Update 1/20/20. Japanese Hokkaido Weight Loss Pills are another in a long line of weight loss supplements from Japan, China, Vietnam, etc. aimed predominately at Americans. I admit I'd never heard of these slimming pills until it was brought to my attention by one of the readers of my blog. At various websites, these pills are said to be “in high demand,” and when I checked eBay, I saw some people selling them for over $60! Do these slimming pills work? Let’s see what the research says. This review contains updated and new information, thanks to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), who tested Hokkaido weight loss pills and discovered what I suspected from the start… Also, see the review of Slim Trim U for more info.
Hokkaido Pills Ingredients
Hokkaido weight loss pills contain these ingredients.
- Dill Extract
- Chinese rose extract
- Trumpet Creeper extract
- Evening primrose extract
- Lotus
Is there any evidence that these ingredients help people lose weight? Let’s look at the research and see:
Dill Extract
They don’t tell you what “extract” they are talking about, but when I searched for weight loss research on dill, I found nothing. Dill does seem to have a diuretic effect so it may act as a natural water pill. I'm guessing that is why it’s in the ingredients.
Women who may be pregnant should avoid Hokkaido Weight Loss Pills. There is some speculation that dill may cause menstrual bleeding. I cannot find any research or case studies to substantiate this, however, but it is something to consider.
Chinese Rose Extract
Again, they do not tell us what specific extract they are talking about. What is the scientific name of the Chinese rose they are using? If anyone knows, let me know, and I will update this review.
Trumpet Creeper Extract
If you search for research on Trumpet Creeper, online, it can be a little difficult to find because its scientific name is Campsis radicans. Another name –albeit less scientific – is cow itch, which is a reference to how farm animals sometimes get a rash when they rub against it. This makes sense since the name “radicans” is the same classification as poison ivy (Rhus radicans).
That said, I could not locate any weight loss proof that Trumpet Creeper helps weight loss. When I googled Trumpet Creeper and weight loss, many sites that came up had to do with sites that sell weight-loss pills and that was no help. I then checked the National Library of Medicine and also couldn’t find anything. One problem with my search is that we are not told what extract of Trumpet Creeper is in Hokkaido weight loss pills.
Evening Primrose Extract
This is also called GLA, which stands for gamma-linolenic acid. The lack of evening primrose weight loss research makes me very skeptical. One study from the 1980s found evening primrose oil did not help weight loss.
Because evening primrose oil effects blood clotting, people taking blood thinners should avoid this product. There is also some perplexing cancer research hints that evening primrose oil might either reduce breast cancer growth or speed up breast cancer growth, depending on how much is used. The bottom line, if you have a history of cancer, talk to your doctor first.
The product Abdominal Cuts also has evening primrose oil. See that review for more info.
Evening primrose oil is sometimes used for PMS symptoms –with mixed results. Like Dill, women who may be pregnant should not use evening primrose oil.
It may be very dangerous. If you have my book on supplements see the chapter on evening primrose oil for more on its other uses.
Hokkaido FDA Update
In November 2012, The FDA alerted the public that Japanise Hokkaido Slimming Pills contained the weight loss drug called sibutramine, a weight-loss drug that was removed from the US market in 2010 because it posed significant health risks. Here is what the FDA said in their warning about Hokkaido pills:
“Sibutramine is known to substantially increase blood pressure and/or pulse rate in some patients and may present a significant risk for patients with a history of coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, arrhythmias, or stroke. This product may also interact, in life-threatening ways, with other medications a consumer may be taking.”
This explains the very strange symptoms people have been reporting in the comments.
Lotus
Human weight loss research on lotus cannot be located. I did locate one test-tube study where lotus and L carnitine reduced fat buildup inside fat cells. This is interesting but it’s a study of fat cells in test tubes. You are MUCH more complex than a test tube.
You may recall that lotus is one of the ingredients in Zi Xiu Tang Bee Pollen weight loss supplements.
On one of the websites that sell Hokkaido Pills, they spelled “primrose” wrong and there is broken English. Nobody is perfect but ingredient typos – and broken English on websites make me wonder about who put this website together.
Do Hokkaido Weight Loss Pills work?
Based on the research I can find, I say no, this stuff cannot possibly work – if these are the only ingredients in the pills. If people are losing weight, I am interested in hearing about it. Since I wrote this review, the FDA has confirmed what I thought all along – that Hokkaido slimming pills contained something not listed in the ingredients, a drug called sibutramine. Because of this, Hokkaido weight loss pills cannot be recommended.
What do you think?
TWO YEARS AGO I WEIGHED 247 AND 5’10”. DID SOME DIETING, ORLISTAT, AND LOTS OF GYM. NOW I WEIGH 194 BUT GLUED TO THIS WEIGHT FOR 3 MOS AND I WANNA LOOSE AT LEAST 20 MORE. YESTERDAY WAS MY DAY 1 FOR HOKKAIDO. DRY MOUTH FOR 1ST 2 HOURS, LIL HEADACHE AND INSOMNIA AT BED TIME W/ BELIEVE OR NOT, PENILE ERECTIONS(NO JOKE). I PURCHASED 2 BOTTLES AND WILL LET U KNOW WHATS THE OUTCOME. I HOPE 4 DA BEST. IM LOCATED IN CEBU PHILIPPINES AND PURCHASED MY PILLS THRU A DEALER FROM A FACEBOOK SUBSCRIBER.
Warren I think your the first to report erections with Hokkaido pills. Keep me posted on your progress.
so i did it for a week, but i have to stop since i have to take antibiotics for an eye infection. haven’t weighed myself since, but several people started noticing that i have lost some weight. side effects disappeared after i stopped using.
@B good news on the drug tests.
I bought Hokkaido slimming pills, my first trial is good. I had a loss of appetite i don’t feel hungry, but i ate at the right time. When i went home from school,at night i can’t sleep. This is my review for the first day.
Why did i bought this pills? Because my classmate lose a lot of weight. And I also want to lose weight, I’m a male and i want to be fit that’s why i bought one of these. The next day i tried taking hokkaido again. The effect is i used a restroom like thrice. The real effect of hokkaido is Dry mouth and weight loss. i only take hokkaido pills every other day or sometimes not. But since SEPT. 4,2011 once again i started drinking HOKKAIDO pills. And now I’ve lose 5 pounds, it really works. no more side effects, only the dry mouth, and frequent vowel movements. I ate bananas to fight the frequent vowel movements.
Any suggestion if this pills are good for me? I’m only 17 and I’m living in the Philippines.
Marius, I don’t think you need weight loss pills. I looked at your website and saw you. I don’t think think you need to lose weight but even if you do, just do some more exercise and be aware of what you are eating and why (are you hungry or not). I still think Hokkaido pills have a mystery ingredient but even if it doesn’t and its just a laxative, that’s still not something you can keep taking for long. Where do you get the pills? Do you go to a store and get them or order them from the internet?
beth is there any chance you can have someone check for subutrimine?, this is what us customs is looking for, i spoke with a customs supervisor today who is holding my box and he says they are holding hundreds of boxes to be tested for this drug many from the Philippines, he also told me he is waiting for the analysis of my pills from the lab in San Francisco and will either send it or send me a letter stating why it is being destroyed.
I work in a small hospital laboratory so we don’t have the instrumentation to do that kind of testing, but I will keep looking back to see if you uncover anything else about these pills!
Thanks Beth I know everybody who takes these weight loss pills really appreciates all that work you did for them 🙂
My drug test was negative!!! I could only test it on certain drugs though.
Amphetamines
barbiturates
benzos
cocaine
methadone
opiates
pcp
thc
Beth Thanks so much for going to all that trouble! I really apprecaite it!! Its nice to know that the Hokkaido pills dont seem to contain any of that other stuff. Any chance in testing for weight loss drugs 🙂
I really do appreciate you doing this Beth!!
A friend just told me about them and she has lost 20lbs in less than 2 months. She gave me some to try, and I found your website while searching for results. I am a medical laboratory technician so I’m going to take one today and then do a drug screen on my urine in the morning! I will post my drug screen tomorrow for you.
I agree with you that there has to be more than herbs and extracts in the product to produce results like this, but hopefully it won’t be something illegal.
turned myself to a guinea pig too with this pills, 5 days taking 2 pills a day, one at the morning, and 1 before bed, since I’m already used to eating little in a day, i did not notice the appetite suppressing effects, but the thirst, dry mouth/lips, watery bowel movement, insomnia (first few nights) are present, i haven’t checked my weight yet nor have i worked out the past 5 days, but i am eager to see the results this weekend.
Ralph keep us posted on your weight loss!
Joe, I have another supplement I’d like for you to research. Everslim. I used it several years ago.positive results
Would like to try again if safe : healthy people.com is the website.they want you to become a distributor right a way so I’m a little skeptical this time
Crissandra, I went to the everslim website but they dont tell me its ingredients (thats a red flag for me). is it sold in vitamin stores?
I think the FDA is catching on, they are holding everyone’s shipments including my 2,500 dollar order.
i will be going to US customs to speak with a supervisor to ask them to release my order or send it back to the Philippines.
I have ordered many times but this is the first time i have had a problem, i think she labeled it wrong and that’s a red flag from what i hear.
Don
Don let me know how it goes with US Customs. Wow you bought $2500 worth. How much can you make by selling all those pills?
I started using hokkaido slimming pills 4 days ago and searched for the components to be sure that it is safe. A chemical analysis of the product would probably satisfy my curiosity but I did not have it analyzed. SO far this is what I got from the components
Chinese Rose (Rosa Chinensis) Extract
Different parts of the Chinese rose serve different purpose. The fruit is rich in vitamins A, C and E, flavanoids and other bio-active compounds. There were no results that suggest that Chinese rose helps in weight reduction.
Trumpet creeper (Campsis Radicans) Extracts
The roots of the plant are diaphoretic or cause a person to sweat. What is excreted in sweat however is water and electrolytes not fat but the benefits of this is that it flushes out toxins that builds in the pores and lowers body temperature to prevent overheating.
Evening Primrose (Oenothera Biennis) Extract
This plant was cultivated for the oil contained in its seeds which contains gamma-linolenic acid that helps prevent hardening of the arteries, heart disease, menopause, PMS, high blood pressure and many more. It aids in lowering cholesterol levels and has a positive effect on metabolism.
I personally tried this product for 4 days and experienced dry mouth, regular bowel movement, increased sweat production and decrease in appetite. Most of us know that even herbal medicines or supplements have side effects. It is important to remain hydrated, and since it decreases appetite it is necessary to have a balanced diet. Having small frequent feedings allows you to maintain normal blood sugar levels to prevent dizziness, nausea, and palpitations caused by hypoglycemia.
I currently lost 1 kg in three days, with that weight loss I constantly kept myself hydrated and ate small portions frequently. It is always best to exercise along with this product for better results.
Rosesred, thanks for your impute!
well, i guess, the FDA should be alarmed with this.
The FDA is so under funded when it comes to supplements that they probalby are not yet even aware of Hokkaido pills.
according to a research i did(research=hours of googling), hokkaido pills show the same side effects with the drug methamphetamine. There are also some claims that they work, but the effect varies from person to person. Can you look it up if the pills really have meth?
Ralph, its possible that Hokkaido pills do have amphetamines. The only way to know for sure is to test them. Unfortunately thats something I am not able to do. My hope is somebody at a college -or the FDA does this.
Hi joe & thanks for the response when i said your intestines fill up with a lot of junk when you are fat”. and you ask? “What kind of “junk” are you referring to? I’d like to see proof that the intestines of overweight people have more “junk” in them that those of skinny people”.
I am no doctor, but when i ate the diet i did before taking the pills i could always feel something in my intestines digesting and i do suffer from divertictulitis, with the pills i have no problem my digestion is now normal and i only go once a day.
I have now been retrained by this hokkaido, it has been 30+ days that i have been taking it and i did stop for a week after the 30 days and i had very few side effects i wanted to eat more bread and snack food(COMFORT FOOD) and i did drink a few glasses of milk, my biggest problem is my intestines always feel like there is something in them,
it is almost like my food did not completely pass, when i take hokkaido i feel like they is nothing in them until i eat & then i feel the food move through completely?. just the same i cannot give you a research study that differentiates the junk level between fat & skinny peoples intestines, but just my own opinion.
I will take them for another 30 days and see what happens and post again after i finish, i am just 51 year old lab rat right now who needs to lose 35 lbs before his wedding, so i will let you know if i have any more side effects when the Pills let me out of my cage LoL……
Don, thanks and I will look forward to hearing what else happens to you. If you feel strange or any other odd side effects happen, stop them though, just to be safe.
I do think a lot of it all has to do with the person. Now granted, ok there is something in there that is not listed. The 10 bottles I purchased do not have typos on them. In the beginning it was almost similar to a cleansing process for me. I have no issues keeping food in. I do eat-I do not starve myself.
I would like to know what this mysterious ingredient is. If you think about it though-the pills that are here that are FDA approved or whatever, some of them can have these same effects on some one. It just all depends on the person.
Contrary to what others have posted, I have experienced greasy foods as well as any other foods making me ill while taking this medication. Even now I am sitting in an airport eating grapes slowly with water hoping I can keep them down on this flight. I have also taken peptobismal with me in hopes that it will hold over well. I have asked the guest I am visiting if we can purchase fruits and veggies for the duration of my stay and explained I cannot eat out with them. I have been eating no processed foods, fruits, vegetables, nothing in high carbs, low calories, and striving to maintain protein and keep my electrolytes up. It isn’t the “American diet” or “greasy foods” that is causing this. On days I have fasted entirely, I find even drinking water will make me ill.
These pills are nothing other than a laxative with “uppers” of some sort in them. I have an increased heart rate at times, headaches, and now I am experiencing withdrawals. To say these pills “do work” and there are healthy would be an extremely ignorant statement. We do not know what these foreign pills contain and the fact that there is no legitimate website providing proper nutritional facts and they are manufactured in the Philippines, I mean there is a typo on the bottle for crying out loud. These are not safe pills.
K. WOW! The bottles of the pills have a typo! I didn’t know that. I hope you have a safe trip and have fun with your friend.
I agree with don on his comment if u ingest greasy or fatty foods you tend to get a quicker bowel movement, but if u eat healthy food and snacks like fruits and veggies in my personal experience they hold down well, America doesn’t like to allow anything they cant tax or make money on long term, hence the fact you see fast food chains literally more than one at most corners and off freeways,
plus look at the people in Japan china and other countries, they have a very large slim population, as for Americans you see more than half our population is overweight or obese leading to diabetics and heart failure, these pills do work and thats a fact.
the Japanese are doing something right something America is not wanting to put on pharmacy shelves. all drugs u see are over priced and dont work for all body types these pills as i have seen worked on many body types. Sorry to say you should further your study and maybe try for 10 days and document it that would be a better way of studying a product.
Annette, I apprecaite your words and wanted to mention that countries like Japan, china ect also exercise – walk and bike – more than Americans do. This probalby plays a role in their trimmer waistlines. It is true that when they adopt the “American lifestyle” that they tend to get more medical issues like Americans.
I dont need to try the pills. I do believe what people are telling me. I still cant understand how the ingredients in Hokaido pills work. Other than maybe being a laxative, there is no scientific basis for it. They shouldn’t work as well as they do. That makes me suspicious.
I worry looking into other weight loss drugs it might have Sibutramine in it, which also fits the description of side effects and goes into “all natural slimming pills” unlisted from ingredients.
What do you guys think?
K. while I’m usually a critic of weight loss supplements, I think if you stick to products not sold by distributors (that is, choose only those sold in stores), that you can be pretty sure that the supplement does not contain sibutramine (Meridia). Also go to the products website, look at how the site looks – do you see typos in the website? Where is the company selling the product based (if in china, japan, asia, viet nam ect I dont like that). Do people who discuss the product say they lose bizarre amounts of weight in a short period of time (like 20 lb a month) without doing any exercise. That’s a tip off also. They wont say bizarre, they will say “Amazing”
Anybody got any other ideas to help K?
Joe,
I think I know the “secret ingredient”- Orlistat or a form of. Think about this: Greasy foods making everyone go to the bathroom!! That’s the exact effects of this weight loss pill.
As soon as you eat anything, greasy or not you are in the bathroom, pooping until you are down to brown water!! Your mouth is extremely dry because you are losing electrolytes as well. Not hydrated people.You said T.M.I. is ok, so here you have it!! They probably don’t want to list the ingredient because of this pill not being FDA approved. Tell me what you think.
Crissandra, what you say is something I have been thinking about myself. I never believed Hokkaido pills could work if what I saw where the only ingredients. I keep up with FDA recalls ect so If they ever do issue a statement on Hokkaido pills, I will let everybody know.
I had posted here before about feeling cautious and skeptical because the pills made me sick.
Well, needless to say I liked the weight loss and began taking them again despite all common sense. I took them on and off for a few weeks. Perhaps my stomach is more sensitive than others because I hold down no food when taking these. I can be in the restroom within 3 minutes of eating to an hour later.
Like most said, you can’t hold down greasy foods. My diet to begin with was decent although I did like a burger every now and then. I was 5’4″ a size 8 at 151 pounds.
After taking these on and off over a few months, my diet has changed completely as well as my body. I even discontinued taking these (enjoyed a binge of unhealthy foods due to traveling and gained back 2 pounds I had lost.) When I first began losing weight so quickly, I assumed it was water weight.
I drink Gatorade and take vitamins. I have cut unhealthy habits I had like occasion stops to Starbucks in the morning and replaced it with fruit. That change did not take a solid effect though until I kept track of all my calories with myfitnesspal.
With the help of my fitness pal, I have focused more on my diet than anything else.
The pills were in fact the reason this change in diet occurred. When I quit taking them for a few weeks I noticed no side effects. However, I don’t believe this weight would have come off so quickly if it weren’t for the Pills.
I wonder what is in them that “flushes” my body to such an extreme. To the point yesterday, (tmi again sorry) by chance, I notice my stool had a jelly like substance to it.
After doing a bit of Googling because well, that would freak anyone out it looks like it is an excess of mucus. I found it listed on irritable bowel syndrome websites as a symptom. Days I haven’t eaten (not many but if I get busy) I even have to use the restroom and pass the water. My stool sometimes has simply just been water.
I also have trouble sleeping. I wake up constantly and I feel as if these pills have accelerated sleeping troubles I had.
I have also not received any menstrual cycle and am not pregnant or taking birth control to regulate/force it.
I am now 120 pounds. I had to buy size 4 pants for work yesterday and a coworker said they were too big on me. This has all happened within the matter of a few months evening out to an average of 10 pounds per month, healthy.
I do not believe this has been very healthy, though for obvious reasons. I have experienced side effects no one else has and I have bought the pills from different locations, so it isn’t one off batch. My weight loss has been nothing more than laxative abuse when it comes down to it.
I am not in the shape I want to be in yet, but I have decided to let p90x do the rest and my diet change to maintain it. Laxative abuse and mystery pills are not the way to go.