Prudence and Madness

pic from abs-cbnnews.comI’ve been watching the news less frequently this week because I was busier with my review for my upcoming exam. Unfortunately, during those less frequent times I spent watching the news, I’ve never seen or heard any worthy news at all. Instead, I suffered through a series of “sensational” and “controversial” news segment about Joey Marquez’ daughter, Jowee Ann recovering from a near-fatal case of herbal slimming pill overdose.

Read the ABS-CBN article here.

Geez, one episode of it is enough already. But almost the entire week’s night news peppered with it?!?! That’s just way, way too much!

It could have been a good setup for making the common people aware of the dangers of using “herbal” slimming/diet supplements and that not all supplements claiming to be “herbal” are good. But, as expected of Philippine “responsible” journalism, reporters have emphasized more on the feelings of Jowee (her regrets for having committed such an idiotic act perhaps) on taking the slimming pills. It would have been responsible journalism if, during the week, reporters compiled or made a series of segments regarding actual herbal slimming pills available in the country containing dangerous amounts of phentermine. It would have been responsible news reporting if someone thought of interviewing a CREDIBLE medical practitioner about the proper use of phentermine. But, no! Reporters sensationalized the news and focused on how Jowee felt like coming out of coma or how hard it was for her parents to accept that such thing could have ever happened to their daughter. Please! We’ve had enough of that from our daily dose of soap operas and telenovelas! We need hard and concrete information!

It is brave of Jowee Ann to admit her idiocy in front of millions and millions of viewers (though she, of course, will not admit directly to that). It is something that she should be given credit for. Perhaps from her mistake, many Filipinos will be brought back to reality and realize that slimming pills should not be abused. However, if Jowee Ann, really wanted to enlighten Filipinos, she should have mentioned how many pills she ingested at any one time and for how long. Or perhaps she did not want to do that because it would make her idiotic act more glaring in the public eye?

But, then why would the ordinary Filipino want that information?

It is simply because phentermine, itself, is a drug that is legally used as an anti-obesity agent. Nothing really bad in there. Except, of course, if people will use it without the supervision of a physician.

People need to understand that the adage, “everything should be taken in moderation”, holds true in the case of drug use.

Phentermine is a resin complex acting on the central nervous system to suppress appetite. It is only used for SHORT-term management of obesity, and only as an adjunct to proper diet and exercise. It is available locally as Duromine in 15-mg and 30-mg capsules. A prescription would be needed for acquisition of this drug. And it only 15-30 mg can be taken daily. That means, either you could take the 15-mg capsule once or twice daily or the 30-mg capsule only once daily. If proper dosage is exceeded, it may lead to amplified side effects such as palpitations, hypertension, agitation, restlessness, etcetera. Toxic dose varies considerably due to individual variations in tolerance of the drug so it is important not to exceed the advised dosage.

So, how many of the pills did Jowee take at any one time? I do not know how much of phentermine was in each slimming pill she used. Using common sense, I’d say she must have taken more than one pill at any one time (perhaps to speed up her weight loss), leading to toxic levels in her blood which in turn, lead her to near-fatality. Also, she may have had some contraindications to the drug like: anorexia, insomnia, psychopathic personality disorders, suicidal tendencies, Gilles de la Tourette syndrome and other disorders, hyperthyroidism, narrow angle glaucoma, diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases such as angina, hypertension and arrythmias (Dollery, 1991; Reynolds, 1996)

To know more about phentermine, please read this monograph.

My point is, Jowee did not became comatose because she used a herbal slimming pill with phentermine. Jowee became comatose because she abused a slimming pill with an unknown content of phentermine. Not knowing that the pill contains phentermine is besides the point. She took for granted that the slimming pill is “herbal”. She thought that “herbal” automatically meant “natural” and “natural” meant “good for one’s health”. She left moderation out of the equation. And that is dangerous.

Moral of the story: Idiocy and Herbal supplements are a dangerous mix.

Filed under: Posts From Blogger by Prudence