Prudence I Write

    I’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 was 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.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 21st, 2006 at 7:58 am and is filed under Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.