Hoodia’s Effectiveness Is Unknown According to the Houston Chronicle

There have been few news stories on hoodia lately but one came across the wire a few days before Thanksgiving. A very brief article appeared in the Houston Chronicle. The article gives a few facts about hoodia and seems to indicate that while hoodia may hold promise in the future, right now it’s probably not worth all the fuss.

I agree with some of the points in the article. The article states there is very little research to document hoodia’s effectiveness. It is true that there is very little scientific evidence that hoodia works. However, you can’t ignore the success many people have had with it - and you can’t ignore Dr. Varallo’s clinical findings. Until a large, “official” study is done on the effectiveness of hoodia, anecdotal evidence and findings from people like Dr. Varallo is all a consumer has to rely on for proof. While this proof isn’t scientific, it is proof nonetheless that hoodia does work for some people.

The article also points out that most experts advise against taking hoodia diet pills because most hoodia supplements probably don’t contain hoodia gordonii. This is also true. Sadly, the vast majority of the hoodia supplements available today contain very little, if any, hoodia gordonii. However, there are real supplements out there. In fact, all of the brands listed on my best rated hoodia page have been verified by an independent lab to contain authentic hoodia gordonii.

The problem isn’t finding an authentic product. The real issue is the potency of today’s supplements. In an earlier article I wrote, I discussed the debate over wild vs. cultivated hoodia. Some within the industry say wild hoodia is more potent while others say cultivated hoodia is equally potent. Whatever the reality is, it’s likely that most of the hoodia diet pills today contain cultivated hoodia. One exception is Hoodia Hoodia by Millennium Health. They claim their product has always contained wild hoodia gorodnii and always will, thus making it one of the most potent hoodia supplements available today.

Desert Burn, on the other hand, is believed to contain mostly cultivated hoodia. Yet, if you look closely at the lab test results, Desert Burn is only slightly less potent than Hoodia Hoodia - but it contains almost twice as much hoodia gordonii per capsule than Hoodia Hoodia (400mg vs. 750mg) so it’s really a wash. If anything, Desert Burn is likely more potent simply because there is more hoodia gordonii in each capsule.

The whole wild vs. cultivated hoodia debate could be a moot point within the next year or so anyway. Phytopharm and Unilever, the two companies who are partners in an effort to synthesize P57, the active ingredient in hoodia gordonii, are believed to have a product ready for the market soon - possibly by the end of 2008. These companies have an exclusive patent on P57.

When their product hits the market it will likely trump all existing hoodia supplements in potency because it will contain 100% active levels of P57 because they’ll be using only P57 in the product. They won’t be using the hoodia gordonii plant itself in the product, which is how existing hoodia supplements are made. Since no other companies have the rights to extract or synthesize P57, the only way they can get it in their products is by using the plant itself.

Reputable companies, like those on my best rated hoodia page, strive to get as much of the active levels of P57 in their products by using the most potent parts of the plant (the aerial stems), but they still cannot create a supplement that has 100% active levels of P57. Until the great “P57″ product hits the market, today’s authentic hoodia supplements are as good as it gets.

Source: Houston Chronicle