BAD SCIENCE

One negative study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition during the period when Cura Romana's popularity was at its peak (vol. 12, pp 230-234, 1963) involved only 19 people. There were 10 in the treatment group and 9 in the control group. For reasons difficult to fathom, researchers chose to add baked potatoes to the diet – a food absolutely forbidden on the Cura Romana protocol.

This particular study reported an average loss of 6.5 pounds in the hCG-treated group compared with an average loss of 8.8 pounds in the control group. Researchers went on to conclude that hCG does not cause weightloss.

Another study, published ten years later, was carried out "to examine the effect of hCG protocol on weightloss, hunger, and a feeling of wellbeing". It was reported in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and involved twice the number of participants (vol. 26, pp. 211-218. 1973). Researchers compared the hCG group with the control group and concluded that hCG does cause weightloss – an average of 19.96 pounds in the hCG group and only 11.05 in the control group who received no hCG. Both groups showed up for a daily injection but those in the control group were not given hCG but rather a placebo. Neither group knew what injection they were receiving. Researchers W.L. Asher MD and Harold W. Harper MD reported that: "The hCG group lost significantly more mean weight...and…a significantly greater mean percentage of their starting weight. The percentage of affirmative daily patient responses indicating 'little or no hunger' and 'feeling good to excellent' was significantly greater in the hCG group than the placebo group."

In 1995, in a meta-analysis published in The British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology on the effectiveness of hCG in the treatment of obesity (vol. 40. pp 237-243, 1995) researchers at Vrije University in The Netherlands evaluated 16 studies on the use of hCG for weightloss and reported that most had been of "poor methodological quality." In ordinary language this translates into "bad science." Meta-analysis is an attempt to synthesize and describe results from a number of similar studies. They tend to be notoriously suspect as the conclusions they draw depend on which studies they arbitrarily choose to include.

American research scientist Dr Dennis Clark comments that "most research is so flawed that it is almost useless for saying anything at all with certainty." He goes on to add: "What I conclude regarding hCG and weightloss is based on what I have seen for myself. This includes many, many people who have had the same results that Simeons documented based on his clinical experience with thousands of patients. I have also had the same experience for myself." Clark shed 20 pounds on the protocol while experiencing a body-fat loss of 6% in under 30 days. "Medical researchers are apparently going to argue the merits of hCG and weightloss until the end of time, citing whatever research results support their arguments," Clark continues. "As a scientist myself, I have no doubt whatsoever that Simeons was right and that my body changes occurred because of hCG."