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 The compound, also known as 2,4-Dinitrophenol, is a synthetic
chemical originally used in the manufacturing of dyes, wood
preservatives, explosives and pesticides.
DNP was developed as a weight-loss drug in the 1930s before being
banned in the U.S. in 1938 after reports of severe toxic reactions,
researchers note. Still, the compound remains in use, sold online in
bulk powder.
“DNP is a so called ‘fat burning’ product used by body builders and
as a weight loss aid - it prevents energy being stored as fat, but
instead this is released as heat,” senior author Dr. Simon Thomas
told Reuters Health in an email. “The effect is an increase in body
temperature and this can damage the body’s cells, e.g. in muscle,
kidney and brain.”
Thomas directs the National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) in
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
He said DNP can cause fever, nausea or vomiting, skin discoloration
or rash, breathing difficulties, abdominal pain, agitation and
headache. Those could progress to confusion, seizures, kidney
failure, muscle damage and bone marrow failure.
“DNP is sold via the Internet and so we don’t have good data on how
many people use it,” Thomas said. “Our research, however, has shown
increasing numbers of people in the UK presenting with adverse
clinical effects after DNP use, suggesting that increasing numbers
of people have been using the chemical.”
For the new study, Thomas and his colleagues analyzed data from a
phone enquiry service run by the NPIS for UK health professionals
seeking information and advice about the management of people with
suspected poisoning.
Between 2007 and 2013, they found there were 39 phone calls relating
to 30 different exposures to DNP involving 27 men and three women.
Twenty-two of those exposures were reported in 2013. Only three were
reported from 2007 to 2011.
Ten of the poisoning episodes were classified as minor, 12 were
moderate and five were severe. Severity information was not
available for three patients.
Five of the cases resulted in deaths - one in 2008, one in 2012 and
three in 2013, according to findings published in the Emergency
Medicine Journal.
“DNP is a hazardous substance not fit for human consumption,” Thomas
said. “It can cause severe toxic effects that can result in death.”
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The effects are also unpredictable, he added. Some people use DNP
for a while without any apparent problems and then suddenly develop
side effects.
“The higher the dose used, the greater the risk of severe toxic
effects, but no dose is safe,” Thomas said. He and his colleagues
have seen serious side effects in people using the doses recommended
by websites that sell the compound.
Dr. Edward Boyer agreed that DNP is a dangerous chemical and
shouldn’t be used as medication.
Boyer is an emergency medicine physician and toxicology expert at
the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. He
wasn’t involved in the study.
He said the reason DNP is dangerous has to do with how the body
manages energy.
“There's a world of chemical reactions that go on inside your body
and every time a chemical reaction occurs it releases heat,” he told
Reuters Health. “Your body takes some of that heat and normally
turns it back into other chemical reactions which lead to molecules
that you can use for additional energy - it's just a way of being
efficient.”
Dinitrophenol breaks that cycle so instead of taking the heat that’s
produced from one reaction and turning it into other forms of useful
energy, the body just produces more heat, Boyer said.
Too much of that heat production, he said, and “you wind up
literally baking yourself to death.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1sBv0as Emergency Medicine Journal, online
June 23, 2014.
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