Herbal Diet Supplements aren’t from the Fairy Godmother

It would take a year if I should mention the brand of diet supplements in the market because they do uncountable. Well, we don’t want to talk about chemical-based weight loss supplements, most of us are now smart enough to avoid such diet supplements due to the compound that can be very dangerous. Now the problem is we can find so many dangerous diet supplements in disguise a.k.a herbal diet supplements that can actually give fatal effects to the body.

We have to understand that herb supplements are able to promote weight loss in several ways. Some of the herbs are telling the brain that our stomach is full, some others are having thermogenical function or the function to improve body metabolism.

Thermogenic Herbs

These herbs are having some substances that work similarly as caffeine that will increase our digestion, heart rate, and respiration system. They will supply us energy and keep us active. There are some safe thermogenic herbs like green tea or dandelion. Green tea is so much safer than prescription diet supplements. We can also find diuretic herbs. It reduces the amount of water in our body. However, stopping these herbs consumption will return our weight.  Some of them can be quite beneficial, but most of them can be very dangerous and intoxicating.

Avoid these Herbs

FDA has banned some products that seem to be safe, but actually can be quite deadly.

First is herbal laxative. We can find hundreds variant of herbal laxative. The tea is given a title as diet tea. Since it works as laxative, then the herb will cause some health problems like diarrhea and stomach cramp. If the herbal tea is used for quite a long period, then it will be able to stop the natural bowel movement. It means we won’t be able to get a bowel movement before we take the tea.

Second is ephedra, which is known as ma huang. It is often used in tablet supplements. The herb is able to increase the blood pressure, heart rate and the most dangerous thing is the herb will over stimulate central nervous system. Based on the FDA report, there are about 800 side-effects report related to ephedra such as seizure, heart papilation, chest pain, heart attack and many others. Some people died due to ephedra consumption.

Third is herbal fen phen. Fen phen is a diet drug which contains ephedra. The drug is linked with various side-effects like stroke, heart attack and heartbeat irresularities.  Until nowadays, there isn’t any medical approval or test on fen phen, so make sure that we keep our hand away from the drugs.