“I couldn't stop getting sick. My side and my back hurt and I felt like my body was shutting down completely. This is how one woman described the side effects of weight loss injections. which he bought off-label. BBC investigation. His experience is much from unusual. Medical experts within the UK are also reporting this. Young girls Taking these products illegally has resulted in them ending up in A&E.
Concerns in regards to the off-label misuse of medicines containing semaglutide (resembling Ozempic and Vigovi) recently prompted NHS England's medical director to warn that they were in search of a “quick fix” to develop beach bodies. shouldn't be seen as Speaking to the NHS Confederation, a company whose members provide services to the NHS, Stephen Powes (National Medical Director of NHS England) warned that this “powerful drugs” Can be dangerous, and inappropriate for “people who are healthy who just want to lose a few pounds”.
Originally developed as a treatment for type 2 diabetes, so-called “thinning jabs” containing the appetite suppressant semaglutide A relatively recent innovation. But online speculation about Use of celebrity And Social media stories Dramatic weight reduction has fueled their rise in popularity – and driven people to search out these products, even in the event that they haven't any medical need for them.
Although semaglutide-containing medications could also be recent, feelings of physical dissatisfaction are what drive people to search out such products. If we glance back at magazines for young women and girls over the past 150 years, it's clear that while fashion and norms have modified, the pressure to realize a perfect body type stays. A willingness to try potentially harmful prescribed drugs to realize this ideal can also be a continuing.
As far back because the nineteenth century, editors of the magazine Girls' Own Paper recurrently warned their teenage readers. “Obesity Pills and Powders”. They characterised these products as “quick drugs,” and Recommended it Any type of weight-reduction plan “should only be attempted under the direction of a physician”.
Still, magazine readers continued to ask for advice on potentially dangerous slimming treatments. A correspondent was strongly discouraged from taking “bromide of ammonium”—because the editors described it. “a very powerful drug” That “will only hurt you”. Bromide can have been a well-liked sedative within the nineteenth century. Toxic effects If taken over an prolonged period.
Another reader was told to watch out for the “latest thing”. Weight loss medicine – a hormone treatment called thyroglandin.
“Like all animal extracts, thyroid is a very powerful drug, and sometimes produces very dangerous symptoms,” warned Girls' Own Paper, adding that it ought to be “reserved only in very marked cases of obesity.” ought to be used”. Writing for Cosmopolitan in 1910, Woods Hutchinson, a medical doctor, agreed, Recommend that Prolonged use of the drug “was liable to supply serious and obstinate disturbances of the nervous system.”
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Nevertheless, by the Nineteen Thirties, advertisements for eating regimen pills containing dried thyroid gland were an everyday feature in young women's magazines – although they weren't at all times transparent about their ingredients. Advertisements for Marmola Anti-Fat Tablets Miss Modern, for instance, claims to contain “just the right amount” of “a world-renowned corrective” that can help users slim down “without starving.” But the ads never made it clear what this miracle substance was.
Marmola touts its products as protected and effective with clinically proven advantages. It claimed to be “recommended by doctors everywhere” and warranted women that “being fat in these scientific days is folly”. References to science were made to reassure consumers, but the truth is, slimming drugs within the late nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries Largely unorganized.
when British Medical Association conducted a chemical evaluation of available “obesity remedies” in 1909, he found that, together with largely innocuous substances resembling powdered seaweed, pills resembling marmula contained ingredients that were self-medicating. weren't suitable. These include desiccated thyroid gland and phenolphthalein (a robust laxative that later Banned by the US Food and Drug Administration due to its cancer risk).
Along with scientific language, Twentieth-century weight-loss advertisements often used endorsements to persuade consumers of their effectiveness.
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In the Forties and 50s, slimming brand aids were utilized by Hollywood stars Hedy Lamarr and Zsa Zsa Gabor To promote their “slimming” products to women who aspire to be a movie star.
But perhaps the body shapes of those glamorous celebrities felt unattainable for atypical women, as AIDS had modified by the Seventies. Instead they began using validation from “real life” users – complete with Dramatic “before and after” photos.
Contains aids. Benzocaine, a neighborhood anesthetic commonly used to alleviate pain and itching. The product reduces appetite by numbing the taste buds.
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But other weight-loss products of the Twentieth century contained way more dangerous ingredients. amphetamines. A 1971 Article in Shay Magazine sang the praises of “Fanny” (phenfluramine), an amphetamine-based appetite suppressant that helped the creator lose a stone in lower than a month. Medicine was later. Withdrawn from use As a treatment for obesity on account of cardiovascular risk.
today, UK Advertising Codes Establish strict rules for the promotion and sale of slimming products. gave Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency Further ensures that drug promoting complies with UK legal requirements. But with recent reports of social media ads promoting weight reduction drugs in these ways. Violation of laws and of getting “thin jobs”. Online sales without proper checksWe may wonder if young women today are safer than women within the nineteenth and Twentieth centuries.