Diuretics are drugs designed to increase the amount of urine your body. They are used for a variety of reasons, including for general weight loss. However, there are several factors to consider before using diuretics to lose weight.
How Diuretics Work
According to the American Medical Association's Family Medical Guide, diuretics are used to help the kidneys produce more urine and flush it out of the body. They are mainly used to reduce water retention in body tissues. Water retention is often a symptom of heart, kidney and liver disease.
Types of Medical Diuretics
There are three types of diuretic medications (but multiple types can be combined into one pill). According to the Mayo Clinic, each type works on a different part of the kidney and each has its own uses, precautions and side effects. The three types are:
Thiazides: chlorothiazide (Diuril), hydrochlorothiazide and metolazone (Zaroxolyn)
Loop diuretics: bumetanide (Bumex); ethacrynic acid (Edecrin); furosemide (Lasix); and torsemide (Demadex).
Potassium-sparing diurectics: amiloride; triamterene (Dyrenium); eplerenone (Inspra); spironolactone (Aldactone)
Side Effects
The Mayo Clinic reports the following possible side effects from diuretics:
• Low sodium in your blood (hyponatremia)
• Increased blood sugar
• Increased cholesterol
• Rash
• Joint disorders (gout)
• Impotence
• Menstrual irregularities
• Breast enlargement in men (gynecomastia)
• High or low potassium levels (depending on the diuretic type)
Natural Diuretics
Examples of natural diuretics are cranberries, celery, parsley, asparagus, artichokes, melon, watercress, apple cider vinegar, coffee and other caffeinated beverages. It also helps to reduce salt and carbohydrate intake and to drink plenty of water when on a diuretic diet to prevent dehydration.
Dandelion, ginger and juniper also are natural diuretics. However Katherine Zeratsky, a registered dietitian with the Mayo Clinic said these have only a modest diuretic effect.
Diuretics and Eating Disorders
Many people trying to lose weight use diuretics to flush excess water from the body. This is especially common for those with eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia nervosa. Dr. Favio Piccini, a psychotherapist who runs the Center for Eating Disorders Therapy in Cesena, Italy, says that 10 percent of bulimics use diuretics.
However, he notes that the water retention the bulimics encounter is actually the fault of their poor diet. "Diuretics that originally were taken to overcome water retention cause, in the long-term, renal damage and then alteration in the balance of fluids and salt balance that regulate water retention," Piccini said.
"It is not enough to repeat that using these drugs for weight control is not only stupid, but it is also self-destructive, like an attempt to whip a tired horse to make him walk," Piccini continued. "In the end, not only does he still not walk, but, what is worse, we may no longer have a horse."
