Banned obesity drug tied to heart risks long after use

"One of the 'fen/phen' drugs once widely prescribed to help fight obesity has been tied to heart valve damage that develops years after a person has stopped taking it, a new study reports. The appetite suppressant fenfluramine has been banned in the United States since 1997, because of its links to heart damage. Thousands of lawsuits have been filed against the drug's manufacturers over alleged damage it caused. In the new study, published November 5 in the journal BMC Medicine, researchers looked at 5,743 people who had stopped using fenfluramine more than a decade earlier but had damaged heart valves up to seven years later" - MyHeartCentral.com