Examiner (Launceston, Tas. : 1900 - 1954), Friday 21 January 1938, page 14


DANGERS OF SLIMMING A Medical Warning to Women Some straight speaking on the subject of slimming, and strong comments on the dangers of various aids to that end, are contained in the annual report of the, chief medical officer of the Ministry of Health in Great Britain (Sir Arthur- McNalty). Condemning any course of treatment for slimming unless carried out under medical supervision, Sir Arthur urges the total disuse of the much vaunted drug, dinitrophenol, which kills or disables almost as many as it reduces in weight and size. Among the complications following its use are cataract, dematitis, toxic jaundice, and a rare kind of anaemia. But what gives the drug its particular danger is the fact that it is impossible to ascertain the tolerance to the drug in any one case, added to which there is no known antidote. The position, therefore, is that once the poisonous properties of the drug assert themselves, the doctor is helpless since he knows of no means by which they may be checked. Sir Arthur has also much to say regarding the other and much more common "weight-reducing" drug, thyroid extract. Injudicious use of thyroid tablets is extremely dangerous, overdosage frequently setting up glycosuria and a rapidly beating heart, as well as a host of nervous symptoms. This drug, it is pointed out, is especially dangerous in the case of persons with large appetites. Commenting on the chief medical officer's strictures, the British Medical Journal warns the too ardent slimmer of the danger she runs in lowering her natural resistance to pulmonary tubeculosis and other diseases. , "Liberal make-up (the Journal adds) will not sucessfully hide a haggard, drawn expression, nor an irritable disposition. However, the sex which for many years injured its health by tight lacing is not likely to be deterred from slimming by such considerations, The dictates of fashion will be paramount."