Developed as weight-loss drug in the 1930s before being banned in the U.S. in 1938, 2,4-Dinitrophenol or DNP, is still available online in bulk powder and has been linked to five deaths in the UK since 2007.
Edward Boyer, MD, PhD, professor of emergency medicine, explains to Reuters how the drug breaks the body’s cycle of making and storing energy and instead releases it as heat.
This increase in temperature can damage or kill muscle, kidney and brain cells. “You wind up literally baking yourself to death,” said Boyer.
