Is your teen popping diet pills to lose weight? Their hormones, growth and mental health may be at risk!

New Delhi: The fitness and weight loss trend has taken over the minds of the younger population more than anyone else.

Healhy diets and exercise and a healthy lifestyle are the obvious routines to follow in this regard, but there some youngsters, especially teenagers, who prefer the easy way out and resort to diet pills.

Parents who are aware their child is onto such pills need to pay attention. These supplements are quite dangerous and may harm their hormones, growth and mental health.

There is nothing wrong with weight loss and the desire to maintain a slim frame. However, allowing your desires to turn into an obsession where you may resort to things that might put your health at risk is certainly the wrong route to take.

A study conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Minnesota showed that diet pills are an unsafe option for all age groups, but they can prove to be extremely harmful for teenagers in particular, due to the presence of toxic chemicals in the supplements.

These pills interfere with the body systems and result in nutritional deficiencies, particularly of iron and calcium, the researchers said.

"In growing children and teenagers, even a marginal reduction in energy intake can be associated with growth deceleration," dailymail.co.uk quoted the Canadian Pediatric Society researchers as saying.

Weight loss pills are advertised as the quick solution to shedding pounds and obtaining the perfect figure, but they come with potentially dangerous side effects, including increased heart rate, fainting, unusual bleeding and heart attacks.

Diet pills can also cause and, in extreme cases they can rip apart the stomach lining and even lead to death, the study showed.

It was further found that a startling 63 percent of teenage girls use "unhealthy weight control behaviours" to maintain a slim shape.

About 22 percent of teenage females use "very unhealthy weight control behaviours".

The use of diet pills in teenage girls had a significant spike in a five-year span, jumping from 7.5 percent to 14.2 percent in 2006, they claimed.

Instead of turning to diet pills, exercise, changing eating habits and drinking more water, mediation, are other healthy ways to lose weight, the reseachers said.

(With IANS inputs)