say no to HCG

"It's reckless, irresponsible, and completely irrational," Pieter Cohen, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, told U.S. News and World Report about the HCG diet. "Can you lose weight on it? Of course, but that's mainly because you're hardly consuming any calories. And any benefit is not going to last."

Here's a controlled double blind study:

S Afr Med J. 1990 Feb 17;77(4):185-9.
Human chorionic gonadotrophin and weight loss. A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Bosch B, Venter I, Stewart RI, Bertram SR.

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.

Here's another:

[Influence of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in combination with a 500 calorie diet on clinical and laboratory parameters in premenopausal women with and without hormonal contraception]

[Article in German]

Rabe T, Richter S, Kiesel L, Zaloumis M, Runnebaum B.
Abstract

PIP: 82 premenopausal, healthy, nonpregnant volunteers were treated with a 500 kcal reduction diet for 28 days. They were randomized into 2 groups--OC and non-OC users. In addition, 1 of the subgroups in each main group was treated with hCG injections (250 IU/day im for 21 days. The non-OC users (both with and without hCG injections) consisted of 24 subjects each. In the groups of OC users, 13 patients were treated with hCG, 16 were not treated; 5 volunteers discontinued their diet. All groups experienced strong sensations of hunger during the 1st week of the diet (9-16%) which decreased slowly thereafter. No differences between the individual groups could be found. Diet adjustment improved more greatly in those groups who had not received hCG (15-20%) than in the groups with hCG (2-12%). No change was found during the dieting among the subgroups. Serum electrolytes, urea, uric acid, creatinine, and liver enzymes did not change during the dieting. Slight changes were observed in serum cholesterol and triglycerides. Side effects were seen in 2 volunteers from the hCG group, 1 of whom suffered from severe headache and the other who suffered from ovarian cysts which were punctured by laparoscopy. The success of the diet was based on motivation and good information, rather than on the hCG administration.

And another:

[Risk-benefit analysis of a hCG-500 kcal reducing diet (cura romana) in females]

[Article in German]

Rabe T, Richter S, Kiesel L, Runnebaum B.
Abstract

The British physician A.T.W. Simeons described in 1954 a new method for dieting. He combined a reduction diet (500 kcal per day) with daily injections of the pregnancy hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) (125 IU i.m.). According to Simeons the patient should not lose more weight during a 4-to-6 weeks' diet than without hCG, but the injections should facilitate to maintain the diet and to lose body weight at specific parts of the body (e.g. hip, belly, thigh). After the first publication various studies conducted with male and female patients analysed the efficacy of the "Cura romana". 10 of these studies showed positive and another 10 studies negative results with regard to hCG-related weight reduction. Two of these studies with positive results were double-blind studies (hCG vs. placebo). Most of them were reports on therapeutical experiences and were not controlled studies. According to these reports the body proportions normalized and the feeling of hunger was tolerable. Four out of 10 studies with negative results were controlled studies (hCG vs. control without hCG), whereas 6 were double-blind studies. These studies showed a significant weight reduction during dieting, but no differences between treatment groups in respect of body weight, body proportions and feeling of hunger. One of them is the only German study conducted by Rabe et al. in 1981 in which 82 randomised premenopausal volunteers had been dieting either with hCG or without hCG injections. In recent publications describing mostly well-documented double-blind studies authors largely reject hCG administration in dieting. Supporters of the hCG diet must prove the efficacy of this method in controlled studies according to the German Drug Law. Until then the opinion of the German steroid toxicology panel is still valid, that hCG is ineffective in dieting and should not be used (Bolt 1982 a, 1982).

And yet another double blind, controlled study:

Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) in the Treatment of Obesity
A Critical Assessment of the Simeons Method
Frank L. Greenway, MD and George A. Bray, MD
Clinical Research Center, and the Department of Medicine, Harbor General Hospital, Torrance
University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine.
Small right arrow pointing to: This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.
Abstract
Injections of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) have been claimed to aid in weight reduction by reducing hunger, and affecting mood as well as aiding in localized (spot) reduction. We have tested these claims in a double-blind randomized trial using injections of HCG or placebo. Weight loss was identical between the two groups, and there was no evidence for differential effects on hunger, mood or localized body measurements. Placebo injections, therefore, appear to be as effective as HCG in the treatment of obesity.

There is also a very early, highly critical article in JAMA on the subject published in 1977.

And, finally there is this metastudy of 24 published studies was compiled in Lijesen et al. The effect of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) in the treatment of obesity, British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology (1995). Their conclusion follows.



"We conclude that there is noscientific evidence that HCG causesweight loss, a redistribution of fat, staves off hunger or induces a feeling of well being. Therefore, the use of HCG should be regarded as an inappropriate therapy for weight reduction, particularly because HCG is obtained from the urine of pregnant women who donate their urine idealistically in the belief that it will be used to treat an entirely different condition, namely infertility."

Heres some Google search results.

http://www.dietscam.org/reports/hcg.shtml
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hcg-diet/AN02091

Do not accuse me of not doing my research, when CLEARLY you haven't done yours. You are looking for a justification to a "Get thin quick" SCAM that is costing you around $500/treatment, when it is a starvation diet.

Don't try to call it anything else.