Phentermine Weight Loss Pills

Weight Loss Pills

The category of weight loss pills those come with a prescription are like drugs. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition approval) regulates the production and marketing of such drugs.

Phentermine suppresses appetite by acting on the nervous system and is of the amphetamine and phenethylamine class. It helps reduce weight of obese patients combined with exercise, diet, and behavioral modification. It is prescribed for patients with medical risk because of weight and works by releasing appetite controlling chemicals in the brain.

Phentermine was recognized in 1959 which became available in the early 1970s as a hydrochloride. Previously it was known as Fastin®. It was taken out from the market in 1998 and other farms like Medeva Pharmaceuticals sells the brand as Ionamin® and Gate Pharmaceuticals sells it as Adipex-P®.
The most recent study was in 1990 which combined phentermine with fenfluramine or dexfenfluramine and became known as Fen-Phen. It was however found that nearly 30% of people taking the drug got affected with an abnormal valve. But since use of this was not ascertained as the sole reason, the FDA did not remove phentermine from the market.

Use of Phentermine may create an addiction to it. So it is a controlled substance in many countries and is recognized internationally as a schedule IV drug under the Convention on Psychotropic Substances.

Mechanism of Action

Phentermine follows the same mechanism of action as other stimulant appetite suppressants whereby the neurotransmitters signal the body to put halt to the hunger signal. In the absence of a hunger signal, there is a loss in appetite.

Dosing and Administration

FDA strictly restricts it to be a short term medication. It has been shown that phentermine does not lose effectiveness in a 36-week trial period and causes insomnia. The usual time for having the drug is 1-2 hours before breakfast.

Restrictions for some

The drug is restricted for patients who have an allergy to the drug, or to any of its similar kind, or the ones who are already taking dexfenfluramine, fenfluramine, furazolidone, guanadrel, guanethidine, or phenelzine (monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI)) before 14 days, or who have high blood pressure/an overactive thyroid/ glaucoma/heart or blood vessel disease/severe narrowing of the blood vessels, or who is pregnant/to-be-pregnant, or who are in an agitated state, or have brain/spinal cord disorder/hardening of the arteries/ diabetes/high lipid levels.

Side effects

Generally, phentermine can produce side effects keeping in line with catecholamine-releasing properties like increased heart rate and elevated blood pressure. Other symptoms include insomnia, increased blood pressure, irritability, nervousness, sense of well being.

There may some other symptoms which may sometime take place are blurred vision, change in sexual desire, clumsiness, confusion, Diarrhea, dizziness, dry mouth, headache, irregular heartbeat, nausea or vomiting, psychosis, skin rash or itching, stomach pain, tiredness and unpleasant taste.

When overdose happened, a lot of complications may happen like confusion, convulsions (seizures), dizziness, fast breathing, fever, hallucinations, hostility/urge to attack, irregular blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, lightheadedness/fainting, mental depression (after a period of excitement), tremors, trembling/shaking, overactive reflexes, panicking, restlessness, severe nausea/vomiting/diarrhea, stomach cramps and tiredness/weakness.

Exercise is a must with phentermine use