The majority of people wishing to lose weight will have considered diet pills as a quick fix, particularly those who have struggled to lose weight through traditional diet and exercise.

However, manufacturing diet pills requires no regulation.

Healthcare professionals are most concerned about the potential side effects many diet pills can have. Diet pills can be purchased online by anyone, without any screening for blood pressure or other medical conditions and some have dangerous side effects.

Dr Daman Mulhi, a specialist in obesity, describes how easy purchasing diet pills can be: “Just as an experiment my niece went online to try and see if she could get them and she is 14 years old. There is no age regulation and they are not being counselled, no one is following them up and they are taking medications that could be really quite harmful to their health.”

One herbal pill that has become very popular is a so-called ‘wonder drug’ that is meant to make a person feel full, suppressing the appetite and allowing the person to lose huge amounts of weight, whilst at the same time increasing libido. Dr Daman Mulhi took part in a trial for this drug and said: “I have to say that none of those effects happened for me.”

Dr Daman Mulhi, Consultant Anaesthetist, NHS
Specialist in anaesthesia, diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and public health awareness

10043 November