If You are Doing the hCG Diet, Others on the Diet Might Be Your Worst Enemy

Monday, April 15, 2013

Okay, yes, while doing the Omnitrition version of the hCG diet, the side effects seemed to come on suddenly and they were scary. At one point, my heart would race out of control every time I laid down. I thought I was having a heart attack at one point. It woke me up and it felt like my heart was squeezing and beating out of my chest.

But, side effects aside, you know what I found even scarier? Others on the diet. I don't know about the other brands out there. I can only speak about my experience with the Omnitrition brand but I'm assuming what I'm about to share is fairly common place.

While doing the diet, I stayed pretty quiet on the Omni FaceBook page. I was mainly interested in new receipes and tips and tricks for dealing with hunger. That sort of thing.

Interestingly enough, posts like this one were fairly common (I've blacked out names and blurred images just a bit):



I know the image is a bit difficult to see on here, so here is a transcript:

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Original Poster: "I just spent last night at Urgent care with a kidney stone. I have been reading online that the strict diet and HCG drops can be the cause. I was on R1P2D5. I'm scared to go back on th drops and strict diet but was loving the weight loss. I have Charge, Remind, Nite Lite, GCBE and just got Omni IV in the mail. Is there an alternative with using the products to still being able to lose weight? The pain that I experience from the kidney stone was the worst pain that I have ever experienced, even worse than childbirth and I'm scared to have that happen again. Any suggestions?"

Poster 2: "if your only on day 5 you probably already had the stones."

Poster 3: "Its not from the drops"

Poster 2 again: "You can contact your distributor about other options, possibly using thermo tea or java they just have slower results but a less restrictive diet."

Poster 4: "You're not drinking enough water. When you don't drink enough water, the salts, minerals, and other sbstances in the urine can stick together and form a stone. This is the most common cause of kidney stones."

Poster 3 again: (posts the name of an administrator)

Poster 3 again: (posts another administrator's name)

Original Poster again: "I was drinking at least a gallon water a day. That was not the problem. All I ever drink is water, even before Omni."

Poster 3 again: "Do not believe everything you read online. Doctors might tell you it's due to the drops but that's because most doctors do not support taking hcg. I bet what you are reading online isn't about the drops, maybe about the injections but I doubt even that."
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(note from me: anybody else find this exchange frightening?)


This post was pretty typical for responses.Somebody would post a health concern and others (mostly people who were distributors and selling the products) would tell them to talk to their distributor. Other's would recommend even more Omni products to 'help' with the serious concerns. Others would poo-poo the idea that the diet COULD EVER be the cause of the problem. *Obviously* they already had the issue. There would always be the obligatory statement that the person's doctor really doesn't understand the diet and they have a vested interest in keeping them on pharmaceuticals so doctors just can't be trusted. By the way, there are two comments there completely blacked out. That's because they had just posted some higher level Omni administrator names who would be alerted by their names and then would delete the post!

Often these posts would get deleted. The FaceBook page to which I was a member wanted to keep only glowng reviews of its products. Side effects and health concerns were definitely not encouraged and, as I noticed, those posts were never there for long. So new users checking out the page to see if they really wanted to spend hundreds of dollars on these products got the idea that this diet is really safe with no complications whatsoever. My goodness, you can't even buy a box of band aids without seeing a warning label (latex might cause an allergic reaction). So, distributors are trying to give the idea that their hokey products coupled with a starvation 500-calorie diet which is NOT done under a doctor's supervision and, please, no exercise is safer than putting a band aid on. I don't think so.

By the way, in reference to the above, I saw that kidney stones seemed to be fairly common on the diet. My own doctor said that he's seen serious kidney problems from this diet as well. According to Dr. Avinash Ignatius on www.healthcaremagic.com/premiumquest
ions/Got-Kidney-stones-while-on-HCG-Ca
n-take-something-prior-during-HCG-that
-helps-with-preventing-kidney-condition/16508 :

"Basically a 500 cal diet is a starvation diet, that induces a state of starvation ketosis in the body. During this state there is increased level of acid that leaches calcium out of the bones and in addition promoted stone formation in kidneys. This response is a physiological response to an abnormally low calorie diet. "

Just thankful that this didn't end up being one of my side effects. Doing the hCG diet and not under a doctor's care during it? You are playing Russian Roulette with the side effects my friends.

And, please, remember, those boards? Many of those people are making money off you and me. I'd be far more skeptical of a distributor who likely has no healthcare background (and would more than likely make a good used car salesman) than a doctor who studied for many, many years.