Use of Diet Pills and Other Dieting Aids in a College Population with High Weight and Shape Concerns

This research I found from International Journal of Eating Disorder studied whether the college women with diet aids use are at risk of eating disorder and the demographic and psychosocial characteristics associated with their diet aids use. The research was conducted by 484 college women with age below 30 years old from 6 different universities in San Francisco area and San Diego. They were accessed with whether they had used diet pill, far blocker, diuretic, laxative, and other diet aid over the past 12 months. They use WCS, a five-item questionnaire that assess through weight and shape, fear of gaining weight, dieting frequency, importance of weight, and feelings of fatness as one of the tools to find the relationship between diet aid use and weight and shape concerns. With score range from 0 to 100, the higher the score the greater weight and shape concerns.

The result of this study shows that 32% of the college women from both cities admit using more than one dietary aid to help them lose weight and stay in shape in the past 12 months. The college women in San Diego reported using diet aids was twice as much as college women in San Francisco area with 44% in respect of 22%. Diet pills are the most popular one among all the diet aids used by college women. The participants with diet aids use scored high on WCS. The study reveals that 79% women from San Diego region score high on WCS used diet aids. It also appears that the longer you stay in school the higher rate of the diet pill use among women. With 46% diet pill use among sophomores or above compares to 14% rate among freshmen.

In the conclusion, the result shows that there is a significant number of college women in both areas at risk for eating disorders use diet aids. Among all different types of diet aids, diet pills are the most common one used. The data collected demonstrate that college women in these two regions with higher rate of diet aids use are at risk of developing eating disorder. It is recommended that the health care authority should show concern and inquiries on young women’s dietary aids use because more and more women are concerned with their weight and shape.

Reference

Christine I. Celio, Kristine H. Luce, Susan W. Bryson, Andrew J. Winzelberg, Barby Cunning, Roxanne Rockwell, Angela A. Celio Doyle, Denise E. Wilfley, C. Barr Taylor. (2005, May 31). Use of Diet Pills and Other Dieting Aids in a College Population with High Weight and Shape Concerns. International Journal of Eating Disoders 39:6 492-497 2006-DOI 10.1002/eat Retrieved Mar 20, 2012 From http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/doi/10.1002/eat.20254/pdf

Do diet pills really work?

Does the diet pill work effectively?

It's not hard to notice all these fabulous advertisements on TV commercial or magazines that claim how fast and effective their diet pills can help you lose weight. They often claim that their pills are natural and the result can be seen instantly. Some people argue that  the pills only show effect in a short term, in the long run it doesn't work at all. And once you are off pills, you gain weight a lot faster and easier. However, do they really work effectively as they claimed?


For those who believe it does work, they probably have heard their friends taking it and telling them how effective it works. They might first be attracted by advertisements or TV commercial  and try it for the first time. And after taking the diet pills they can feel the weight loss. They begin to see the result from the pills. Some advertisements claims that their pills are made from planets and are 100% natural.

For those who think it does not work at all, they believe some off the pills are simply suppressing your appetite and create the short term allusion of the weight loss. However, they might not know that it is the muscles they are losing not the fat inside their body. Therefore, when they are off the pills, they might gain their weight back easily. And often there will be side effects accompany with diet pills. 

 

Personally, I don't believe any diet pills at all. Sorry that if you are looking for a little magic pill that you can swallow once a day and then you can lose weight and eat whatever you want. It simply does not exist (Burn Flab, 2011). HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) diet products come from human placenta protein, which is unregulated and unapproved for use in diet pills, says the FDA. FDA says these so-called weight loss plans are dangerous and may not even work in the first place (Jio, 2011). I think that exercise is the simplest and cheapest way to help you lose weight.  

Reference

Jio, Sarsh. (2011, Dec 07). Health Experts Spell It Out: HCG Diet Pills Are Dangerous & Come From Human Placentas. Glamour health&diet. Retrieved Mar 5, 2012 From http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/blogs/vitamin-g/2011/12/health-experts-spell-it-out-hc.html

Trebilcock, Bob. (November 2011) If your diet drug works...its bad for you. Prevention. Retrieved Feb 25,2012. From http://www.prevention.com/weight-loss/diets/diet-pill-dangers-truth-behind-weight-loss-supplements

(2011, Sept 16) Do Dieting pills work effectively? Most Effective Diet pills. Retrieved Mar 5, 2012 From http://topdietingpills.com/do-dieting-pills-work

(2012, Feb 11) Weight Loss. Mayoclinic. Retrieved Feb 25,2012. From   http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/weight-loss/HQ01160

(2011, March)Do Diet Pills Work to Burn Flab. Burn Flab. Retrieved Mar 6, 2012 From http://burnflab.org/do-diet-pills-work/

How to determine a reliable source ?

Website 1

As technology advances, the Internet became one of the most important media people use to receive information and news. However, not all the sites are worth reading as they may not be a reliable source. Today, I am going to help you determine whether the website you are browsing is a reliable source so that you can make  the right decision towards your health. I am going to show you five mistakes you can find on the websites that are lack of credibility.

On the right side it is an example of a website that is lack of credibility. The first thing you can notice is that its advertisements filled up a large part of the site. And a lot of them are promoting certain products. The websites like this may have bias because they are encouraging readers to purchase the products on their advertisements. Therefore, wrong information may be given in order to convince the readers to purchase certain products.

Notice at the end of the article, the source is stated from its own website. It is not convincing for the readers. Often the references play a key role in an article. An article with creditable, known references will make the readers believe in its information. Siting from its own does not do a very good job to make the reader believe in its content. 

Also, a website that is lack of credibility contains inaccurate information. As above site states that "the FDA doesn't have much regulatory power over supplements as it does over drugs"(Prevention, 2011). However, as the below one states that the "FDA monitors its safety and can take action to ban or recall dangerous products. Indeed, the FDA has banned the sale of supplements containing ......"(Mayoclinic, 2012)

This site looks more creditable as it doesn't have much advertisements and it has a complete list of references which are reliable sources. (Left and below)

The website on the right states that the diet pill is bad for you in short term, however, from the above website it explains that it also harms you in the long term.

The last thing to determine if it is a reliable source is to see if it has an author. It tends to be a commercial website if the author's name is not clearly stated.

At the end, I hope these tips can help you determine a creditable and reliable websites to help you when making decision on your personal health issues.

Reference

(Feb 11,2012) Weight Loss. Mayoclinic. Retrieved Feb 25,2012. From   http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/weight-loss/HQ01160

Jacqueline. Are diet pills bad?. Seventeen. Retrieved Feb 25, 2012 From http://www.seventeen.com/health/tips/nhqa-092007

Hs, Syd.(April 04, 2008) The bad effect of diet pills on your health. Ezine@articles. Retrieved Feb 25,2012 From http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Bad-Effect-of-Diet-Pills-On-Your-Health&id=1089515

Trebilcock, Bob. (November 2011) If your diet drug works...its bad for you. Prevention. Retrieved Feb 25,2012. From http://www.prevention.com/weight-loss/diets/diet-pill-dangers-truth-behind-weight-loss-supplements

Things to know about Diet Pills

Nowadays, everyone more or less would like to lose some weights to have the perfect body that they dream of from the TV commercials.  Diet pills also known as anti-obesity medications are seen everywhere in life. You would be surprised how many kinds of diet pills are out there. However, people tend to focus on the effectiveness of the pills and neglect the side effects accompanying with. Such as rapid heart beat, high blood pressure, restlessness, insomnia as well as drug addiction. Many diet pills often suppress the appetite which will cause weight loss in the short term, but it also causes problem to our health. It is important for those people who are currently on diet pill or people intending on taking diet pills to learn that these pills you ingest could potentially harm your body. I believe the costs these diet pills associated with our health way outweighs the benefit it brings to us.

At the end I would like to send out a message that “Diet pill is not worth your time, your money, nor your health”. Remember no pills are good for health. Diet pills aren’t the best way to lose weight. Taking drug is serious and should not be taken lightly.

Reference

Anti-obesity medication. (n.d.). Retrieved Jan 25, 2012 from the 

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-obesity_medication