Lishou

We take an in-depth look into Lishou to see what ingredients can actually be found in this mysterious product.

Lishou Overview

What you need to know about Lishou

Lishou is a weight-loss supplement that can be purchased from the East Asian market. This highly controversial product is a strange and confusing supplement to attempt to research on the Internet. Rumours abound online that there are multiple versions of this product, each with slightly different packaging and each supposedly originating from a different manufacturer. One trait that all versions of Lishou seem to share is that they are mislabelled and hard to trust, with the FDA finding evidence of a dangerous, undeclared drug called sibutramine in batches sold in the USA in 2011.

The product is supposedly produced by Yunnan Bai’an Medicinal Science & Technology Co. Ltd., a company that may be Chinese or Vietnamese, according to our research. Other than guessing the company’s location, there is no other information that can be stated about this mysterious company. As they have been found to stuff their products with a drug known to kill people, they could be reasonably be thought of as more similar to a criminal enterprise than an ordinary supplement manufacturer!

What are the side effects of Lishou?

Lishou should be regarded as an unsafe product that causes serious side effects. It has been found to contain sibutramine, a banned ingredient that is known to cause heart attacks, strokes and death. Symptoms like these tend to take place months/years after taking the drug, but damage may be taking place in the short-term.

Bitter orange is known to also cause heart palpitations, increased heartrate, increased blood pressure, fainting, strokes, heart attacks and death. The feeling dieters describe after taking this ingredient is unpleasant, and a handful of people have paid the ultimate price. Customers should avoid caffeine whilst taking Lishou, as it is known to increase the risk of adverse effects.

Several customer reviews claim to have serious dry mouth, psychological distress and mood swings whilst using this product.

How much does Lishou cost?

Lishou typically costs $20-$24 per bottle, although most websites selling it offer discounts when purchasing in bulk (traders looking to poison their customers can buy it for as little as $6.70 a bottle when buying 200 bottles or more). Customers paying in euros can find it on Thailand Pharmacy, where the standard 40-capsule pack costs 25 Euros. International shipping costs presumably run high for customers based in the USA and Europe.

Lishou Key Features

Lishou is a weight-loss product that originates from East Asia. It has attracted controversy due to its irregular ingredients list, lack of official credentials, and propensity to cause extreme side effects. Reliable information on Lishou or its background is scarce, and the product was the subject of a “public notification” issued by the FDA in 2011, which warned customers to its dangers and lack of labelling information.

This odd supplement is reportedly manufactured by Yunnan Bai’an Medicinal Science & Technology Co. Ltd. There is virtually no information available online covering Yunnan Bai’an or their contact details, history or lineup of products. It’s hard to even establish where the company may be based; the naming of the company and the language written on the Lishou box imply that the company is Chinese, but other Internet website trails always seem to lead back to Vietnam. Regardless, Yunnan Bai’an appear to be a company that fails to meet normal Western standards of quality and honesty, as their sole product is thought to be harmful and mislabeled.

What does Lishou claim to do?

Lishou is described as a straightforward, all-purpose weight loss product. The ingredients are said to have a thermogenic effect, boosting the metabolism and effectively burning fat. Some outlets make particularly brash and unbelievable additional claims; one promises that “95% of the extra fat [on customers’] chin, legs and arms etc can be effectively get rid of!”

Most of the information covering Lishou is highly changeable depending on where you buy it from. On certain Thai outlets, Lishou pills are also said to suppress appetite, a claim which is made almost nowhere else.

Does Lishou work?

Lishou contains two ingredients that have been proven to help dieters lose weight (bitter orange and sibutramine), although the remaining ingredients are likely useless add-ons intended to mislead Asian customers. Dieters using Lishou may well lose weight if the product contains the ingredients listed in our Ingredients section, although there are many concerns that most versions of this product are deliberately or accidentally mislabelled. This product is really too risky and dangerous to be considered seriously effective.

Lishou Ingredients

The ingredients included in Lishou are listed below. Readers should note that ingredient quantities are not listed, which can make it harder for us to estimate how effective the product is. In addition, the FDA found an important hidden ingredient in 2011 which is not listed on the packaging (this is also listed below). Finally, prospective customers should realise that there are claims of multiple fakes and differing versions of Lishou sharing the same label. Consequently, the ingredients you may find in some versions of the product may differ from the ingredients listed below.

• Tuckahoe: This fungus is often used in Chinese traditional medicine and it is said to be a diuretic and sedative. It is used as a cure for bloating and (somewhat unhelpfully) anorexia, as well as a host of other illnesses. Very little scientific evidence exists to prove its efficacy in any case.
  Source: http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Wolfiporia+extensa
• Lotus: Lotus is sometimes used in traditional medicine to stem bleeding or stop diarrhoea, although little research has been conducted to confirm whether it does anything at all. A single Japanese study has tested the usefulness of lotus leaf as a weight loss ingredient on obese mice and the results were encouraging, although it remains to be seen whether lotus works with humans.
  Source: http://www.livestrong.com/article/296673-lotus-leaf-and-weight-loss/
• Bitter Orange: Bitter orange peel has been proven to raise the metabolism and aid weight loss. However, there are some concerns about its safety.
  Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22991491
• Sibutramine: This ingredient is unlisted on the label but was discovered in tested batches by the FDA in 2011. Sibutramine is a drug that was once approved due to its ability to deliver modest weight loss results. However, it was banned in the US and European markets in 2009 after a large study found that it was significantly increasing dieters’ long term risk of heart attacks, strokes and death. When compared to those taking a placebo, it was actually found that dieters were more likely to have a heart attack using sibutramine than lose weight.
  Source: https://www.livescience.com/32859-why-have-diet-pills-containing-sibutramine-been-banned.html

Lishou Side Effects

Lishou is a dangerous product. In 2011, it was found to contain sibutramine, a now-banned ingredient that has been found to cause heart attacks, strokes and death. This is not a joke – a landmark study of obese people taking sibutramine and placebos effectively found that sibutramine is more likely to cause a heart attack or stroke than help dieters to lose weight! The negative effects of sibutramine tend to emerge in the long-term after months/years of use, but may well cause damage from the outset.

The product also contains bitter orange, another ingredient which is known to cause an increased heartrate, increased blood pressure, heart palpitations, fainting, heart attacks and strokes. Symptoms have arisen in healthy patients and has caused deaths on occasion. Customers should avoid caffeine whilst using this product as it can intensify the negative effects of bitter orange.

Several customer reviews claim to have serious dry mouth, psychological distress and mood swings whilst using this product.

Lishou Customer Feedback

We were able to find some legitimate chatter about Lishou online, although there is evidence that most “customer reviews” displayed on websites selling it are faked. Genuine customer comments occasionally praise the product and its effects, although many customers have scary stories detailing serious side effects.

Yes, these pills do help you lose weight in very little time. In the beginning your mouth is very dry for the first few months but just drink water and that will go away, i chew gum and drink water, due to the dryness of your mouth the water will even have a funny taste. The first week i lost 10lbs. I have been taking them for 3 months now and i have lost a total of 40lbs. I also go to the gym 3x a week so I’m sure that helps too, (i recently started going about a month ago) BUT YES!!!!!! IT DOES GIVE YOU MOOD SWINGS, SOMETIMES YOU WILL FEEL SO HAPPY FULL OF ENERGY AND RANDOMLY FEEL DOWN AND DRAINED OUT. IF YOU DON’T CONTROL YOUR EMOTIONS IT WILL AFFECT YOUR PERSONAL LIFE. I STARTED GETTING MOODY TO THE POINT I LOST MY BOYFRIEND OF 2 1/2 YEARS. WAS IT WORTH IT? NO. BUT IT HAPPENED. OVERALL I RECOMMEND THEM TO ANYONE WHO IS TRYING TO QUICKLY LOSE WEIGHT.

I had started Lishou capsules yesterday morning (1 cap) and after 30 minutes my heart was running too fast. My body was badly heeted my face was red then i was in bad condition. I have drunk lots of water, and after 1 hour i became a little more normal. Now, I am finding it better than before but still my heart beat is faster then normal. I am getting very scared

I’m taking one a day but I feel dizzy, I vomit every day and got constipated

I’ve been taking lishou pills for 2 weeks under recommendation from my sister and niece. My niece took it for a month and lost about 10 kgs. I’m now on my second week and I’ve lost 5kgs without doing any extra exercise. I was skeptical at first because the pill sounds too good to true but it actually reduces appetite by a lot and I’m now finding that i have to force myself to eat so that i get proper nutrition… The only side effect seems to be dry mouth.

Lishou Money-Back Guarantee

Lishou is only available to buy from various suspicious-looking sites dedicated to it, each of which claims to be the only official one. At this point, it looks like none of the sites are the real and legitimate one, and any of them could be selling fakes or the “real” Lishou. Most sites don’t have returns policies and those that do fail to hold a money-back guarantee policy.

Where To Buy Lishou

Lishou can be purchased from various dedicated product sites (with names like Lishoubuy etc.) We also saw it available for purchase on Thailand Pharmacy, and the FDA reports finding it in some American high street stores.

On Thailand Pharmacy, one 40-capsule pack of Lishou costs 25 Euros plus shipping, whereas the dedicated Lishou sales sites typically sell one bottle for around $20-$24. All sites selling Lishou offer modest discounts for customers choosing to buy in bulk. As many sites and distributors selling Lishou are based in the Far East, customers buying from the USA or Europe may face significant international shipping costs.

Watchdog Verdict

Lishou is a despicable product that represents some of the very worst the diet pill industry has to offer.

Customers can’t trust anything about it. Trying to find any reliable information on Lishou is a nightmare, with reports of multiple versions all masquerading as the original. No-one knows anything about the manufacturer, where the product originally comes from or what is truly in it.

The FDA infamously found the banned drug sibutramine in batches of Lishou in 2011. Once thought promising as a weight loss drug, sibutramine was found to significantly increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes and death in otherwise healthy (albeit obese) people. Combining this with bitter orange (another ingredient with a body count) is irresponsible to the point of madness and shows how far Chinese manufacturers are willing to go to shift useless stock.

The customer reviews we found for Lishou are scary. We found panicked customers describing distressing side effects, and other long-term customers openly displaying symptoms of psychological distress or even hints of addiction. Although some were fine and positive, the truth remains that customers can’t truly know what they are getting or which batch they have been given.

It is impossible to know what is truly in this product, and all available evidence suggests that what is in there is dangerous (and incidentally, not particularly effective as a weight-loss product). Please stay well away from it.

We would not recommend Lishou to our readers.