Preference of Herbal Remedies for Weight Loss Rather Than Diet or Exercise

Cases related to obesity and overweight are drastically increasing day by day globally. Many studies in literature have reported the prevalence of both disorders in higher number. Majority of the time these are associated with diabetes type 1 or type 2. A strong association of obesity with type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension and elevated blood lipid profiles has been found¹.

Findings from previous studies have showed significant correlation of low health-related quality of life among adolescents with overweight or obesity². Therefore, more attention needs to be paid to treat obesity as a global health problem. Special emphasis should also be placed on encouraging young adults to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight in order to avoid potential weight-related health complications at an early age.

Use of herbal products and herbal teas has increased due to their weight loss properties. Young adults seeking to keep their body weight within the accepted BMI ranges are particular targets of such marketing, as evidenced by the sales of non-prescription weight-loss herbal products³. Despite this huge sale of herbal teas, their exact scientific reaction is not known fully which can also have multiple safety concerns such as herb-drug interactions or potential toxicity.

In this context researchers from Jordan conducted a new study in order to determine the prevalence of herbal remedy (HR) and conventional medicine (CM) use to promote weight loss by university students (US) with overweight or obesity living in Jordan. The perceived efficacy and safety of these products, based on literature review, was also determined. The study also focused on university students attitudes toward diet and exercise intended to reduce body weight⁴.

A questionnaire survey was conducted in order to achieve the objective. The majority of university students preferred to use herbal remedy rather than conventional medicine for weight loss and also believed that herbal remedy had high efficacy for reducing body weight as compared to one-third that believed conventional medicine is effective for weight loss.

In addition, most university students declared that they were following a low calorie diet plan and performed physical exercise to promote weight loss, especially among male students. According to the current findings, female students could experience an increased risk of future obesity not only due to their poor knowledge of the supplements they used for weight loss, but also inefficient diet and exercise measures they used to achieve optimal body weight.

Keywords:

Diet and exercise, herbal remedies, weight loss, conventional medicine, obesity, optimal body weight, female students, male students, physical exercise, conventional medicine, questionnaire survey, exercise intended, non-prescript drugs.

References:

1. Ajlouni, K., H. Jaddou and A. Batieha, 1998. Obesity in Jordan. J. Obes. Related Metab. Disorders, 22: 624-628.
2. Al‐Akour, N.A., Y.S. Khader, M.Y. Khassawneh and H. Bawadi, 2012. Health‐related quality of life of adolescents with overweight or obesity in the North of Jordan. Child: Care Health Dev., 38: 237-243.
3. Kilpi, F., L. Webber, A. Musaigner, A. Aitsi-Selmi and T. Marsh et al., 2014. Alarming predictions for obesity and non-communicable diseases in the Middle East. Public Health Nutr., 17: 1078-1086.
4. Reem Issa , 2018. Use of Herbal Remedies, Conventional Medicine, Diet and Exercisefor Weight Loss: Case Study of University Students in Jordan. J. Nutri., 17: 76-88.