Diet pill increasing heart attacks?
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PrintMeridia: a weight loss medication for those individuals who need to lose more than 30 pounds of weight.
Being overweight is not healthy for us for many reasons, we all know that. It can be very difficult for some people to lose weight, we know that too. So some need to turn to medications to help accomplish that goal. Meridia is one such a medication. But what about when the medication you take, to lose weight, to prevent things like heart attack and stroke, actually increases your risk of the exact thing you hope to prevent?
Meridia.net, the manufacturer website clearly states the following:
MERIDIA is not for everyone. Do not take MERIDIA if you:
- Have, or ever have had, a heart problem, including
- Heart attack
- Chest pain or heart disease caused by poor blood flow in the heart (e.g., angina)
- Heart failure
- A fast heart rate or uneven heartbeat
- Hardening of the arteries or other blood vessels; poor circulation in the legs
- Have or ever had a stroke or stroke symptoms
- Have high blood pressure over 145/90 mmHg and it is not controlled by medication or you are not on medication
- Are over 65 years of age
- Are taking monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs)
- Have an eating disorder called anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa
- Are taking weight-loss medications to control your appetite
- Are allergic to any of the ingredients of MERIDIA
MERIDIA can cause a large increase in blood pressure or heart rate (pulse) in some people. Your doctor should check your blood pressure and heart rate before you start MERIDIA and continue checking it regularly while you are taking it. It is important to have regular check-ups with your doctor while you are taking MERIDIA.
You should not take MERIDIA if you have severe liver or kidney disease, if you are pregnant or planning to get pregnant, or if you are nursing. (meridia.net)
Wow, lots of limitations listed above. With those warnings, many people should be excluded from taking the medication because it comes with a lot of risk.
In the news
Several newspapers (exerpts below from the San Francisco Chronicle and the Preventative Cardiovascular Nurses Association) have recently reported the following:
Abbott Laboratories' diet pill Meridia may need new warnings or withdrawal from the U.S. market, regulators said after reviewing an increase in heart attacks, strokes and deaths in a study.
The 13-year-old medicine was linked to 16 percent more major cardiovascular side effects in a medical trial, dubbed Scout, that followed almost 10,000 patients for as long as six years, Food and Drug Administration staff said in a report released Monday. Outside advisers to the agency will meet Wednesday in Adelphi, Md., to review the findings and discuss what steps should be taken to reduce the risks.
"A decade of controversy about the safety of Abbott Labs' obesity drug Meridia (sibutramine) will come to a head Wednesday when a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel meets to decide whether the drug should be subject to tougher restrictions on use or taken off the market altogether," said Phillip Nalbone, an analyst at Wedbush Pacgrow Lifesciences in San Francisco, in a note Sunday to clients.
Use caution when you try to use external sources to get healthy and lose weight. The best advice, is to eat less, eat smart and just move more everyday!
