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Originally Posted by supernurse_mommie
the bad mainly says "this dont work" not that its harmful
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http://www.ahealthyme.com/topic/dietscams
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Human chorionic gonadotropin was legitimately used at the time to treat a condition called Fröhlich's syndrome, a hormonal imbalance that affects young boys, disturbing their sexual development, appetite, and sleep, and causing them to accumulate fat on the hips, buttocks, and thighs. Simeons reasoned that if the drug worked to melt away the fat on those boys with a rare genetic disorder, then it ought to do the same thing on normal, healthy women. The hormone, he wrote, would cause a "normal distribution" of fat on the body and would correct a "basic disorder in the brain." His diet book -- Pounds and Inches: A New Approach to Obesity -- included other gems of pseudo-medical advice, warning readers to eat no breakfast whatsoever, except for coffee, and to abstain from using any cosmetics or lotion on the body because it will be absorbed and added to the existing fat deposits in the body.
Simeon's treatment became all the rage; for a time, it was the most widespread medication given in the United States to lose weight, and was the main treatment used in eighty Weight Reduction Medical Clinics in California. Unfortunately, it didn't work: None of the mainly female patients seeking treatment, it turned out, were suffering from Fröhlich's syndrome. The medical establishment only started to become suspicious of the drug when reports surfaced that part-time doctors were being offered as much as $100,000 a year by weight-loss clinics to spend one afternoon a week sitting and writing pads of prescriptions for the drug.
By Laura Fraser
First published September 30, 2002
Last updated June 29, 2006
Copyright © 2002 Consumer Health Interactive
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Yes, HCG treatment is harmful: it's harmful to people who give it hope and then have that hope dashed, losing their money, time, and perhaps a bit of their belief that true weight loss is acheivable. Buying it because "at least it doesn't harm me" only encourages medical charletains who will just as happily prey on those who don't have the money to spend as those who can spend it easily. I've looked into this before, when the question came up in another forum, and all of the contolled lab studies I could find found no benefit to HCG in controlling weight versus a placebo, and those anecdotal success stories I read always included a "nutritional plan" which was needed to help the hormone work more effectively (and which just "happened" to be reduced calorie) and some sort of exercise along with the shots.
There are plenty of better places to spend your money to help with weight loss: a gym membership, top quality running or walking shoes, fresh fruits and vegetables, etc. This just isn't one of them.
HCG injections/phentermine
