Drugs for slimming in Egypt .. Capsules of death provided by the Alliance of Media and promoters

Mahmoud Siddiq - Cairo

The ads on drugs that help the Egyptian slimming through satellite channels, websites and social networking are surrounded by a large weighty segment, and their practical, and perhaps physical, conditions prevent them from exercising. They imagine the dream of rapid slimming in a capsule.

One of these companies used representatives and representatives from the second and third grades in the Egyptian cinema and citizens to promote what they call "magic capsules" in slimming, which encouraged many people to seek them without consulting a doctor, without realizing the great risks behind such drugs , Which warned the World Health Organization of the use of many risks, possibly to death.

"The flood of ads on satellite channels and social media, which promote drugs that give a magic solution to weight gain, and lose the body in kilograms within days, carries risks to the health of its users may end," says Professor of Cairo University and Secretary General of the Egyptian Medical Association for Obesity Studies, Dr. Mohamed Aboul Gheit. By death.

Aboul Gheit pointed out to Al-Jazeera Net that many warnings were issued by the US Food and Drug Administration, and that it has identified products that are advertised as weighing tenders and contain a substance called triamterene, which is used in diuretics. The use of these drugs without consulting a physician causes a deficiency in sodium and potassium, It is therefore very dangerous to the heart muscle, and may cause kidney failure.

These pills increase their severity with those suffering from heart disease, high blood pressure, which is subject to rapid death, and even may be dangerous to the injury of healthy people with high blood pressure and heart disease, according to Aboul Gheit.

Apoplexy
The physiotherapist and drug therapist Sayed Fares warns rapid slimming students from falling into the trap of advertising promoting appetite suppressant products. Human is full of the internationally banned "cybutramine", which works on the neurotransmitters in the digestive system and reduces the absorption of dopamine, In behaviors and sense of the brain.

Fares told Al-Jazeera Net that the substance caused a sudden stroke, and could not be saved from it. The lucky ones are exposed to a stroke of trembling, dry throat, delirium, high temperatures and constant vomiting.

The consultant of obesity and slimming on the beauty of religion that the reservoir of risk in the slimming drugs that depend on the way they work on burning fat; most of them contain the element of caffeine and diuretics, which make the body vulnerable to drought.

It also raises the levels of cortisone responsible for anxiety in the body, making its users suffering from insomnia, high heart rate, and ultimately affects the immune system.

Alliance of Information and Smugglers
The proliferation of these pills, according to Jamal al-Din, affects mental health, according to research conducted by an American university, after the United States saw the death of a young athlete who was taking pills to help accelerate the process of burning fat inside the body.

Jamal al-Din questioned the secret of the Ministry of Health and the regulatory agencies about the entry of these drugs, advertisements that fill satellite channels, websites and social networking sites without censor. He confirmed that there is an implicit alliance between smugglers of these drugs and satellite channels and famous websites promoting these drugs without confirming their source. , Or even ensure that they have the approval of the Ministry of Health.

The director of the Egyptian Center for Drug Studies, Statistics and Anti-Addiction Dr. Ali Abdullah said that most of these drugs come through smuggling, and perhaps through customs outlets known, and some smugglers put them in containers loaded with children's toys or similar, and seized cases already, but the parallel economy is not executed New ways to introduce what he wants.

He pointed to the control of the regulatory authorities in the governorate of Assiut, a store for a pharmaceutical company containing drugs smuggled worth ten million pounds (about 562 thousand dollars) earlier this year, and that this figure may represent less than 1% of the volume of drugs smuggled.

Contribution of the Ministry of Health in the chaos
He stressed that the large chaos in the imported drugs in general is due to the failure to register their companies or distributors approved by the Ministry of Health, which opens the doors of the rear of drugs smuggled and adulterated, neither the Ministry of Health and customs control.

A media expert and a professor of media at a regional university - who declined to be named - stressed the difficulty of censorship of advertising promoting these drugs or others, referring to the distribution of responsibility between several parties; the responsibility is lost between the Ministry of Health, the Investment Authority responsible for satellite channels, (Nilesat), and all cast responsibility away from him.

The real challenge, according to the media professor, is the channels that broadcast these ads. Most of them do not have studios. They rely on the recorded broadcasts for which they buy a space on Nilesat, and broadcast their materials from the free zones in Egypt. , And other countries such as Bahrain, Cyprus and Jordan.

The cost of producing these ads is very low compared to other channels, which allows them to display large areas of time for advertising at very low prices without attention to the content or content of the content or the value of the product or damage, and the important profit, according to the expert.

Most advertisers are advertising their ads at fake agencies or "under the well" - as he put it - so it is very difficult to control the ads of such channels.