The previous ten to fifteen years has witnessed an exploding market of non-prescription dieting and weight loss products. Make no mistake that diet supplement makers know all about the power of so called organic products. That is why you constantly see the use of plant based ingredients on the product labels because the marketing works well. There are actually many real and potential difficulties with this scenario. While many people tend to be more informed than ever, there are still millions who place a lot of faith when they read, natural. So folks simply read a product has natural ingredients and they use it. Not only will there be unsafe interactions with regular drugs, but the herbal products often have their own concerns. Still, yet another situation concerns the person who has a propensity to react negatively to a particular herb.

But there is a lot more to consider in this entire scenario with weight loss products. Probably most of the ingredients have not been fully studied by reputable and neutral research. What does frequently happen is a maker will pay a research laboratory to perform research on a certain substance. Of course there is a conflict of interest in this case for the research or testing service. So it is no surprise when the results are good and the promises are wonderful. There will be many ethical issues involved in that scenario as is plain to see. But also it will be the buyer who is put at possible risk due to this type of biased testing.

Out of all the herbal diet products in the past, hardly any have been seriously studied. One exception to this rule is ephedra whenever used with caffeine because they actually provide results for weight reduction. The trouble there is ephedra had very significant negative effects for some people, and that caused it to be not allowed in the US. Well, incredibly enough something completely new made an appearance on shelves, hoodia. This solution, which is a plant derivative coming from South Africa, has been examined somewhat. However there are important potential problems for people with particular medical conditions. Hoodia acts to prevent a person from feeling hunger, but that also applies to thirst as well. If you are curious to explore hoodia, then you need to learn much more about it.

We will share a terrible example of what can go awry with herbal substances. A fat loss herbal product was sold in Belgium which ended in kidney failure for close to a hundred people. Fifty more people experienced varying degrees of kidney impairment. Also, there was proof of lesions that were cancerous in a percentage of the kidneys that were removed from those people. The natural compound used was Aristolochia fangchi, but the scary part was that it was accidentally used in place of a totally different herbal ingredient.

History is full of stories about positive uses for herbal remedies to treat many illnesses. The point is any person who chooses to take them needs to become educated before using any plant based product. The sensible and safe way is to conduct overwhelming study if you would like try any sort of herbal product for losing weight.