Beware of FDA-banned slimming and anti-obesity products

Health authorities this week warned the public against falling for so-called slimming or anti-obesity products that are not registered with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

FDA head Kenneth Hartigan-Go said such products, which are advertised and sold online, "may contain harmful ingredients to health."

 

"The public is hereby advised not to buy unregistered and banned health products through the internet.  To check if a product is registered with the FDA, please log in at the FDA webiste wwww.fda.gov.ph and type in the name of the product in the SEARCH bar. To report any unregistered or banned health products, please email us viareport@fda.gov.ph," he said in FDA Advisory 2014-002. 

 

"All consumers are advised to use only FDA-approved slimming pills or anti-obesity drugs under the supervision of doctors," he added.

 

Hartigan-Go said the FDA had monitored several slimming or anti-obesity pills like the Hokkaido Slimming Pills.

 

Also, he said the FDA had issued recall, seizure, and ban of at least 26 slimming or anti-obesity products with amphetamine, sibutramine, and steroids, from 2010 to 2012.

 

Such products were marketed as oral capsules or as coffee drinks, he said. Some of the banned products include:

 

-Ballet Dancer Fat Reducing

-Bio-Lissom Fat Reducing

-Brazilian Slimming Coffee

-Cell Life Slimming Coffee

-Elegant Shape Fat Reducing

-Goodliness Fat Reducing

-Happyslim

-Leisure 18 Slimming Coffee

-Lightness Fat Reducing

-Maggie Fitness Essence

-Mei Shen Ting Anti-Obesity

-Modeling Fat-Reducing

-New Original Lightness Fat-Reducing

-Pearl White Slimming

-Perfect Figure Slimming

-Perfect Slim Fat Reduction Cosmetic

-Perfect Slim Purely Natural Fat Reduction Cosmetic

-Pill for Weight Reduction

-Pretty Model

-Qiaomei Fat Binder

-Qi Xian Nu

-Seven Days Miracle

-Shaping Body Fat Loss

-Slim and Beauty Slimming

-Slim Up Extra Whitening and Reducing

-Xianzimei Fat Reduction.

 

Hartigan-Go said amphetamine causes irregular heartbeat, confusion, urine retention and painful urination, hyperthermia, hyperreflexia, muscle pain, severe agitation, rapid breathing, and tremor.
 

A large overdose may lead to psychosis, anuria, cardiogenic shock, cerebral hemorrhage, circulatory collapse, extreme fever, pulmonary hypertension, renal failure, rapid muscle breakdown, serotonin syndrome, and stereotypy, he added.

 

"Fatal amphetamine poisoning usually involves convulsion and coma," he said.

 

Also, he said sibutramine has been shown to increase the risk of serious heart events, including non-fatal heart attack or non-fatal stroke and death, by 16 percent. The same study showed there was only a small difference in weight loss between the placebo group and the sibutramine group.

 

In the meantime, Hartigan-Go said FDA inspectors have instructions to "seize unregistered slimming products or those containing amphetamine, sibutramine and steroids from all outlets or establishments where they are found, sold or offered for sale or use."

 

"All local government units and enforcement agencies are urged to close down outlets and establishments that sell banned or unregistered health products.  Likewise, the FDA appeals to the Bureau of Customs to prevent the entry of banned products in the Philippine market," he said. — KDM, GMA News