HCG & weight loss - again!!

I just got a call yesterday from some supplier trying to sell me HCG drops to prescribe to gullible unsuspecting patients. When I told her I did not believe HCG caused any weight loss, she chided me & told me that lots of other doctors are prescribing it. Well, I'm not part of that group & here's a bit of free advice for everyone out there desperate to lose weight - it's not the homeopathic dose of HCG that makes you lose weight, it's the 500cal/day diet that you have to stick to as part of the "HCG programme" that makes you lose weight. In spite of what I tell some of my clients about this con job, they still fork out thousands to other people for this "programme" & don't give any credit to their fitness trainers!! God forbid, do doctors with genuine tertiary qualifications actually buy these placebo (probably water) drops from these "entrepreneurs"?! In case anyone thinks I'm a lone ranger with this opinion,here's some evidence to back up what I'm saying. Happy reading! Human chorionic gonadotrophin and weight loss. A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Bosch B, Venter I, Stewart RI, Bertram SR. Source Department of Medical Physiology and Biochemistry, University of Stellenbosch, Parowvallei, CP. Abstract Low-dose human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) combined with a severe diet remains a popular treatment for obesity, despite equivocal evidence of its effectiveness. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, the effects of HCG on weight loss were compared with placebo injections. Forty obese women (body mass index greater than 30 kg/m2) were placed on the same diet supplying 5,000 kJ per day and received daily intramuscular injections of saline or HCG, 6 days a week for 6 weeks. A psychological profile, hunger level, body circumferences, a fasting blood sample and food records were obtained at the start and end of the study, while body weight was measured weekly. Subjects receiving HCG injections showed no advantages over those on placebo in respect of any of the variables recorded. Furthermore, weight loss on our diet was similar to that on severely restricted intake. We conclude that there is no rationale for the use of HCG injections in the treatment of obesity.

Celebrity Bad Science: Dried Placenta Pills and Oxygen Shots

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) Dec 28 - Pop guru Simon Cowell carries pocket-sized inhalable oxygen shots, America's "Mad Men" actress January Jones favors dried placenta pills, and British soap star Patsy Palmer rubs coffee granules into her skin. Celebrities rarely shy away from public peddling of dubious ideas about health and science, and 2012 was no exception. In its annual list of the year's worst abuses against science, the Sense About Science (SAS) campaign also named former U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney for spreading misinformation about windows on planes, and Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps for false justifications for peeing in the pool. To help set the record straight, SAS, a charity dedicated to helping people make sense of science and evidence, invited qualified scientists to respond to some of the wilder pseudo-scientific claims put about by the rich and famous. It suggested Romney, who wondered aloud in September why aircraft crews don't just open the windows when there's a fire on board, should listen to aeronautical engineer Jakob Whitfield: "Unfortunately, Mitt, opening a window at height wouldn't do much good," the scientist said. "In fact, if you could open a window whilst in flight, the air would rush out...because air moves from the high pressure cabin to the lower pressure outside, probably causing further injury and damage." January Jones's dried placenta pills, which the actress admitted in March she consumed after giving birth, win no favor with Catherine Collins, principal dietician at St George's Hospital in London. "Nutritionally, there's nothing to be gained from eating your placenta - raw, cooked, or dried," Collins said. "Apart from iron, which can be easily found in other dietary choices or supplements, your placenta will provide toxins and other unsavory substances it had successfully prevented from reaching your baby in utero." Gary Moss, a pharmaceutical scientist, patiently points out to Palmer that while caffeine may have an effect on cellulite, rubbing coffee granules into the skin is unlikely to work, since the caffeine can't escape the granules to penetrate the skin. Phelps's claim that it's fine to pee in the pool because "chlorine kills it" is put straight by biochemist Stuart Jones, who reminds him that "urine is essentially sterile so there isn't actually anything to kill in the first place." And for Cowell, Kay Mitchell, a scientist at the Center for Altitude Space and Extreme Environment Medicine, warns that very high levels of oxygen can in fact be toxic - particularly in the lungs, where oxygen levels are highest. "Celebrity comments travel far and fast, so it's important that they talk sense," said Sense About Science's managing director Tracey Brown. "The implausible and frankly dangerous claims about how to avoid cancer, improve skin or lose weight are becoming ever more ridiculous. And unfortunately they have a much higher profile than the research and evidence." To encourage more vigilance among celebrity pseudo-scientists in the future, SAS provided a checklist of "misleading science claims" it suggests should be avoided: * "Immune boosting" - you can't and you don't need to * "Detox" - your liver does this * "Superfood" - there is no such thing, just foods that are high in some nutrients * "Oxygenating" - your lungs do this * "Cleansing" - you shouldn't be trying to cleanse anything other than your skin or hair.