Diet pills might make a lot of promises, but one Penn State professor has an idea of his own about them.

"Taking diet pills is dumb," said Byron C. Jones, professor of biobehavioral health and pharmacology

A Penn State Pulse survey estimated that 28 percent of female students and 11 percent of male students at Penn State suffer from eating disorders. Media images and psychological issues might have a stronger influence on the development of eating disorders for women than for men at Penn State.

"I think women are more prone to taking diet pills because they are more conscious of their body due to the thin beautiful women they see in advertisements everyday," said Rose Devlin (junior-journalism). "Personally, I think it's better to use exercise as a means of becoming thinner."

Some students said they take pills for reasons besides weight loss.

"I use a diet supplement called Hydroxycut, which speeds up metabolism and burns fat," said Dennis Seneko (senior-business management). "I started taking it after I heard about it at the gym. I use it to increase muscle definition, not to lose weight."

Diet pills speed up the metabolism and are based on activating the sympathetic nervous system. The problem with diet pills is that most of them are like amphetamines or closely related compounds, Jones said.

"The use of diet pills, like the use of amphetamines, can cause paranoia, speed up heart rate, increase blood pressure, and basically make a person difficult to deal with," Jones said. "What most people don't realize is that the use of diet pills can harm their health for the rest of their lives."

According to the National Institute of Mental Health Web site, users of widely prescribed diet pills might suffer permanent loss of brain serotonin nerve terminals, which could result in symptoms of anxiety, depression, cognitive and sleep problems.

"A problem with the widespread use of diet pills is that they are so easily available," Jones said. "Diet pills, such as Ephedra, can be obtained at your local health food store."

Ephedra, a natural diet pill, is a powerful stimulant of the sympathetic nervous system similar to amphetamines, Jones said. Although it is natural and can be bought at health food stores, it is still dangerous.

"People have the notion that natural is good for you, but natural does not mean safe," Jones said. "A rattlesnake is natural, but it's not safe."

Another dangerous diet pill is the combination of fenfluramine and phentermine (fen/phen), which is an amphetamine-like diet drug that is no longer available on the market. This drug combination causes cardiomiopothy, which is failure of the heart muscle, Jones said.

"Students are also using illegal amphetamines as a form of diet pills," Jones said. "For example, MDMA is an illegal drug that speeds up heart rate and slows down digestion.

"I don't recommend for people to use diet pills unless they are morbidly obese," Jones said. "But then again they probably already have problems with high blood pressure, so even then, it's not a good idea.

"People, especially females, are using diet pills to control weight and to alter their body image," Jones said. "They have to realize that the risk is not worth it."