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Fen/phen diet drug now tied to heart valve damage

2008-11-08 16:36:29 (GMT) (Caymanmama.com - Health News News)

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Fen/Phen obesity drug

Atlanta, Georgia (CaymanMama.com) — It has never been more apparent that severe diet efforts and diet drugs promising exceptionally fast weight loss are fad and can cause more harm than good.

In a recent report by HealthDay, a new study concludes that one of the biggest obesity fad drugs “fen/phen” has been tied with heart valve damage that can develop years after the user takes the drug.

Banned in the U.S. since 1997, the appetite suppressant fenfluramine was eliminated from the marketplace due to its links to heart damage. In fact, fenfluramine was the root of thousands of lawsuits filed against the drug’s manufacturers over alleged damage it caused.

According to the study published November 5 in the journal BMC Medicine, researchers evaluated 5,743 subjects who had ceased the use of the obesity drug more than a decade earlier but suffered from damaged heart valves up to seven years after using the drug.

heart valves up to seven years later.

“Valve problems were common in individuals exposed to fenfluramines, more frequent in females, and associated with duration of drug use in all valves assessed,” research leader Charles Dahl, from the Central Utah Clinic, said in a statement issued by the journal’s publisher.

Dahl continued, “We found clear evidence for a strong, graded association between duration of exposure to fenfluramines and prevalence of aortic regurgitation and for mild or greater mitral and tricuspid regurgitation.”



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