A lot of people, who have been on the Phen Fen cocktail are choosing other options, for losing weight. But are they working? Science Specialist Ed Yeates, is live from the Anatomy Academy, here in the Triad Center. Is life after Phen Fen, easy?

It depends on how much weight you have to lose. For those who perhaps didn't need it to begin with, it's back to diet and exercise. For others, a gamble with a combination of natural food and herb products which do NOT fall under FDA regulations. Life after fen phen is a mixed bag of recipes.

Shannon Kramer is not happy the fen phen cocktail was pulled from the market.

(("I THINK IT'S STUPID."))

((SHANNON KRAMMER: "I WAS SO DEPRESSED, I COULDN'T STAND MYSELF. I DIDN'T LIKE THE WAY I LOOKED. I DIDN'T WANT ANYONE TO SEE ME....THE FEN PHEN MADE A COMPLETE DIFFERENCE."))

Shannon exercised before. But without fen phen, she's doing it more. On the drugs, she lost 45 pounds. Since going off, she's regained about ten pounds.

(("I HAD A LOT OF ENERGY. WHEN I WENT OFF OF THEM, IT WAS LIKE GETTING OFF OF SPEED."))

At her top weight of 210, Ladoria Dennison lost 40 pounds on fen phen.

((LADORIA DENNISON: "AFTER I STOPPED TAKING IT, I GAINED ABOUT 15 POUNDS BACK AND REALIZED I NEEDED TO DO SOMETHING BEFORE I REGAINED IT ALL BACK."))

Ladoria - like Shannon now - has fallen back on the old recipe - exercise and diet.

(("I THINK IF I CAN DO THIS ON MY OWN WITHOUT TAKING DRUGS, THEN I THINK THAT IS TEN TIMES HEALTHIER."))

Cardiologists say no question about it. They're seeing heart abnormalities in some former fen phen users - the same which surface in other patients with naturally high seratonin levels. But numbers are still too low to draw any conclusions.

((DONALD LAPPE M.D.,MEDICAL DIR., IHC HEART SERVICES: "ABOUT A THIRD OF THE PATIENTS MIGHT HAVE SOME ABNORMALITIES ON THE ECHO AND IT SEEMS TO BE FOLLOWING ALONG THAT LINE."))

In a few cases like this one, heart valves ARE leaking. Many consumers have turned to what they believe are safer herb and food supplements. Calcium pyruvate increases energy by breaking down products of carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Laura Manwaring began taking about 8 capsules per day the first week in August, and has lost about ten pounds.

((LAURA MANWARING: "BUT I'VE PROBABLY LOST A GOOD SOLID INCH IN THE WAIST AND HIP AREA WHICH IS WHERE I REALLY NEEDED TO LOSE."))

((DAVID JACK, S.L. PHYSICIAN: "IT'S QUITE A SAFE PRODUCT. I'VE NOT SEEN ANY SIDE EFFECTS FROM PYRUVATE."))

But Dr David Jack says studies show Pyruvate works slow and users it takes large doses at a high cost to lose minimal weight. Physicians though are raising a big red flag now on what is called yet another herbal fen phen - a cocktail of St John's Wort, a natural mild anti-depressant - and the Chinese ephedra Mahuang, which stimulates energy.

((GEORGE CAN KOMEN M.D., S.L. PHYSICIAN: "BUT IT CAN ALSO CAUSE SERIOUS HEART PROBLEMS AND IRREGULARITIES, AND THERE HAVE BEEN ANCEDOTAL CASES OF DEATH AROUND THE COUNTRY FROM PEOPLE WHO HAVE USED THIS HERB."))

In fact, because of abuse, at least one national natural food franchise has asked retailers to pull Mahuang off the open shelves.