Warning! Warning! We have said it several times but we repeat it, there is no magic recipe to lose weight. And certainly no magic pill. Yet, people keep hope. And recent research (2019) has linked one of these pills to 6 deaths.

The Research Results

We can read in the summary of research on food supplements to burn fat (DNP):

The United Kingdom experienced a sharp increase in toxicity cases due to 2,4 dinitrophenol (DNP) – an industrial chemical often marketed as a weight loss supplement – with 20 registered cases and six related deaths in 2018, from the United Kingdom. Uni, said the National Poisons Information Service (NPIS).

Although DNP is labeled “unfit for human consumption”, it is still available and sold to people, mostly online.

For example, last July Liam Willis, 24, from South Wales, was found dead in a motel room. An investigation into his death revealed that the extra weight loss containing 2,4-dinitrophenol, also known as DNP, was involved. This illegal drug is marketed as a miracle aid to weight loss and often targets the bodybuilding community.

But the rapid weight loss has a very high price, as demonstrated not only by the death of Willis, but also by young men and women like him.

Other side effects include: dehydration, cataracts, lethargy, nausea, and so on.

How Does DNP Work?

DNP rapidly accelerates the basal metabolic rate, which can lead to rapid weight loss. But in reality, losing weight has never been the goal of this drug. The French used it for the manufacture of ammunition during the First World War. These uses also included: pesticide, colorant and wood preservative.

But in 1933, Stanford scientists discovered that the bright yellow compound could shred fat.

Essentially, it increases the basal metabolic rate to speed up fat burning. This results in a high internal body temperature as the dose increases. Indeed, DNP works by reducing the efficiency of cells to produce ATP (adenosine triphosphate). The result is therefore more energy lost in the form of heat production rather than conversion to ATP.

People Still Use It?

This is crazy: we can find on the internet sites where to order these deadly pills! One site even displays the numbers: “To date, the DNP has caused 62 deaths published in the medical literature”. He then proposes to go to the cash register …

In fact, the harmful effects are well known since the 1930s. A doctor in private practice, however, sold the product under another name, to those who wanted to lose weight. He is now under the bars but the damage is done.

In the United States, it is illegal to sell as a dietary supplement but not to own one.

At the research level, new scientific findings have shown that DNP can help after stroke or in the case of Parkinson’s disease. To be continued…