The first question that begs to be asked is – do all diet pills have side effects?

All anti-obesity drugs will have some side effect or the other. The difference is that the prescription drugs will have these listed on the label, while the OTC ones will not. The herbal-based diet pills or supplements usually have no permanent side effects and are generally harmless.

Some of the anti-obesity drugs available may have serious side effects. What the side effects are depend on the way these pills help control/reduce the excess weight. Drugs that interfere with the body’s natural nutrient absorption process, e.g. Orlistat, can cause oily faeces, flatulence, and also stomach aches.

Elevated blood pressure may be a side effect

Drugs that are basically stimulants and anorectics have their own set of side effects as well.

Such drugs can cause the blood pressure to shoot up, thereby leaving the user susceptible to high blood pressure in the long run. Besides high blood pressure, the other side effects these pills can cause include closed angle glaucoma, palpitations, accelerated heart rates, compulsive dependency on the drug, i.e. addiction, insomnia, and restlessness. An example of such a drug is Fenphen.

The Good and Bad about Diet Pills

As you might have understood by now, diet pills have both the good side as well as the bad side. The good side is that they enable the severely obese to shed weight drastically and be fit and healthy again.

They ensure that these people are safe from potentially life-threatening diseases related to obesity – diabetes, heart disease, cancer, internal hemorrhaging and other serious conditions.

On the bad side, these are risky because of the basic premise on which they work. They alter the natural processes in a person’s body, and that can never be good.

Our body is a finely tuned machine where each action has a specific purpose, and altering such a process can be hazardous. Take for example suppressing appetite. While it achieves the objective of reducing the excess body weight, it is not a very safe thing to do.

We still do not know how things like hunger and appetite work. What part of the brain influences hunger and appetite? By altering these tendencies, are we actually playing with altering certain areas of the brain itself?

Diet pills are not a long term solution

And finally the twist in the tail, so to speak. While anti-obesity drugs work wonders short term, it is never a good idea to take these on a long term basis, simply because they might not be as effective long term.

Common diet pills

Some Commonly Used Diet Pills Some of the commonly used diet pills are Diethylpropion, Didrex, Phentermine, Adipex, Orlistat, Dexedrine, Ionamin, Tenuate, and Bontril.

Comparing diet pills

With the anti-obesity drug becoming an important and popular part of the fight against obesity, the industry that produces these drugs is flourishing. There are a large number of diet pills that are being manufactured nowadays.

With such large scale manufacture comes the usual danger associated with mass produced goods, there are quite a few fakes and frauds circulating in the market. Therefore one needs to be very careful while buying these pills.

These fakes are usually seen in the OTC pills, as this sector of the industry has minimal regulation. Such lax policing enables fly-by-night operators, and conmen to promote their ‘diet pills’ along with the regular ones. You may find a lot of such promos and advertisements as part of the spam you receive in your e-mail.