SIKESTON -- Everyone knows the best way to lose weight is through a healthy diet and adequate exercise. But let's face it. This day and age, it's hard enough to fit in daily chores, much less exercise.
The result? People are swapping their gym shoes for dietary supplements in hopes of zapping away fat and curbing their appetite without breaking a sweat.
Some supplements may be perfectly harmless, while others are not, which is why the Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, is currently testing the framework to determine the safety of supplements.
"One problem with herbs is they're not federally regulated, so you can't be guaranteed of the amount of drug in them," said pharmacist Ernie Moxey of The Medicine Shoppe in Sikeston. "No matter what, any dietary supplement should be reviewed by a doctor or pharmacist before taking the drug."
Of course, anyone taking a lot of medications or anyone with health problems like hypertension, hyperthyroidism or an irregular heartbeat, for example, should not be given supplements, Moxey advised.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration estimates as many as 29,000 different dietary supplements are available and that Americans spend an estimated $700 million each year buying supplements.
Although supplements have become a major industry through the years, they have limited government regulation. A 1994 law doesn't require supplement makers to prove their products are safe before selling them. Instead, the FDA must prove the supplement is unsafe before removing it from the market.
Pharmacist Randy Ackman of Randy's Rx with Ferguson Medical Group in Sikeston also cautions consumers to beware of all products with results that are too good to be true.
"The average person doesn't lose 10 or 20 pounds in a weekend," he said. "Losing two to three pounds per week is more of an attainable goal. No matter what, though, diets are still based on calories."
Both Moxey and Ackman admit an uncertainty of natural supplements like the herbs Ma Huang and ephedra. "Ma Huang is a form of ephedra; ephedra is a form of ephedrine, which is used in methamphetamine," Ackman explained. "They're stimulants."
Just because it says natural doesn't mean it's totally safe, Moxey added.
Most currently the FDA is trying to investigate Metabolife, which lists Ma Huang as an ingredient in the weight-loss supplement. According to FDA, Metabolife refuses to cooperate with the FDA.
Ephedra is connected to at least 54 deaths and about 1,000 reports of complications since the mid-1990s, according to an analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine from 2000.
The FDA continues to warn the public about fenfluramine. It, along with another diet drug, phentermine, were used in a combination, called fen-phen. Fenfluramine was linked to valvulopathy, a serious and sometimes fatal heart disease and was removed from the market in 1997. Phentermine, when used alone, has not been associated with valulopathy and remains on the market.
One supplement Moxey has seen consumers buy often is the apple cider vinegar capsule, which is dehydrated, he said. "It tends to have an appetite suppressant and fat burner. It's completely safe," he said.
Ackman thinks the most successful system of weight loss is simply cutting down on portions of food. It works better, he said. Rather than eliminating every food from their body at once, they gradually decrease the amount of food they take in, he said.
Even prescription diet pills include a requirement of exercise with cutting down on food, Ackman said. Patients should also be monitored by a doctor on a regular basis to watch for any side effects, he added.
Ackman reminds the public: "The basis of all weight loss is caloric input versus caloric output. Output must exceed input. That's the only way to lose weight."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.