I’ve been hoarding 'em for just this moment since I heard ephedra was going banned. Winter’s over, I’ve gotten a little chunky, and they make me lose weight – they even make me go to the gym. I got 'em last year at the Job Lot for the bargain price of 39 cents each, ate some, and put the rest in an airtight jar over the winter. And now I’m gonna eat 'em! One a day for a week, 'til they’re gone. And I bet I’ll be all lean again by then. I like ephedra! It doesn’t kill me!
The real reason for the ban is not people dying from it. It is the fact that ephedrine is used by bad people to make other weight loss substances that are little too potent to be availble to the general public. So now instead of going to a US online pharmacy those bad people just go to mexican and canadian ones while normal law abiding fitness enthusiasts suffer.
Ephedra bars? Eek - you mean the stuff is/was on open sale? Being an inveterate reader of labels. though I can remark that pseudoephedrine is often the basis of thse " dry up a very sniffly nose-running cold" medicines. In Britain, anyway, those must be purchased from a proper pharmacist, but without a need for a prescription - I presume because anyone who bought an unusual amount of it might be spotted as perhaps misusing it.
I suppose, then, that you just might find such things to be of use, but I can’t say I think taking pills for weight loss is fantastically clever. (NB me not pharmacist or medic or in any way qualifed to comment, really)
That’s not to mention the numerous people who experienced arrhythmias (irregular heartbeat, heart palpitations) from it, as well. My husband was taking these in an attempt to lose weight, and when he woke up in the middle of the night with heart palpitations, he knew something was wrong, and tossed the rest. Hasn’t had palpitations since.
Here’s another quote from the article that Q.E.D. linked, in case you don’t care to click and read it:
Here’s the difference between pharmaceuticals and supplements:
Pharmaceuticals must undergo extensive testing on animals and then on humans, to prove both safety and effectiveness. This can require a dozen or more different studies before approval can be sought. All serious side effects (requiring hospitalization, medical intervention, or causing serious impairment or death) during these studies must be reported to the FDA. (I work in medical research.)
Supplements can be produced for sale without testing on humans or animals. There is no real system in place to analyze the standardization of dosage, meaning you have to trust the manufacturer that the dosage is what is claimed and that it is free from contaminants (remember the contaminated batch of L-tryptophan that caused deaths?). So you could be getting many times what any person “should” take of this supplement (note that herbal ingredients typically have not had any testing to determine what is a recommended or even a maximum dosage), or you could be paying money for a fraction of the ingredient. Manufacturers cannot claim that their supplements treat/cure any type of disease, but this is gotten around by nebulous statements about what systems of the body the supplement may help, or by testimonial quotes from “consumers” who claim that after taking Supplement X, they were cured of acne/hives/cramps/cancer/whatever. As the quoted article stated, the burden of proof is upon the FDA to assert that the supplement is so harmful as to warrant banning the sale.
Another problem with not testing herbal/other supplements is that you sometimes have to find out about drug interactions the hard way. My pack of oral contraceptives says in the package insert - in tiny printing, on that big fold-out page that few women really ever read - that you shouldn’t take St. John’s wort, as that can inactivate the effects of the pill. Does it say that on bottles of St. John’s wort? Not the ones I’ve seen! A number of unfortunate women found that their pill “didn’t work” and it was finally linked to St. John’s wort. I was on the pill years ago, stopped for a while, then resumed, and had no idea that in the interim this discovery had been made, except that I read that package insert. Many patients (I can say from experience in interviewing them, at least) don’t bother to mention herbal supplements when you ask what they’re taking; you have to ask about that specifically.
There are supplements being sold online and on shelves right now that have research that strongly suggests or has fairly definitively shown that one or more of their ingredients cause serious harm to humans - things like cancer, kidney or liver failure even. Consumer Reports wrote an article on the worst 12 ingredients at the moment - the worst, aristolochic acid, has definitely been shown to cause cancer in humans, cause kidney failure that could require transplant, has been banned in several countries, and the FDA issued a warning about it in 2001. Worse yet, it shows up on labels under many different names: aristolochia, birthwort, snakeroot, snakeweed, sangree root, sangrel, serpentary, serpentaria; asarum canadense, wild ginger. That’s the worst of the current offenders, but there are more.
I am not against herbal supplements overall, not by any means. However, people have to be educated about how few safeguards there are regarding supplements; most seem to think that if you can buy it in a drugstore or at the mall, it has to be safe. Medications can have dangerous side effects and they’re extensively tested. Just because something is “herbal” or “natural” doesn’t mean it’s all right - a potent and commonly prescribed heart medication called digoxin was first discovered as digitalis, something from the foxglove plant, and it can be very dangerous if you overdose.
Please, be safe. Do research on what you take, on sites other than those with an axe to grind (in either direction), discuss them with your doctor (and honestly report to him/her what you’re taking), and take supplements in moderation.
It seems to me that the alarm over ephedra has been overrated. I used ephedra tablets (in a proprietary compound) a few years ago when I was turned on to them by The Girls Upstairs, who used them in conjunction with exercise to lose weight rapidly. The tablets I took then were far ‘stronger’ than the amount of ephedra alkaloids (12 mg.) contained in one of these semi-contraband bars, and I took them more frequently, as well. There may have been a quickening of pulse, and I needed to rehydrate often, but then, I was working out pretty hard then, too; so I’m sure the workouts contributed to those effects.
From what I’ve read, negative effects seem to be produced largely by exceeding recommended dosages, as when someone figures they can get two or three times the benefit from doubling or tripling the dose. But that could be said about overuse of virtually any herb or drug. Ephedra (ma huang) has been used in Chinese medicine for centuries, for pulmonary problems. Its thermogenic effects are what causes fat-burning.
Celyn’s mention of pseudephedrine makes me wonder – does pseudephedrine also have thermogenic, fat-burning effects?
My husband was taking the “label-recommended” dose of ma huang. Like I said, you get no guarantee of a standardized dosage.
The only way I personally know of being able to misuse pseudoephedrine is (IIRC) making it into crystal meth. Obviously this is even less recommended than using ephedra.
I wouldn’t be so sure of that. As you point out, many pharmaceuticals and supplements can be harmful if overused or overdosed. But if the FDA’s case against ephedra were based solely on instances where death occured due to overdosing, I don’t think that would constitute a “clear danger to public health”, that the law requires be demonstrated. I don’t have any figures handy, but I’d strongly suspect that a significant percentage of the ephedra-related deaths occurred in individuals who were using the product in a manner consistent with its labelling.