We all know that normal women who are not constantly being photographed and scrutinized are under a lot of pressure to be thin and look a certain way to fit a barbie doll image of sexiness and desirability, but women in Hollywood experience this same pressure tenfold, and the suspicion is that they may be succumbing to the use of a particular dangerous drug to achieve this “super skinny” effect.
A drug called Clenbuterol may be behind some of the Hollywood dramatic size reductions these days, and it seems it is being used mostly by young women, with no regard to the fact that the drug is not even approved for human consumption, and has potentially life threatening effects.
What is Clenbuterol, and Why is This Underground Weight Loss Pill Potentially Dangerous?
Clenbuterol, or “Clen” as it is referred to sometimes, is actually a veterinary drug, approved mostly for use on horses with breathing problems. It is known as a bronchodilator ths is essentially steroidal, but it’s side effects are as a long time thermogen, or fat burner, because it elevates resting heart rate and increases internal body temperature, and not the same as some healthier herbal weight loss pills, but at a very unnatural pace and not in a healthy way.
This is why it is known to quickly make people drop weight and burn off fat, because it increases the heart rate and the rate at which calories are burned, even when a person is not being physically active.
This is also why clenbuterol can have life threatening consequences. When rats were tested that were given this drug meant for horses, hardening effect on the walls of the heart, which can lead to any number of heart problems and potentially even heart failure or irregular heart beats.
Clenbuterol is only legal for veterinary use in horses to treat breathing problems, and is not approved for human consumption (for a reason), yet a lot of individuals are buying this stuff over the internet with relative ease.
Logic would tell us that a drug powerful enough to treat a horse cannot be healthy for a much smaller human to consume, and yet it seems that thin-obsessed women are still putting their lives at risk in the name of being unnaturally thin to compete with the size zero next to them.
It gained notoriety inside certain circles when bodybuilders began using it to help them increase their muscle mass while simultaneously reducing their body fat at an unnaturally rapid rate. In an short span of time, body builders were gaining significant amounts of muscle while reducing their body fat.
To put muscle on this quickly while also reducing body fat cannot be good for the heart, as it may put undue strain on it to keep up with the unnaturally high muscle content. Muscles notoriously burn more calories than fat, and this puts the body into overdrive, forcing it to constantly burn it’s energy reserves (hence, the fast fat loss and size reduction).
Reported Long Term Effects of Clenbuterol : Not So Appealing to the Body Conscious
As with anything else that seems like it’s a “magic fix” in one area, Clenbuterol can has some extremely negative consequences to overall health and well being, and the side effects have not been studied on humans yet, so there is almost definitely more that we don’t even know about.
One side of this drug that may not be so appealing to the people who are taking it expressly to look rail thin is that those effects the drug was initially taken for may actually come back to bite you in the skinny rear end. It almost sounds like the same case with the infamous fen-phen, or phentermine.
Apparently long term “Clen” users have experienced an unexplained ballooning of weight, presumably because the drug’s effect has worn off and the user’s body has become immune to it, and is trying to gain back the much needed fat that we are all genetically programmed to have (especially women).
Even if these long term users eat virtually nothing, or what would be considered a fairly restrictive diet, they have reported experiencing an uncontrollable surge in their weight. So, it is quickly becoming apparent that clenbuterol is no magic bullet by any means, and unfortunately since it is not even approved for human consumption, studies are not really available as to the actual side effects of this potent drug.
There may need to be some intervention by a government body to crack down on human usage, but we all know that if someone really wants something, it will most likely still be available on the black market for people. As long as people realize they may be putting their health and very lives in serious jeopardy, there is really nothing more that can be done short of banning the sale of the drug and enforcing it strictly.
