Anti-obesity drugs and appetite suppressants are causing heart attacks, doctors have discovered.
All the patients had been healthy, with no history of heart problems, and one was as young as 25 years.
The link has been discovered by doctors in Malaysia, who have been prescribing the drugs for 10 years.
Some of the drugs, such as sibutramine, have been withdrawn in Malaysia because of life-threatening effects, but have still been available on the black market.
Doctors have known that the appetite suppressant phenylpropanolamine has caused heart failure, but the Malaysian doctors have found that sibutramine and phentermine also have the same effect.
(Source: New England Journal of Medicine, 2007; 357: 1873-4).
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