The dangers of online 'diet pills'

An inquest has opened into the death of a student thought to have taken "highly toxic" diet pills bought online.

Eloise Aimee Parry, 21, from Shrewsbury, died in hospital on 12 April after becoming unwell.

Police said the tablets were being tested, but are believed to contain dinitrophenol, known as DNP, an industrial chemical.

The inquest was adjourned until 2 July by Shropshire coroner John Ellery after a short hearing in Shrewsbury.

Glyndwr University student Ms Parry initially attended A&E after taking more than the recommended dose of the tablets.

'Burning from within'

Her mother Fiona said Ms Parry had walked into the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital herself when she began to feel unwell.

There was "no great panic", she said, until a toxicology report had revealed "how dire her situation was".

As the drug kicked in, her mother said, it made her metabolism soar.

"They attempted to cool her down, but they were fighting an uphill battle," she said.

"She was literally burning up from within... When her hearted stopped they couldn't revive her. She had crashed.

"Two tablets was a lethal dose - and she had taken eight."


What is DNP?

• 2,4-dinitrophenol or DNP is highly toxic and was never intended for human consumption
  
  
• An industrial chemical, it is sold illegally in diet pills as a fat-burning substance
  
  
• Users experience a metabolism boost, leading to weight loss, but taking even a few tablets can be fatal
  
  
• Signs of acute poisoning include nausea, vomiting, restlessness, flushed skin, sweating, dizziness, headaches, rapid respiration and irregular heartbeat
  
  
• Consuming lower amounts over longer periods could lead to cataracts and skin lesions and impact on the heart, blood and nervous system
  
  
• Experts say buying drugs online is risky, as medicines may be fake, out of date or extremely harmful
  

Because there was "no antidote", doctors told Ms Parry there was nothing they could do.

She said her daughter was not aware of the dangers of DNP and had not intended to kill herself.

Ch Insp Jenny Mattinson, from West Mercia Police, said the chemical was more commonly used as a pesticide.

"Even very small amounts of it can have really devastating effects," she said.

The force was working closely with Public Health England, she added, to establish exactly where the pills were bought and how they were advertised.

She urged the public to be "incredibly careful when purchasing medicine or supplements over the internet".

Professor Simon Thomas, from the National Poisons Information Unit, said DNP "causes high fever" which can be accompanied by sweating and a rapid heart beat.

He said people who take it "can get dehydration, nausea and vomiting and then this can progress to confusion and convulsions and liver and kidney failure and within a few hours in some cases it can produce death".

Like many of the chemicals used today by bodybuilders and athletes of all sports, 2,4-Dinitrophenol was introduced by the late steroid guru Dan Duchaine. After researching a compound and basing a theory, Duchaine often tested these compunds on himself and other people in his circle. For decades Dan treated himself as a lab rat, taking in chemical after chemical that he thought would be useful in the sport of bodybuilding, with DNP being one of the chemicals tested.

It was 1998, unemployment was low and economic growth was the best it had been in years, the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal was plastered across every major news outlet, and John Elway led his Denver Broncos for their second Super Bowl victory over the Atlanta Falcons. This is the year when I first started reading about DNP. This substance is something that really intrigued me. A chemical that seemed to melt fat at a rate of at least a pound a day without caloric change, and there seemed to be little to no muscle loss with users. This seemed like magic in a little yellow capsule to me.

History

The history and use of DNP is quite interesting. Almost every other compound used by bodybuilders to build muscle and burn fat has a medical use in this country or another country throughout the world. This is not the case with DNP, as it is primarily used in the manufacturing of dyes, wood preservatives, and as a pesticide. A study released in 1931 by Stanford University clearly stated DNP’s effects on shedding body fat. By 1933 DNP became a popular diet pill. However, it was removed from the market in 1938 after many people died or became ill from taking it.

Read more:  DNP - The most effective and dangerous drug for fat loss

DNP is dangerous. Back in 2013, Sarah Houston, a 23-year-old medical student, died after taking a combination of antidepressants and DNP, which she had bought online. Eighteen-year-old student and bodybuilder Sarmad Alladin died the same year after taking DNP, as did 18-year-old rugby player Chris Mapletoft.

The full scale of the drug’s damage has not been reported. But a 2011 study published in the American College of Medical Toxicology found 62 deaths attributed to the drug. It also found that deaths increased from 2001 to 2010, which it claims may be due to: "increased availability of DNP over the internet, marketed particularly towards bodybuilders."

In the UK, it is illegal to sell DNP as a weight loss product, and it is banned for human consumption.

There have been repeated warnings from the NHS and Food Standards Authority (FSA) against using it for weight loss. But the problem is that it’s still sold illegally online, and in the UK it is actually available to buy as a pesticide.

Umberto Cocopop wrote:If someone buys something like diet pills from the internet and then starts popping them like they're smarties then they have acted stupidly.

Now, I agree that it would be great if more could be done to clamp down on the suppliers of dangerous/bogus/scam products and services, but it's undoubtedly impractical to do it effectively so there has to be some level of personal responsibility in people protecting themselves.

If people were generally more sceptical, it would go along way to preventing tragedies such as this one.

Umberto Cocopop wrote:Now, I agree that it would be great if more could be done to clamp down on the suppliers of dangerous/bogus/scam products and services, but it's undoubtedly impractical to do it effectively so there has to be some level of personal responsibility in people protecting themselves.

If people were generally more sceptical, it would go along way to preventing tragedies such as this one.

Whiskers wrote:The title of the article in that second link  'I know the dangers but I want them anyway' , says that people who purchase them are sceptical, they do know the dangers --- there's enough warnings around letting people know --- but they still go ahead and buy them when so easily available on the internet, and use them, often without sticking to the proper dosage etc.

“I have looked into the side effects but it gets to the point where you’re so unhappy in your own body that you’ll try anything," she tells me. "I have a degree in science and a masters in cellular pathology – I know the consequences. But, at the same time, I’m very unhappy with the way I am and would go for anything."

Has she thought about Cara Reynolds's overdose?

“That does scare me. But I wouldn’t say it changes my mind. If you take normal dosage I don’t think it would as bad as that. People need to understand how unhappy we are. I don’t want to see myself like that. I hate mirrors because as soon as I see myself, all I see is disappointment.”

This seems to capture the mood of most people turning to the internet to buy weight loss drugs.

Umberto Cocopop wrote:As with just about every issue going it's very easy to oversimplify it into one cause with one solution.

Online distributors have tried to mask its supply from customs and police officers by labelling it as the yellow spice turmeric because it looks similar, Interpol said.

A statement from the Interpol said: "Although usually sold in yellow powder or capsule form, DNP is also available as a cream.

Online distributors have tried to mask its supply from customs and police officers by labelling it as the yellow spice turmeric because it looks similar, Interpol said.

When you see the budgets and the organisation behind some of these marketing schemes, it only goes to show how lucrative a diet pill scam can be.