Can Herbs Aid Weight Loss? Live Leaner and Longer
(Page 7 of 9)
January/February 2007
By Linda B. White, M.D.
The safety of bitter orange is not clear-cut. The herb’s active ingredients, synephrine and octopamine, are not well absorbed from the digestive tract and are weaker than ephedrine. Studies have used synephrine alkaloids in daily doses as low as 5 mg (in combination with caffeine and ephedrine) and up to 120 mg (used alone). Christine Haller, M.D., an assistant professor in the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, notes, “It is unusual to find a commercial product that only contains bitter orange.” Usually the herb is mixed with caffeine, a combination her research demonstrates can raise blood pressure.
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In one study, published in 2005 in The American Journal of Medicine, Haller and colleagues compared the effects of two bitter orange-containing supplements: Advantra Z, which contains only bitter orange, and Xenadrine EFX, which contains many ingredients, including bitter orange, green tea extract, yerba maté and cocoa extract. While bitter orange did not raise blood pressure in healthy volunteers, the product combining a relatively low dose of bitter orange with caffeine-containing herbs did.
What does this mean? Haller responds, “We can only say that, to date, there appear to be far fewer adverse health effects from bitter orange than with ephedra-containing products. Large-scale controlled studies are needed to determine safety.” In the meantime, Haller advises people with high blood pressure, heart disease and glaucoma to talk to their doctors before taking these weight-loss supplements.
Important note: Even if you think you’re healthy, discontinue a weight-loss product if you notice insomnia, jitteriness, racing heart rate or palpitations. And please don’t combine such products with decongestant-containing cold preparations or stimulants to treat attention deficit disorder. If you’re pregnant or nursing, avoid all strong herbs and drugs.
Fat-Burning Herbs
In addition to being thermogenic, green tea stimulates fat breakdown. Tea contains caffeine and flavonoids called catechins, which act synergistically. To illustrate this interaction, researchers gave 10 healthy men either green tea extract (50 mg caffeine and 90 mg epigallocatechin gallate), caffeine alone (50 mg) or a placebo pill. Only the green tea extract significantly increased 24-hour energy expenditure (a measurement of calories burned)—without raising heart rate.
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