Mixelflick
Active member
I am no doctor and I am not advising anyone to use ephedrine unless they choose to do so on their own.
Having made that disclaimer, I remember having a nurse friend of mine tell me that if I used ephedrine I would blow my heart out (about 15 years ago). I did some research and found much of what Mixelflick is saying is true. And as far as dosage/safety.....the effective dose is suggested to be 20-50 mg up to 3 times/day. There are cases of attempted suicides where people swallowed entire bottles of ephedrine pills and survived...that's about 10-15X the effective dose. They would have had more success killing themselves with aspirin or acetaminophen probably.
Pulling E from the market was a huge mistake IMO. Norcodrene is the first product I can say legitimately closes the gap that was left.
In total agreement here, but it had nothing to do with safety. The fat loss market is potentially HUGE for big pharma, and E/C was doing a better job than anything they've come up with before or since, at pennies on the dollar. SIDE NOTES: The Rand study the gov't commissioned to "study" ephedrine included a case report of a death they attributed to ephedrine. The kicker? This person as DECAPITATED in an auto accident later in the day, but had some in their system.
In other news, where they couldn't ban it outright they banned it through the back door: Insurance. Since I worked there for 20 years, I know how it works. You drum up enough negative press on something and it's seen as "risky", especially to stuffy insurance folk. So you want to carry ephedrine in your store, or include it in your product? OK, but the insurance you'll have to carry will nearly bankrupt you.
So, they pass it along to us the consumer. The die-hards who know the truth will still buy it, but they've effectively shrunken the market to 1/1000th of what it once was..