Posted on Mon, Jan. 30, 2006 Diet miracle in a pill? With promises of quick weight loss, Hoodia has tongues wagging By Joan Morris CONTRA COSTA TIMES Amazing pill that kills the cravings! Go all day without being hungry! Lose weight by losing the urge to snack! The spam ads that fill our in-boxes and the television commercials featuring actors wearing white lab coats all promise a miracle in a single pill -- an appetite suppressant that makes dieting a snap by killing your desire to eat. If smokers have the patch to stop nicotine cravings, why not a pill to eliminate the desire for food? Hoodia gordonii, a South African succulent favored by the Spartan-like San Bushmen of the Kalahari desert, may be a dieter's dream or it could be just another empty promise. Hoodia first burst onto our consciousness more than a year ago, when CBS' "60 Minutes" sent a correspondent to the Kalahari to try the plant herself. She reported that after chewing on the bitter leaf, she had no desire to eat for almost 24 hours. A BBC reporter soon followed, and he reported the same results. Interest in the plant skyrocketed after a rumor began to circulate that hoodia is the diet drug of choice for the "Desperate Housewives." But popularity aside, experts say proof that hoodia works is anecdotal, that little research has been done to confirm the assumption it has no side effects, and that consumers who are buying the supplements over the Internet or at health food stores may not be getting what they're paying for. Nutritionists say even if the supplement works, it might be better if it didn't. Dieting by starving the body is not a good idea, says Pam Wilson, chief clinical dietitian at San Ramon Regional Medical Center. When the body is starved, the metabolism slows and any calories it gets are stored as fat. "It can lower our metabolism by 30 percent," Wilson says. "That's not what you want to do if you're trying to lose weight." Wilson has other concerns about the supplement. The only known clinical study was conducted on rats, and because hoodia is considered an appetite suppressant that affects the body centrally, there are unknown risks to your organs, nervous and circulatory systems. Hoodia may be as safe as purified water, but without research, Wilson says, we don't know. That's often a problem with herbs and supplements. The products are not tested and regulated in the same way that prescription medications are. A product may be on the market a long time before a pattern of trouble is revealed. There is a history of weight-loss products that were initially considered benign -- fen-phen, ephedra -- and later were discovered to cause serious health problems, some of which resulted in deaths. "(Hoodia) could be a nightmare," Wilson says. A British pharmaceutical company, Phytopharm, has patented what it says is the active ingredient in hoodia, which the company calls P57. In 1997, the company entered into an agreement with Pfizer to develop hoodia, but Pfizer abandoned the plan, saying it was too expensive to extract and synthesize. Phytopharm has since struck a deal with Unilever, which is said to have begun its own studies. Some people have questioned whether products boasting of hoodia actually contain the supplement. Critics have argued that there isn't enough cultivated hoodia to account for all the products claiming to have it. While the plant grows in the unforgiving sands of the Kalahari, it apparently is not easy to propagate in nurseries or in commercial fields. Michael McGuffin, president of the American Herbal Products Association, says he believes consumers are receiving hoodia in products purchased from AHPA members. The association requires its members to comply with federal law and AHPA guidelines, McGuffin says. "I know of several companies that import it," McGuffin says. "I've seen several companies selling it on trade show floors and Internet Web sites." While the AHPA has yet to delve into the question of the plant's safety, it has created a commission to "promote and protect responsible commerce of products that contain hoodia." The Federal Food and Drug Administration does not regulate the herb and supplement industry, meaning it doesn't require testing and studies before a product hits the market. The association compiled a botanical safety handbook for its membership in 1997. The book outlines how 550 herbs should be used -- or not used -- but the book was compiled before hoodia arrived on the market. There have been no reports of health problems associated with hoodia. McGuffin notes that people have used it for hundreds of years, apparently without ill effects. So the question remains: Does it work? A check of dieting discussion boards and blogs offers a definite maybe. While the slight majority of posters said it didn't work, almost as many said it did. Marilyn Tomlin, of Clayton, has had mixed success. The first batch of hoodia that she purchased locally had no effect on her appetite, but another batch from a different manufacturer, ordered through the Internet, provided instant results. "I wasn't hungry at all," Tomlin says. "I ate half of what I would normally eat and no snacking. It felt like I had a big lump in my stomach." The bottle of 90 pills cost $47.90 with tax and shipping. Tomlin is taking just three pills a day although instructions call for taking up to nine, three before each meal. "I don't eat much during the day anyway," Tomlin says, "so I'm just taking them at night." Others haven't had success, even though they've tried different brands. A Concord woman, who asked not to be named, said she's spent more than $150 on hoodia pills and the only thing that's been suppressed is her belief in hoodia. One formula, she says, seemed to stir her appetite. McGuffin says that with herbal supplements as well as prescription drugs consumers shouldn't expect the pill to solve all the problems. They should be treated as aids, he says, not cures. "There is no silver bullet when it comes to weight loss," McGuffin says. "Drugs aren't silver bullets; over-the-counter substances are not silver bullets; herbs aren't silver bullets. You can't sit on the couch and eat potato chips and take a pill and lose weight. Diet and exercise are essential." McGuffin's reasoning seems to be reflected in the instructions packaged with the hoodia pills. Dieters are told that for the pills to work effectively, they must be combined with reduced calorie intake, reduction of carbohydrates and fats, lots of water consumption and exercise. One manufacturer recommends walking one to two miles a day, and drinking one ounce of water for every two pounds you weigh. In other words, eat a sensible diet and exercise. Wilson couldn't agree more. If people want to suppress their appetite, she says, they need to change their hunger patterns. That may mean eating smaller meals more frequently, eating breakfast every day and reducing the amount of food you eat. Frustrated dieters need to accept that slow and steady is the best way to go, she says. "What's the point in starving yourself or going on a fad diet?" Wilson asks. "People who do that lose weight quickly, but studies show that most gain back the weight in a year, and 100 percent gain it back in five years."