This is a blossoming plant that has 13 species and it belongs to the family Apocynaceae, which in its turn, belongs to the subfamily Asclepiadoideae. The Hoodia stems are succulent and look like those of a cactus, although the two plants are not related in any way.
The producers of weight loss pills and supplements used delusive tactics of marketing in order to increase the popularity of this plant. The juice extracted from Hoodia Gordonii is utilized by the producers to manufacture weight loss pills and supplements which work as appetite suppressants. This ingredient is used in a large variety of weight loss products made by different manufacturers. Nobody knows for sure who was the first to utilize this plant as an ingredient for the products used by those who want to lose weight. However, one thing is clear, be careful when you decide to ingest weight loss pills that contain this ingredient.
Out of the 13 existing species of Hoodia, there is only one containing the substance used as an appetite suppressant in the weight loss pills: the P57 molecule can be extracted only from Hoodia Gordonii. There are many weight loss pills and supplements manufacturers who state publicly that their products contain Hoodia, because most of the people do not know anything about this plant. In case you want to lose weight and settle on a weight loss pill that contains hoodia, do not forget that there are also other ingredients in that drug which might cause unpleasant side-effects. Nobody knows what may happen if you take a pill that contains P57 molecule in combination with other ingredients for a longer period of time. Initially, this plant was chewed by the people traveling across the Namib Desert in order to inhibit their hunger while being out hunting.
Nowadays, it seems that the actual hoodia extract is no longer used in the composition of certain weight loss pills, but instead manufacturers utilize a synthetic replacement. In spite of that, there are still many people who purchase the products in order to lose weight by inhibiting their appetite. Of course, the producers of weight loss pills and supplements assert that there are no side-effects related to the use of hoodia as an appetite-suppressant, but researches showed that, in the long run, suppressing your appetite will eventually lead to low blood sugar, a very dangerous situation. In addition, those who want to lose weight and take hoodia pills, will no longer be able to realize whether they are hungry or not, due to the fact that this weight loss pill “convinces” the brain that the level of satiety has been attained.
The FDA has not approved the use of the weight loss pills containing hoodia, therefore nobody knows for sure what the correct dosage should be and how is health influenced by this drug. It is known that those weight loss pills that are recommended by the doctor can trigger important side-effects and sometimes even addiction.
Hoodia seems to be almost 100,000 times stronger than glucose when it comes to sending signals of hunger to the brain or at least this is what specialists claim. Therefore it is important to be extremely careful if you intend to take such a hoodia pill if you need to lose weight. Ephedrine, for instance, has been forbidden since 2004 because there were too many death cases which were thought to be related to the intake of this herbal ingredient.
