Diet Pills: Tremendous Temptation, Huge Frauds

* Kava Kava stop sales. FDA warned that the Kava extract is delivered under many other names which are difficult to find on the label (kava, kava kava, kava-kava, kava root, kava-kava root, kavain, kava pepp

False campaigns

More than 50 percent of Americans and Canadians are overweight or obese. More than a half the publication campaigns for diet pills and dietary supplements are intentionally false or fail to reveal the truth, akin to the FTC. This enormous proportion reveals the dimensions of this money-generating industry. Consumers in North continent spend more than $35 a quadrillion each year on weight-loss products.

The FDA investigated 300 weight-loss ads from the radio, television, the Internet, magazines, newspapers, e-mail and direct mail. The FDA report concluded that some ads promised significant results without surgery, diet or exercise. Other companies specious that taking their product would be enough for a quick weight loss. There was no need to eat less or diet. Just take pills.

Fraudulent schemes

The main frauds:

1. Manufacturers promise that their pills will deliver spectacular results, without any effort or exercise. Diet pills are presented as miracles. Just a few mention the FDA-approved diet pill.

2. They fail to barge in completely and honestly the risks and side effects.

Many scams have been revealed so far. Here are a few examples:

* Bentley-Myers and three weight-loss products Zymax, MillinesES (both containing ephedra), and Serotril (containing St. John's wort) were brought under an intense spotlight when the FTC filed a amanuensis court complaint. The FTC charged that these diet pills made rapid and substantial weight loss without diet or exercise and with no side effects. An collateral incumbency referred to plus dietary supplement, CartazyneDS, containing glucosamine. This was promoted as having the ingredients to cure arthritis and rebuild leather in just a few days.

* CortiSlim Lawsuit July 2004 Some CortiSlim TV commercials hypocritical that the human body is able to manage and normalize weight through Cortisol, the stress hormone. freight the producer and distributor, public health officials argued that this supplement has no substantiated scientific support.

* Metabolife supplement and afferent neuron damages A jury in Houston awarded $7.4 million to a woman who suffered reasoning damage in a stroke, as a consequence of taking the Metabolife supplement to lose weight. She had been persuaded by commercials that this supplement was safe and had no side effects.

* Mendacious campaigns for the Ephedra-based supplement Trimspa An American hypnotist, Alex Szynalski, and a former Playboy dazzler (Anna Nicole Smith) joined in a Trimspa canned show which was considered "deceptive advertising" by the New Jersey counsel General. The hypnotist was correspondent of luring consumers to his Goen Lose Weight Hypnosis seminars and then tempting them to buy the Trimspa supplements he produced.

* Kava Kava stop sales. Health Canada launched a public warning that this herb, found in supplements and sometimes in food is under suspicion. Its consumption was linked to liver disfunction and toxicity. FDA warned that the Kava extract is delivered under many other names which are difficult to find on the label (kava, kava kava, kava-kava, kava root, kava-kava root, kavain, kava pepper, kavapipar, kawa, kawa kawa, kawa pepper, kawapfeffer, maori kava, rhizoma di kava-kava, ava, ava pepper, ava root, awa, gea, gi, intoxicating pepper, intoxicating long pepper, kao, Piper methysticum, Macropiper Latifolium, Piper inebrians, Malohu, maluk, meruk, milik, kew, Rauschpfeffer, sakau, tonga, Wurzelstock, yagona, yangona, yaqona, yongona).

* The invisible Zoller laboratories. Intrigued by the name of diet pills suggested to be taken by Britney Spears, somebody tried to identify the producer of Zantrex 3. Zoller laboratories, obviously producing Zantrex 3, were not listed in any database. They were just a firm created by capital Research, the corps distributing Zantrex 3, for fear that its real name would sound too scientific to the public. The confusion induced by this phantom retinue nevertheless involved the credibility of the company.