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Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "
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17.06.2010 |
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Lose 13 kg in 10 weeks with Irvingia gabonensis
Slimming supplements containing extracts of the seeds of the African bush mango, Irvingia gabonensis are hot in webshops right now. Try asking Google. The websites promise unprecedented weight loss: 12-13 kg in 10 weeks. And they cite studies to prove it.
Almost all of these studies come from one source – Julius Oben of the University of Yaounde in Cameroon, Africa. A recent study was published in spring 2009 in Lipids in Health and Disease. In this Oben and his colleagues gave 102 fat test subjects extract of Irvingia gabonensis or a placebo for a period of 10 weeks. The extract goes by the name of IGOB131, and is produced by the American manufacturer Gateway Health Alliances.
The subjects took one capsule containing 150 mg extract twice a day, one just before breakfast and one just before lunch.
The subjects in the supplements group lost 12.8 kg. Their body fat declined by 6.3 percent, and their waist circumference by 16.2 cm.
These are results which, according to review studies, are impossible to achieve even with pharmaceutical ? and largely forbidden ? slimming aids. Not if you don’t follow a diet as well, and certainly not if you don’t include training. Nevertheless, these researchers write: "No major dietary intervention or formal physical activity program was instituted during the course of the study".
The figure below shows some of the effects of taking Irvingia gabonensis supplements. What jumps out at us is the effect on the levels of leptin and the inflammatory protein CRP.
Even more noticeable is the effect on adiponectin, a protein hormone that is secreted by fat cells. Most of the signal substances that enter the bloodstream from fat tissue are unhealthy, but adiponectin is an exception. One of its functions is to ensure that muscles absorb more energy from the blood.
So it looks like good stuff, this Irvingia gabonensis. Though somehow the results reported by the Africans just seem too good to be true. You'd be inclined to think that the researchers work for the producer, Gateway Health Alliances. And surprise, surprise: "Part of the funds for carrying out this study was provided by Gateway Health Alliances", is printed at the end of the article.
What the article doesn’t state is that the head of research, Julius Oben, is on the payroll of Gateway Health Alliances as Chief Scientific Officer, and that the same Oben has a healthy number of patents to his name, if Google is to be believed. Three of these refer explicitly to Irvingia gabonensis.
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