"Given that hCG has no demonstrated weight loss effects and has potential safety concerns, it is incumbent upon the scientific and clinical community in the obesity field to educate their patients about the lack of efficacy and potential risks of off-label hCG use and to speak out strongly against its use," writes Jennifer Lovejoy, PhD in a recent letter to the editor published in the International Journal of Obesity. Read the entire article | Email this article

"A federal judge has banned Kevin Trudeau from infomercials in which he has an interest for three years and ordered him to pay more than $5 million in profits from his book, The Weight Loss Cure 'They' Don't Want You to Know About, according to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. (FTC).

The book was about using HCG injections to lose weight. Read the entire article | Email this article

I just got off the phone with my good friend, 75-year-old Eddie Ford, MD, and asked him about his experience with giving patients HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) 20 and 30 years ago. He's very open-minded and the smartest person I've ever met.

I asked him if he ever used it for weight loss. He said, "No." Read the entire article | Email this article

Overweight and obese women given intramuscular injections of human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) six days a week for six weeks combined with a diet of 500 calories per day did not lose any more weight than those given injections of saline (salt water) according to a 1976 study done by doctors at the Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Denver, Colorado, USA.

"Is HCG an effective adjunct to a rigidly imposed dietary regimen for weight reduction?" the authors of the study asked>

On the basis of our results, the answer is negative."

"Our study, performed in a manner similar to current Simeons-type programs, casts serious doubt of any inherent efficacy that HCG may have as an adjunct to a weight reduction program." Read the entire article | Email this article

Obese women given intramuscular injections of human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) six days a week for six weeks combined with a diet of 1200 calories per day did not lose any more weight than those given injections of saline (salt water) according to a 1990 study from South Africa. Read the entire article | Email this article

I emailed obesity researcher Frank Greenway, MD and asked him about the study he and George Bray, MD had done with HCG back in 1977 and if he had any comments about HCG. Here is his response. Read the entire article | Email this article

Kevin Trudeau's book The Weight Loss Cure They Don't Want You to Know About which is being sold on television via informercial is based on a very low calorie diet plus injections of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) that was advocated by a Dr. Simeons back in 1954. Obesity researchers Frank Greenway, MD and George Bray, MD did a study in 1977 to see if HCG enhanced weight loss. They found it did not. Read the entire article | Email this article

"HCG is ineffective in dieting and should not be used [in the treatment of obesity]," according to review paper from Germany (Rabe et al, 1987). This agrees with the review by Greenway and Bray (1977) that I reviewed a couple of weeks ago. Read the entire article | Email this article

Two weeks ago I wrote that HCG, human chorionic gonadotropin, does not cause weight loss. I received the following response to my article from Dr. Daniel Belluscio from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Read the entire article | Email this article

No, according to an interview I did with George Bray, M.D. several years ago. Read the entire article | Email this article