Weight Loss Diet Pills Cause Heart Attack
Citation: Cardiac arrest in the setting of diet pill consumption. American Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2008 Jul;26(6):732.e1-3
The authors of this case study explain that the epidemic of obesity in the United States has spurred the development and utilization of an inordinate number of new weight loss diet drugs to treat obesity and its numerous related health complications.
Motivations For Weight Loss Diet Drug Use
Desperate patients hear repeated messages from their doctors, families, and sociocultural outlets that they must lose weight in order to be healthy, vital, and socially acceptable. This desperation frequently causes patients to lose sight of or even ignore the serious and well-documented side effects of some of the most popular and widely-prescribed weight loss diet pills on the market.
Phentermine Diet Pills Induce Cardiac Arrest
The present case study describes one such patient, a 48-year-old woman. The patient was moderately obese, physically healthy, and taking no medications other than the common appetite suppressant medication phentermine. This medication acts as a central nervous system stimulant by facilitating the action of noradrenaline. In this case, as in previous cases with similarly acting drugs, a heart attack was caused by acute ventricular tachycardia thought to have been initiated by prolonged ingestion of the weight loss diet drug.