Does Alli Cause Liver Damage?

Popular OTC weight loss drug Alli and prescription-strength version Xenical are under FDA investigation for liver damage. It turns out that hepatoxicity (a.k.a. liver damage) is among the adverse events reported in connection with these drugs (in fact, hepatitis is actually mentioned in Xenical’s prescribing information)…and the FDA plans to look into the “potential safety issue.”

Here’s what the FDA is NOT doing:

Advising people to stop taking these potentially dangerous drugs.
Insisting the drug be pulled from the market pending investigation.
Calling for the manufacturer to recall the entire product line.
Stop actively marketing the drug until the reported cases of hepatoxicity have been fully investigated.
Consider this, too: If Alli and Xenical were supplements instead of drugs, the FDA reaction would look very different. Like with Hydroxycut, where the entire product line was pulled from the U.S. markets earlier this year. The FDA had received 23 adverse events involving liver damage and Hydroxycut products over a nine-year period… including one death (which occurred in 2007, but hadn’t been reported until 2009). Those reports were enough for the FDA to pull the plug on Hydroxycut. But that’s not the case with these FDA-approved and potentially dangerous drugs.

Bottom line: Don’t wait for the FDA to take real action – that could be too late. And there are several much safer weight-loss aids available…just check out the HSI Archives to learn more about some safe, natural, and very effective supplements.