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Do fat burners raise blood pressure?

Many of the ingredients found in fat burner pills or powders can cause high blood pressure. Compounds like phenylpropanolamine, fenfluramine, and ephedrine that stimulate the central nervous system (CNS) to control appetite, also spike blood pressure.

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Weight loss supplements claim to be ‘natural’ or ‘herbal’. That doesn’t mean they are safe. Additionally, dietary supplements and weight loss pills don’t need to go through rigorous evaluation processes by suitable government agencies for quality and purity. These supplements can be marketed freely even though they lack sound scientific data from well-designed clinical control trials to prove their safety and efficacy. Common weight loss supplements include like herbal slimming tea, detox juices, breakfast shakes, and meal replacers. For overweight or obese Indians, struggling to lose or maintain their body weight, diet supplements may seem like a magical solution or last resort. The marketing strategy of these products involves making extravagant promises, but most of these claims are not backed by substantial clinical research. In fact, these supplements, at times, may pose hidden dangers to health that are not disclosed by the manufacturers. Just read the label and the fine print. Despite this threat, the use of diet supplements is growing exponentially in the world and the demand is much higher in people with eating disorders. A recent report by Allied Market Research said that the weight loss and weight management diet market size was valued at $192.2. billion in the year 2019, and was projected to reach $295 billion by the year 2027. But the actual health cost of weight loss supplements is too high to pay. Also read: Intermittent fasting is a fad with benefits but science behind it demands more answers

What are these supplements?

Weight loss supplements include meal-replacement shakes, fat-burners, diet pills, processed soups, weight loss tea, etc., and are manufactured by combining multiple ‘natural’ ingredients. These are mostly popular among young health enthusiasts, busy corporate employees, and office workers who lack the time to indulge in meal preparation, healthy eating, or physical activity. Weight loss supplements promise quick and easy results, which can be, at best, short-term with no evidence of long-term sustenance. These supplements also pose serious health risks such as liver injury, hypertension, headache, anxiety, nausea, diarrhoea, and insomnia, as reported by several research studies. One of the most popular weight loss supplements – the meal replacement shakes – contains highly processed ingredients such as protein isolates, sugars, and artificial flavours. Approximately 40 per cent of the calories in each serving of these shakes come from added sugars. Two servings of most meal replacement shakes provide approximately 18g of added sugar, which is almost equivalent to the 25g added sugar per day limit per adult recommended by the World Health Organization. Also read: Chewy, colourful, vitamin-filled — health gummies are the latest fad to emerge from Covid

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Serious health risks you should watch out for

These fat burners and weight loss supplements can cause everything from liver damage to high blood pressure and anxiety. There have been many reports of acute, clinically apparent liver injury in people taking weight loss supplements. A 2007 study from Israel documented 12 cases of liver injury – including one case each of stage I primary biliary cirrhosis and hepatitis B – in patients who took a ‘herbal’ nutritional supplement. Another 2010 study investigated three cases from Canada and the US who took two popular weight loss supplements. According to the authors, liver biopsies for all three patients demonstrated findings consistent with drug-induced acute liver injury. These are warning signs. Often a quick solution may lead to long-term injuries. Certain fat burners targeting fast weight loss contain an ingredient called usnic acid that has been found to cause liver damage. A healthy 28-year-old woman bodybuilder in the US was diagnosed with acute liver failure within a month of taking 16 mg/day of pure usnic acid for two weeks. A 2017 case series of four patients reported acute liver injury after consuming popular commercial fat burners such as green tea extract, green coffee and spirulina. “The first patient developed acute liver failure and had to be treated by liver transplantation. Second patient developed acute hepatitis that resolved spontaneously. Another patient required multiple surgical procedures due to severe hemorrhage after liver biopsy. The last patient was treated twice in 2010 and 2015. Liver biopsy was performed in all patients and histopathologic examination revealed no other cause of liver injury except the use of fat burner,” said the study. Many of the ingredients found in fat burner pills or powders can cause high blood pressure. Compounds like phenylpropanolamine, fenfluramine, and ephedrine that stimulate the central nervous system (CNS) to control appetite, also spike blood pressure. Supplements containing bitter orange extract, caffeine, and yohimbe may induce headaches along with anxiety. Caffeine is a common ingredient in most fat burners and is often added in a large amount. High dose of caffeine can hit your heart hard. It is advisable to stay away from highly caffeinated fat burners if you have preexisting heart issues. Many weight control drugs/pills reduce appetite by inducing an anorectic effect on the body, which may lead to nausea and diarrhoea. Fat burners that contain guar gum, carnitine, green tea extract, chromium, or chitosan, may cause nausea and vomiting.

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Also read: Diabetes drug found to help cut body weight by 20% in people with obesity, study says

Bottomline

The safety and efficacy of several ingredients that are commonly used to manufacture weight loss dietary supplements are not thoroughly investigated. These supplements might claim to help you lose weight by reducing your appetite or speeding up your metabolism. But there’s scarce scientific evidence that weight-loss supplements work long-term. Additionally, most are pricey, some interact or interfere with medications, and some can cause serious health injury. These are not regulated, and some are not even certified. If you’re thinking about starting any dietary supplement to lose weight, talk to a healthcare professional. People living with high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, liver disease, or other medical conditions need to be extra cautious. It’s always the best to try losing weight safely and slowly by adopting a lifestyle modification approach involving calorie-restricted diet, regular physical activity, yoga, meditation, 7 to 8 hours of sound sleep and sound mental health. Dr Subhasree Ray is Doctoral Scholar (Ketogenic Diet), certified diabetes educator, and a clinical and public health nutritionist. She tweets @DrSubhasree. Views are personal.

(Edited by Neera Majumdar)

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