doctor before taking any prescription diet pill to find out if they are habit forming and what signs you should look out for to alert you to this problem.

Seek your doctor's advice, or research the diet pills or food supplements, before seeking their aid in your weightloss ventures. Make it a personal goal to exercise regularly and to eat healthy foods because you will succeed with your weight loss goals.

Although these weight loss drugs do work, an increase in beneficial effects occurs when regular exercise is undertaken along with a change in eating habits. The type of balanced food groups would be oats, cereals, rice, potatoes with fruit and vegetables as the best source of minerals, fiber and vitamins. Good exercise plan with the use of weights will help improve the body's ability to burn off the calories and maintain a healthy heart.

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