Hoodia Diet Pills

Also: Hoodia, Appetite Suppressants,Hoodia Scientific Study.

For people trying to lose weight, it has been the dream for many years to find a diet pill that was a 100% natural appetite suppressant. Not just a diet pill, but one with no side effects. Not surprisingly, such a pill has been elusive. Is Hoodia the answer to all those prayers?

Several times before there have been apparent "breakthroughs", such as starch-blockers, ephedra, and fat binders. The list is much longer. However, while some of these diet pills worked, they often came with a list of side effects, some of them dangerous. After an initial flurry of excitement and sales, most of these diet pills were knocked off track by reports of dangers associated with their use, and some were even banned from sale in the US.

Hoodia diet pills are the latest arrival on the scene in the hunt for the weight loss Holy Grail. Hoodia supplements are, or at least should be if they are genuine, derived from an African succulent known as hoodia gordonii. Cleared for sale in the U.S. in early 2004, hoodia has been steadily making a name for itself as a powerful appetite suppressant that can help you to lose weight. Its popularity was significantly boosted by reports on 60 Minutes, ABC News and BBC News.

As part of the BBC report, BBC Two's correspondent Tom Mangold, actually traveled to Africa to sample the hoodia in situ. He and his cameraman, who also tested the plant, both reported feeling pleasantly full for nearly 48 hours after eating a piece of hoodia gordonii.

The hoodia plant has been used by the San tribesmen of the Kalahari desert for thousands of years, to suppress the pangs of hunger on long hunting trips. Modern research has isolated an 'active ingredient' known as P57. Though the research is still scanty, it appears to work by fooling the hypothalamus into thinking that there is more sugar in the blood than there actually is.

Do hoodia diet pills actually work? It is really still too early to tell, but in one clinical trial conducted by Phytopharm, the company that holds the patent on the process to extract P57 from hoodia gordonii and use it for weight loss products, human subjects taking hoodia reduced their caloric intake by as much as 1000 calories a day. The figures are impressive, so it is not surprising there has been a lot of excitement.

But is it safe? There again, the research is far too scant to make a reasonable decision on it. There are no known side effects, but then until the past two years it has not been used outside one small tribe in Africa whose people have a very different life style to the obesity havens of North America and Europe. Often with new health products side effects emerge later, so we will have to reserve judgement until later.

Until then, it is advisable to use caution in purchasing products purporting to be made with hoodia. Many of the commercially available products contain virtually no hoodia gordonii at all. You should consult your doctor before undertaking any weight loss program that involves appetite suppressants. This is particularly important for those who've been diagnosed with diabetes or pre-diabetes, as the action of the hoodia plant can trick the body into thinking that the blood sugar is fine even as they approach hypoglycemic shock.