Do you watch naaptol?
Or homeshop 18?
Or other advertisements which claim that they have the remedy of weight loss in the form of tablets.
Well, let me tell you a story.
Anita (name changed), was a moderately obese girl. Although she didn't have any life threatening or disabling obesity, she was still concious about her weight. As she was an aspiring model, so all she wanted to do was lose those extra kilos.
Day and night, she prayed to God to make her lose weight.
Although in matters of diet, she knew no bounds. Samosa, gol gappa, moglai, egg roll, biriani.. You name it. None of them survived when anita was there.
She became depressed and started to have sleepless nights.
One night, she couldn't sleep, so she turned on the TV at 3 in the morning (3 Am).
Naaptol was showing a remedy of obesity.
“ Ye tablet 30 din lijiye aur paiye mere jaisi patli kamar “
(take these tablets for 30 days and get a slim waist like me)
A model with very sharp features and extremely slim waist announced.
Anita's happiness knew no bounds. She watched it and was convinced that she finally got the solution .
Without giving any second thoughts, she ordered 3 of them ( for 3 Months) and started taking it.
And wow!!
She started to lose weight, FOR REAL!!
She was so happy, that she can finally audition for modelling.
After 3 Months, she lost around 20 kgs. She started getting dressed up for the modelling audition which was scheduled within an hour. She was about to wear her gold necklace when she realised, she had a lump on her throat.
Like this.
Confused and scared that she might lose the audition, she started having palpitations. Her hands started to shake violently on its own (tremors) She thought it might be due to anxiety, or because she was having heavy menstrual bleeding for the past 2 months.
She calmed herself down, drank water and sat down. But of no use.
Few minutes later, she started feeling dizzy and boom!
She fainted.
She was immediately rushed to the hospital.
Basic tests were done which was normal.
However she was having staggering BLOOD PRESSURE and a very high heart rate.
He thyroid hormones were checked, and it was sky rocketing.
The doctors asked if she took any thyroid medications or not to her parents.
They denied.
Then they asked if she took any supplements.
She informed them about the naaptol thing.
The doctors realised it, admitted her for a few days, then discharged her with appropriate medications with a statutory warning “ DO NOT TOUCH THE SUPPLEMENTS EVER IN YOUR LIFE, YOU ARE ALREADY BEAUTIFUL “
So, what actually happened?
WELL, she was suffering from, what we call FACTITIOUS HYPERTHYROIDISM.
Our body produces thyroid hormones on its own. One of the major functions of thyroid hormone is to increased BASAL METABOLIC RATE. That means, the more the thyroid hormones, the more the calories are burnt and faster the weight is lost.
The naaptol frauds took advantage of this.
What they gave in their medicine, was additional thyroid supplements, which will thus increase the thyroid hormones in the body which will lead to more calories burnt and faster weight loss and hence anita lost weight so fast.
The innocent people who don't know about this is are surprised and extremely happy by this miracle and take them on a prolonged basis, leading to HYPERTHYROIDISM, which can lead to symptoms as occurred to ANITA.
BOTH HYPERTHYROIDISM AND HYPOTHYROIDISM can cause goitre(the swelling in the neck) , as shown in the image above.
Sometimes, people can die too.
So, guys, beware of these fraud products
- Dr Pallab Roy