FDA Wakes Up, Issues Warning About Weight Loss Supplement

The normally-inept FDA stirred from its usual peaceful slumber to actually do its job and warn consumers about a shifty, shady weight loss supplement called Que She.

What’s that, you say?  A weight loss supplement that isn’t completely and utterly legit?  Say it isn’t so!

True story, my friends.  And while there are some supplements that can naturally aid in healthy weight loss, let me tell you, the crap that is out there can be downright terrifying.  Que she is a great example of one of these nightmares.

It calls itself a “supplement”, but really, it contains a number of PRESCIPTION DRUGS as its active ingredients.  If that sounds illegal, that’s because it is.  Horribly, horribly illegal.

My favorite controlled substance in Que She is fenfluramine, a stimulant drug that isn’t even legal in the US, and hasn’t been since the ’90s.  Fan-tastic.  Not only are they illegally putting drugs into their supplements, but they’re using drugs that aren’t even legal in the first place.  What the heck, let’s just put some crack in there while we’re at it!

Fenfluramine was part of the stupid, ridiculous “Fen-Phen” medical weight loss extravaganza/fiasco that was all the rage back in the ’90s.  These stupid clinics popped up everywhere; as I like to say, you couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting one of these Fen-Phen clinics.

They used a two drug combo, fenfluramine (also called “Redux”) and phentermine, to try yet again to create a magical situation where people could lose weight without actually changing their eating or exercise habits.  Brilliant.  Fen-Phen is supposed to reduce appetite and all that sort of thing by jacking up various neurotransmitter levels.  What it really did is, make people go really wacky and crazy in the head.  Trust me, I dated a girl on the stuff.  Scary.

Surprising, right?  That if you feed somebody handfuls of the chemicals regulating BRAIN FUNCTION, that maybe, just maybe, things might not go exactly as planned?  Maybe a side effect or two?  Mmmm? Maybe?

Bah!  Details, my friends, details!  So you go a little crazy, so what?  But then, people starting keeling over dead, and THAT caught somebody’s attention (mostly litigation attorneys).  Turns out, fenfluramine causes damage to the valves of the heart as well as pulmonary hypertension (increase in blood pressure leading to the lungs, bad stuff).

Whoops.

So, Fen-Phen got pulled, and drug companies and clinics got the BeJesus sued out of them, and of course, nobody learned a damn thing, because they’re STILL trying to create a magic weight loss pill.  Jeeesh!

I digress.  We were discussing Que She.  Not only does it have the bad half of Fen-Phen in it, it’s also got a prescription beta blocker as an active ingredient.  That’s a drug used for cardiac arrhythmias (irregular heartbeat).  Pretty sweet, hunh?  Weight loss AND you don’t have to bother going to see your cardiologist!

What, were they TRYING to kill people?

There’s more, of course, but you get the idea.  Bunch of prescription drugs, some not even legal with a prescription any longer, and the best part is, all mixed up in a cocktail that creates God Only Knows what sort of interactive effects?  Don’t forget, drugs tend to interact with each other and change how they work when mixed together, and the more you mix in, the more difficult it becomes to predict the outcome.

So, it’s a good thing this crap has been identified and pulled off of the market.  But folks, there’s going to be more.  How many similar “supplements” are out there, flying under the FDA’s radar?  The real problem here, is people trying to take a magic pill to lose weight.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again.  There is no magic in weight loss.  THERE IS NO MAGIC IN WEIGHT LOSS.  There’s just physics and biochemistry and various other natural laws.  Yes, there are some actual real healthy supplements that can aid you along the way, but even still, it’s re-tooling your diet and exercise habits that is going to do the majority of the work.

Everybody wants a short-cut.  I get it.  But there aren’t any.  Every thinks they can outsmart Nature, and it’s all fun and games at first, until your heart valves go boom and you can’t pump blood through your lungs anymore.  Trying to outsmart your body’s physiology is like trying to outsmart gravity.  You can’t do it.  Sooner or later, you’re going to get squashed.

Do it the smart way and switch to a whole foods diet, cut out the sugar, flour and processed foods, and get your butt off the couch and move around more.  That’s the long-term path to weight loss, and the only one that won’t put you in an early grave.

Stay healthy!

Source: http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm218427.htm