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Pharmacological History of Weight Loss

Weight-loss strategies have existed as long as humans have sought a quicker, easier way to get thin. Pharmacology has introduced its share of weight-loss solutions over the past century or so. While many of these products induced weight loss, they also caused detrimental, dangerous or even fatal side effects. With these drugs removed from the market, herbal supplements have taken over as a new, and relatively unregulated, over-the-counter option.

  1. Early Methods

    • Weight loss fads have existed since at least the time of William the Conqueror, according to a Mental Floss article on CNN.com. By the 19th century, the American obsession with weight loss had taken the form of diets, changes of environment and chewing each mouthful of food 32 times. Some of these odd ideas came in pill form. CNN.com reports, for instance, that in the first decades of the 20th century, vendors sold weight-loss pills that supposedly contained tapeworms.

    Dinitrophenol

    • A Quackwatch article discusses a dangerous over-the-counter drug called dinitrophenol that made its debut as a diet drug in the 1930s. Originally used as an industrial chemical, dinitrophenol caused illness and death among workers and lab animals, but not before raising their metabolisms significantly. Pressed into service as a weight loss drug before scientists could know its long-term effects, dinitrophenol caused skin irritation, jaundice, severe cataracts, and occasionally death before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned it in 1938.

    The Diet Pill Boom

    • The latter half of the 20th century saw Americans turn increasingly to the medicine cabinet for a quick solution to weight gain or fatigue. According to a DocShop article, even comic-book heroes such as 1940's "Hourman" took vitamin pills to temporarily gain super powers. By the 1950s doctors commonly prescribed amphetamines for weight loss. Originally developed as a stamina aid for soldiers during World War II, amphetamines curbed appetite to cause weight loss. They also proved highly addictive, and doctors phased them out as a weight loss medication the following decade. Other products, such as a weight-loss candy called Ayds, continued to flourish into the 1970s and 1980s.

    Fen-phen

    • The diet pill industry suffered bad press in 1997, when the FDA determined that use of an over-the-counter supplement called Fen-phen led to conditions such as heart valve problems and pulmonary hypertension. That same year, reports surfaced linking another drug called ephedra to heart attacks, seizures, strokes and other serious health issues. The FDA banned ephedra in 2004.

    Herbal Supplements

    • Many of today's "weight loss pills" come in the form of herbal dietary supplements that claim to have metabolic effects on weight. The FDA holds little authority over the distribution of herbal supplements, allowing drugstores and supermarkets to stock their shelves with products that may or may not cause safe or verifiable results.

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