Garcinia Cambogia is one of the newest phrases and methods to catch on in the weight loss circles of the United States over the last few years. It proposes to be one of the fastest, if not the fastest, ways to lose weight and slim down your body.
It is marketed and sold as a completely natural weight loss solution. It claims that you will be able to burn off any excess fat without following a strict diet or routine physical fitness regimen. If true, this would be everyone’s dream. It would, in some circles, be considered the miracle weight-loss product we have all been hoping for. But what is it and how can it be that easy? Is it a myth or urban legend, a marketing marvel, or is this what most of our culture has been hoping for over the last several decades?
What is Garcinia Cambogia?
Garcinia Cambogia is the former scientific name of a tropical fruit that is also known as the brindle berry, or the Malabar Tamarind. This fruit, that is pale yellow to green in color, resembles a very small pumpkin.
Garcinia Cambogia is found growing in Indonesia, Southeast Asia, India, and also in Central and West Africa. They grow best in a moist forest bed common to these areas of the world.
How Does Garcinia Cambogia Work to Stimulate Weight Loss?
The active fat burning properties of this fruit are found stored in its rind. The Garcinia Cambogia is rich with hydroxycitric acid, or HCA. HCA assists in various ways to help rid the body of excess fat, including: An increase in appetite suppression; It helps to block citrate lyase, an enzyme used by the body to produce fat; It helps to promote a raised level of serotonin, a brain chemical that helps to improve your mood enabling you to more easily resist cravings; It also helps to stimulate your metabolism by converting your food into energy rather than fat.
HCA, when used as a dietary supplement, more effectively focuses on ridding your body of belly fat. Belly fat is frequently a symptom of many other lingering and perhaps chronic health issues, such as Type 2 Diabetes and High Cholesterol. One physician, Julie Chen, M.D., has even concluded that HCA could progressively assist in the transformation of fat into muscle.
A precaution when you are selecting a Garcinia Cambogia supplement to use. Pay close attention to the levels of HCA contained in the supplement. A lower level of HCA may not be as effective at kicking-in the fat burners. If that happens, rather than melting away the fat, you may just be sitting in it. We all want warp drive results; so pay attention to the ingredients and the levels of those ingredients for your best results.
Many physicians, scientists, researchers, and other so-called experts have varying opinions about Garcinia Cambogia and HCA. Therefore, as always, you should consult your physician for the proper usage and dosage for your specific physical needs and desired results.
Is Garcinia Cambogia Marketing Ploy or a Weight Loss Phenomenon?
The knowledge and popularity of Garcinia Cambogia exploded in late 2012 when Dr. Mehmet Oz used nearly an entire episode of his very popular syndicated daily television show, ‘The Dr. Oz Show’, to teaching and informing his audience on the subject.
As a professor at Columbia University, Dr. Oz rarely stakes his reputation on anything less than authentic. Therefore, any endorsement he may provide is usually well investigated, studied, and thought out. Dr. Oz’s endorsement alone does not qualify or quantify Garcinia Cambogia as the wonder weight loss miracle some believe, but it does go along way to authenticating its claims.
However, everyone is not convinced. There are not as many detractors or negative reviews of Garcinia Cambogia as there are positive; in fact the results are, generally speaking, two to one in favor of the positive effects over the negative remarks, but the naysayers do exist.
Just as we are all individuals with our different DNA compositions, the results and our opinions of those results may differ. One medicine does not necessarily work for all individuals. For example, the flu vaccines do not always prove effective on everyone. There is not enough laboratory space or time to adequately prepare individual vaccines for every individual. It obviously would be the most effective way, but certainly not the most efficient method of widespread protection.
Unless you try Garcinia Cambogia for yourself, you may never have the answer to the question, ‘Will it work for me?’ The apparent level of success in weight loss makes it worth the expense and the effort to try it out, if only for a brief amount of time.
Does Garcinia Cambogia Only Help With Weight Loss?
Studies have been conducted to determine if there are any benefits, beyond the weight loss advantages, of Garcinia Cambogia. The results have shown that not only is weight loss evident in the majority of users, but users with Type 2 Diabetes and/or High Cholesterol have exhibited improved health dynamics with their use of the supplement.
Garcinia Cambogia apparently helps your body to process the glucose that you take in through your diet, more easily. Thus reducing the body’s need for insulin monitoring, control, and/or replacement. However, you must use caution and you should certainly consult your physician. If you use too much supplement without the proper monitoring you could see a severe or even dangerous drop in your glucose levels.
In regards to the effects of Garcinia Cambogia on patients with High Cholesterol, the supplement seems to have a very positive outcome. It improves your cholesterol numbers by lowering the ‘bad cholesterol’ levels, or the levels of LDL and triglycerides, and raising the ‘good cholesterol’ numbers, or the HDL levels. However again, you should consult your physician to maintain a safe consumption practice, as Garcinia Cambogia and cholesterol medications should not be taken at the same time.
Are There Any Side Effects of Using Garcinia Cambogia?
As with most any supplement or medicine there can be side effects and Garcinia Cambogia is no different. However, there have been very few incidents recorded and generally limited to dry-mouth, headache, upset stomach and/or diarrhea, and dizziness.