Diet Pills and Heart Disease.

Fenfluramine and phentermine have been commonly prescribed for weight loss. Although the FDA has approved the drugs for individual use only, they have often been used in combination. In 1996, more than 18 million prescriptions were written for the drugs. In August, investigators from the Mayo Clinic reported clinically significant valvular heart disease in 24 women who had been taking a combination of fenfluramine and phentermine for an average of about 12 months.

Keen observations by echocardiographic sonographers in a Fargo, North Dakota, practice first aroused suspicion of a possible connection between these medications and valvular heart disease. The cases had a mean age of 44 years, a mean weight of 96 kg, and all were free of cardiovas…