People often turn to their physician to help them lose weight because it is so difficult. People spend billions of dollars every year attempting to lose weight, but their efforts are largely unsuccessful. Some doctors recommend the most natural and difficult path to weight loss, which is to reduce the number of calories consumed and ramp up exercise - and I talk about this method later on in the chapter. However, many patients have tried diets, and want something a bit more powerful to curb their appetite so they eat less, or something that will help them curb cravings and a psychological obsession with food. And these people will keep going to doctors until they find one willing to write a prescription for a diet drug - normally people do not have to search for such a doctor for very long. Alternatively, they will pick up some Ma Huang or another dietary supplement at the drug store, lured by the promise of near magical weight loss. read the rest of the story at http://yourhealthdoctor..com/2008/03/risks-of-diet-pills.html