Every year in Great Britain alone, dozens of young people die in agony, reaching for a slimming drug that was used as a herbicide in the Vietnam War in the 60s. Unfortunately, the first such case also happened in Poland. A XNUMX-year-old girl from Warsaw wrote in dramatic text messages a moment before the tragedy: I don’t think I will get to the hospital, I will die somewhere on the way.
A month ago, we reported on the case of Sarah Houston, who was found dead last October in her rented condominium. The direct cause of death, as established during the investigation, was cardiac arrest caused by taking a combination of antidepressants and the illegal fat-burning agent – DNP. Unfortunately, it turned out that this problem began to be visible also in Poland. As reported by the radio portal TOK FM, the twenty-year-old woman from Warsaw died suddenly on May 17 after a cycle of taking a dangerous drug lasting over a week. “She was a normal, healthy girl”, stresses her shocked mother.
Losing weight at all costs
Most DNP victims have two things in common. They are young and are unaware of the consequences of such radical weight loss. – These people are looking for something that will help them quickly lose weight without linking weight loss with the risk of death – explains pharmacist Justyna Bytnar. Unfortunately, on Polish forums we can more and more often come across ads such as: «I am looking for DNP, I will buy at my own risk. I don’t want fakes. The price does not matter…. »Or« If someone has DNP, please contact me, and we will certainly get along… ».
DNP, or actually 2,4-Dinitrophenol, has been on the list of substances prohibited for human use for many years. Discovered in 1920 at Stanford University, it initially served as the most effective known “cure” for overweight. Unfortunately, it was quickly found that using DNP without a restrictive diet caused many undesirable side effects – including an increased risk of cataracts, heart palpitations, increased body temperature, and in extreme cases – death. Therefore, the specificity was banned in the USA as early as 1938 and this provision is in force in the world to this day, and it is used sporadically, e.g. in agriculture. Nevertheless, tablets with 2,4-Dinitrophenol can be bought online from illegal importers, who often say directly that their agent is “unmatched” and “is not produced in amateur laboratories but by international pharmaceutical companies”. It is also not difficult to find reviews praising it as an incredibly fast way to increase metabolism. However, specialists warn.
– DNP carries with it a multitude of side effects, reaching death. There is no upper limit to the temperature rise of dinitrophenol, so when we overdose the preparation, we can literally fry from the inside. Even a slightly exaggerated dose can cause death. A much smaller overdose can lead to damage to the brain or other organs – says dietician Karolina Kozela from the Krakow clinic “Good nutritionist” in an interview with Onet.
«It looked terrible»
According to the assurances of many forums, “judicious use” of DNP can result in a loss of up to three kilograms a week. No wonder that more and more people, unaware of the risk, began to circumvent the regulations by buying dinitrophenol. This trend quickly translated into dismal statistics, according to which the UK health service counted 2012 deaths related to the use of an illegal substance in 62 alone. As stated in an interview with the Daily Tribiune, the family of the late Sarah Houston: “After what happened to our daughter, we are motivated and we will do our best to ensure that no one else suffers in the same way”. A similar goal was pursued by the mother of the deceased Polish woman, who publicized the matter to make her aware of the scale of the threat. «It looked terrible. The water from it was steaming as if someone were touching an iron somewhere. She was sweating a lot and she couldn’t breathe and felt like she was choking. It lasted for several days »- she said in an interview for TOK FM radio.
Despite repeated warnings from the Food Standard Agency, a British organization that monitors, inter alia, The effects of drugs, the risks associated with taking any form of radically lowering body weight supplements are still little known or simply ignored. The bans also do not mean that, with a bit of research, it is easy to find websites on which, among others, DNP by pretending that the trade in a given product itself – if it is not induced to use it – is not a punishable act.
In the case of the tragically deceased Polish woman, the shock resulting from the regular use of DNP turned out to be so great that even a young heart could not stand the frenetic pace of blood circulation. Overheating of the body is a natural effect of dinitrophenol, which, in short, hinders the synthesis of ATP, which is responsible for energy transport. When the body cannot obtain the nutrient it needs, it burns much more glucose and fats, and therefore heats up dramatically. More, this is how desperate text messages sent to friends before death should be translated. In them we read: “Something is wrong, my temperature jumps to 40 degrees” or “I’m hot around the clock, I don’t have enough air”.
It’s not worth the risk
Following the death of Sarah Houston, emergency services found 62 of the 100 DNP capsules in the box on the spot. As it was later established in the course of the investigation, such a large amount of the dangerous agent was purchased by Sara from a company that imported the goods from Spain, pointing out, however, that it was not intended for humans. However, it is not entirely clear which way the measure came to our country. According to the first information from the Warsaw Police Headquarters, the 40-year-old girl managed to take 50 out of 100 XNUMX mg pills in the package.
Unfortunately, situations such as this do not deter Polish amateurs of easy weight loss, who are willing to pay any price for quick results. It is enough to visit native internet forums to find out that for many, apparently uninformed people, dinitrophenol is simply quite risky, but still a “tool to take care of your weight”. One user on the bodybuilding site writes: “From experience I can tell you that doses of 3,5 mg per kilogram are not that terrible, although after a few days of use, the temperature actually rises quite strongly.” Another hiding under the nickname “Kingkong” reassures that DNP is admittedly “dangerous, but by following certain rules nothing should happen. A week of passion and fatigue ». «You can lose as much as you want, depending on how long you take and what dose. Besides, what will not kill us… »adds, as he writes about himself, a young bodybuilder. Fortunately, these are isolated voices and many people openly write that even small doses, with individual tolerance of each organism, can turn out to be very dangerous to health. – Apart from the lethal rise in body temperature, DNP itself is carcinogenic (contains phenols). There have also been a few deaths among bodybuilders using this drug – adds nutritionist Karolina Kozela.
– DNP strongly accelerates the metabolism in fat cells. It raises the body temperature, causes severe sweating and heart failure, which leads to death. Despite what some “experts” write on internet forums, the use of DNP under control (ie according to a weight loss plan developed by another “expert”) cannot be safe, among other things, because this agent accumulates in the body – explains pharmacist Justyna Bytnar.
Perhaps, instead of the exhortations and opinions of doctors, the very history and chemical structure of the substance, which some in ignorance treat as an extreme way to lose weight, appeal more to the imagination. 2,4 Dinitrophenol, after being withdrawn from circulation, was then used as… a phytotoxic agent during the Vietnam War, which was designed to destroy rice crops, pastures and forest growth. Even if the temptation to lose a few kilos in a week seems tempting to us, let’s think carefully if something used as a herbicide might not hurt us? Numerous situations similar to the death of a Polish woman prove that it is never worth taking a shortcut when it comes to health.
Author: Marcin Łukasz Makowski