The FDA and many state Departments of Health have been targeting ephedrine/caffeine supplements for the past ten years. I am often asked if they are safe, and if they will be taken off of the market. While they are not legal to be sold over the counter in some states, the vitamin industry has taken steps to help keep these effective products available.

First off, let's be honest about ephedrine and caffeine. They are stimulants. They raise your heart rate and blood pressure. They are not for kids or people with any existing or family history of many diseases. Any responsible supplement manufacturer will do everything possible to make sure that their product is labeled in such a way to warn of the possible side effects. Texas was one of the first states to require specific wording on ephedrine/caffeine product labels.

A lot of negative press has been distributed over the past few years, reporting of injuries and deaths, apparently due to the use of products containing ephedrine or ephedrine/caffeine. While I am certain that some people have died while using the product, the circumstances surrounding what they were using and how they were using it are often clouded. Many deaths blamed on ephedrine/caffeine are cases where other legal and/or illegal drugs were used simultaneously, or there was intentional consumption of higher than recommended amounts of the supplements. Many milder injuries (heart palpitations, shortness of breath, etc.) occur in cases of long-term dieters, who may have been on reduced calorie diets for long periods of time.

Ephedrine/caffeine supplements suppress appetite and allow people to undereat. If this becomes a habit, lean body mass (including heart tissue) is reduced in a manner similar to anorexia. Heart attacks are known to occur in severe cases of anorexia, and extreme use of ephedrine/caffeine supplements to limit caloric intake would produce predictably similar results. The most important advice to take when you are using ephedrine/caffeine supplements is to NOT SKIP MEALS. In fact, you should eat more often, eating less each meal. The appetite suppression effect should help you be able to not eat as much at each sitting, but going long periods of time without food slows your metabolism, and is actually counterproductive in the long run, even though it appears to be successful in the short run.

Here's something interesting that I've found while looking through adverse reaction reports on the FDA Medwatch site. There are separate reporting methods for prescription drugs and herbal compounds. Finding out how many adverse reactions were reported for herbal products, as compared to those reported for prescription medications used for the same purpose, should be able to provide a report of relative safety, right? One problem; adverse reactions reported by physicians for prescriptions eliminate all negative reactions due to anything other than the exact prescribed use. This means that any adverse reaction caused by any non-prescribed use (borrowing your friend's drugs, intentional or unintentional overdose, illegally obtained drugs, wrong drug due to pharmacist not being able to read the MD's handwriting, or any other use other than the right person taking the right dose), is NOT reported at all.

However, adverse reactions for herbal preparations (including ephedrine/caffeine supplements) are reported any time they are present, even if other drugs, including prescription drugs were used. This means that if your kid takes Ritalin, and goes to spring break and takes a bunch of Herbal Ecstacy (ephedrine), and ends up in the emergency room complaining of chest pains, guess which gets the blame? Yep, the ephedrine-containing product gets the blame, and Ritalin is not reported as an adverse reaction. Why? Because, even though it is a powerful stimulant, closely related to methamphetamines (that's a whole other story), and is much more powerful than ephedrine, the system is not designed to find fault with a prescription medication, used by the properly prescribed user.

You would think that with the deck this stacked against ephedrine/caffeine, there would be hundreds, if not thousands, of people dropping like flies. How many people do you think take ephedrine/caffeine products each year? It's in the billions (with a B) of doses. The University of California San Francisco conducted a study (funded by the FDA), looking at 140 "adverse events" reported to have been caused by ephedrine products. There was no mention of how many years it took to collect the 140 cases, but in other studies, periods of seven to eight years are required to find this many events. Out of these 140 events reported by physicians of ephedrine causing problems, the study could only find 87 of them had any relationship to ephedrine at all. To get to this number, they had to lump together all of the "definitely", "probably", and "possibly" caused by ephedrine together. They didn't say how many of each. How many people died? Ten. Now, any deaths are bad, but how many people died taking Phen/Fen? Do you see the lack of proportion of attention paid to the real problem?

Is there any good news? Yes. The International Journal of Obesity conducted a trial using ephedra (ephedrine) and guarana (caffeine). The results of the eight week trial; the combination produced moderate weight loss. This was a double blind, clinical trial, and shows what many SNS customers know; you can safely lose weight by taking ephedrine/caffeine supplements, following label directions.

Here are some precautions you should exercise when taking ephedrine/caffeine:

1. Follow label directions exactly. If you have any condition listed on the label, don't take the product.
2. Drink more water than you normally would. The same mechanism that governs hunger, also controls thirst. The increase in heat caused by ephedrine/caffeine will cause you to lose more water to cool your body. You will need to consciously increase water intake.
3. Do not skip meals. Ephedrine/caffeine will help you to reduce the portion sizes of meals, but you should eat smaller meals, more frequently. Skipping meals slows metabolism.
4. If you ever feel uncomfortable, short of breath, dizzy, or anything unusual, stop taking the supplement immediately, and see a doctor as soon as possible. You may have an underlying, previously unknown condition that needs to be addressed. You may have had a bit of luck in finding it early.

Don't always believe the stories you read or hear about vitamins or supplements, until you hear the whole story. Thousands of SNS customers have safely and effectively used the three types of ephedrine/caffeine products.

Want to know more about Ephedra? Visit the Ephedra Facts website.