A slim and slender body is what most people perceive as an ideal body for women. Women would do anything to have the model type body. In modern age, losing weight has become a common desire. "Plague of Plenty" has been blamed as the cause of most people being overweight and obese (DeEugenio, 2005).The extra pounds added led to the craze about diet pills. Most societies believe that a healthy and perfect body should be thin and well toned.
Diet pills are most preferred by people because it does not require time, efforts and pain like exercises. The modern family responsibilities coupled with long working hours do not give people time to prepare healthy meals or exercise. This gives diet pills a winning edge because of the quick fix and the science campaigns that encourage "better living through chemistry". Diet pills are weight loss drugs or anti-obesity medication or any pharmacological agents and drugs that control and reduce weight. Diet pills such as Fen-Phen, Amphetamines and Ephedrine have been considered as miracle pills.
Statement of the Problem
The project aims at finding out the whether diet pills are effective ways of solving weight problem.
The non-factual perception for diet pills has sustained the industry and has replaced the good eating habits and exercises. The diet pills work by altering one of the fundamental processes of the body(Lawrence,2000).Diet pills regulate weight by altering metabolism, suppressing appetite and controlling calories absorption. While some of diet pills are known to reduce weight, others have been proved ineffective unless they are combined with others. Others have many side effects, which make researchers, scholars, and users question their effectives. The study wishes to find out how effective diet pills are and is its effectiveness more beneficial to the side effects they cause.
Case Study
In the research study a health expert did interviews on a group of 50 female students. One of the girls declared that she started using diet pills when she was fifteen years old. This was because she thought she was fat compared to her sister who was 2 years younger than she was. Before she started, taking diet pills she could eat food and then go to the bathroom to vomit. She had also used other weight loss methods such as skipping meals and exercises. The teenager now 17 years old declared that she had seen considerable improvement since she started using diet pills.
She told the expert that she has been using CurvaTrim for two years, which was quite effective but with minor side effects such as dizziness, headaches, loss of appetite and painful menstruation. Asked why she preferred diet pills she declared that they were less strenuous, were effective, was not time consuming and she could hide her intention to lose weight to her mother. Although she declared that she was not comfortable with the diet pill side effects, she still considered it an effective way of losing weight rather than exercises and dieting. The above case study prompted the research to find out whether diet pills are effective in solving the weight problems. The study also wanted to find out why most women preferred diet pills to other weight loss methods
Purpose of the study
The research main purpose is to find out why people use diet pills and not other weight loss procedure such as dieting and exercise. The project also aims at finding out what are the advantages and disadvantages of using diet pills.
Significance of the Study
The research study is important because it displays the type of problems young women and teenage go through in trying to cope with the weight problem. The study is important to both teenage and young women because it shows effects of diet pills. It would also benefit the society so that they can know how to deal with their teenage daughters who are faced with weight problems and are considering diet pills as an option.
Hypothesis
The research study will try to answer these questions
Are diet pills effective?
Are all diet pills safe for human consumption?
What are the side effects diet pills have on human body?
Which group of people mainly uses diet pills?
Are diet pills more effective than dieting and exercise?
Which diet pills are most effective?
Do the side effects of diet pills outweigh the effectiveness?
BACKGROUND
Literature Review
A study carried out in a university environment in Minnesota revealed that the dietary and feeding habits of young adults and female teens are in crisis(University of Minnesota, 2006).The study says that in order to curb the problem communication within the families is required. A study carried out over 5 five years in a group of 2,500 teen regarding the dietary habits revealed that the intake of diet pills had increased in teen of ages 19 to 20 from seven percent to 15 percent. Professor Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, a professor from University of Minnesota, believes that the statistics are startling and it is the role of the community and family to make teen daughter feel good about their weight instead of using the unhealthy weight control behaviors.
The research figures also showed that 63 percent of teenage girls engage in weight control behaviors believed to be unhealthy.22 percent of the teenage females use diet pills, skip meals, vomiting and laxatives in order to control weight. Ironically, researchers reveal that some diet pills known to be appetite suppressors end up with stimulants and instead of losing weight people end up gaining. Neumark-Sztainer says that the females who use the unhealthy weight control behaviors such as diet pills risk three times being overweight.
History of Diet Pills
The earliest diet pills emerged in nineteenth and twentieth century and had a strange composition of tapeworm and tapeworm eggs (DeEugenio, 2005).The main reason behind the composition was that a tapeworm absorbs food as it passes through the hosts intestines where it anchors itself. The host would therefore loose weight because on top of his food being absorbed by the tapeworm, it would reduce the host's appetite and cause abdominal pain.
In early 1930, the first chemical known as 'dinitrophenol' was used as weight loss drug according to a May 25, 1999 publication in New York Times. However, these chemical resulted to serious side effects such as cases of blindness and even death. Dinitrophenol worked by inhibiting proteins from uncoupling in the mitochondria.This made people emit heat energy since it was impossible to use food for energy. Sweating was a very common phenomenon after taking Dinitrophenol making the approach unattractive.
The first popular diet pill was synthesized in the nineteenth century known as "amphetamine". Amphetamine thereafter became the measuring rod for the other diet pills and was regarded as the "gold standard". The drug started becoming widely used during the World War II. Soldier going to battle were given the drug to increase alertness and combat fatigue. The drug main purpose was suppressing the appetite. During the war, the drug was highly exploited making doctors to prescribe Dexedrine and Benzedrine amphetamine pills in 1950s.These drugs were used solely for weight loss. Amphetamine side effects included appetite suppression in addition to being addictive and having euphoric side effects. In 1960s and 1970s, doctors stopped giving the drug for weight loss purpose. FDA only approved Amphetamines prescription in cases of morbid obesity for suppressing appetite.
Fen-Phen gained popularity in 1990 after Amphetamine popularity died. Fen-Phen was a combination of fenfluramine and phentermine diet drugs. The two drugs were believed to increase each other's primary effectiveness as well as counteract each other's negative side effects. After a while, patients taking a combination of dexfenfluramine and fenfluramine exhibited side effects such as heart valve disease and pulmonary hypertension. The drugs were removed from the market in September 1997 due to the side effects. Phentermine one of the diet drug compositions in Fen-Phen is still prescribed to date to suppress appetite.
Since the Fen-Phen failure, Fen-Phen pharmaceuticals have come up with new weight loss drugs that use different approaches. Accomplia, Xenical and Alli include the modern day diet pills that inhibit absorption by blocking fat from being absorbed in to the body metabolism. These drugs reduces on calories and have been found to be more effective that the predecessors.
How Diet pills work
Diet pills works through the following mechanisms
Most diet pills are composed of chemical substances known as catecholamine and amphetamine that suppress the appetite. These chemical substances block the cannabinoid receptors causing a person to lose appetite.
Other diet pills contain chemical substances that increase the metabolism of the body.
Some diet pills work by interfering with the ability of a body to absorb specific nutrient in food(Cook, MacPherson & Langille, 2007).For example Xenical and Allī also referred to as 'Orlistat' prevents fat absorption by blocking fat breakdown. Glucomannan,the OTC fiber supplements on the other hand and guar gum lower and inhibit caloric digestion and absorption.
Examples of Diet Pills and their Functions
Diet pills are medically allowed in cases of obese patients who have used healthy dieting methods and exercises but they are ineffective. However, even women who are not obese because they want to be thin have adopted the practice. Some diet pills are recommended only for short-term use because they are stimulants. The stimulants are not very useful to extremely obese patients who may need stringer diet pill taken over a long period. Below are illustrated Examples of available diet pills and their composition include
Orlistat
Orlistat is a weight-reducing drug that that works by blocking the absorption of the fat normally digested by the intestine (Henn & DeEugenio, 2004).Orlistat helps overweight people to lose weight significantly when used together with a reduced-calorie diet. Orlistat also helps people who have lost weight from regaining it. The drug is supposed to be taken three times a day orally after eating a fatty meal. The medication should not be taken if the meal contains no fat. The diet pill usually interferes with absorption of vitamins such A, D, E and K because they are fat-soluble. To avoid this, it is recommended that a patient taking Orlistat should also take multivitamins supplements containing these vitamins. The effects of the drug is immediate usually a day or two after starting the treatment but noticeable weight loss might take a long time.
Orlistat Side Effects
Orlistat displays some side effects, which includes bowel movement urgency, oily spotting, and intestinal gas with discharge, oily/fatty stool, headaches or poor bowel control. It is advisable not to exceed daily dietary fat allowance because it would cause intestinal side effects. Orlistat requires a person to visit a doctor before taking the drugs so that any digestive disorders, metabolism problems and allergies can be discovered people having bulimia-type eating disorders and anorexia nervosa are prohibited from using the drug. Orlistat is not recommended for use during pregnancy because the drug might be excreted in to breast milk. Orlistat was approved to be sold to people over-the counter in February 2007 by FDA
Sibutramine
Sibutramine is a diet pill that should be used together with a reduced calorie diet to treat obesity. Sibutramine reduces the appetite and craving for food by regulating chemicals in the appetite center in the brain. Sibutramine alters the neurotransmitters within the brain giving it the wrong information. The diet pill blocks the reuptake of neurotransmitters known as serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine (Gritz &Crane, 1991). This reuptake affects the nerve function and interaction leading to suppressed appetite and thereafter weight loss. Sibutramine is an effective weight loss drug as people using it record approximately 5-10% baseline weight reduction. Sibutramine was approved for over-the counter sale in 1997 by FDA.
The drug is prescribed for people with a 30 kg/m2 and above initial body mass index. If a person has exceeded the above initial body mass index and suffering from diabetes mellitus, hypertension or high cholesterol, Sibutramine is recommended. The drug should be taken once daily especially in the morning which may increased by a physician if desired effects are not realized.
Sibutramine Side Effects
Sibutramine exhibits many side effects mostly because it affects the brain. Some of these side effects include drowsiness, dry mouth, and difficulty in sleeping, constipation or headache. It is advisable to notify a doctor if a person exhibits these symptoms. Other side effects that should be reported promptly to a doctor include back pain, stomach pain, arthritis, dizziness, increased appetite, sinus congestion, persistent sore throat or mental/mood changes. Sibutramine sometimes exhibits some unlikely side effects that should be reported to a doctor promptly such as irregular heartbeat, swelling muscle pain, chest pain, fever, muscle and leg cramps, painful menstruation, one-sided weakness or vision changes.
Rimonabant
Rimonabant is an anti-obesity drug that works by reducing the appetite of the user. Rimonabant is regarded as anorectic drug that is effective when used together with exercises and dieting. It is recommended for people with an initial body mass index exceeding 30 kg/m² and has risk factors such as dyslipidaemia and diabetes mellitus. Rimonabant was approved for sale in U.K in 2006.The drug a CB1 receptor blocker was the first anti-obesity drug to be approved for use. In a research done in Belgian with a report written in 2005 indicates that, people who used Rimonabant lost an average of 18.9 pounds in a year. Their wastes also lost over three inches (8.5 centimeters).Canadian researchers however expressed doubts in the drug according to may 2007 Lancet article following emergence of side effects that included mood related disorders, increased blood pressure and pulse rate(Mark, 2009). The drug on top of being a diet pill was found to help smokers in quitting. The Canadian government refused to approve use and sale of the drug.
Other types of Diet pills
The other types of drugs that the study discovered include Metformin, Exenatide, Pramlintide, and Lorcaserin among others.
METHODOLOGY
The project aims at finding out the whether diet pills are effective ways of solving weight problem. The research main purpose is to find out why people use diet pills and not other weight loss procedure such as dieting and exercise. The project also aims at finding out what are the advantages and disadvantages of using diet pill. The research study wishes to answer the following questions
Are diet pills effective?
Are all diet pills safe for human consumption?
What are the side effects diet pills have on human body?
Which group of people mainly uses diet pills?
Are diet pills more effective than dieting and exercise?
Which diet pills are most effective?
Do the side effects of diet pills outweigh the effectiveness?
Population and sampling
Fig: Age distribution of the age sets involved in diet pills.
A sample population of 50 out of 500 female students from a college was taken. The sample consisted of females between the ages of 17 to 25 years. An expert interviewed the students one at a time. Then a preset questionnaire containing ten questions was given to the interviewees. Each student was supposed to answer the questions discreetly without the help another. The questions provided were the same for every student. In the interview, the expert asked each student if she has ever used a diet pill and the reasons. The expert's interview was supposed to give a qualitative data to back up the quantitative data in order to get the best results.
Bi-variate analysis was used to examine the differences in using the diet pills among the students. A multivariate logistic regression was was used to assess the association between reported reasons and respondent characteristics. Correlation coefficient was calculated to show the relationship between the effects of different diet pills and other weight loss methods such as dieting and exercise. The research study used computer software known as SPSS that sampled the means, the variances and the coefficients after the analysis of the sample responses (Neumark-Sztainer & Hannan, 2000).
Interview Questions
A sample of ten questions was presented to the in students from the college. The questions allowed a Yes or No answer plus an explanation. The questions were as follows
1.How old are you?
2. Do you think you have a weight problem?
YES
NO
Explain your answer………………………
3. Do you use diet pills as a weight loss solution?
YES
NO
Explain your Answer……………………………..
4. List the reasons why you use diet pills?
……………
…………..
…………
5. What other weight loss method have you used?
Dieting
Exercises
Others
Explain your answer…………………….
6. How can you rate diet pills?
Excellent
Average
Poor
7. Have you ever experienced diet pills side effects and how often?
Always
Sometimes
Not at All
Name the side effects……..
8. Have you lost weight after using diet pills?
YES
NO
Explain your answer………….
9. How many types of diet pills have you used?
One
Two
More than two
None
Name them………………
10. Do you think diet pills are effective?
Yes
No
Explain you answer…………
Validity and Reliability
The quantitative article reported an inter-rater reliability. The questionnaire contained same sample questions presented to different university students. Each student was given a chance with an expert whereby she was supposed to say as many reasons why she used diet pills. In a sample of 10 respondents, nearly eight of them gave at least one reason. The test shows consistent answers among the respondent giving the research an inter-rater or inter-observer reliability.
Assumptions
The study made some several assumptions, which include that women were the only gender that used diet pills. The other assumption was that the sample collected was representative of the whole group. The study assumed that every girl in the group uses or had ever used a diet pill. The study also assumed that the response given by every girl was correct and true.
RESULTS
The above quantitative and qualitative article shows use of diet pills is dependent on several factors such as time, efficacy and effort. 73% of girls interviewed said that diet pill did not waste time like dieting and exercises. You only had to buy and follow instructions.74 percent of girls said that exercises required effort and dieting required following strict schedules and waiting a very long time to see the effects.
The results showed that one out of the five female teenagers interviewed were on diet. Two of every five girls on diet pills declared that the diet pills were effective. The research showed that 63% of the girls interviewed used unhealthy weight loss methods. 22% of the interviewees used extremely unhealthy weight loss methods. In overall 81% of the teenage girls took diet pills because they were afraid of been fat.
CONCLUSION AND ROCOMMENDATIONS
Discussion
According to the study, one of the problems that the diet pills may exhibit and people do not have knowledge of is how to modulate the neural basis of appetite. In order for a human being to survive, appetite is very important. It is therefore very risky to prescribe or take a drug that abolishes appetite because it means the mortality risk is increased.
Naturally, the human body uses hormones and chemicals to protect the fat stores (Nothwehr, 2008). In early days, these fat stores were used when food was scarce. Currently, a new way to protect the natural fat stores has not yet been discovered. Therefore, diet pills and anti-obesity drugs are not practical long-term solution to over weight and losing weight.
From the hypothesis, a combination of two diet pills proved to be more effective than using one diet pill. This is because one drug increased each other effect by treating the side effects through inhibiting feedback pathways and targeting multiple pathways. Female girls expressed that the reason they use diet pills is that they believe they are overweight.
Recommendations
Diet Pills cab be an effective method of losing weight only if body friendly chemicals are used. The newly developed lipase inhibitors developed by Peptimmune referred to as GT389-225 licensed by Genzyme are more effective than Orlistat since they allow increased fat excretion without side effects(Cohen, McCormick, Casey, Dawson &Hacker, 2007). Since most girls reason for taking diet pills is believe that they are overweight, the society should change its perception that thin and toned is beautiful. Parents should teach their teenage girls to appreciate their bodies the way they are. Teenage girls should be advised to stop using diet pills that have adverse effects on their body and incase of side effects they should report to the doctors immediately
Conclusion
The above study was aimed at finding out whether diet pills are effective ways of solving weight problem. The study targeted the teenage females from a college showed that although a small proportion declared that the diet pills they were using was effective, most of them did not believe in their effectiveness. The study showed that most diet pills had side effects that outweighed the effectiveness. The research study was successful because it fulfilled its purpose that is, finding out if diet pills was an effective was of solving the weight problem. The research proved that using two or three diet pills that optimized on effectiveness and reduced on the side effects.
