Is HCG a scam?

Well, it has been a long time since I posted anything. With moving across state, I kind of forgot about dieting AND blogging.

Lately it has come to my attention that a few low-carb bloggers have been writing about how my husband, who is a naturopathic physician, (a damn good one, if you ask me!)is running a clinic in Seattle that is posting pictures of complete strangers and claiming that they are patients. Now if you want to bash the hcg diet protocol, that is your business, but if you start bashing my family, that is throwing down the gauntlets and asking for a fight!

We did not sell a business, a web-site, patient information or anything else to Radiant Med Spa. My husband did sub-lease his Seattle office when he realized that he could not make a business work in that location. Luckily, that lease is up next year and we can be through with that place for good!

I mean really...I am not that stupid and neither is he. We don't publish before and after pictures of our patients because we feel that if they want to publish that information, it is their business, not ours. I worked in medical records at a hospital here in Washington and I KNOW BETTER than using information like that without express written consent. While working in Seattle, we only actually took one before picture and never published it anywhere. And because we have moved and that person is no longer a patient, we have erased it from our computer.

What really gets me, is that somebody sent an email to one of these people that had their pictures used without their consent, and they used my husband's name and asked the person to talk. The person has written on his blog that he just laughed and didn't even think about answering back to that email. I guess that worked out well for him, since it wasn't from the doctor he thought was writing to him anyway. The current owner of the business in that ill-fated space supposedly stated that she bought the website with the fraudulent content from the previous owner (thanks for setting us up as the scape goat!not!) and is not to blame. I beg to differ!

I remember reading on a certain Californian person's website that he was really angry about people who stole pictures and stories and put it on their website and mentioned a certain "mama clock". Since I noticed that that person's story was up on the "ill-fated space"s website, I contacted him so he could pass on the information to what I assumed was his friend. I hope that this is not where this whole blogging nightmare started. It would be ironic, though, wouldn't it - trying to tell someone that I don't know how to contact that their picture and story were being used fraudulently and that coming back to bite me in the rear when someone accuses my husband as being the one who posted it in the first place. AAARRRRGGGHHH!

Anyway, back to the title...Is HCG a scam? Well, in opposition to the FDA's stance on the subject, I don't think that it is. I am no expert. I am not a doctor. But I have seen people who have used the diet and I have used it myself. When people follow the protocol, it seems to work with few, if any, side effects. Unless, of course, you count added energy, lack of dependence on medications, lower blood pressure, lower blood sugar levels, lack of pain due to carrying around extra weight and losing weight as side effects -then - there are side effects.

When I was on the diet, I lost 1/2 to 1 lb a day. Then I "fell off the wagon" so to speak. During our move, I let myself go and ate at fast food restaurants. Big mistake. Also, being stressed out by the pressure of being married to the doctor who is telling people how to lose weight and not following a healthy lifestyle myself made me feel like eating more and more of the worst possible foods (like mozzarella sticks...)

The hcg diet is not a wonder drug or miracle cure. You really do have to follow the protocol and change your behaviors or you will go right back to where you were before. I am proof of that. But I have seen other people who have followed the diet and changed the way they ate afterwards who still look and feel great. I guess only time will tell if they can keep it off forever.

As for me, I still have hope. I believe that this diet protocol works and that I can try again. After all, I live with a great doctor who can help me.