Hoodia is a natural treatment for weight loss. Each year, people spend more than $40 billion on products designed to help them slim down. None of them seem to be working very well. And now there is something new on the horizon. If you haven't heard of this herbal treatment yet, there's no doubt you will very soon.

Although the West is just discovering this natural treatment, the Bushmen of the Kalahari have been exposed to it for a very long time. Hoodia, a bitter-tasting cactus-like plant, which grows only in the Kalahari Desert, has been used by the people of South Africa for generations as a natural appetite suppressant and thirst quencher. The plant itself is a succulent and is also used for abdominal cramps.

Even though Hoodia supplements were introduced to the U.S. market in early 2004 the first scientific investigation of the plant was conducted at South Africa's national laboratory in the mid 1960s. It took them 30 years to isolate and identify the specific appetite-suppressing ingredient. The powerful extract from this African cactus have been tested and shown in clinical trials that subjects given Hoodia ended up eating about 1,000 calories a day less than those in the control group. An average American man consumes about 2,600 calories a day; a woman about 1,900.

Pharmaceutical companies find it so promising that they are trying to isolate the appetite-suppressing molecule, P57, to create a patented diet drug in the future.

So how does it work? It tricks the brain into thinking you've eaten, and makes you feel full. It is not a drug or stimulant, it is entirely natural. It has no known side effects and appears to be safe for most people. Dried extracts of the stems and roots are used to make capsules, powders, and chewable tablets. It can also be used in liquid extracts and teas.

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