Are you considering the hoodia patch? Before you get your hopes up thinking this is the answer to your weight loss woes, I have some bad news for you, hoodia patches may not be what they're cracked up to be. While hoodia diet pills and products that contain authentic hoodia gordonii can be effective appetite suppressants, patches may be about as effective as a band aid!

Read any literature or visit any website that sells hoodia patches and you'll see their biggest claim is that their products work more effectively than capsules. The idea behind the patch is that you'll get a slow release of hoodia gordonii throughout the day as it passes through your skin and into your bloodstream.

Companies selling the hoodia patch will claim that since it bypasses your stomach and enters the bloodstream through the skin, it will suppress your appetite quicker and more effectively than capsules or liquids.

On the surface, this makes total sense but unfortunately there is no scientific evidence to back this theory. There isn't one scientific or clinical study to date on the effectiveness of hoodia patches. In fact, there are very little studies on the effectiveness of hoodia gordonii itself!

What about the nicotine patch or the birth control patch? They work after all, so the hoodia patch must be effective. Sellers of hoodia patches will try to make this comparison but don't fall for it. There is a big difference between these products.

Birth control patches require a prescription. Nicotine patches initially required a prescription and only recently have been over the counter. The hoodia patch has never required a prescription. Why is this distinction so important?

Any product that requires a prescription or once did has had to undergo rigorous testing and be subjected to governmental regulations before it can be marketed to the public as being effective. None of the hoodia patches sold today require a prescription. Doesn't that tell you something?

If you don't buy the clinical studies argument, what about the commonsense argument? Let me explain. Hoodia gordonii is a cactus-like plant grown in the Kalahari Desert of South Africa. It has been used for centuries by the San tribe to stave off hunger during long hunting trips.

They cut off about 2-3 inches of the plant, peel it, and then eat it. This small piece of the plant suppresses their appetite for hours. What more closely resembles eating the actual plant - swallowing a pill that contains the powder of the ground up plant, or sticking a patch on your skin? I think you would agree that a pill would be more effective than a patch.

While I firmly believe that hoodia patches are worthless, I don't want to leave you with the impression that every hoodia capsule on the market is effective. In fact, according to a recent study, a majority of the hoodia supplements on the market today are fake so they're as worthless as the patch. That same study concluded that only a handful of hoodia diet pills contain authentic hoodia gordonii.

Until there is a hoodia patch that actually works, your money will be better spent on a high quality hoodia diet pill that contains authentic hoodia gordonii and has been proven to be effective.