Hoodia Caution
I found this and thought it was important
People with diabetes should be particularly cautious. Because hoodia
tricks the brain into thinking that it has enough blood sugar, it’s
possible that a person’s blood sugar could drop dangerously low while
taking hoodia. With the regular hunger mechanism turned off, the normal
warning signs may be suppressed — until it’s too late.
Angela
October 11th, 2004 at 8:03 pm
Hi Angela,
I’ve been using hoodia since last November with no problems. One of the things
people do have to do is be responsible about taking their BG’s though - and
since I take mine about 6-8 times a day it is not an issue. While it may make
you not be hungry it has nothing to do with feeling hypo lows. It can’t mask
that as it is a totally different feedback mechanism than hunger. I’ve seen
that same blurb on the net but my experience is that it is inaccurate.
Just out of curiosity, did you find studies done to indicate it was a problem?
If so, I’d be very interested in looking at them.
Personally, I suspect if there is a problem with diabetics it is those who take
massive amounts of medication for BG control and then stop overeating, which
means they don’t need to compensate for way too many calories and carbs. If one
goes from eating 200+ grams of carbs a day to 100 grams of carbs a day then
medication management does become key, especially for those taking insulin and
drugs that cause excretion of insulin like Actos. At the time I began using it
I was not using much of anything other than Chinese herbs and ALA. It has not
done anything to my BG levels because even back then I was controlling carbs
strictly.
It would be interesting to see data on the use of hoodia for weight loss in
terms of studies, but since the drug companies don’t make $$ off it we will
never see those sorts of studies.
Cheers!
Marsha
October 11th, 2004 at 11:52 pm
Marsha,
Here is the link I found I know my ENDO is very seroius about ALL Over
the counter meds and I am not to take anything OTC meds him knowning.
Angela
October 12th, 2004 at 9:50 pm
Dear Angela,
Thanks for the link. I believe it is same the one I saw and it is simply
personal observations of journalists, just like I have personal observations
from using hoodia for over six months on a fairly consistent basis.
In fact, part of the article says:
"Does it actually work? It’s 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, human subjects taking hoodia reduced their caloric
intake by as much as 1000 calories a day. The figures are impressive.
But is it safe? There again, the research is far to scant to make a reasonable
decision on it. There are no known side effects - but it also hasn’t been used
outside one small tribe in Africa until the past two years. It’s possible that
there are side effects to long-term use that aren’t yet evident."
end snippet
My doctor is not paranoid about alternative medicine as so many doctors are and
I’m very good at doing my own research and my
I have his blessings to use what I feel is necessary. Good thing, too, as I do
not trust any doctor to run my life - they are not me and don’t know everything.
In other words, I’m what is sometimes called a difficult (aka very independent
and opinionated) patient.
doctor and I discuss what I find out. He often adopts what I find out in his
own practice. I have more time to reseach plus I am diabetic and he is not -
therefore I invest far more in finding out what is effective regarding weight
loss and BG control.
I believe that John Dodson’s endo, who is an author and nationally known, also
uses it as John is using it with his blessing. I KNOW that Dr. Richard
Bernstein uses it with his patients and he is one of the foremost diabetologists
in the Untied States. The only reason I started hoodia at all was on
Bernstein’s recommendation. I had never heard of it until I heard a Bernstein
lecture and I found what he recommended and ordered some that night. I have
more faith in Berstein than any other diabetolgist.
Anyway, this was just a BBC special, no study, so again there is no research
data on hoodia, with the exception of the fact that the South Africans have
taken it for time out of mind and have survived quite handily until today. That
in and of itself says a great deal. In fact, there is no indication that the
journalists have clue one about what diabetics really need, only a comment from
the writer of the article. I had hoped that perhaps you’d found more than
publicity (negative or positive) on the herb. But these are the early days, so
it was a lot to hope for.
At this point the best we have are reports from those who use it successfully or
unsuccessfully.
I think the best caution the BBC story has is about finding products that
actually contain hoodia in it. Mine seems to as it is very effective with me
and a few other people I know in the Boston area. I don’t know if this is also
the brand that John uses. I know lots of these products are ful of green tea
and other substances and have almost no hoodia. People are not exceptionally
good label readers or researchers. One of my friends bought "hoodia" that was
almost all green tea and had to take it back. Right now she is white-knuckling
it trying to get past hunger.
I agree, however, that if you are uncomforable about taking anything your endo
does not personally approve of that you probably should not do it.
Interestingly enough, we don’t know the long term effects of byetta, either, and
I suspect that injecting gila monster spit is probably more likely to cause
problems than injesting plant matter that has been ingested for many thousands
of years. Still, I find that the cost/benefit analysis of Byetta is enough for
me to take the risk of using it for BG control and weight loss.
Cheers!
Marsha
Here is the link I found I know my ENDO is very seroius about ALL Over
the counter meds and I am not to take anything OTC meds him knowning.
Angela