I am reposting this from a website called Dr. Bill of Health. I cannot endorse the whole website because I haven’t seen it all, but this article is spot on.
Please remember that those who make money off of a product like this should NOT be the ones doing the research. The female doctor on the show today, promoting HCG was also the one in charge of her “research.” People! Beware!
One of the only no-strings-attached independent reviews of the HCG diet on the internet:
Introduction
What’s all this talk about the HCG Diet these days? Does it work? Is it safe? I’ll get right down to it and I’m not going to exercise any diplomacy in my choice of words: I’m calling the HCG diet yet another gimmicky, too-good-to-be-true, quick-fix diet which will probably only leave you lighter in the wallet and less healthy in the long run. The preponderance of scientific evidence shows that it has no effect on fat loss beyond that which can be accomplished by just reducing calorie intake.
What is HCG?
HCG stands for Human Chorionic Gonadotropin and is produced during pregnancy. Early reports from British physician Dr. Albert T. Simeons in the 1950s suggested that HCG injections could enhance fat loss and spare valuable lean tissue (muscle). Recent marketing literature for the product claim that sublingual (under the tongue) HCG drops can enhance fat loss. As of this writing, there are HCG websites operating in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and most other industrialized nations with obesity issues.
Human Chorionic Gonadotropin Research
In the early to mid 1970s, more HCG studies surfaced in the peer-reviewed biomedical literature. A 1973 study by Asher and Harper showed positive results but was later slammed for poor methodology, with subsequent studies consistently debunking its use as ineffective for weight loss.
In 1983, a report published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal reviewed all evidence up to that point and concluded that:
“HCG has no known effect on fat mobilization, appetite, or sense of hunger, or body fat distribution. HCG has not been demonstrated to be effective adjunctive therapy for obesity. There is no substantial evidence that it increases weight loss beyond that resulting from caloric restriction, that it causes a more attractive or “normal” distribution of fat, or that it decreases the hunger and discomfort associated with calorie-restricted diets… [adverse effects main include] headache, irritability, restlessness, depression, fatigue, edema, precocious puberty, gynecomastia, pain at injection site.”
A 1995 meta-analysis (a combined statistical analysis) published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology reexamined all the available scientific evidence and came to the conclusion:
“Methodological scores ranged from 16 to 73 points (maximum score 100), suggesting that most studies were of poor methodological quality. Of the 12 studies scoring 50 or more points, one reported that HCG was a useful adjunct. The studies scoring 50 or more points were all controlled. 5. We conclude that there is no scientific evidence that HCG is effective in the treatment of obesity; it does not bring about weight-loss of fat-redistribution, nor does it reduce hunger or induce a feeling of well-being.”