A friend of mine has decided to try a weight-loss drug such as Metabolife or Exercise in a Bottle. This concerns me because she isn’t even overweight, but we both agreed to keep open minds and look at all possible effects.
Having said this, can anyone tell me some positive and negative short- or long-term effects of these types of drugs?
Thank you, everyone!
Please see these links:
http://www.allhealth.com/conditions/weight/qa/0,4801,7287_127356,00.html
http://www.ahcpub.com/ahc_root_html/hot/archive/ama0100.html
http://www.mylifepath.com/topic/ephreport2/
http://www.newsnet5.com/yourhealth/yourhealth-990112-122717.html
http://www.newsnet5.com/yourhealth/yourhealth-990217-154010.html
These links show easily that Metabolife is not a product to be trusted.
Thanks for the info. Hopefully this will convince her not to try it out. 
** Tigress, ** I’ve used Metabolife, though, not according to the directions. It’s supposed to be taken three times a day, and I could only handle one, and that, only in the morning. I don’t mind the ‘caffeine’ feeling of being pumped up, but it will disturb your sleep, if you take the recommended dosage. But, I don’t think it actually does help you to lose weight either. It makes you jittery and THAT makes you feel too sick to eat. It leads to a general ‘not well’ feeling all the time. It isn’t worth it.
And if your friend isn’t overweight, why in the world would she gamble anyway?? Tell her to drink a few cups of coffee in the morning, if she just likes the quick stimulus. But, even that, probably isn’t a good plan for the long term.
I just looked at Metabolife’s website, and, in my opinion it’s pretty much a bunch of vague feelgood hype.
Ephedra, as a whole herb, has value in the herbal pharmacopeia, especially as an aid to asthmatic complaints. But it is horribly misused as a stimulant. There has been an ongoing (five year) FDA process in how we are going to deal with that misuse.
As an aid to weight loss, yup; ephedra and caffeine will certainly stimulate you, producing a “thermogenic” effect. But most modern folks are already chronically overstimulated, with stress, sugar, and caffeine. If you expect this pill to solve the problem of poor diet, insult is heaped upon injury. The over-stimulation will eventually wear your poor body out. The better approach is to NOT add more stimulation, but to support yourself through better nutrition. Over-stimulation only encourages binges to support the body when it crashes.
The Metabolife site, unless I missed something, offers no worthwhile education about the substances it promotes. That’s an alarm bell right there. And the price, according to Stupendous Man’s 3rd link; the American Health Consultants; ($35-50 for 90 tabs), just boggles my mind. In my opinion, that’s way too much, and preying on people in dire need of a quick solution to a troublesome problem.
It galls me too, as one who studies herbal medicine seriously, and thoughtfully, that companies like this end up muddying the waters for all. Their misuse of an herbal substance, and the consequent harsh judgement, puts people in an uneccessarily alarmed state about the efficacy and safety of herbal medicines in general.
There are ways to support your body with herbal medicine during the time you want to lose weight, but, IMHO, this isn’t the way to do it.