While Bushmen in South Africa have been using the Hoodia plant as an appetite suppressant for thousands of years, they have not been eating it every day. They use it sparingly, when they are going on long trips, etc. So scientists are unaware as of yet what the effects are of using Hoodia every day. While there are many natural medicines and herbs on the markets, most of the other herbs have been known by the rest of the world for longer, and tried by more people, before reaching the point where they are sold as nutritional supplements. Right now it would appear that there are no side effects to eating Hoodia, but daily use may show differently. Side effects which have appeared through use of Ephedra and epinephrin also took time to appear, although Hoodia would have different side effects if it has any, because Hoodia is not a stimulant. However, many Hoodia pills have not been approved by the FDA as a weight loss or diet pill, and thus have not undergone testing as a safe way to lose weight. Nor does anyone know what the effect might be on pregnant women who take Hoodia before they know they are pregnant.

The main danger of Hoodia is that people will starve themselves. Not to death, but many people, in their zeal to lose weight, may take a greater amount of Hoodia and not eat because they are not hungry. Many mistakenly believe that the key to losing weight is eating less, which for some people, it is. But for others, the key is not in eating less but in eating healthier. Eating below a certain amount of calories, depending on your current weight, can actually cause you to gain weight in the long run. A minimum number of calories are necessary each day for the running of our body, as even when you are sitting still, energy is being used for breathing, the nervous system, and keeping the heart beating.

If you eat less than a certain amount of calories per day (it varies in people depending on their weight and metabolism), your body begins to go into starvation mode. Your metabolism will slow down, (which can have a long term effect on your metabolism) and if you don’t eat enough in the following days, your body will begin to protect its fat storage (your brain, for example, is made out of fat cells), and instead break down your muscle proteins into the simple sugars it needs to run your heart and lungs. Since muscles use up a lot of energy, this will also lower your metabolism, although some people may think that they have lost fat, because they will lose weight from the breakdown of the muscle. Muscle actually weighs more than fat, so this can be a bit deceptive. So the people who think they can take a miracle plant cure and thus not have to eat actually can end up gaining weight in the long run.

Hoodia dietary supplements abound on the internet, promising safe, side effect free appetite suppression.  Each has its own website where they extol the virtues of Hoodia gordonii in general and their product in particular.  Here are some of the common techniques employed by these websites:

Most of the websites start by telling a simplified history of Hoodia and the San Bushmen who have used it for centuries.  They often forget to mention that the San eat fresh Hoodia to suppress their appetite.  They do stress the primitive and almost mythical powers of the San, however, as well as the great benefits they supposedly derive from eating Hoodia.

The websites will then tell you how their product is far superior to other products, as they are the only trustworthy source of real Hoodia.  A nice touch is to explain how one can be scammed from unscrupulous Hoodia companies.  They may then explain that only their product is grown by REAL SOUTH AFRICAN FARMERS (apparently it is important to stress this by using all capital letters). 

Another common gimmick is the use of false comparison websites that purport to compare without bias a selection of Hoodia products.  Check to see if you have ever heard of the organization doing the comparison, as some supplement distributors have been known to create fake organizations in order to direct business to their products.

Many websites seem to offer expert testimony on the effectiveness of their product.   However, when examined carefully, either the experts are unnamed or they are quoted as to the effectiveness of Hoodia in general, and not the product being sold on the website.

Another card the nutritional supplements play is the conspiracy theory of the big bad pharmaceutical companies.  Apparently, these companies believe in the effectiveness of Hoodia, but since they can’t patent it, will not try to release a Hoodia product unless they can synthesize it, which they can patent.

Careful reading of one website found that the makers of that supplement recommended combining a reduced calorie diet and regular walking of several miles with Hoodia.  Apparently their product works best if you also eat properly and exercise!

Many websites claim to offer money back guarantees and free samples, but how easy do you think those will be for something you buy off the internet?  It is best to assume that any money you send out will not be coming back, no matter you satisfaction with the product.

Most websites do offer a disclaimer, often in a very small font at the bottom of the page.  A typical disclaimer will say things like
Please Note: The statements contained on this site have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent, mitigate or cure any disease. Your actual results may vary. Please check with your physician before taking any diet pills or starting any weight loss program.
And finally, it is probably a good idea to be wary of outlandish claims, such as one website that claimed their Hoodia product would give you superhuman-like strength to make love all night long!

With the growing obesity epidemic in this country and around the world, the pharmaceutical industry is making great efforts to develop appetite suppressing drugs.  Most diet suppressants are stimulants, and can have harmful side effects, like the now banned Ephedra and Fen-phen.  The plant Hoodia gordonii has been used for centuries by the San people of Southern Africa as an appetite suppressant.  In 1997, the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) isolated the active ingredient in Hoodia, P57.  Hoodia is not a stimulant, and from its use by the San people appears safe.  Thus the pharmaceutical industry was interested in trying to synthesize P57 for the mass market.

The patent to P57 is owned by Phytopharm, a United Kingdom-based pharmaceutical company.  They originally partnered with Pfizer to attempt to synthesize P57.  While they managed to synthesize small quantities, the process was determined to be too expensive, and Pfizer pulled out of the deal in 2002. 

Phytopharm continued working with Hoodia, this time trying to grow the plant on a commercial scale.  This has some difficulties attached, as Hoodia gordonii is a wild cactus that had never been domesticated. However, the plantings in South Africa and Namibia have not yet matured, so all Hoodia currently available probably came from wild sources.  While it may be more effective to take Hoodia by eating some of the plant and thus getting the active ingredient, there has actually been a great deal of difficulty in getting the plant to grow anywhere else, including gardens and greenhouses, and so plantations have been set up in South Africa by drug companies trying to cultivate Hoodia. However, the drug companies are running into difficulties, and are actually growing a slightly different species from the one originally found to be an appetite suppressant. This species tastes slightly bitter, but the pharmaceutical companies are trying to make the product taste better. This species was chosen because it grows faster. 

In April of 2006, Phytopharm, now partnered with Unilever, announced that it developed techniques to extract P57 from Hoodia on a commercial basis.  They hope to have a product to market in 2008, most likely in the form of diet shakes and bars.  This will be after the completion of clinical studies needed to ensure the safety and effectiveness of Hoodia for human use.  As of present, there have been no proper clinical trial to determine in Hoodia extract is safe for human use or effective at promoting weight loss.  The only published clinical study of Hoodia involves the injection of Hoodia extract into the brains of rats.  An unpublished study, which occasionally makes its way onto the internet, involved a very small sample of volunteers who took either P57 or a placebo.  Until a proper double-blind clinical study is done using human subjects, no reputable pharmaceutical firm will attempt to market a Hoodia weight loss medication. 

Thus the future of Hoodia appears to be in the form of processed natural plants, indicating a potential future crop for the people of South Africa and the San Bushmen in particular.

The plant Hoodia gordonii has developed a reputation as a miracle appetite suppressant.  This reputation has come from various media reports, including ones on CBS’s 60 Minutes and the BBC.  Many nutritional supplements claiming to contain Hoodia have flooded the market, being pitched on late-night infomercials and on the internet.  So the question is, does Hoodia deserve this reputation, or is it just a big scam?

Consumer Reports concluded that there was little or no evidence that Hoodia was safe or effective.  They also noted that the nutritional supplement industry is virtually unregulated, leading to unsupported claims by such products as TrimSpa, which uses Anna Nicole Smith as a celebrity endorser.  It has been found in some tests that many products claiming to contain Hoodia in fact contain so little of the active ingredient, P57, that they are actually completely ineffective.  TrimSpa Hoodia pills used to contain Ephedra until this substance was banned in the US. 

Experts say that almost all of the evidence for Hoodia is anecdotal, and that little research has been done to confirm the assumption it has no side effects.  There is also some evidence that consumers who are buying the supplements over the Internet or at health-food stores may not be getting what they’re paying for.  Many supplements seem to contain little or none of the active ingredient in Hoodia.  Some people have questioned whether or not products boasting of Hoodia actually contain Hoodia or its active ingredient. Some critics have pointed out that there hasn’t been enough Hoodia plant cultivated or imported to supply all of the pills that supposedly contain it.

Many people have had mixed success with Hoodia pills. For some, there are no discernible effects if they also drink caffeinated beverages or work out hard. If you go onto a dieting message board, you can compare different people’s experiences with different brands of Hoodia pills, and see which pills are just scams. Some pills are so weak or contain altered versions of Hoodia or might even contain no Hoodia at all. If you decide to purchase a batch of pills, be sure to choose ones that you have heard some people had success with, as well as, for your wallet’s sake, has a money back guarantee.

The Hoodia plant grows wild only in the sands of the Kalahari Desert. Its relatives are commonly found in the Namib Desert, and it is a protected plant. The only area from which this South African plant can be exported is the West Cape; other areas of South Africa and Africa are closed from export.

Because it is a protected plant, the average consumer cannot just go to South Africa and get some of the plant. It is difficult to take out of the country, for one reason, and for another, it can actually be fairly difficult to find a Hoodia plant. Also, it takes 5 – 7 years for a Hoodia plant to mature, and actually have appetite suppressant qualities.  North Americans can get Hoodia in pill form, however pure Hoodia is very expensive, and has often been obtained illegally.

You can incorporate Hoodia into a healthy diet in order to help you to suppress your appetite. Many people have found success with Hoodia, as an appetite suppressant and thus as a weight loss method. However, many people have not had very good results, as well. It seems that Hoodia does not suppress appetite when you are working hard (physically), and many pills are too weak to work for the full day they are said to work for.  If you are using a pill form, check the other ingredients in the pill. Do not use a pill that contains epinephrine, which is a dangerous stimulant.

You may be best off using Hoodia at certain times of the day when you know you start craving unnecessary food, such as before bed. Most of the diet pills recommend that you eat a healthy diet, including a low amount of carbs or fat and a decent amount of protein and dairy, as well as 6-8 glasses of water per day, and possible more depending on your size. Be careful not to mix Hoodia with other nutritional supplements which are appetite suppressants, as you may end up forgetting to eat. Also, even with Hoodia helping you to eat less, you should still perform some exercise. A half hour walk every day or every second day is an easy way to get some light exercise and keep you metabolism boosted.

In any diet, you should be eating at least 2000 calories per day. Do not forget that you need to eat in order to stay healthy, and while losing weight can improve some people’s health, losing weight too fast can be detrimental to your health. Losing 1 pound per day may be too much for some people, and you should talk to your doctor or nutritionist to determine the best way for you to lose weight and a safe rate at which to lose weight.

Once you have determined that you would like to take Hoodia, and chosen your pills, you need to set a schedule for when you will take the pills and when you will eat. If you have chosen an effective pill, it will suppress your appetite and you may not wish to eat as much or at all. Some might decide that the fastest way to lose weight is to not eat at all for a couple of days, but that will lower your metabolism, making future weight gain more likely. Instead, develop a menu of foods that are low in saturated fats, low in calories, and tasty enough to appeal to you even if you are not very hungry.

Hoodia does not replace food. You will not eat enough of it to get any nutritional value from it, instead it will make it easier for you to control your eating and eliminate food cravings, and thus, it can be a part of a healthy diet.

You might also find success with other appetite suppressants, which would have the advantage of more research having been done on them, although they may not work so thoroughly.

Appetite suppressants are drugs that reduce the desire to eat.  They can be used in the treatment of obesity.  Some appetite suppressants are only available with a prescription, while others are available over the counter.  They contain a variety of active ingredients, and work in different ways.

The majority of appetite suppressants are stimulants.  They are related to amphetamine or speed.  In fact, amphetamines were used by the British during the First World War as appetite suppressants for soldiers.  Amphetamines and other stimulants became used by the general population after World War 2.  Amphetamine itself was sold as an appetite suppressant until the 1950’s when it was banned because of the increasing abuse of it.  Amphetamines have many dangerous side effects including increased heart rate and hypertension.

High rates of heart attacks and pulmonary hypertension led to the withdrawal of many stimulant products from the market.  An example is Fen-phen, which was withdrawn in the 1997 due to abnormally high incidences of valvular heart disease.  Currently it is estimated that there are 50,000 lawsuits pending against the manufacturer of Fen-phen.  All stimulants can be dangerous to some degree.  Despite these dangers, many stimulants are still used today as appetite suppressants.

Hoodia, on the other hand, is not a stimulant.  It is believed to work by stimulating that portion of the brain which measures sugar intake.  At present, there are no known side effects to use of Hoodia.  It certainly doesn’t cause the same problems that led to the withdrawal of certain stimulant-based appetite suppressants.  It should be noted, however, that Hoodia has not been in recorded use for very long, and not very many formal clinical studies have been done.  One should also be careful when taking a Hoodia supplement to ensure that it doesn’t contain a stimulant as well.  Some products claim to be Hoodia, and thus safe, when in fact they contain dangerous levels of stimulants.  There may be more than just Hoodia in that little pill you are taking.

Many people wish to believe that there is a magical method to lose weight.  In truth, the use of an appetite suppressant should be combined with physical activity and a proper diet in order to lose weight successfully and to keep that weight off.  Any use of medication for weight loss should only be done after consultation with a physician. 

Hoodia acts as an appetite suppressant. However, unlike other appetite suppressants, it is not a stimulant. It actually seems to have no other effect than to suppress appetite. It does this because it contains a particular molecule which has a surprising effect on your brain. Within your brain, you have several distinct parts. Each part of your brain has a job. The hypothalamus of your brain is the part which, as one of its jobs, sends signals telling you whether you are hungry or not, and in which there are nerve cell receptors that sense your blood sugar level. When you eat, your blood sugar level rises, signals are sent to the hypothalamus, the nerve cells fire, and your hypothalamus tells the rest of your brain and body that you are full. This is why it is best to eat slowly – if you eat too fast, your body does not send the signals in time, and you over eat. Slow eating is also a good way to ensure you are only getting the amount of food you actually need to be full.

With Hoodia, the active molecule in it sends other chemicals to your hypothalamus which sets off the nerve receptors, convincing your brain and body that you are full when you may not have even eaten. This effect can last for some time, depending on how much Hoodia you have ingested.

Hoodia seems to work best in its natural form, but drug companies are trying to make synthetic versions, and have not yet been successful. Pills are available which contain some natural Hoodia, but you should check where the Hoodia is coming from. It should be South African Hoodia. The pills contain a lower dosage of the natural ingredient which suppresses appetite than eating straight Hoodia contains, but will still work to suppress appetite, just for a shorter period of time. In some people, appetite is not suppressed as well because while the brain may think you are full, the body will still need calories. As a weight loss method, Hoodia works best when combined with a proper diet and some light exercise. The exercise will help your body use up even more calories, causing it to need to burn fat into sugars in order to give your body the necessary energy.

Some people have had success when combining Hoodia with the Atkins diet.  It seems that combining small portions of healthy food with an appetite suppressant may be the most effective use of Hoodia.  Other people, however, have reported little or no effect from the Hoodia supplement they were taking, and that they didn’t lose any weight at all.

Hoodia has been used by the San people of Southern Africa as an appetite suppressant and cure for indigestion for ages.  The San people are perhaps better known as the Bushmen, and were shown to the world in the movie “The Gods Must Be Crazy.”  There are today approximately 85,000 San in the world today, and about half still live as nomadic hunters and gatherers. They are generally short in stature; their skin is yellowish brown in color; and they have broad noses, flat ears, bulging foreheads, and prominent cheekbones.

The San were the original inhabitants of Southern Africa.  They were hunters and gatherers, and while they did not have a system of writing, they developed a complex language that makes use of many click sounds.  The San lived a nomadic lifestyle, with small hunting bands wandering the land in search of food.  They used poison arrows to hunt game, and ostrich eggs as a means of carrying water.  Their knowledge of local plants and animals, and of uses for them, remains unsurpassed to this day.  Caves and rock shelters are used as dwellings. They possess only what they can carry. The San have a rich folklore and are known for the history of cave drawing.

The San once ranged over all of Southern Africa.  However, with the coming of the Bantu people, who were farmers and herders, the San were gradually pushed into the interior.  With the arrival of Europeans in the 18th and 19th centuries, the San were further marginalized, relegated to living in the arid and hostile Kalahari and Namib deserts.
The San have used Hoodia for centuries to combat hunger on long trips in the desert.  Hoodia is a cactus, and the San would cut a piece of the plant and eat it fresh.  Hoodia is native to a narrow region of Namibia, on the edge of the Kalahari Desert.  Hoodia is also known as Bushman’s Hat and Queen of the Namib. The San call Hoodia Xhoba, with various spellings used to represent it in English.

The modern use of Hoodia by the pharmaceutical and nutritional supplement industries got its start in 1997 when the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) isolated the active ingredient.  Subsequent agreements promise to share a certain percentage of the profits that CSIR receives with the San people.  Currently, there is no licensed Hoodia-based product, which means that any product containing Hoodia was harvested illegally at no benefit to the San.

The San are among the poorest people in the world.  Development of Hoodia resources could potentially bring in millions of dollars to their community.  The illegal harvesting of Hoodia runs the risk of wiping out a plant that the San have relied on for centuries.

The current Hoodia craze can probably trace its beginnings to November 21, 2004, when CBS’s “60 Minutes” did a program about Hoodia.   In this program, correspondent Lesley Stahl traveled to Africa to try Hoodia gordonii for herself.  She visited the Kalahari Desert of South Africa and spoke with a San Bushman.  She then tried a piece of the Hoodia plant.  According to Stahl, her hunger was suppressed, as she “wasn’t even hungry all day.”  She concluded that natural fresh Hoodia probably did work.

If you browse Hoodia sales websites, you will find that they all proudly quote “As seen on 60 Minutes!”  They often quote Stahl as to the effectiveness of Hoodia.  What they conveniently forget about is the second part of the program, where Stahl interviewed Dr. Richard Dixey, the head of the pharmaceutical company trying to develop Hoodia.  In his opinion, the majority of products out there claiming to contain Hoodia in fact contain a tiny fraction of the active ingredient. 

The “60 Minutes” episode was inspired by a BBC correspondent who traveled to South Africa a year earlier to investigate and sample Hoodia. He tried the plant and also reported that his decreased his appetite.  This article is often quoted on websites fro products claiming to contain Hoodia.  Thus these two articles, which featured nothing more than anecdotal evidence and interviews with people employed by companies trying to develop Hoodia products, started the Hoodia craze.

The existence of these two reports was enough to spawn a series of articles in newspapers around the world describing the apparent miracle plant of the Bushmen of South Africa which would be the next big cure for obesity.  The hype quite simply overran the evidence.  Pushed by the marketing of Hoodia-based nutrition supplements, Hoodia achieved a brand awareness that far outshone any proven ability to aid in weight loss.

This of course led to the next wave of articles, decrying the great Hoodia scam.  People started investigating several of the so-called Hoodia nutritional supplements, and found that those companies couldn’t begin to justify the claims they were making.  This led to the cautionary articles, which mix testimonials both for and against Hoodia supplements. 

The greatest benefit of Hoodia seems to be to two groups, the nutritional supplement companies who sell it as a magical weight loss cure to anyone they can find, and the media, which is provided with a seemingly never-ending series of topics.  It seems that our obsession with out appearance, combined with the ever increasing rates of obesity, continue to drive the search for stories of miracle cures.  Hoodia is simply a great story.

Hoodia has been recently discovered by North Americans, although it has been used by South African bushman as an appetite suppressant before taking long trips for hundreds of years. It was discovered during a study of indigenous foods by a lab in South Africa, and may represent a great opportunity for the South African economy as well as a diet miracle for many of those who have given up on other weight loss methods. Hoodia itself is a group of stem succulent cactus – like plants, with stalks that look like spiky pickles or sea cucumbers. These plants can grow up to 1m high and flower large strong smelling flowers. The indigenous people who live where these plants come from call the plants Xhoba.

The Hoodia plant is not related to cactus plants, although it does look like a cactus. Eating a cactus plant, however, will not cause you to lose weight or suppress your appetite. The Hoodia species which many people have become interested in is Hoodia Gordonii. There are other Hoodia species, some of which are grown in gardens, but the Gordonii is the one targeted as a weight loss method, and therefore of interest to drug companies and dieters everywhere.

Hoodia has begun to appear on the market as a nutritional supplement, sold as pills which contain small amounts of Hoodia. This is exciting for many people, as a large number of North American people struggle with their weight, and there have been a few studies done which have shown amazing results and Hoodia users in the study lost weight easily without feeling hungry at all. In a set of clinical trials, obese people were given Hoodia, and instructed not to do anything but eat, read, or watch TV. They still lowered their calorie intake and lost weight. This has caused a great deal of excitement and prompted a number of companies to produce nutritional supplements which they say contain Hoodia. It has also become more popular after rumors that TV actresses were eating Hoodia to stave off weight gain.

Pharmaceutical companies are trying to develop extracts of the Hoodia, forming pills which specifically contain the active ingredient in the plant, and plan to market them as diet pills. They are also trying to develop synthetic copies of the molecule within Hoodia which specifically suppresses the appetite. Unfortunately, the synthetic copy is very expensive and would be difficult to mass produce. So Hoodia in its natural plant form is needed.

The diet industry is a billion dollar industry, and Hoodia, as a natural appetite suppressant, may change the entire industry. As yet, there have been no observed side effects, because Hoodia is not a stimulant like Ephedra. However, further research in this area does need to be done.

Hoodia combined with a proper diet, exercise, and otherwise healthy lifestyle may help users see faster weight loss without feeling hungry. However, Hoodia itself is very expensive, because it is only found in one area of the world and, as a protected plant, it is difficult to import.