drug definition in pharmacy

If you’d like to know about the top 10 fad diets online today, then
you’ve come to the right place. Fad diets just might be the best
way to lose 10 pounds. A fad diet is a diet that promises
quick weight loss in a a short period of time. A good fad diet must
contain a weight loss plan that incorporates proper eating and
effective exercise. A plan like this will ensure healthy weight loss
without causing undue stress on the body.

Fad diets have become extremely popular as they provide easy ways to
lose weight as soon as possible. If you do a little research, you will
find that most celebrities use fad diets due to their hectic
schedules. I’m going to take a wild guess that you aren’t a
celebrity like me so I’m sure you’d find this next statistic
interesting.

According to the American Obesity Association, over 64% of U.S.
adults are overweight. If you feel like you are one of those people,
then I’m sure you’ve probably tried several different diets already.
With so many diet programs out there, it can be very difficult to
figure out which diet is best for you. I know this because I went
through many of the same struggles you may be going through now.
Sometimes it’s not always easy to spot a good fad diet. There are
too many diets out there that promise unrealistic goals just to attract
your attention.

A good meal plan is the foundation to every diet. If a diet
has a poor meal plan, it simply will not work.

Here comes the hard part. If you are planning on starting a fad diet,
you should ask yourself two important questions, how much weight
can I expect to lose and does this diet work? Unfortunately, most diet
websites fail to tell you the truth in this regard. I know this for a fact
because I’ve tried many different diets with no success.

Nowadays, women are looking for ways on how to lose weight. When they feel that no kind of diet program or exercise can help them, they resort to diet pills. If you are among the many women who would want to lose a few pounds off the scale, you may be interested to find out what is the best diet pill for women.

Different diet pills work in many different ways. If it worked for other people, it doesn’t mean that it will work the same for you. To know what pill will work for you, you must know the different kinds of pills and how they work in action.

The Popular Prescription Diet Pills

If your doctor prescribes a diet pill, does it mean it is the best diet pill for women? The answer to this question would be yes and no.

Yes, that can be considered as the best diet pill for women because your doctor recommends it. Your doctor knows your medical history and knows how your body reacts to different kinds of medications. He will of course recommend the best diet pill for you, something that will work for you.

No, meaning it may not work for you even if your doctor had recommended it. Even if you doctor knows a lot of things about your medical history and your diseases, no one can predict exactly how your body will react to the pill. So, time is needed before you can say that your doctor’s prescribed pill is the best diet pill around.

Nonetheless, if it worked well for you, it will be the best diet pill for you, not for anybody else. Thus, you cannot recommend it to family and friends. Tell them to check with their doctors first and discuss the possibility of taking the same diet pills as you do.

Examples of popular prescription weight loss products are Meridia, Xenical, Adipex and Didrex.

Over-the-Counter Diet Pills

For others who love to self-prescribe, they think that an over-the-counter (OTC) diet pill is the best diet pill for women with weight issues. For one, OTC diet pills can be bought anytime without the doctor’s prescription. Two, these pills have lower dosage as compared with prescription diet pills.

However, most over-the-counter diet pills have PPA or phenylpropanolamine. PPA can cause heart palpitations and high blood pressure, if unregulated. This is the reason why the FDA had pulled off from pharmacies over-the-counter medicines containing PPA. Medicines with PPA are now prescription based.

When you are taking diet pills, it is important to bear in mind the following guidelines.

You must have a good weight control and exercise program in addition to the diet pill you are taking.

Do not take pills more than the dosage recommended. If you think that it will speed up the process, you are definitely wrong. You may get thin from getting sick.

Talk To Your Doctor

If you feel that the diet pill has an adverse effect to your body, stop taking the pill and consult a doctor.

Go to the doctor regularly to report on the effects of the diet pill, both positive and negative.

Do not continue taking the pills if you think they aren’t working. It means that your body is not receptive to the pills or that the pills that you purchased are fakes or imitations.

People who want to lose more weight must incorporate the diet pills for women with a balanced diet plan and exercise. It will work effectively and with lesser side effects since with a diet program, you are eating only nutritious foods that can help you body recoup for loss of weight. Furthermore, your body will look more fabulous if you tone it with exercise and a bit of weight training. This will also prevent your skin from sagging and turning taut and dry.

Over-the-counter (OTC) medicines are often used for self-medications. These medicines do not require prescriptions given by the doctors. These days, there are different types of OTC medicines, like medicines for cough and colds as well as those that are intended for losing weight. But is there really such a thing as the best diet pill over the counter?

Diet pills are oral medicines that help an individual to lose weight. These medicines suppress one’s appetite or hasten metabolic processes in the body. They are now available in the market for anyone who wants to take a try at losing excess fats in their body. Diet pills are for people who want to lose weight but do not have the time to exercise or to those who can not prepare a program for themselves.

There are now different types of diet pills brought to the market by different drug companies. Here are some of the diet pills that you can choose from. These diet pills should be taken according to the instructions. Do not overdose yourself because overdosing will not let you lose more pounds; but instead, it may cost your health and possibly your life. Be extra cautious when consuming over the counter diet pills.

Green Tea Diet Pills

Green tea diet pill is one of the best diet pills over the counter. This type of diet pill works by increasing calorie and fat metabolism and at the same time suppresses the appetite. This is good if you take this as you work out. Green tea diet pill is usually taken as a capsule rather than as an actual tea drink.

When you consume more than the required dosage, you can experience insomnia, irritability and heart palpitations. These side effects will make you feel more restless and tired. Other side effects that you might experience are constipation or diarrhea, vomiting and nausea. You may also feel bloated if you take more green tea diet pill than is required.

Green tea diet pill is not allowed for people with weak hearts, kidney illnesses, stomach problems and over active thyroids. It is likewise not recommended for pregnant women or people who are already taking painkillers or antacids.

CLA Diet Pills

Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) diet pill is an over the counter pill that helps in decreasing body fats. It basically burns these fats and turns them into energy. It is said that once the body fats are reduced, the appetite is also controlled and thereby bringing the development of lean and firm body muscles.

CLA diet pill is made up of CLA, an Omega 6 component present in dairy products, found in meat like beef and poultry and in oils like sunflower, corn oil and safflower.

The side effects of the CLA are mostly gastro related like diarrhea and indigestion. It is also known that while the body fats decrease and muscle development increases, the total weight of the body does not change.

Zantrex Diet Pills

Zantrex Diet Pill is a caffeine-based over-the-counter pill. It helps in accelerating the energy of the body. It is also through caffeine that one loses weight. Aside from caffeine, Zantrex also contains Yerba mate, guarana, damiana, green tea, teibetan, ginseng, cocoa nut and kola nut and rice flour.

There are several side effects for the Zantrex Diet pills. When you take it, you may experience one of the following: restlessness, irritability, insomnia and diarrhea. You may also experience nausea, trembling hands and lightheadedness due to the caffeine content of the pill. The worse side effects that one may experience are stomach ulcers and muscle twitch.

As a precaution, you should avoid food and drinks that contain caffeine when taking Zantrex diet pill. However, for people who can’t live without caffeine in their body, they should take a lower dose or ask for another type of diet pill.

If you are looking for the best diet pills over the counter, you can start by including these 3 in your list of possibilities. There are good diet pills that work for certain individuals while there are some which do not have the same result. If you are planning to take over-the-counter medicines, check for the possible advantages and disadvantages. At the same time, check also on the precautions because it will further help you with your decisions.

Hundreds of thousands of people are throwing away billions of dollars annually on diet pills. Last year, over $23 billion was spent on diet pills in the United States alone. More than 95% of diet pills purchased are natural or herbal supplements. Often, the only thing lost when taking diet pills is time and money. People looking for a miracle cure are often swept away by the exaggerations made by those marketing diet pills. Here are some important and often ignored facts about diet pills.

When should diet pills be used?

Diet pills are not for everyone. The use of diet pills should be reserved for those who have a body mass index (BMI) above 30 who are otherwise healthy. People with obesity related conditions including high blood pressure, heart disease, a history of strokes, high blood pressure, and diabetes with a BMI of 27 are also candidates for diet pills.

What are the approved diet pills?

Appetite suppressants, including Didrex, Tenuate, Sanores, Mazanor, Adipex-P, Ionamin, Bontril and Meridia are the most popular type of diet pills that have been approved by the FDA for short term use. Appetite suppressants are available OTC and can be prescribed by your physician.

Fat absorption inhibitors, such as Orlistat, block dietary fat from being absorbed. Orlistat is available OTC as Alli and can be prescribed by your physician as Xenical.

Meridia and Xenical are the only diet pills approved for long term use. These are most often prescribed for morbidly obese people. Research on the safety and effectiveness of extended use going beyond two years is not available.

Do diet pills for weight loss really work?

Individual results with diet pills vary. Average weight loss for those taking Xenical and Meridia is 5 pounds to 22 pounds annually. This is an increase of weight loss over what these patients would expect to lose without taking diet pills. Maximum weight loss usually happens during the first six months of treatment before a tolerance is developed. Your physician will adjust your dosage to fit your individual needs.

Are There Risks to Taking Diet Pills?

Short term use of diet pills may reduce health risks in obese individuals. Long term effectiveness has not been established. The use of diet pills involves risks including addiction, developed tolerance, and side effects.

Side effects of diet pills are often mild and at times unpleasant. Common side effects include increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, sweating, constipation, excessive thirst, drowsiness, headache, anxiety, passing gas, diarrhea and leakage of oily stool.

Should diet pills be used long term?

Long term use of diet pills is discouraged. Maintenance of weight loss should be achieved through proper dietary habits and exercise. These should be taught during the first six months of treatment, before the body rejects the effects of diet pills. Diet pills are not for everybody. Discuss with your doctor your medical conditions and precautions you need to take before you use any diet pill.

Over the past few decades, the big pharmaceutical companies have marketed over 1000 diet pills – Celopin Diet Pill is only one of their latest offerings. And despite their claims of rapid, easy weight loss, the fact is that a large majority of diet pills DO NOT WORK AT ALL. (For more information on this, see the website listed in the Resource Box below this article.)

The first diet pills go all the way back to the 1950s, when amphetamines were offered as a way to suppress your appetite/boost your metabolism. Unfortunately, amphetamines (also known as “speed”) are highly addictive, and caused so many serious side effects that the drug companies were forced to take them off the market.

There then followed a long line of diet-pill drugs, which came and went as the continual discovery of side effects would force a new pill off the market within a few years. The most infamous case of this, were the “fen-phen” diet pills. The FDA approved this combination of fenfluramine and phentermine, assuring all that it was completely safe. Mere MONTHS later, the FDA had to issue a humiliating reversal of its decision – the “fen-phen” combination produced some of the worst side effects ever seen in any diet pill offered!

But “Big Pharma” wasn’t about to lose this “cash cow” that easily. In order to regain the trust of the general public, they began moving towards the use of “natural ingredients” in their new diet pill offerings. Of course, just because a chemical is produced by a plant, doesn’t mean it’s any safer than one produced in the laboratory.

The most notorious “natural” diet pill ingredient, was ephedra. Similar to caffeine (but more potent), it was eventually found to be causing caffeine-like side effects – but much more serious. Heart palpitations, heart arrhythmias, other heart problems, allergic reactions, nervous system problems – quite a list indeed! It too, was eventually banned in most of the technologically-advanced, Western civilized nations.

Are you seeing a pattern yet?

All of this does not mean that diet pills are entirely useless. A very few, select diet pills, have some value in assisting with weight loss. They can be useful – but only if you know how to use them correctly, and are fully aware of their problems:

1) ALL diet pills are potent drugs. They all have side effects – some of which are potentially very dangerous.

2) The more frequent side effects of diet pills include: heart complications, high blood pressure, dizziness, nervousness, insomnia, dry mouth, and diarrhea or constipation.

3) Like many other drugs, diet pills can be addictive. People have been known to become quite dependent on these pills, even long after they have stopped their dieting.

4) Many “successful” diet pill claims, are by people who also used a diet plan and exercised regularly during this period. Thus, there’s no way to know for certain, whether they would have lost the same amount of weight WITHOUT using the diet pill.

5) Recently, Big Pharma has tried a different approach: Offering watered-down versions of their prescription diet pills, as “over-the-counter” diet pills. Of course, being watered-down, they are even more useless than their original, stronger, prescription-required versions.

Even worse, after taking all these risks and possibly suffering through a list of side effects, ALL diet pills only work for a short time. Typically, your body will adapt to their weight-loss effects, and the pills will lose potency after a couple of months.

A diet pill by far is still the favorite tool of many dieters in order to lose weight without having to worry about meal plans or daily exercise. It doesn’t come without price though; there are many reports of its drawbacks and very few medical communities dare to recommend it, but of course for a dieter the side effects are nothing compared to the gain.

If you need to lose weight fast for your best friend’s wedding on the next week and don’t have time to prepare all the complicated diet meals or exercises, undoubtedly you will say “Yes!” to the first offer you found on “simple, fast, and safe weight loss” diet pills; bad mood, headache, sleep problem, irregular heat rate, or nervousness are small prices compared to the ideal weight achieved on the right time, right?

Okay; so you know that a healthy long term diet complemented by regular exercise is better, but you have decided that this is an emergency situation, so you have to take the “fast result no hard work” offered by a diet pill and ready yourself for all the side effects. It doesn’t have to be that bad; there are few things you can do to minimizing the risks from taking it.

Before Taking Diet Pills

1. Research; you are in a hurry and expect to lose weight as soon as possible; that is not a reason to jump into the first diet pills offer you found. Take a little time to perform some research; search for expert’s opinion, do not be fooled by “natural ingredients”, “completely safe”, or “no side effects” written on the diet pills website. When researching, only take information from reliable sources, such as doctor or trusted sites devoted in medical field with non biased product review where you can obtain information about the product’s pros and cons.

2. Check its Compatibility with Your Medication; if you are taking any other medications, inform your health care provider about the diet pills you’re about to take and make sure it doesn’t create dangerous drug reaction when combined. If it really do, your physician may decide to adjust the drug dosages, discontinue or change your current medications, or suggest other diet pills that safer.

3. Check Your Own Condition; Check yourself for the following conditions:

* High blood pressure (hypertension).
* Prostate.
* Irregular heart rate.
* Mental illness.
* Strokes.
* Allergic to one of the diet pills substance; this is also a reason to do a complete research on the product.
* Pregnant or suspected to be pregnant; a diet pill which contain caffeine will increase the risk of miscarriage.
* Nursing.

If you have one of the conditions mentioned above, it is advised to cancel your plan on taking diet pills. The effects might be severe and you don’t want to sacrifice your health or your baby just for a temporary weight loss; it is not worth the risks. Also, consult with your doctor first if you are below 18 or over than 60.

1. Take the One that Answer Your Problem; if your problem is always hungry pick the pills that suppress appetite; if your problem is lack of energy, pick the one that increase your body metabolism.

2. Consult with Your Trusted Doctor; no matter how well prepared are you, an experienced doctor can remind you of something you didn’t notice and suggest various tips to do while taking diet pills.

While Taking Diet Pills

1. No Caffeine; do not drink coffee or any other beverages that contain caffeine since it is known to enhance the effects of the ingredients in some diet pills.

2. Take the Diet Pill Whole; take it whole with a glass of water, do not crush the pills and dissolve it in a beverage. Crush the pills will disturb the chemical mechanism that allows it to be slowly released into the body over time.

3. Drink 8 Glass of Water per Day; some diet pills have a diuretic effect which causes you to urinate more frequently and lead to dehydration.

4. Stick to the Recommended Dose; keep in mind that adding the dose will not make you lose weight faster; it will only increase the risks of various side effects occurrence.

5. Check Your Pulse regularly; make sure your pulse stays under 86 per minutes. If it reaches 90, stop taking the pills.

6. Stick to the Diet Plan; to achieve the desired result, you need to follow the plan provided by the manufacturer.

7. Do not take the Diet Pills for Long Period; some diet pills are not safe after being used for a certain period. Stop taking the diet pills after three months to avoid undesired effects and addiction.

8. Diet and Exercise; the diet pills will work best if you complement it with a balanced diet and exercise plan.

Conclusion

It is highly recommended to take a healthy diet and exercise plan over diet pills usage, but if you really have to take the pills, make sure you have made the right preparation before and take care of your body condition while taking the pills. If anything feels wrong, stop it immediately and consult your doctor; do not risk your own health by making decisions on your own. If you do manage to reach your ideal weight, don’t just quit; shift your diet to a healthy one for long term result.