{"id":256985,"date":"2026-01-21T23:50:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T23:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/256985\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T23:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T23:50:07","slug":"medical-authorities-urge-caution-over-unverified-weight-loss-products-fbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/256985\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical authorities urge caution over unverified weight-loss products \u2013 FBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Priyanka-Prasad-pharmcy.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Fiji Pharmaceutical Society President Priyanka Prasad.[Photo: FILE]<\/p>\n<p>Fake and misused weight-loss drugs are quietly making their way into the country.<\/p>\n<p>Health experts warn that what\u2019s being sold online and through informal networks isn\u2019t just ineffective, it could be deadly.<\/p>\n<p>Fiji Pharmaceutical Society President Priyanka Prasad says there\u2019s a sharp rise in people using prescription medicines intended for diabetes and other medical conditions as weight-loss aids, without any medical supervision.<\/p>\n<p>Article continues after advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Prasad says counterfeit medicines can be difficult to detect and may contain unsafe or unknown ingredients, posing serious health risks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo consumers should be warned that manufacturers of these counterfeit goods are producing products that are so similar that the untrained eye won\u2019t be able to pick out the differences, and these just appear legitimate, highlighting the need to purchase your products or medicines from verified suppliers and sellers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Prasad is urging consumers to only purchase medicines from verified pharmacies and to seek proper medical advice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are talking about it on TikTok and reels. So we\u2019ve noticed in Fiji too, people are going for these weight loss products, but they need to understand that these medicines have a clinical purpose and they shouldn\u2019t be used willy-nilly for anything without proper verification, so going through the proper physician checks before being prescribed it and using it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fiji Medical Association President Dr Alipate Vakamocea states that there are no \u201cquick fixes\u201d for conditions such as obesity, diabetes, or hypertension.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is something that we would really encourage you to go and get a medical opinion from a medical practitioner. If you want to try something on the market, get a proper opinion from a licensed, registered medical practitioner before you go ahead and use it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Medical professionals are reminding the public that safe and sustainable weight loss comes from proper nutrition, exercise, and medical guidance, not shortcuts that could cost lives.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"viti-plus-link-article\" href=\"https:\/\/www.viti.plus\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Stream the best of Fiji on VITI+.  Anytime.  Anywhere.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fiji Pharmaceutical Society President Priyanka Prasad.[Photo: FILE] Fake and misused weight-loss drugs are quietly making their way into&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[103,61,60,371],"class_list":{"0":"post-256985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-medication"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}