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Hoodia And Hunger
By: Kingston Amadan
Perhaps you've already heard of
hoodia, the unsightly and unpleasant tasting cactus-like plant which
grows in the Kalahari Desert. In recent months, hoodia has received
an overwhelming amount of attention from the media for it's ability
to suppress hunger with no discernable negative side effects. But
how exactly does this plant fool our brains into thinking we are
full?
Hoodia contains, among
other things, steroidal glycosides. These glycosides, when consumed,
act on the hypothalamus of the human brain in much the same way that
an increase in the amount of sugar in the bloodstream would. When
the hypothalamus believes that blood sugar is high, it sends out a
signal to the body that no more sustenance is required. Effectively,
one of the components of
hoodia's biological
make-up tricks our brains into thinking we have already consumed
enough caloric intake, which consequently suppresses our hunger.
Several studies have been performed on both animals and humans which
have shown conclusive results that hoodia is effective in
facilitating weight loss. The only known side effect of hoodia is a
feeling of overall well-being which accompanies appetite
suppression. While the majority of the human studies performed on
hoodia have involved participants who suffer from obesity, animal
studies indicate that hoodia may be just as effective in helping
those who are in reasonably good health but would like to lose a
small amount of weight.
Unlike ephedra and caffeine based stimulants, hoodia demonstrates no
cardiovascular side effects such as thermal or nervous system
acceleration or increased blood pressure.
While the medical community continues to study what many are calling
the greatest weapon in the fight against obesity, several
manufacturers have made
hoodia available to the
public in pill or patch form. Perhaps the magic pill that science
has been searching for decades has been with us all along, slowly
growing in the
Kalahari Desert. |
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