Hoodia Research
There has been a lot of confusion over the hoodia research done thus far. Hoodia gordonii is a succulent plant that grows in a limited area of South Africa. It’s been used for centuries by the indigenous people of the Kalahari Desert to suppress their thirst and appetite during the long treks.
The current thinking is that if this plant worked for the Bushmen then it could work for the millions of overweight people around the world.
Dr. Richard Dixey, from Phytopharm, explains how the compound in hoodia, called P57, works.
“There is a part of your brain, 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.” (The Science of Hoodia, 2007)
That’s good enough for most people. But is there any science to back up these claims? Actually there is, just not enough of it yet. According to Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive direct of the American Botanical Council, “We can only say the evidence available to us right now, which is considered inadequate, suggests that there is some type of appetite-suppressing mechanism in some of the naturally occurring chemicals in hoodia.” (Doheny, 2006) The evidence he’s referring to apparently comes from David MacLean, MD, who completed a hoodia study on animals. In a report published Sept/04 in Brain Research Magazine, Maclean says “A chemical within that class of molecules has real potential to reduce appetite,” he also said, “I’m less confident regarding the hoodia molecule itself for reasons relating to its metabolism [absorption and breakdown] in humans.” (Doheny, 2006)
In another study conducted that same year, Dr. Goldfarb, medical director of Bucks County Clinical Research from Morrisville, Pa, tested hoodia gordonii on a small group of people (7 participants). He found hoodia to be effective. His study involved giving his patients, 2 capsules of 500 g of hoodia (from Delmar Labs) along with a healthy breakfast, a multivitamin and instructions to make no other changes to their exercise or eating routine. The participants reported a 3.3% drop in their body weight, which turned out to be a median loss of 10 lbs. The participants said their food intake dropped off quickly within the first few days and they did not experience any side effects like jitteriness or sleeplessness.
Dr. Goldfarb explains it this way. ““Hoodia gordonii works within the satiety center of the brain by releasing a chemical compound similar to glucose but up to 100 times stronger,” Goldfarb says in his written report. “The hypothalamus receives this signal as an indication that enough food has been consumed and this in turn decreases the appetite.” (Doheny, 2006)
Phytopharm, a large UK pharmaceutical company, completed a study in 2001 on Hoodia. In this case the study used double-blind, placebo-controlled standards on healthy but overweight volunteers. Both groups, one given P57 (the active ingredient in Hoodia) and one given a placebo, continued with their normal diet and exercise.
Here are the results:
- The group receiving the P57 had a significant loss in body fat.
- The P57 group had a statistically significance drop in calorie intake
- The P57 group experienced no side effects.
Apparently the group of people who’d been given the P57 consumed 1,000 less calories a day than those in the control group. (The Science of Hoodia, 2007)
There are several studies going on right now that we will have to wait for the results on this next stage of testing.
Keep in mind that just because some people are experiencing positive results with hoodia supplementation, not all hoodia products are equal. In fact, that is one of the biggest cautions to buying hoodia gordonii.
With this market growing into the millions of dollars of potential profit, many scam artists are out to grab their share. There are over a dozen varieties of hoodia, and only one of them has been proven to give the desired results – hoodia gordonii. As it’s illegal to import this plant out of South Africa without a special document called a CITES, (Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) Certificate, it’s important to check with the manufacture for their certificate. There are many shyster companies that are using cheap fillers like pulpy leaves, skin, and fibers that contain no appetite suppressant qualities at all. Still they package and sell these imitations for top dollar.
It’s a buyer’s beware market. So be informed before you buy.
Works Cited
Doheny, K. (2006, Sept. 6). Hoodia: Lots of Hoopla, Little Science. Retrieved July 4, 2007, from WebMD: http://www.webmd.com/diet/guide/hoodia-lots-of-hoopla-little-science?page=2
The Science of Hoodia. (2007). Retrieved July 4, 2007, from Hoodia Advice: http://www.hoodia-advice.org/hoodia-plant.html