What is Hoodia Gordonii?
Other Names: hoodia, xhooba, !khoba, Ghaap, hoodia cactus, South African desert cactus.
Hoodia (pronounced HOO-dee-ah) is a cactus-like plant that grows primarily in the semi-deserts of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola.
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.
Hoodia gordonii grows in clumps of green upright stems.
Although it is often called a cactus because it resembles one, hoodia is actually a succulent plant.
It takes about five years before hoodia gordonii's pale purple flowers appear and the plant can be harvested.
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.
What is the History of Hoodia Gordonii?
In 1937, a Dutch anthropologist studying the San Bushmen noted that they used hoodia gordonii to suppress appetite. In 1963, scientists at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa's national laboratory, began studying hoodia. They claimed that lab animals lost weight after they were given hoodia gordonii.
The South African scientists, working with a British company named Phytopharm, isolated what they believed to be an active ingredient in hoodia gordonii, a steroidal glycoside, which they named p57. After obtaining a patent in 1995, they licensed p57 to Phytopharm. Phytopharm has spent more than $20 million on hoodia research.
Eventually pharmaceutical giant Pfizer learned about hoodia and expressed interest in developing a hoodia drug. In 1998, Phytopharm sub-licensed the rights to develop p57 to Pfizer for $21 million. Pfizer returned the rights to hoodia to Phytopharm, who is now working with Unilever.
Much of the hype about hoodia started after 60 Minutes correspondent Leslie Stahl and crew traveled to Africa to try hoodia. They hired a local Bushman to go with them into the desert and track down some hoodia. Stahl ate it, describing it as "cucumbery in texture, but not bad." She reported that she lost the desire to eat or drink the entire day. She also said she didn't experience any immediate side effects, such as indigestion or heart palpitations.
Where is Hoodia Gordonii Found? 
Hoodia gordonii is sold in capsule, powder, liquid, or tea form in health food stores and on the Internet. Hoodia is also found in the popular diet pill Trimspa.
How Does Hoodia Gordonii Work?
Despite its popularity, there are no published randomized controlled trials in humans to show hoodia is safe or effective in pill form.
One study published in the September 2004 issue of Brain Research found that injections of p57 into the appetite center of rat brains resulted in altered levels of ATP, an energy molecule that may affect hunger. The animals receiving the P57 injections also ate less than rats that received placebo injections. However, this was an animal study and injections in the brain are different from oral consumption, so it cannot be used to show that oral hoodia can suppress appetite in humans.
The manufacturer Phytopharm cites a clinical trial involving 18 human volunteers that found hoodia consumption reduced food intake by about 1000 calories per day compared to a placebo group. Although intriguing, the study wasn't published or subjected to a peer-review process, so the quality of the study cannot be evaluated.
13 November 2007
What You Need to Know About Hoodia Diet Pills
10 November 2007
The 17th century perfect woman figure - More fat, less bone for women
Very few women seem to feel completely happy with their silhouettes. “Perfect body types” are nothing else but a perception, it’s nothing but an idea or concept build up by society and by the media.
So basically now shapeless sacks of bones are cool.A couple centuries ago for example, skinny women were not “hot”, actually they were the “ugly ducklings”.
Nowadays the whole media monster has made clear that if you’re not having a Zero-sized waistline, you’re fat and if you’re fat, you’re meant to be ugly, but THIS IS NOT TRUE.
Three hundreds years ago, a person with a medium-size body composition was the point of absolution perfection, neither obese nor skinny.
Don’t always believe what the media advertise, “perfect bodies” are not real, this is just a social perception that varies with time, and is still changing. Maybe in two hundred years, women will be considered again “perfect” by having a little “meat” here and there. Like the “Venus” above, curves were very hot!
08 November 2007
Long-term pill use risks atherosclerosis
Women who use the contraceptive pill for years risk a build-up of plaque in their arteries, according to a study released this week.
While the European study suggests long-term pill users may therefore be at increased risk of heart attack or stroke, the researchers say their findings are no need for alarm.
"Bottom line - don't discontinue your pill suddenly. Don't panic. Don't call your gynaecologist tomorrow morning," says lead researcher Dr Ernst Rietzschel of Ghent University in Belgium, whose team presented the results at an American Heart Association meeting this week.
Rietzschel's team studied 1301 women aged 35-55. Of these, 81% had used the pill for an average 13 years.
The researchers measured plaque levels using a technique called vascular echography.
They saw a rise of 20-30% in arterial plaque in two big arteries - the carotid in the neck and the femoral in the leg - for each decade of use.
A slow build-up of plaque, made up of fat, cholesterol, calcium and other material, on the inside of artery walls can lead to atherosclerosis, when the arteries harden and narrow.
"The main concern is if you have higher plaque levels that you might develop a clot on one of these plaques and have a stroke or a [heart attack] or sudden cardiac death," says Rietzschel.
"That's the main risk with having plaque, with having atherosclerosis."
Women who take the pill long term can take other steps to cut their risk of cardiovascular disease, he says, like eating a healthier diet, getting more exercise, not smoking and controlling cholesterol.
"There are other ways of doing contraception. Oral contraception is not the only possibility," he says.
Dr Gordon Tomaselli, a Johns Hopkins University cardiologist and American Heart Association official, says he is surprised by the findings.
"It's a bit eye-opening, I think," says Tomaselli.
He says the findings need to be factored into the equation for women deciding whether to take the pill.
"What would I tell my daughter to do? I might suggest maybe not oral contraception," Tomaselli says.
A wave of heart disease?
Rietzschel says the findings may indicate that there could be an upswing in heart disease among women who have taken the pill, considering that those who began in the 1960s were now reaching a peak age for such illness.
"We might be at the foot of a wave. But the wave might be a small ripple," he says.
Many studies have looked at the medical consequences of using the pill. For example, experts say cigarette smoking raises the risk of serious side-effects, including heart attacks, blood clots and strokes.
But this is the first study to suggest atherosclerosis as a side-effect.
"We thought that once you stopped using oral contraceptives, the risk of clotting went away. That would seem to be too simplistic a view now," Rietzschel says.
