119. The Magic Pill (Fen-Phen)
A trendy new diet drug combination subjects millions of users to serious health effects, resulting in a monumental legal battle.
Prelude: Cancer concerns force Belviq, a popular diet drug, to be withdrawn from the marketplace.
Thanks for being a ValuedListener™! :-)
Use coupon code PATRON20 to receive 20% off your order at SwindledPodcast.com/Shop
Comments (36)
I remember when it was pulled from the market but I had no idea it was this bad 🫠🫠🫠
Relistening to this episode, I just noticed tbe incredibly subtle heattbeat that Deformr put in the background of the music. ACC also hits but have to giver Deformr his flowers too. Great job you two!!
This one took me a few listens to really absorb all the gold. Golly. Fascinating and horrifying all at the same time
People never fail to be disgusting…
Hey ACC what a perfectly timed episode! I’ve been a nurse for WAY too long and also a VL. I actually took fen-phen back in the day only for 2 months before my PCP requested a voluntary EKG and echo which thankfully were ok. But I’ve lived and practiced long enough to have seen Big Pharma throw out so many medications with no long-term testing because they calculate precisely how many lawsuits they can absorb and still make a profit. A BIG PROFIT. I actually used to work with a physician who, when prescribing new meds, would ask the patient to repeat back to him “I am a guinea pig” as part of his informed consent😊 your episodes are, as always, exceptionally researched and delivered with perfect cadence. Hope you will still be around to do a Semaglutide episode!!!!
Hey Guys, I'm new to Patreon and I'm wondering if there's a reason why episodes have slowed down? It looks like they used to be every 2 weeks but is there a long break at the end of the year? I'm almost through them all, might have to go back and relisten the whole series 😅
Yes, Kylie! ACC is taking a breather! He’ll be back shortly and there’s a ton of great older stuff to hear.
'Sounds delicious...' 😏
Actually ACC, pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH, what primary pulmonary hypertension is now called) has a 3-year survival rate (not 4 years) if not treated or if ineffectively treated. Fortunately, Flolan (epoprostenol) is no longer the only treatment choice. There are now 16 different treatments across 5 different classes with different mechanisms of action. (Actually make that 6 with the approval of sotatercept [Winrevair] in March 2024.) Improved treatments have increased survival rates and quality of life for PAH patients. Sadly, though, PAH remains inevitably lethal, usually within 7 years after diagnosis.
Phentermine BY ITSELF is safe for most and has been in regular use for 65 years! I just lost 30 lbs while using it over the last 10 months. Steady, regular but small amounts of loss each month by eating far less food.
That's wild. Can't wait for the ozempic episode.
Will have to wait another decade or more and that's only IF it gets taken off the market.
The FDA is SO corrupt. And very mismanaged. They should be shut the F down.
No way! Many more people are alive today and living healthier lives because of the FDA's work. Baby . . . bath water. Throw out what's bad, keep what's GOOD!
Wonderful job, Citizen.
Testing on kids?!
Wow I had no idea why any of these were recalled… another excellent episode, ACC.
I took Redux right before it got pulled off the market! I didn't know there was a class action law suit!
🎃 great ep acc!
A new episode of Swindled dropping is akin to Smash Hits magazine being pushed through my letter box on a Saturday morning when I was 10 and had been sitting on the stairs waiting excitedly for two hours….
regardless of medicalization of fatness, there is not a single weight loss drug that does not start from the conceit that fat people simply eat "too much", prove me wrong. and yea cancer, heart failure, thyroid disease, suicide, alcoholism (all real side effects of the most "effective" weight loss drugs)? who cares! get thin. it's for your health!! it's not like it's been proven over and over that health promoting activities improve health regardless of weight loss or anything.
Physicians who have a decent understanding of obesity and weight gain (they're called bariatric specialists) know that this is an enormously complicated topic involving a lot of biological, cultural, and psychological aspects. It is NEVER simply about calories in, calories out. This was also the premise behind seeking an expanded indication as an obesity treatment for the GLP-1 inhibitors. Weight loss also results in reduced risk for cardiovascular events — even if it’s achieved through medication.
Damn she died on my birthday. I was a toddler in 97. 😢
Every time I get an email saying there is another swindled episode, it feels like Christmas and I can’t wait to listen to it. Thank you.
What a great episode. An Inception of fraud and it's like three levels deep! A nice Halloween surprise (as well as that music, deformr). Also wtf, the post office...?
This was excellent. Thank you.
The FDA has dropped the ball a bunch but CC you should do an episode on the vitamin and supplement companies that got Congress to basically deregulate their industry in the 90s. That’s why all those vitamins at GNC have that “these statements haven’t been evaluated by the FDA” labels!
Absolutely! The so called "wellness" industry of completely unregulated and untested products is far, FAR more dangerous and deadly!
My doctor put me on Phentermine at 16. He didn't think combining phen and fen was a good idea. Boy was he onto something.
He was smart. Fenfluramine was the problem. Phentermine by itself is safe and has been in regular use since its FDA approval in 1959.
This episode had like 3 other swindled episodes wrapped in one: Dalkon Shield, the Lottery Lawyer, Horse Mafia!
Hell yeah!
Greed is a MF!
The timing of this is something else. Talking about people hitting the OZ in the morning, listening to CC talk about fen-phen in the afternoon.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN
THANK YOU! It's a Halloween miracle!