SLIMMING AS CAUSE OF BLINDNESS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 146, 8 July 1937, Page 6

SLIMMING AS CAUSE OF BLINDNESS

Air Mail — Own Correspondent.')

Woman Who Took Drug for Three Years CATARACTS FORM

(By

LONDON, June. 18. Slimming drugs as the cause of blindness, with the instance of a woman of 28 who lost her sight througb cataract after taking a reducing preparation, are cited by Dr. Hamilton E. Quiek, honorary opthalmic surgeon of the General and Eye Hospital, Swansea. VVriting in The British Medical Journal, he mentions dinitrophenol products, the general effect of which is to increase the "living rate" of the body, whpse tissues are burned up cow sequent on the greater energy. '• Discussing the case of the woman patient, Dr. Quick writes : "I f irst saw her last January, when she complained of failing sight in the left eye. 44None of the usual' causes of cata- ■ ract was present, and it w&s learnod that for three years she had been tak- • ing a preparation for slimming purposes. "No improvement in the left eye followed treatment, and by February 22 the right eye was blind as well. An operation was afterwards earried out on the left eye, and convalescence was uneventful. "It is difficult to prove," adds Dr. Quick, 44that these cataTacts are directly due to • dinitrophenol products, but, though the number of women taking them is very large, it seems that the proportion developing cataract is to(» , great for mere coincidence. 4Tt is likely that more of these cases ^U1 occur in Britain, and it seems doubtful whether the use Of preparations of the dinitrophenol typO should be continued." -