Dieting is the biggest issue for women. Korean culture in particular attaches importance to external looks, and has become a sensitive issue and a lifelong task for Korean women to shed pounds.

 

  There are many ways to lose weight in a healthy way, such as controlling your menu, exercise, etc., but there are many cases where dieting is not good for the body. A　typical example of this is the diet pill.

 

  The problem with diet pills is that some hospitals prescribe pills with indiscriminate drug components. The bigger problem is that when you ask the hospital, you can receive a prescription for diet pills without the hospital asking for any other personal information.

 

  Currently, the diet medicine prescribed by hospitals is marketed by the European Medicines Agency, despite being prohibited since 2000. In other words, 80% of anorectic agents are prohibited drugs overseas. Korean pharmacists know that they are already banned in other countries, but they said, "The more irritating the drug, the greater the effect of the diet, so many people want them." It is too irresponsible an answer.

 

  The number of people who can take diet pills and their quantities are clearly defined by national standards. According to the Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA), diet pills are only for obese people who do not lose 10% of their weight after three to six months, even if they use diets or exercise. Diet pills also follow four principles.

1. Take them for less than 4 weeks.

2. Dosage compliance.

3. Do not eat with other anorectic agents or antidepressants.

4. Not accessible to children or youths.

  There are these principles, but none are kept. Normally if you take a diet pill, you can take it for 6 months and it can be easily prescribed anywhere in the hospital. This means the discipline is completely ignored.

 

  Regarding the point of over dosage, Korea also provides a service that notifies how much prescription medicine has been given through medicinal safety use services, but there is no way to sanction if doctors ignore the service and prescribe them. People are also more interested in losing weight, so they don't mind what ingredients are in their diet pills.

  So, how do anorectic agents harm our bodies?

  As I mentioned earlier, diet pills are anorectic agents and stimulant ingredients are included in the pills to suppress the body's natural reaction. Therefore, if you take them for more than 3 months, the risk of hypertension increases 23 times and can also cause anxiety, hallucination, and insomnia. In addition, diet pills have a terrible side effect when they are taken together with antidepressants, but some people take them together. It is a serious problem.

 

  In this regard, medical experts argue "diet pills with antipsychotic ingredients are mostly in a blind spot", so they suggest the government should treat diet pills with a high risk of side effects using separate management measures.

 

  The main ingredients of diet pills were the problem of drugs being taken under the diagnosis of a doctor. However, the other problem is the drugs sold by private companies. Recently, diet pills have gained explosive popularity through SNS, especially Facebook and Instagram. Among them, 'Garcinia pill' has become very popular. According to the advert, ‘Garcinia cambogia’ extract inhibits the synthesis of carbohydrates into fat, which helps to reduce body fat.

 

  However, research suggests that Garcinia does not help in losing weight but instead promotes bowel movements, which can lead to more people taking these pills. After taking these pills, the colon becomes weaker and the user can become constipated.

 

  In addition, studies have shown the effect of these diet pills on weight loss to be insignificant, Losing weight is due to exercise and diets, not Garcinia pills. Research has now also been conducted in Korea. In September last year, the Korea Institute of Health and Medical Research (NECA) said, "we analyzed literature regarding Garcia effect in domestic and overseas studies, and many cases of side effects were shown."

 

  Side effects such as headaches, sweating, elevated blood pressure, hypoglycemia, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, gastrointestinal pain, cystitis, diarrhea and constipation, rashes, anxiety, nervousness and sleep disorders have also been reported.

 

  In September last year, the Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) announced that there was no causal relationship between ‘Garcinia cambogia’ extract and liver damage, but in many cases where side effects were reported, Garcinia was often taken with other medications. As a result, they would reevaluate the Garcinia products as it raised the issue of safety.

 

  It is necessary to reevaluate the medicines on the market as well as those prescribed by hospitals. In addition, I think a lot of discipline and many sanctions are necessary in the process of selling them. People also need to be clearly aware of the ingredients and side effects of these diet pills.

 

L.L.F reporter Eun-Young Kim

김은영  red7557@naver.com