| Top Nutraceutical Weight Management Approaches |
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The problem with overweight and obesity is no secret in today’s world of instant news and endless online reference materials. Diet and weight management-loss products have long been popular with consumers, and manufacturers are untiring in their efforts to stay in front of the market with innovative, cutting-edge products based on the latest ingredient research.
The research on natural weight management ingredients continues to be a hot area. However, unlike in decades past, the focus isn’t just on simple weight-loss but on controlling appetite, boosting satiety, burning fat, blocking fat and carbs, and swapping fat mass for lean muscle mass.
Satiety, the feeling of fullness after a satisfying meal, is regulated by several hormones including leptin. Produced in adipose tissue, leptin helps control appetite and energy intake by targeting receptors in the hypothalamus region o f the brain. In short, it tells the brain when the stomach is full, resulting in feelings of satiety.
Niacin-bound chromium formulated with Gymnema sylvestre and Garcinia cambogia, which contains hydroxycitric acid (HCA), appears to target leptin. In a Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, study, obese adults received either 2,800 mg/d of HCA (as Super CitriMax®, from InterHealth); 4,667 mg of combined HCA, niacin-bound chromium (as ChromeMate®, also from InterHealth) and G. sylvestre extract; or placebo.1 The researchers reported HCA reduced body weight and BMI, and suppressed appetite and increased serum leptin; the combination supplement had an even greater effect, compared to placebo. Another trial involving chromium found overweight or obese subjects taking 600 mcg/d of chromium picolinate (as Chromax®, from Nutrition 21) for eight weeks experienced reduced appetite, food intake and carb craving, compared to placebo.2 Similar results were published by Louisiana State University scientists who found various doses of chromium picolinate (0, 1, 10 or 50 mcg/kg/d ) in rats may have a direct impact on brain factors in satiety and appetite.3
Additional results on leptin-related peptides were published in 2011. Researchers from InterHealth Nutraceuticals, Laila Nutraceuticals and University of Houston College of Pharmacy investigated a synergistic formulation (Merastin™, from InterHealth and Laila) of the extracts of Sphaeranthus indicus and Garcinia mangostana on several weight management factors in human subjects.4 The randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled study involved 60 subjects (six males and six females aged 22 to 50 years) with a BMI of 30 to 40 receiving either 400 mg of Merastin or placebo capsules twice daily for eight weeks. All participants followed a calorie-controlled diet (2,000 Kcal/d) and a 30-minute walking regimen (five days a week) for the same eight weeks. Researchers reported significant net reductions in body weight, BMI, and waist and hip circumferences in the Merastin-supplemented group versus placebo. Those taking Merastin also had reduced blood cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose and LDL/HDL ratio and an increase in fat metabolites. Further, the intervention modulated serum adipokines such as adiponectin and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) levels, more significantly than did placebo. Adiponectin is complementary and similar to leptin in the way it interacts with the brain in weight reduction. PAI-1 is increased in obesity and metabolic syndrome.
