If you’ve tried hoodia gordonii for weight loss, we’d like to hear about it. What brand did you try? How long did you use it? Did you notice any changes to your weight? Any side effects or other problems?
A recent article in the Irish Times sheds light on how hoodia gordonii works to control appetite.
Here is how Phytopharm’s Dr Richard Dixey explained how P-57 actually works:
“There is a part of your brain called the hypothalamus. Within that mid-brain there are nerve cells that sense glucose sugar.
When you eat, blood sugar goes up because of the food, these cells start firing and now you are full.
What the Hoodia seems to contain is a molecule that is about 10,000 times as active as glucose.
It goes to the mid-brain and actually makes those nerve cells fire as if you were full. But you have not eaten. Nor do you want to.”
We’ve been waiting patiently for Phytopharm, the only company that can legally market genuine hoodia gordonii, to offer a viable product to the public. As reported earlier, they will do this in a deal with Unilever and the products were expected to be available sometime this year. It appears we won’t see the product this year after all. Daryl Rees, chief executive officer of Phytopharm, says hoodia gordonii will probably be added to Slim-Fast, a diet drink sold by Unilever, and be on the market in 2009.
Part of the delay may be attributed to the lack of sufficient amounts of hoodia gordonii. The plant is rare and must be cultivated in large quantities for production. Supply must meet demand, which is currently not the case.
CNN has published a report of several diet supplements to avoid, and have included hoodia on the list. Why? Because you don’t know what you are getting, and it will likely be YEARS before a genuine and safe hoodia gordonii product is available.
According to CNN:
Hoodia There’s been lots of hype about hoodia gordonni, a cactuslike South African plant with appetite-suppressing chemicals (in one study, people who took it ate 1,000 fewer calories a day).
But the hoodia in that test isn’t available right now, says University of California, Los Angeles, expert and Health Advisory Board member David Heber, M.D., Ph.D. He says the hoodia products in stores or online probably contain other hoodia types that don’t work — or none at all.
The British company Phytopharm, which has a global patent on hoodia for weight loss, says real products are years away. Bottom line: The available hoodia products may be safe, but they’re useless.
As we’ve reported many times, genuine hoodia gordonii is a protected species and cannot be legally exported at this time. As a result, New Zealanders are seeing hefty fines by the government for illegally crossing the border with hoodia. We wish the US government would also take this action, as it would reduce the large amount of fake hoodia products being sold today.
18th December 2006
Oprah-endorsed diet aid creates headache for DoC
A plant touted by Oprah as a dieting aid is creating a headache for the Department of Conservation (DoC).
Hoodia is a cactus-like plant native to the Namib Desert in Africa, and is widely believed to be an appetite suppressant. It is also a protected species, and as it gains popularity, DoC is seeing an increasing amount of products containing Hoodia entering New Zealand without the required certification.
Hoodia is protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), an international agreement between governments to protect endangered plants and animals. DoC has managed CITES here since New Zealand became a member in 1989.
Hoodia can only be imported into New Zealand with CITES certification.
DoC CITES Officer, Jane Denton, says many people are not aware that Hoodia is a protected species.
“There is often a belief that natural or plant based products are harmless, however, more and more we are seeing the harm that trade can have on endangered species,” she said.
Ms Denton said much of the Hoodia intercepted at the border has been bought over the internet.
Products containing Hoodia that are not CITES certified will be confiscated at New Zealand’s borders. Companies found importing Hoodia products are liable for fines up to $100,000, and individuals can be fined $50,000 or imprisoned for up to three years.
More information on CITES can be found at www.doc.govt.nz , or www.cites.org .
On April 10, Unilever announced they were successfully able to extract the molecule from hoodia gordonii in an effective form to be used as a weight loss product. Human trials are underway, and the first stage has completed. The product is expected to be for sale in 2008.
The yet-to-be-named treatment is expected to be launched in 2008, after first-stage tests showed it is commercially viable to produce the extract. Phytopharm and Unilever are embarking on clinical trials in the second stage of the project to make sure it works on humans and is safe to use. At the same time, Unilever is running a separate agronomy programme to determine whether the cactus, which takes 50 years to reach maturity, can be grown commercially.
The February issue of Consumer Reports On Health contains an article on hoodia gordonii, calling it long on the exotic and short on the evidence. While we can’t reprint the full article without permission, we will include a quote that may interest you.
We could find only two studies of hoodia. In one, an unpublished 15-day clinical trial from a manufacturer, Phytopharm, nine volunteers who took pills containing P57, the supposed active ingredient, consumed fewer calories and lost more fat than those who took a placebo.
CR concluded:
Consumers have no way of knowing the type of hoodia or the amount of the plant or its active ingredient in these products, since dietary supplements are virtually unregulated. Given the very scanty evidence that hoodia works, and the even scantier evidence that it’s safe, particularly long-term, we do not recommend taking these supplements.