The Mayo Clinic released another preliminary study two months ago linking the drugs to a rare form of heart disease. Determining the relationship between valve damage and taking fen-phen or Redux will be difficult, since several of the women examined in the Mayo study were taking higher-than-prescribed doses. Ultimately, the studies confirm FDA recommendations that these medications should only be prescribed to the dangerously obese.
Diet Pill Danger Redux
WASHINGTON: TIME science writer Christine Gorman says despite fresh evidence that downing diet drugs Redux and fen-phen could cause heart-valve damage, it's not time to outlaw the pills. "This study raises a red flag that says this has to be looked into more closely," notes Gorman. "But it does not say the drugs should be banned or that the link is definitive."