Gambooge: Game-Changer Or Gamble?

The gambooge, also called the gummi-gutta, whence its botanical name Garcinia gummi-gutta (formerly Gardinia cambogia), is also known as the Malabar tamarind, and it even got an English name, the brindle berry.

It’s a fruit that looks like a small pale yellow pumpkin in shape, but it grows on trees and has a taste so sour, that it’s usually used only in cooking, and not eaten raw which makes this writer really want to try it raw now.

Its active phytochemical compound hydroxycitric acid (HCA) rose to popularity as a supplement in the US based on a paid recommendation from Dr. Oz, and then became a controversy as supplements associated with it, were in turn associated with hepatotoxicity (more on this in the “Is it safe?” section below).

What do people use it for?

Simply put: it’s a weight loss supplement.

Less simply put: least interestingly, it’s a mild appetite suppressant:

Safety and mechanism of appetite suppression by a novel hydroxycitric acid extract (HCA-SX) ← this talks more about the biochemistry, but isn’t a human study. Human studies have been small and with mixed results. It seems likely that (as in the rat studies discussed above) the mechanism of action is largely about increasing serotonin, which itself is a well-established appetite suppressant. Therefore, the results will depend somewhat on a person’s brain’s serotonergic system.

We’ll revisit that later, but first let’s look at…

Even less simply put: its other mechanism of action is much more interesting; it actually blocks the production of fat (especially: visceral fat) in the body, by inhibiting citrate lyase, which enzyme plays a significant role in fat production:

Effects of (−)-hydroxycitrate on net fat synthesis as de novo lipogenesis

More illustratively, here’s another study, which found:

❝G cambogia reduced abdominal fat accumulation in subjects, regardless of sex, who had the visceral fat accumulation type of obesity. No rebound effect was observed.

It is therefore expected that G cambogia may be useful for the prevention and reduction of accumulation of visceral fat. ❞

~ Dr. Norihiro Shigematsu et al.

Read in full: Effects of garcinia cambogia (Hydroxycitric Acid) on visceral fat accumulation: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial

As to why this is particularly important, and far more important than mere fat loss in general, see our previous main feature:

Visceral Belly Fat (And How To Lose It)

Is it safe?

It has shown a good safety profile up to large doses (2.8g/day):

Evaluation of the safety and efficacy of hydroxycitric acid or Garcinia cambogia extracts in humans

There have been some fears about hepatotoxicity, but they appear to be unfounded, and based on products that did not, in fact, contain HCA (and were merely sold by a company that used a similar name in their marketing):

No evidence demonstrating hepatotoxicity associated with hydroxycitric acid

However, as it has a serotoninergic effect, it could cause problems for anyone at risk of serotonin syndrome, which means caution is advisable if you are taking SSRIs (which reduce the rate at which the brain can scrub serotonin, with the usually laudable goal of having more serotonin in the brain—but it is possible to have too much of a good thing, and serotonin syndrome isn’t fun).

As ever, do check with your pharmacist and/or doctor, to be sure, since they can advise with regard to your specific situation and any medications you may be taking.

Want to try some?

We don’t sell it, but here for your convenience is an example product on Amazon

Enjoy!

PS: We Love You

Phosphatidylserine, or “PS” for short, is a phospholipid found in the brain. In other words, a kind of fatty compound that is such stuff as our brains are made of.

In particular, it’s required for healthy nerve cell membranes and myelin (the protective sheath that neurons live in—basically, myelin sheaths do for neurons what telomere caps do for DNA).

For an overview that’s more comprehensive than we have room for here, check out:

Phosphatidylserine and the human brain

Many people take it as a supplement.

Does taking it as a supplement work?

This is a valid question, as a lot of supplements can’t be absorbed well, and/or can’t pass the blood-brain barrier. But, as the above-linked study notes:

❝Exogenous PS (300-800 mg/d) is absorbed efficiently in humans, crosses the blood-brain barrier, and safely slows, halts, or reverses biochemical alterations and structural deterioration in nerve cells. It supports human cognitive functions, including the formation of short-term memory, the consolidation of long-term memory, the ability to create new memories, the ability to retrieve memories, the ability to learn and recall information, the ability to focus attention and concentrate, the ability to reason and solve problems, language skills, and the ability to communicate. It also supports locomotor functions, especially rapid reactions and reflexes.❞

~ Glade & Smith.

(“Exogenous” means “coming from outside of the body”, as opposed to “endogenous”, meaning “made inside the body”. Effectively, in this context “exogenous” means “taken as a supplement”.)

Why do people take it?

The health claims for phosphatidylserine fall into two main categories:

1. Neuroprotection (helping your brain to avoid age-related decline in the long term)
2. Cognitive enhancement (helping your brain work better in the short term)

What does the science say?

There’s a lot of science that’s been done on the neuroprotective properties of PS, and there are thousands of studies we could draw from here. The upshot is that regular phosphatidylserine supplementation (most often 300mg/day, but studies are also found for 100–500mg/day) is strongly associated with a reduction in cognitive decline over the course of 12 weeks (a common study duration). Here are a some spotlight studies showing this:

• Effects of phosphatidylserine in Alzheimer’s disease
• Double-blind cross-over study of phosphatidylserine vs. placebo in patients with early dementia of the Alzheimer type
• Effect of Phosphatidylserine on Cerebral Glucose Metabolism in Alzheimer’s Disease
• The effect of soybean-derived phosphatidylserine on cognitive performance in elderly with subjective memory complaints

Note: PS can be derived from various sources, with the two most common forms being bovine (i.e., from cow brains) or soy-derived.

There is no established difference in the efficacy of these.

There have been some concerns raised about the risk of CJD (the human form of BSE, as in “mad cow disease”) from consuming brain matter from cows, but studies have not found any evidence of this actually happening.

There is also some evidence that phosphatidyserine significantly boosts cognitive performance, even in young people with no extant cognitive decline, for example:

The effects of [phosphatidylserine supplementation] on cognitive function, mood and endocrine response before and following acute exercise

(as the title suggests, they did also test for its effect on mood and endocrine response, but found it made no difference to those, just the cognitive function—which enjoyed a boost before exercise, as well as after it, meaning that the boost wasn’t dependent on the exercise)

PS for cognitive enhancement in the young and healthy is not nearly so well-explored as its use as a later-life guard against age-related cognitive decline. However, just because the studies in younger people are dwarfed in number by the studies in older people, doesn’t detract from the validity of the studies in younger people.

Basically: its use in older people has been studied the most, but all available evidence points to it being beneficial to brain health at all ages.

Where can we get it?

We don’t sell it (or anything else), but for your convenience, here’s an example product on Amazon.

Enjoy!