One of the most popular products on the market is the diet pill. The problem with the diet pill is that, although the dieter may lose weight with the help of the pill, it can cause physical harm and in some cases death. One such pill introduced to the market in 1997, named “sibutramine (Meridia)” was voluntarily removed from the market after a study found that one out of every seventy users suffered a heart attack or a stroke and this ratio narrowedeven farther when there was a prior history of heart disease As with the appetite suppressants, there is a risk that these pills may alter the effectiveness of other medications the person has been prescribed. They may also bring another danger by altering the chemical levels in the body. For example, if the patient has hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) or hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) and chooses a diet pill that lowers the level of blood sugar in the body, this could cause an unsafe condition. Diet pills that cause the user to go to the bathroom more often may lower levels of sodium, potassium, and other vitamins and minerals that are vital to the body’s functions. With this in mind, great caution should be exercised when considering a diet pill to safeguard against unhealthy and even life threatening situations. A relatively new problem that makes the use of a diet pill more hazardous is that they can be purchased online. Why is thisa problem? The reason is that the FDA has regulatory powers over diet pills, but only those produced here in the United States. Medications bought over the internet may be shipped from anywhere in the world and contain ingredients that the FDA has determined dangerous to the health of the consumer. A diet pill that was purchased over the internet, as part of a study to look for ingredients that may cause heart problems, was determined to contain an ingredient named “ma huang” which was banned by the FDA in 2004 (Doheny, 2008, May 15). It cannot be assumed that, just because a...