Hoodia as an Appetite Suppressant - How does it work?
The Hoodia gordonii plant has shown promising signs of being an excellent natural appetite suppressant. It is bitter tasting but it’s very different from diet stimulants like Ephedra and Phenfen that are now banned because of dangerous side effects. But how does the Hoodia extract actually work?
In the mid-region of your brain you possess many nerve cells that sense glucose. Glucose is what we get when we eat food, and it increases our blood sugar levels. Our bodies use glucose for energy, basically. When we eat, the increase in glucose is sensed by these nerve cells in the brain and, eventually, when we have enough glucose, these nerve cells give us a feeling of fullness. Hoodia gordonii works by mimicing the effect of glucose. Therefore, even when we haven’t eaten, the nerve cells that sense for glucose in our mid-brain are tricked into thinking we have eaten….and we feel full.
After taking hoodia, many have reported no after effects – no funny taste in their mouths, no queasy stomach, and no racing heart. And as a bonus, they were not hungry all day, even when they would normal snack around mealtime. Also, many have reported that they had no desire to eat or drink for the entire day.
Hoodia fools the brain into thinking we are full and this in turn causes the participants in the study to eat less, up to 1000 calories less per day than the average American person. Weight loss through hoodia can be seen as painless as the drug has no reported after effects and has been perfectly safe for many that have participated in the scientists’ studies.
In 1977, the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) isolated the ingredient in hoodia - now known as P57 - which is responsible for its appetite-suppressant effect, and patented it in 1996.The CSIR then granted United Kingdom-based Phytopharm a license, and they collaborated with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer to isolate active ingredients from the extracts and look into synthesizing them for use as an appetite suppressant.
In the last few years, hoodia has been heavily marketed for weight loss and has become immensely popular. Although there has always been a demand for diet pills, after the ban on the herb ephedra, the market was particularly ripe for the next new diet pill. Much of hoodia’s popularity stems from claims that the San Bushmen of the Kalahari desert relied on hoodia for thousands of years to ward off hunger and thirst during long hunting trips. They were said to have cut off the stem and eat the bitter-tasting plant. There are over 13 types of hoodia. The only active ingredient identified so far is a steroidal glycoside that has been called “p57″. Currently, only hoodia gordonii is thought to contain p57.
