THERE have been further calls to restrict dangerous slimming pills.

East Lancashire MP Jake Berry has said he will call on the government to act following the death of Chris Wilcock earlier this year.

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The 45-year-old, from Darwen, suffered a fatal heart attack after swallowing a “quantity” of tablets before his death in April.

And now, a pharmaceutical body has called for better regulation and said it’s often left to Trading Standards to investigate what is actually in the deadly pills.

Neal Patel from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said: “Unfortunately it does seem to fall between the Food Standards Agency and the medicine agencies and, in fact, it tends to be left to Trading Standards to pick out the products and see what’s in them.

“That doesn’t seem good enough given the number of deaths we’ve seen this year.”

Mr Wilcock’s fiancee Heather Thompson told the Lancashire Telegraph he was not aware of the extra strong T5’s deadly side affects, and said tests showed his body contained the caffeine equivalent of 300 cups of coffee.

T5 tablets are readily available online for as little as 25p each.

T5 is not a brand name, but a generic term for pills named after the hormones they claim to ‘speed up’ to help users lose weight.

The Lancashire Telegraph’s medical expert, Dr Tom Smith, said: “I’m staggered people are still able to sell these because we have known about the dangers since the 70s.

“These pills work like amphetamines, they send your body into overdrive.

“You can lose an awful lot of muscle mass and fat but you can also damage your heart. It can stop suddenly and that’s usually what happens.”

Janet Brown, who owns a Slimming World franchise and runs her own group, said : “There’s no quick fix to getting fit. Losing weight is about eating the right foods in the right quantities.”