LETTER

Holidays gone, but those pounds won’t leave? 

Increasingly Canadians are using health products for weight loss, including prescription drugs and natural health products. These may provide benefits as part of a program. Misuse can pose serious risks. The following misuse of weight-loss products could lead to serious health effects:

Ordering prescription drugs online that have not been prescribed for you by a health care practitioner who has examined you.

Taking several different kinds of weight-loss products together, or taking weight-loss products in addition to other health products, without discussing possible risks with your health care practitioner

Buying weight-loss products online from unreliable sources.

Using health products “off-label” for weight loss, unless this has been recommended by your health care practitioner.

Also: Avoid  health products online from any source that: refuses to give you a working telephone number and a street address; offers to issue a prescription based on an online questionnaire.

Be skeptical about claims for “natural” weight-loss products. Don’t assume a product is “safe” because it is “natural”.

If you want to be sure that the products have been assessed by Health Canada for safety, effectiveness, and quality, and are authorized for sale in Canada, look for one of the following eight-digit numbers on the package: a Drug Identification Number (DIN); a Natural Product Number (NPN), or a Homeopathic Medicine Number (DIN-HM).

If you have an adverse reaction, contact your health care practitioner right away. 

Maganga Lumbu, 

Health Canada, Montreal