Avoid Diet Pills, Exercisers Warned

With the number of diet pills and supplements that flood the market today, it is no surprise that their use is common place in the populace at large: people take them to lose weight or to increase the impact of their exercise routine, however diet pills can be potentially fatal, we are now warned.

Assistant Chief David Eichen of the Alton Fire Department, who as a paramedic, has had cause to assist many people in physical distress, even when off-duty at his local fitness center had this to say about diet pills:

  • Prescription medication as well as over the counter pills may have several side effects, such as nervousness, tingling in the extremities, tightness of the chest, headaches and insomnia as well as heart problems such as high blood pressure, palpitations and even arrhythmias and heart attacks.
  • These diet pills can be habit forming, and people can develop dependence for them.
  • In one instance Eichen was witness to a full cardiac arrest when a person had consumed diet pills prior to exercising. Even though the person survived, he suffered the after effects of oxygen deprivation.
  • Even those who had sports drinks just before working out have been seen to suffer ill effects since they raise heart rate and blood pressure.