Exercise. Eat healthy foods. Repeat it 100 times, if necessary. This is the only safe way to lose weight. Some women hoped for a shortcut with a drug known as fen-phen. The buzz is that you never feel hungry and the pounds melt away.

Fen-phen appears to be no wonder drug. Instead, it could be hazardous to your health. Even deadly. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic have identified 24 women who developed damaged heart valves after taking the drugs. Separate studies indicate that the drug increases the risk of very high blood pressure in the lungs.

Some doctors say the drug is safe and they claim great success rates with their patients. But why would any woman, or man, risk heart and life for the sake of weight?

Our culture is obsessed with quick fixes for problems deep and complex, and fixable only over the long haul. Feeling fat? Take some fen-phen. At least you’ll look thin in the hospital bed as you await heart surgery. Or, better yet, you’ll look great in the coffin.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Rebecca Nappi/For the editorial board