In the latest diet pill scare – after Interpol's global warning against them – a girl has almost died from taking pills she bought on Amazon, and has been left with permanent heart damage. She's just 24 years old.
After seeing a photo of herself looking bigger than she'd like, Natalie Penney took the pills bought from Amazon (they'd arrived in an unmarked bottle), and while the weight fell off, she also suffered from sweats and shaking before collapsing in her Greater Manchester home. She has had to be rigged to a heart monitor for the last two years, only discussing her situation with the MailOnline to deter girls from following in her footsteps.
'When I look back now, I can't believe I was so stupid to take something that I knew nothing about,' she said. ''The pills did initially "work" and gave me the body I'd wanted, but the side effects were horrific. I was sweating so badly I'd wear sanitary towels under my arms and I woke up every day with my heart racing.
'I feel sick thinking of the danger I put myself in and I hope other girls realise that diet pills are a risk not worth taking.'
Even though Natalie stopped taking the pills after six weeks, the symptoms continued; she constantly felt like everything was sped up. 'Some days it would be my heart racing, other times I wouldn't be able to sleep, and I noticed the sweating nearly every day. I played netball and it became so uncomfortable,' she remembered. 'It was just me and my mum living together at the time and she was out one day. All I remember is waking up on the living room floor with our sausage dog Dexter licking my face.
'I tried to stay calm but I was really short of breath and dizzy, so I rang 999. When I told the operator about my past symptoms, they sent an ambulance immediately.
'I was scared but it was a relief to think I might finally find out what was wrong with me. They kept me in overnight and after doing some tests, said I might be suffering from atrial tachycardia, or abnormal and increased heart rhythm.'
This comes after last month when a girl died after taking a similar diet pill – with increased metabolism came the side effect of being 'burned up from the inside'. Natalie hopes this all serves as a warning for anyone thinking about buying pills they're not sure about online: I just hope other people can learn from my mistake. All I'd say is if you can't pronounce something, don't put it in your body.
'Somebody could just take one dodgy diet pill and be paying the price for the rest of their life.'
Another reminder that, if you're looking to lose weight and get healthy, diet pills are 100% not the way to go about it.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.