Hoodia Side Effects
Will Hoodia Side Effects Stop Overweight Consumers?
The South African Hoodia is the latest thing in the weight loss supplement world. It is native to the Kalahari Desert region of Southern Africa. Hoodia has been used for centuries by the Kalahari Bushmen to prevent hunger on their long hunting trips. The media has focused squarely on the wondrous appetite suppressing powers of hoodia. While laboratory research continues, one question that remains is "What are the hoodia side effects?"
Drug companies are desperate to come up with an artificial version of the active hoodia ingredient but have had little success. Since they can't reproduce the hoodia drug in the lab on a large scale, they can't run large scale studies of hoodia side effects. Currently the only source of hoodia are the native plants growing in the Kalahari Desert. Maybe the bushmen, since they have used hoodia for thousands of years, can tell us about the side effects.
Indeed, the Kalahari residents can tell us their folklore about hoodia side effects. Unfortunately, this word of mouth evidence is insufficient for scientific research. It seems well established that hoodia is a potent appetite suppression supplement. There just hasn't been enough long-term usage of the plant under controlled experiments to determine if there are any medical hoodia side effects.
Common sense can tell us what some potential hoodia side effects might be. Because it turns off the appetite, people taking hoodia are likely to eat less. Since less is eaten and most modern diets are not exactly healthy to begin with, those taking hoodia may be depriving themselves of essential nutrition. Healthy bodies need high quality fuel to function, and one of the hoodia side effects might be to decrease the intake of nutritious foods.
Another potential side effect could be dependence on hoodia. This doesn't mean dependent as in an addiction, although that needs to be researched. People might rely on hoodia to maintain their weight loss. This could lead to less healthy lifestyles. Of course this hasn't been proven at all, but it is wise to keep these possible hoodia side effects in mind.
One example of non-medical hoodia side effects is the massive increase in e-mail spam related to hoodia. Open your inbox and you are likely to be inundated by messages hyping hoodia products. Of course, no mention is made of hoodia side effects. That would be bad for the spammers' sales. Instead, these unwanted messages declare the miracle of hoodia weight loss with never a mention of possible hoodia side effects.
The hoodia may not have any side effects at all. It is too soon to tell. People obsessed with dieting and losing weight are likely to buy any and all hoodia weight loss products, regardless of potential side effects. The overweight consumer wants to lose weight now, and worry about possible side effects later.