Beauty ideals change with the times. The pressure on women to suit them never does. After a long time of waif-thin bodies being held up as the head of beauty, Kardashian-esque curves are actually the look to strive for, and ladies are going to extreme lengths to attain it from undergoing the fat-grafting procedure Brazilian butt lift to purchasing illegal appetite stimulants off the web.

One appetite stimulant currently making headlines is Apetamin. Despite being an unlicensed drug in America and the UK, Apetamin is widely available online and has grow to be popular with social media influencers who put it on the market as a fast, non-surgical way of achieving a “slim thick” hourglass figure. As of writing, there are 11 million views on the Apetamin hashtag on TikTok and countless Instagram accounts dedicated to the drug. The issue, nevertheless, is that increasingly people using Apetamin are reporting negative side-effects starting from extreme fatigue and nausea to liver failure and even comas. In 2019, YouTuber AshaGrand posted a video describing how she almost died after crashing her automobile when she blacked out on Apetamin, while within the recent BBC Three documentary Dangerous Curves: Get Thicc, Get Sick? presenter Altou Mvuama shared how her mother fell right into a coma after taking the drug. 

But what actually is Apetamin? How does it work and is it really dangerous? Dr Azza Halim, a board-certified anesthesiologist, aesthetics, and functional medicine physician based in Florida, helps explain. 

WHAT IS IT?

Marketed as a vitamin complement and “appetite stimulant,” Apetamin is a weight-gain syrup manufactured by Indian pharmaceutical company TIL Healthcare. While the product is sold widely across Africa, Asia, Russia, and Central and Latin America, it has not been sanctioned for protected consumption by the FDA or the UK equivalent, Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. 

Considered one of the important thing ingredients in Apetamin is cyproheptadine hydrochloride, a sedative antihistamine used for allergies available within the US and the UK by prescription only. It’s the cyproheptadine hydrochloride that’s chargeable for the effect of Apetamin, Dr Halim says. “The claim is that the cyproheptadine hydrochloride will increase appetite by increasing IGF-1 levels, which is a hormone all of us have,” she explains. “It also influences the hypothalamus which is chargeable for appetite.” 

“Unfortunately many individuals are having access to this medication online with none guarantee of safety, purity, or dosage” – Dr Azza Halim 

Prior to now, cyproheptadine hydrochloride has mostly been used to alleviate allergy symptoms and as an aid to assist overcome decreased appetite and malnutrition in children and adults with various chronic illnesses including anorexia nervosa, cancer, cystic fibrosis, and Aids. Alongside cyproheptadine hydrochloride, Apetamin accommodates L-lysine HCL (an amino acid commonly present in food and supplements), and vitamins B6, B1, B3, and B5. It’s these vitamins that allow Apetamin to be marketed as a vitamin complement and, Dr Halim says, gives a false sense of safety to consumers. “Unfortunately many individuals are having access to this medication online with none guarantee of safety, purity, or dosage,” she explains.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Cyproheptadine hydrochloride has an appetite-stimulating effect which increases the will to eat always. It also stimulates growth hormone secretion through deep sleep induction (hence the acute fatigue). In keeping with a report by BuzzFeed News, one user of Apetamin saw her weight increase from 109 kilos to around 125–130 kilos after drinking only one bottle over the course of every week. One other woman consumed six bottles over an eight-week period and gained 60 kilos. Nevertheless, as she told Buzzfeed, she experienced extreme drowsiness during that point. “It’s not fatigue as in you’re just drained – it literally puts you to sleep,” she said. 

WHAT ARE THE SIDE-EFFECTS?

In keeping with Dr Halim the unwanted effects of Apetamin include: drowsiness, tremors, irritability, blurred vision, nausea, diarrhea, joint pain, joint swelling, liver toxicity, and liver failure. “There are reports of drug-induced autoimmune hepatitis when used with alcohol and even has been case reports of coma induced by Apetamin through liver toxicity,” she says. “The FDA has also issued warnings regarding seizures related to Apetamin.”

The fatigue side-effect might be so strong that it causes black-outs, including the one which caused AshaGrand’s near-fatal automobile crash. A girl who spoke to BBC Three said she was sleeping on a regular basis, would fall over always, and couldn’t even write her name on a bit of paper because her hands were shaking a lot. “I collapsed on the street and so they brought me into hospital,” she says. On top of that, the Apetamin didn’t deliver the outcomes she was searching for. “The entire of me just form of increased,” she says. “It was like you place me in water and I just expanded.”

“There are reports of drug-induced autoimmune hepatitis when used with alcohol and even has been case reports of coma induced by Apetamin through liver toxicity,” she says. “The FDA has also issued warnings regarding seizures related to Apetamin.”

While much of the evidence in the mean time is anecdotal, a 2020 case study by doctors on the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences presented the symptoms of a 40-year-old female Apetamin user which included fatigue, right-side abdominal discomfort, and jaundice. “The FDA has not approved its use subsequently it isn’t advised for people to hunt down medications which are deemed questionable,” says Dr Halim. “Being non-regulated signifies that there is no such thing as a guarantee as to actual ingredients or dose within the complement which is concerning as well from a security profile.”

She also stresses that for young teens taking Apetamin the implications could possibly be particularly bad. “It isn’t smart to govern hormones during youth growth/development because the long-term untoward effects might be everlasting and damaging during teen development each physically and mentally,” she explains. “What one does, eats, and takes early in life during growth and development all the time has lasting effects later with life-long consequences. Development, hunger hormones, and growth are all necessary aspects which will cause long run obesity and metabolic syndrome potentially developing later in life.” 

WHAT TO DO INSTEAD?

With the pressures placed on us by social media to attain unimaginable beauty standards, it’s no wonder that so many individuals are searching for a miracle solution or quick fix. But, as Dr Halim says, you could have to ask yourself whether the advantages outweigh the risks. “Here, we see that the risks are much greater than any possible profit claimed,” she says. 

Her suggestion is all the time to concentrate on nutrition and exercise to attain a healthy physique without risking one’s health or life, and he or she also supports cosmetic enhancements when done in a healthy manner. “I emphasise to my patients that the goal is to concentrate on one’s own beauty versus the photoshopped images on social media,” she says. “Hopefully by educating our patients about these trends and thru positive reinforcement of body image reality vs social media, we are able to mitigate any dire consequences related to unsafe practices, medications, supplements, and even some dangerous procedures.”

According to the BBC, multiple retail and social media platforms have promised to take motion to remove Apetamin from their sites. A spokesperson for Depop told BBC Three, “Medical products, including unlicensed products comparable to Apetamin, are usually not permitted on Depop and will probably be removed”, while a YouTube spokesperson said: “YouTube’s Community Guidelines prohibit any content encouraging dangerous or illicit activities. We routinely remove content flagged by our community that violates these policies.”