The past ten to fifteen years has witnessed an explosion of non-prescription dieting and weight loss products. Make no mistake that diet supplement makers know exactly about the power of so called natural products. That is why you constantly see the use of natural components on the product labels because the marketing is effective. There happen to be many genuine and potential difficulties with this scenario. Initially, lots of people see the words, natural or herbal, and so they assume the product is safe. People do not question the essential safety of these items, and maybe they are unaware of real dangers to health and life. Almost any natural, or herbal, compound can have adverse reactions when used, and there are other issues linked to standard medicines. Still, an additional situation concerns the individual who has a predisposition to react adversely to a certain herb.

Then we next reach a subject which has been debated and causes great concern among medical researchers. Perhaps most of the materials have never been fully studied by respected and impartial research. What does frequently happen is a company will pay a research laboratory to do research on a specific substance. As is clear to see, that presents certain issues including unbiased research. The result is perhaps always a favorable outcome for the natural substance that is tested. There are usually many ethical issues associated with that situation as is plain to see. The clear probable loser in these products will be the people who buy and take them.

There are many herbal dieting products to choose from, but few of these ingredients have been examined or proven to perform in some degree. Ephedra does actually work when coupled with caffeine. The US Food and Drug Administration ultimately banned ephedra because people became critically ill and some passed away from using it. Most recently a new replacement emerged, Hoodia was launched on the market amidst significant amounts of marketing and hype. Fortunately, some reliable investigation has been done on hoodia, but definitely not enough. However you will discover important potential complications for people with particular health conditions. Hoodia has a tendency to block several natural feedback systems involving hunger and thirst. If you are interested to examine hoodia, then you need to learn a lot more about it.

Here is a great example of what can arise with unproven, untested herbal weight loss ingredients. A fat loss herbal product was sold in Belgium which led to kidney failure for approximately one hundred people. About fifty or so more men and women encountered damage to their kidneys. Also, both malignant or precancerous signs were found in thirty seven people who had a kidney taken out. After study, it was learned that the manufacturer made a mistake during the process and used the incorrect active organic substance.

We do believe there are reliable and effective uses for plant based ingredients. However, certainly any person should exercise extreme caution. The smart and safe way is to conduct overwhelming study should you wish to try any sort of herbal product for losing weight.