Ephedrine - caffeine - asprin

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/psychology/health_psychology/ephedrine_wt.htm

Comments?

I got turned on to ephedrine after a recent cold. I found ephedrine much, MUCH more effective than the pseudoephedrine that is in 99.9% of the over the shelf “anti-congestion” medicine.

I don’t see how adding asprin and caffeine to the mix can hurt any. I typically took 2 asprin before bed anyhow, and I’ve been drinking caffeinated diet sodas all day for… well, forever.

It’s not that I’m filled with gravy, although I could stand to lose 20-30 lbs, but I like the effects of the ECA… the risks seem minimal (though everyone should be aware of them), and the effects on your metabolism/energy are nice.

Ephedrine is not FDA regulated. Ephedrine cannot be pulled from shelves by the FDA without years of litigation, even when deaths result from its use. Standard peer-reviwed clinical safety tests on ephedrine by the FDA have not been done, because Congress has banned the FDA from doing them.

I can’t believe my generation is seeing a defacto repeal of the Pure Food and Drug Act.

Just because the gun hasn’t killed you yet doesn’t mean all the chambers are empty.

Since DSHEA became law, substances as varied as paint stripper, bat shit, toad venom, and lamb placenta have all been imported from overseas, bottled up—often by people with no scientific or health backgrounds—and marketed as dietary supplements to unsuspecting American consumers. Many supplements have been tainted with salmonella, arsenic, lead, pesticides, unapproved foreign prescription drugs, as well as garden-variety carcinogens. And despite their New-Age health aura, a significant portion of these “natural supplements” are stimulants, depressants, and other mood-enhancers that some medical experts believe would be classified as drugs if they were synthetic. A surprising number of these products are addictive.

DSHEA created a Monty Python-esque distinction between drugs and supplements by essentially defining both by what the manufacturer says about the product. Let’s say, for instance, that Herbalife markets one of its ephedra products as a legal speed. In that case, the FDA can pull it off the market as an unapproved drug. But if Herbalife instead markets the very same product as a weight-loss aid, voila! It’s a supplement, and there’s virtually nothing the FDA can do to keep kids from buying it in buckets—to stay thin, of course.

Hatch’s threats of FDA prosecutions sure aren’t putting the fear of God into the supplement industry. When researchers have done random testing of supplements, they’ve found a disturbing number of label/content mismatches. Two years ago, the California Health Department tested more than 250 herbal products from retail stores in the state and found that 32 percent were adulterated with undeclared pharmaceuticals and/or heavy metals.

Yeah yeah yeah. I’m not talking about the wacky herbal extract of the month, I’m talking about ephedrine specifically.

For equal time, there was a report recently of that baseball player who kicked the bucket while taking ephedrine:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2003-02-20-cover-ephedrine-baseball_x.htm

Of course, I was proposing it mostly for people with ultra-sedentary lifestyles like mine, where I spend 24/7 in front of a monitor and keyboard. There’s not a lot of risk for me increasing my metabolism and heart rate, as I see it. The rules are clearly different for professional athletes who strenouously exercise all the time, and I file that under “jackass who should have known better.”

Anyway, it’s safer than my heroin habit. Barring idiots who take 10x the recommended dose or use it inappropriately (see above), I don’t think it’s any more dangerous than caffeine.

Well… I remember seeing a 20/20 special years and years ago about “mini thins” and how stupid teenage white girls were passing out in school after OD’ing on 'em. Statements were made such as “After taking about 20 in a day, I couldn’t feel my legs anymore” and such like that. It was a sensationalist journalism episode to be sure - but that didn’t stop the fact that somehow mini-thins were suddenly made with pseudo rather than real ephedrine. Not that I was a big taker of 'em, but there were occasions where one or two got me through a day at college when I’d been up way late the night before.

However, once you read between the lines and listened to what the “poor innocent victims” were saying, anyone with any sense at all could quite obviously see that they were fucking idiots. “After taking 20…” and “Well, I wanted to lose weight (this girl is annorexic, btw) so I took them. I didn’t know they were a stimulant. They’re called ‘mini-THINS’ so I thought they’d make me THIN.” Such ignorance makes me retch and gargle.

Anyway, a key thing is HOW MUCH DID HE TAKE and since he was at baseball training camp did he abide the warning NOT TO ENGAGE IN STRENUOUS EXERCISE? I bet my last dollar not. Ok, lets see… you’re taking a big shot of speed, and then you’re going to run a marathon. People like that should be beaten to death with a nerf clue-bat.

Lets see… if I eat a whole bottle of sleeping pills and then chase it with a 5th of Jim Beam they call it suicide. But if I eat a whole bottle of stimulants and then cause my heart to leap out of my chest, it’s not?

Oh yeah… I think another reason they’ve got an “adgenda” to villainize ephedrine is because you can buy it off the shelf and take it home to your methamphetamine lab and cook it up. I think THAT’s a big motivator in the “give this drug a bad name” issue.

Ephedrine is the same as the rest of them; it’s completely unregulated. Will your bottle have lead in it? Who knows, it’s part of the fun!

Note that more safety studies have been done on all the actually illegal drugs than on this one.

Oh yeah… I think another reason they’ve got an “adgenda” to villainize ephedrine is because you can buy it off the shelf and take it home to your methamphetamine lab and cook it up. I think THAT’s a big motivator in the “give this drug a bad name” issue.

Maybe you shouldn’t choose what goes into your body based on conspiracy theories.

I’ll eat a Twinkie to that!

Haven’t taken it in a loooooong time. Say, 10 years or so? Personally, I’m more a fan of the herbal ginseng suppliments that can be had at various nutrition centers. Works wonders opening up my nose - which is otherwise 80% closed most of the time due to the… whatever, like you’d care :-) Anyway, I’m just saying that the initial charge of the righteous brigade against this drug was like 15 years ago, and my post reflects the conditions of it.

How about Nodoze and that whole rack of brightly colored caffiene candy that’s behind the counter at 7-11? Is any of that shit regulated? Heck if I know.

Nodoze is FDA approved.

I’m not particularly sure why anyone bothers getting FDA approval anymore; as long as you can take it orally, you can sell virtually anything as a “dietary supplement.”

Lead?

It’s discussed in the article; if a supplement is killing people, they have to go through a drawn out lawsuit to get it off the shelves. It’s a complete inverse of the usual standards.

Imagine my disappointment when I learned those “Thin Mints” Girl Scout cookies don’t work this way, either.

While I agree that just because something is a stimulant, that doesn’t make it a bad thing, I am not sure it’s fair to say ephedrine is just like caffeine. I haven’t heard of any sports related deaths linked to caffeine, but there have been at least 3 that I know of in the last 2 years linked to ephedrine. Is that proof? Nope. But it IS worth looking in to. Yes, it isn’t too common, and yes, it seems to be related to exertion. But I know I wouldn’t take any more than I could get in cold medicine, especially if I were an athlete.

http://washingtontimes.com/sports/20030218-30603284.htm

“Ephedra is no more or less dangerous than other stimulants by itself,” said Dr. Andrew Weil, a prominent Arizona-based physician active in herb therapy and alternative medicine. “The problem is that it is often taken in much too high doses and combined with other drugs. It is packaged and distributed in a dangerous way.”
Ephedra has been used in China for more than 4,000 years. The substance, combined with caffeine to produce sleep inhibitors, is also popular with truck drivers. In 1999, sales of ephedrine-related products surpassed $1 billion.

Dirty trucker porn and ephedra-- together at last!

Chemically, ephedrine is VERY similar to adrenaline. Like nearly identical, though as with all chemicals, even tiny differences make a huge difference in the resulting effect of the drug.

http://www.trygve.com/mfwapseudoeph.html

Ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are both beta adrenoceptor agonists, which means that they partially mimic the effects of having an adrenaline rush. “Partially,” because they differ structurally from adrenaline enough that they don’t perform all the actions that actual adrenaline would to the same degree–both ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, for example, elevate your heart rate and blood pressure less than adrenaline would. Ephedrine will do much more to dilate your bronchial passages and raise your body temperature (and metabolic rate) than psuedoephedrine will; pseudoephedrine, on the other hand, is more effective as a decongestant.

Caffeine, however, is a phosphodiesterase inhibitor, and phosphodiesterase is an enzyme that breaks down cAMP (cyclic adenosine monophosphate) which is a messenger chemical that is generated within the cell in response to the stimulation of a suitable receptor (such as a beta receptor excited by the presence of ephedrine). So, what caffeine does is to make the other stimulatory chemicals more effective–ephedrine switches the cellular processes on, caffeine makes them stay on longer.

So, yes, caffeine will cause pseudoephedrine to be more effective for keeping your nose clear than pseudoephedrine would be alone. Current research does not indicate that this is a major advantage in weight loss, however. So, you’re much better off with ephedrine, which can be found in several OTC asthma medications (and it’s not going to make much difference whether it’s ephedrine HCL or ephedrine sulphate).

Imagine my disappointment when I learned those “Thin Mints” Girl Scout cookies don’t work this way, either.[/quote]

is there a Sparky’sWorld.com or something that i am missing? i like daily doses of humor and that is twice today you have made me LOL with your posts.

:D