Zarina Jakipbayeva
Argumentative Essay
ESL 015
Use and Abuse of Appetite Suppressants
In our contemporary world, the development of the Internet and technology promotes
possibilities for doing everyday work with applying less energy and spending less time. People
are enjoying all advantages of using technology and the Internet such as remote control for
television, light, music, elevator, cars, and even on-line shops which make people move less and
lead to increase in number of people suffering from obesity. As a result, most of the people have
become obsessed with losing weight. The mass media propagates the fashion trade of thin
models and so, people keep on desperate attempts to shrink their bodies no matter what the cost
is. Sometimes this cost outweighs the benefits of losing weight. Usually, when people diet and
lose weight, their appetite rises and leads to gaining the weight back. One of the options that
many people have taken in an attempt to lose weight is the usage of various appetite
suppressants. Although there are several reasons why people decide to use appetite suppressants
such as they help to reduce appetite, consequently help to lose weight and some of them are
made of natural ingredients, I believe that appetite suppressants mostly cause damage rather than
leads to expected results because less eating results in a less amount of vitamins and proteins
consumed, appetite suppressants are dangerous when overused them, and they have side effects.
First of all, let us try to understand what appetite suppressants are and understand how
they work in order to be more informed when deciding whether to use appetite suppressants or
not. Thus, appetite suppressants, the technical name for which is “anorectic", are products which
consist of different combinations of drugs to enhance weight loss, the control of hunger, and
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feeling of emptiness in stomach by influencing hormonal and chemical processes of the body.
Anorectics decrease hunger prior to the consuming of a meal with the help of energy reducing
drugs which cause adrenal glands to release two hormones - epinephrine and norepinephrine
(also known as noradrenalin). These hormones are known as "fight-or-flight" ones due to the
manner of stimulating the central nervous system, increase the heart rate and blood pressure.
Consequently, they prevent the passage of the brain's signal to the body meaning it is time to feel
hunger (Hall, 2010).
Let us start by considering the fact that the very first reason why people use appetite
suppressants is that it is considered to be efficient in decreasing willing to consume food and,
therefore helpful in reducing weight. However, we cannot ignore the fact that the theory of
feeling hunger has various bases. For instance, some people might want to eat due to
psychological state, such as when they are sad, bored, or just because there is food available
somewhere nearby. As well as human beings have very advanced and complicated mental
development, eating is considered not as necessary process to reduce hunger, but also as one of
the social activity, so they might keep consuming food because there are other people around
who are also eating (Phatman, 2008). Therefore, for those who are used to eat food in order to
calm their emotions or for any other reasons apart from hunger, appetite suppressants are not
likely to be efficient.
The second aspect that needs to be pointed out is that people come up with usage of
appetite suppressants because these drugs are designed to influence some processes within
human organism which lead to reduction of hunger and weight loss. On the other hand,
according to Bray in his studies explained in the a “Use and Abuse of Appetite-Suppressant
Drugs in the Treatment of Obesity” (1993), when taking into considerations long-term lasting
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consequences research shows that weight loss could last only through about 36 months with net
loss varying from 2 to 20 kilograms and after abruption of the usage the weight is regained. This
means that appetite suppressants work only during usage period and reached results do not last
forever after that. In the other words, when people stop applying appetite suppressants, the
feeling of hunger stabilize and, after a while, people start consuming food at their normal rate.
Another argument of the opponents states that there are several suppressants made of
“natural” ingredients such as green tea extracts but neither of them as efficient as artificially
synthesized ones. This could be supported by the results made on the research introduced by Cho
S. in her book named Weight control and Slimming Ingredients in Food Technology (2010, p.
35) - “the natural metabolite can reduce weight and caloric intake in healthy overweight women.
The lack of significant effect of on food intake remains unclear”.
Do people ask themselves the question “what are the most obvious consequences of
restricting the organism from eating the amount of food it needs?” when they start using appetite
suppressants? Let us take a closer look at the answers. First of all, according to teachings in even
elementary school, human organism needs sufficient supply of food with vitamins, minerals and
other nutritious to derive energy for maintaining crucial processes to balance the optimum
needed for normal level of activeness. After a certain period of time not eating enough food and,
as a result less amount of vitamins, human organism comes up with a diagnosis called
“avitaminosis”. Avitaminosis is a state of organism when it is suffering from lack of vitamins
due to consuming amount that is less than a standard everyday quantity. Avitaminosis leads to
very large-scale consequent diseases such as beriberi, scurvy, and rickets (Hughesh, Lienhardta,
& Aubel, 1929, p. 183). All these diseases result in dysfunction of organism, decreasing in the
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rate of metabolism and, how paradoxically it might be, in destroying fats of the organism itself.
Hence, the process of losing weight is not as ideal as it might seem from the first glance.
From the information mentioned above, it might be assumed that the only salvation is
life-long intake of anorectic, because appetite suppressants do not work after the usage was
terminated. Nonetheless, studies show negative effects of long-term consumption. Thus, the
results of studies conducted by Padwal, Li, and Lau (2003) conclude that within one year the
usage of appetite suppressants acts efficiently in forcing weight loss. When longer, it leads to
cardiovascular morbidity and even mortality. Therefore, long-term usage is not the key to the
desired results, due to the dangerous consequences of prolonging it after a year of usage.
We must not forget the fact that appetite suppressants are drugs and therefore have
several side effects. The results of the research done by Jick (Medical Degree), Vasilakis (Master
of Public Health), Weinrauch (Medical Degree), Meier (Ph. D.), Jick (Doctor of Science), Derby
( Doctor of Science) on a Population-Based Study of Appetite-Suppressant Drugs and the Risk of
Cardiac-Valve Regurgitation (1998, p. 11) shows that among people who were using appetite
suppressants there were 11 cases of idiopathic valvular disorders – six of them are aortic
regurgitations, the backflow of blood from aorta to the heart due to the incompleteness of
valvular apparatus between them (Emergency Medicine, 2008), two of them were mitral
regurgitation, the backflow of blood to upper chamber of the heart when bottom one contacts
(MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia, 2007), and the rest three were the combinations of two
types. In contrast, there were no new cases of such disorders among those who were not taking
appetite suppressants. Another shocking fact is that in the historical background there were some
cases of termination of releasing appetite suppressants due to its enormous impact on the human
health and the primary factor leading to the increased rate of valvular heart damage. For instance,
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in September 1997, when United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) alerted the danger
of valvular heart diseases caused by appetite suppressants two anorectics, fenfluramine (sold as
"Pondimin") and dexfenfluramine (sold as "Redux") were restricted from further supply to
markets. The vast number of people claimed that the drugs caused them to suffer from valvular
heart damage. Others stated that the drugs caused them to suffer from primary pulmonary
hypertension, abnormally high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs which makes the right
side of the heart need to work harder than normal (MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia, 2007)
(Smart, Clark, & Fleming, 2004, p. 225-229). After all these data presented from researches and
studies, it is likely that appetite suppressants cause damages rather than brings desired results.
All these numbers seem to prove that appetite suppressants are not as efficient as people
usually believe they are supposed to be. Despite the fact that appetite suppressants cause the
decrease in feeling of hunger, and therefore lead to weight loss, however, the achieved results are
temporary, thus after termination of consumption weight is regained. In other words, appetite
suppressants are helpful only during the time of consumption. Another argument which supports
anorectics had been disapproved by studies showing lack of their efficiency in weight reduction.
Moreover, usage of appetite suppressants increases the possibility of avitaminosis followed by
reduced amount of food and nutritious intake. Some experiments show the restriction of allowed
period of consumption, because otherwise it might cause severe diseases and even fatal effects.
The last but not least disadvantage of diet drugs is the fact that they as being drugs have side
effects. In the most cases they cause valvular heart damage and primary pulmonary hypertension,
the diseases of the most important organ in human organism – heart. Comparison positive effects
and negative impact of anorectics shows the explicit picture of all disadvantages, and act as
provoking aspect to find other salvation for those who are suffering from obesity, or willing to
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control their hunger by the means of diet drugs. I believe that it is more reasonable to eat healthy
food such as meat, vegetables, and fruit with sufficient amount of vitamins and necessary
nutrition in it. In addition, to make result more efficient it would be a great option to do exercises
and improve structure of muscles. This will not only better health condition of organism but also
improve mental satisfaction.
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REFERENCES
Bray, G. A. (1993). Use and Abuse of Appetite-Suppressant Drugs in the Treatment of
Obesity. Philadelphia, PA: National Institutes of Health Technology Assessment
Conference.
Cho, S. S. (2010). Weight control and Slimming Ingredients in Food Technology. Ames,
Iowa: Backwell Publishers.
Emergency
Medicine.
(2008).
Aortic
Regurgitation.
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/757146-overview
Retrieved
from
Hall, M. J. (2010). How Do Appetite Suppressants Work? Retrieved from
http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5139664_do-appetite-suppressants-work.html
Hughesh, J. S., Lienhardta, H.F., & Aubel, C. E. (1929). Nerve Degeneration Resulting
Feom Avitaminosis A. Manhattan: Kansas State Agricultural College.
Jick, H., Vasilakis, C., Weinrauch, L. A., Meier, C. R., Jick, S. S., Derby, L. E. (1998). A
Population-Based Study of Appetite-Suppressant Drugs and the Risk of Cardiac-Valve
Regurgitation. Lexington, MA: Boston University Medical Center.
MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. (2007). Mitral regurgitation – acute. Retrieved from
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000177.htm
MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. (2007). Pulmonary hypertension. Retrieved from
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000112.htm
Padwal, R., Li, S. K., & Lau, D. C. W. (2003). Long-term pharmacotherapy for
overweight and obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled
trials. Edmonton, AB, Canada: Division of Internal Medicine, University of Alberta
Hospital.
Phatman, A. (2008). Do Appetite Suppressants Really Work? Retrieved from
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/do-appetite-suppressants-really-work341612.html#axzz0lrIiQMoM
Smart, L., Clark, C., & Fleming, G. M. (2004). Diet Drugs. United States Court of
Appeals.
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