I thought perhaps you could enlighten me and others on how this hcg stuff works in the body, any short term and long term effects, esp. negative ones, is it safe, etc. I know you know a lot about biology, chemicals, etc., how things work in the body.

I actually covered some of the known side effects in my other post.

As for how it works study after study has shown that the HCG itself has NO effect on weight loss. The weight loss is due to the severe calorie restriction. Under 800 calories a day is considered a calorie restricted diet. With the HCG diet people are restricted to 500 calories a day essentially putting the body in to a starvation state. This also brings up the issue that restricting calories can lead to a slowing of the body's metabolism and even a rebound in the original weight plus extra fat when normal eating resumes as the body prepares for future starvation periods. This is commonly seen in "yo-yo dieting".

Another reason I think this diet is stupid is that it does not address the cause of the weight gain.  One of the most common causes of weight gain is hypothyroidism. HCG, nor a severely restricted calorie diet will address hypothyroidism. But the stress of trying to maintain such a strict diet as well as the lack of nutrients that can occur are likely to aggravate an underlying hypothyroid condition.

Let's look at another example of what I am saying. You have mentioned your issues with hypothyroidism in the past, so we known this is likely a large part of your weight issue. So would you use methamphetamine to reduce your weight even though it is dangerous and does not address the cause of your weight gain? Hopefully the answer is NO!!! The same applies to HCG injections. They have known side effects and they do not address any causes of weight gain.  A severe calorie restriction also has known side effects and will not address conditions such as hypothyroidism. It can make the underlying problem worse though. In short the concept of the diet is partially bogus and all dangerous and I recommend staying away from it altogether.

I remember the phen phen fiasco!

Yes, Fen Phen was a major fiasco. A friend of mine tried it and ended up with permanent heart valve damage. She was already told that in the future she will need an operation as her condition worsens, but the a****** attorneys in the class action settled her case where she only got $10,000. The operation will cost more than that.

Fen Phen is actually a combination of two drugs. The first drug, Fenfluramine, was used to increase serotonin levels, which suppresses the appetite, but it also made people real tired. So they added an amphetamine-like drug called Phentermine to counter the sedating effects of the first drug. The amphetamine itself is hard enough on the body, but the real problem was with the serotonin increase. Serotonin actually has a number of effects on the body including bone growth and blood pressure regulation. There are actually 18 known serotonin receptors in the body. Too much serotonin in the blood though has a nasty side effect of causing heart valve enlargement.

The hcg used to only be available via injections, but now it is offered via sublingually as well as homeopathically, which I don't know much about yet. But that's how my friend is using it with incredible results.

Again the results would be from the calorie restriction, not the HCG. 

The protocol was actually created in the 1950s by Dr. Simeons. Kevin Trudeau just found the information and wrote a book about it.

Right, as I pointed out he just looks for sites to steal information from.

Apparently he even lost 45 pounds with it although I don't recall ever seeing him heavy.

I have seen some of his other photos, but from his recent appearances it does not look like he is still on a 500 calorie a day diet.