Herbal Products for Weight Loss

The safest herbal weight loss program application is getting as close as possible to the herbal substance that in naturally occurring form exhibits weight loss properties. Formulated, and more highly hyped (or marketed), products may work more rapidly but at the cost of increased risk. Even herbal substances may have adverse effects on existing conditions, so checking with a physician in advance is prudent. Use may still be approved, if dosages offered are low enough (and they sometimes are) not to inflame the existing condition.

Function

• According to claims made about many formulated, and aggressively marketed, products, they generally promote weight loss in one or more of about four or five ways. Most commonly:

  ? Colon cleansing effects
  ? Reduction of appetite and cravings
  ? Balancing/controlling blood sugar levels
  ? Promoting fat burning levels
  ? Simulating/increasing metabolic rates

  It is unclear whether the last two are somewhat different ways of saying the same thing.

  An important consideration: these claims are simply that, unproven claims.

Other Important Considerations

• In considering formulated products, one should keep some important things in mind.

  First, such products are generally unregulated and may not do what they say.

  Second, in dealing with things like alterations in metabolic rate, one is always taking a risk. For individuals with already implicated metabolism (through diabetes or a thyroid condition, for example) one places oneself at serious risk to make medically unsupervised changes to metabolic rates.

  Third, the products may not be what they claim, including the possibility of not being as entirely natural as they say.

FDA Findings

• Although normally the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not regulate natural supplements, it will do so if there is suspicion or proof that there are other than natural ingredients in the contents, or if actual illness or death has been linked to a particular product’s use.

  In at least 25 instances, the FDA determined of formulated weight loss products that they contained undeclared ingredients ranging from pharmaceutical ingredients to at least one incidence of an illegal, controlled substance.

  In another incident, the FDA removed an entire category of formulated such products from the market when they were implicated in several deaths, including some of healthy individuals with no previous diagnoses of metabolic conditions (Metabolife and its copycats).

Natural Substances with Weigh Loss Properties

• Some natural substances that exhibit weight loss properties include:

  ? Aloe vera (the juice): used for colon-cleansing effects
  ? Licorice/licorice root (Glycyrrhiza glabra): used for reduction of appetite and cravings (Added plus: has a detoxification effect. Caution: blood pressure increase can occur.)
  ? Garcina cambogia: used for balancing/controlling blood sugar levels
  ? Triphala: used in taking fats away from the body

Conclusion

• The best recommendation is that before engaging in such a weight loss program, you should review your plans with your physician.