The popular diet drug Meridia has been a questionable diet drug for some time now, and there are new calls now to recall this diet drug due to the potential for some pretty serious health conditions that affect the heart as well as increase risk of stroke.

Heart and stroke risks are often associated, because any drug or lifestyle habit or diet that affects the way the blood flows through the body and the thinness or thickness of the blood, so to speak, can have an effect on both the heart’s health as well as the blood vessels in the brain which can rupture and cause a stroke.

Apparently the study, which was actually funded by Abbott Labratories, which is ironically the maker of the drugs (hey, I gotta give them props, because the outcome of the study shows an increased risk of their popular drug), shows a correlation between an increased risk of stroke and heart attacks in patients that already have predispositions toward these issues.

Now, while that’s not a smoking gun that this drug alone caused the potentially life threatening problem on it’s own but instead had some help from good old genetics, it’s still not good for the consumer protection groups who want all drugs to be 100% safe. Unfortunately that’s just not possible, but of course we want to get as close to that as we can. Heck, even acetominophen and ibuprofen have been linked to certain health issues, if you want to be a real stickler.

The bad part is that the drug Meridia has already been pulled from the market in Europe, where they are notoriously more open to new drugs, therapies and treatments than the stringent US FDA is. So you know that there have to be some real health concerns connected with taking this diet product.

Some are recommending that the diet pill stay on the market because it is relatively effective for weight loss in overweight patients, but only that it not be prescribed to those with known heart problems, or perhaps patients are required to get screened for these issues before they are allowed a prescription.   The diet pill is supposed to help control the appetite by making you feel fuller faster.

It works to naturally suppresses hunger by working on the brains central appetite control center, thereby reducing the need to eat a whole lot and reducing the caloric intake of patients, which in turn reduces their weight over a period of time.

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