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Although not much has been mentioned about this Kalahari Desert cactus in the mainstream media to date, the day Pfizer launches what it now perceives to be the obesity solution of all time (in about 2007, but possibly as early as 2004), it expects an unprecedented rise in stock value. Phentramine, diet pills, lose weight fast An Internet search for "Hoodia", "Xhoba" (the name given the cactus by the San Bushmen) and "P57" (so named because it was the 57th compound that Phytopharm spent money to develop) turns up some very interesting information. Phentramine, diet pills, lose weight fast. Hoodia cacti are native to the semi-deserts of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Angola. There are about 20 species in this family but the gordonii is the one that contains a natural appetite suppressant. The Hoodia cactus is quite common and varieties can be purchased for your garden, although growing gordoniis for your own use is not the answer since they are slow growing, bitter tasting and produce odiferous flowers that attract flies which pollinate them. Phentramine, diet pills, lose weight fast The reason it has taken so long to bring this natural compound to the marketplace has to do with modern research methodology since the effects were first observed in 1937 by a Dutch anthropologist studying the San Bushman of the Kalahari Desert. He noticed that they munched on the stem of a certain variety of Hoodia plant as an appetite suppressant and thirst quencher before and during nomadic hunts through the sandswept and sparsely vegetated area. Phentramine, diet pills, lose weight fast Interestingly, the San, who can trace their heritage back 27,000 years based on rock paintings, are one of the world's oldest and most primitive tribes. They have known about the properties of Xhoba for thousands of years. Phentramine, diet pills, lose weight fast Besides alleviating hunger and thirst, Xhoba also provides a state of alertness but without the jittery feeling produced by the current Western diet remedy of ephedra stacked with caffeine. Thus it is an ideal choice for days' long hunts where prey is tracked over hundreds of miles. Hoodia sat on the back shelf in a lab for almost another thirty years when South African scientists at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) began studying it. Lab animals fed the flesh of the cactus lost weight, but otherwise suffered no ill effects. Phentramine, diet pills, lose weight fast It was during these tests that CSIR researchers discovered the plant contained a previously unknown molecule, which has since been christened P57. CSIR, which patented the compound in 1997, sold the license to a Cambridgeshire, England bio-pharmaceutical company by the name of Phytopharm plc, which in 1998, subleased it and the marketing rights to U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Corporation for US$32 Million plus royalties from future sales. Phentramine, diet pills, lose weight fast CSIR has been accused of selling something that didn't belong to it in the first place although it claims to have the best interests of the San at heart. The San and their attorneys have a different opinion, however. As for the Bushmen, the unhappy current situation finds many of them smoking large quantities of marijuana, suffering from alcoholism, and having neither possessions nor any sense of the value of money. The San in Botswana and Namibia are often regarded as a nuisance by authorities and herded into towns where they have few skills with which to earn a living. They were also persecuted by the apartheid regime in South Africa. The current Mandela government has granted them ownership of more than 40,000 hectares, (roughly 400 square kilometers or 155 square miles) although quality of the land is marginal. Phentramine, diet pills, lose weight fast Dr. Richard Dixey, a Buddhist convert and current Chief Executive Officer of Phytopharm, claims he wishes to see the San given their fair share of what could possibly produce profits in the US$3 Billion range. However, he initially claimed the San who discovered Xhoba had died out! Phentramine, diet pills, lose weight fast Eventually that same San clan, now 100,000 members strong and very much alive, found out about the patent and became as thorny in the sides of the usurpers as the cactus itself. In June of 2003, Business Day reported that "The San people and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) have finally come to a royalty agreement for a potentially lucrative new obesity drug." Phentramine, diet pills, lose weight fast Health News states that, "Details of the agreement have not yet been released. However a CSIR spokesperson told Business Day that profits would be shared equally between all San." Phentramine, diet pills, lose weight fast. If their gods are with them (they regard the one that doesn't provide enough food as a "trickster") the San living along the edge of the Kalahari will become overnight millionaires on royalties negotiated by their South African lawyer, Roger Chennells. Even so, it appears they will need all the help they can get to secure their money, agreement or no agreement. According to Dixey, the hypothalamus is the organ affected by the P57 molecule because it's the location of the "nerve cells that sense glucose sugar. . . .When you eat, blood sugar goes up because of the food, [and] these cells start firing [so you feel full]. What the Hoodia seems to contain is a molecule that is about 10,000 times as active as glucose. It goes to the [hypothalamus] and actually makes those nerve cells fire as if you were full. But you have not eaten. Nor do you want to." Phentramine, diet pills, lose weight fast Phytopharm performed the first animal trials, choosing rats because they are "creatures who will eat literally anything." When fed the cactus, they stopped eating completely. When the first human clinical trial was conducted, a morbidly obese group of volunteers were placed in a Phase 1 Unit. In this controlled environment, where subjects were literally incarcerated, all they did was read, watch television, and eat. Half were given Hoodia and the other half, a placebo. Fifteen days later the Hoodia group had reduced their caloric intake by 1000 a day and suffered no ill effects. Phentramine, diet pills, lose weight fast.
Of course that is just one study, but if P57 works in Phase II Clinical trials, now underway at Pfizer, it may be the answer to a great many problems although it could also cause as many as it cures. It's one thing to REDUCE someone's appetite but eliminating it altogether is dangerous. There is the distinct possibility that people with eating disorders will somehow con their physicians out of it or possibly it will become available on the black market. Phentramine, diet pills, lose weight fast. On the other hand, there is no doubt it would be preferable to current thermogenics and diuretics for athletes who need to make weight but who understand nutrition well enough to return to their normal, and usually healthy, eating habits once their competition or event is over. The one thing it will not do is correct the choice of foods. All those fat folks who eat fast food will still eat it. Granted, they will eat much less of it, but unless they are also given vitamins and anti-oxidants and counseled in good nutritional practices, they could very well continue to compromise their health. Thus P57 is not a compound to be taken lightly and the reason why even those who can abide the stench of the Hoodia cactus flowers should not indiscriminately partake of the cactus. |
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