Contents

Page 1
1.0 Introduction.
2.0 Calculating the ephedrine/caffeine content.
2.1 Where does the 20/200 amount come from?
Page 2
3.0 What about willow bark/aspirin?
3.1 What about synephrine, St. John's wort, carnitine, etc?
Page 3
3.2 What about cycling and adrenal exhaustion?
Page 4
3.3 The beta-3 scandal: the discovery
Page 5
3.4  The beta 3 scandal: the truth withheld
Page 6
4.0 Do not start with the full dose.
Page 7
4.1 Is ECA safe?
Page 8
4.2 Massive obesity.
Page 9
5.0 Selecting a good thermogenic formula.
5.1 Price Comparison.

3.4 The Beta 3 Scandal: The Truth Withheld

The pharmaceutical companies know all about the beta-3 receptor and thermogenesis. In fact, they have spent many years and lots of money developing drugs that stimulate this fat burning mechanism. The last thing in the world they want to see is people taking inexpensive thermogenic supplements instead of paying $3.00 a pill for their upcoming prescription drugs. As you can see, this massive investment of time and money is threatened by herbal thermogenic supplements that use your body's own noradrenaline to stimulate the beta-3 receptors. Needless to say, the pharmaceutical companies are not too happy with mother nature!

By 1986, after decades of animal research, Dulloo and Miller had clearly established that obese humans suffered from a noradrenaline deficiency that could be corrected by the ephedrine/caffeine combination:

"It would seem that a deficiency of NA [noradrenaline] due to reduced SNS [sympathetic nervous system] activity, rather than an insensitivity to NA, is primarily responsible for the apparently higher efficiency of energy utilization in the obese or post-obese. The present study shows that this situation may be relieved by sympathomimetic drugs like the ephedrine methylxanthines [caffeine] preparation which normalizes their subnormal thermogenic response to food . . . Such ephedrine/methylxanthine preparations could be useful as aids in the treatment of obesity" (24).

Dulloo and Miller repeatedly tried to get the medical industry to use this combination to help obese people but the medical/pharmaceutical industry turned a deaf ear and kept their eyes focused on the bottom line ($$$) as they continued developing beta 3 drugs. I know this sounds like the Twilight Zone, but obese people eventually found out about this life saving information because bodybuilders dug up the research and started using ephedrine/caffeine to burn fat while preparing for bodybuilding contests! Eventually the information spread outside the bodybuilding world and -- finally -- obese people found out about it. Is that mind-blowing or what??? Think about it. Hundreds of thousands of obese people dying year after year after year -- and this is how we found out about a life saving medication!

I've been researching thermogenesis for over a decade and I still find it hard to believe that muscleheads have done more to help obese people than the medical establishment. At any rate, since 1986 roughly 4 million people have died of obesity-related deaths. There is no way to calculate what percentage of these victims could have been helped if the truth about ECA had not been withheld, however, this is clearly a tragedy of historic proportions.

For more safety info, including ECA and stress tests, the 12 week time limit, and quotes from the FDA's anti-ephedrine medical articles, see Health Canada Bans Thermogenic Supplements.

Written
Mar 2000
Last Update
Mar 2000

By 1992 obesity scientists were so frustrated with this tragic situation that they organized an international symposium in an attempt to get the medical/pharmaceutical industry to use ECA. In the editorial they explained why scientists from around the globe felt they had to do this:

"something had to be done to help the existing obese population, and what better way than to use a drug that was already available, and had stood the test of time. We hope that this symposium will help convince a much larger number of people that this is still a viable approach, and that large clinical trials with ephedrine, or combinations of ephedrine with other common, established drugs are both necessary and ethically justified" (11-NA).

Unfortunately, even this was not enough to pull greedy eyes off the bottom line. In the face of overwhelming evidence from obesity scientists and clinicians from all over the world, the medical/pharmaceutical industry once again proved that it is only interested in making us pay through the nose for prescription drugs that are VERY similar to ECA (chronic use). Dulloo and Stock were so candid about this scandalous situation that even I was shocked. They really let the cat out of the bag: "most, if not all of the undesirable side-effects of ephedrine exhibit tachyphylaxis [desensitization], whereas the thermogenic effects are preserved or even enhanced by chronic treatment. This later phenomenon suggests that it may not be necessary to develop selective drugs (eg. B3-agonists)" [beta-3 drugs] (11-NA). The side effects go away but the fat burning continues or even increases!

We have a tragic situation where an estimated 300,000 people die each year of obesity-related conditions, and for well over a decade, the medical/pharmaceutical industry has stubbornly refused to use these life-saving thermogenic supplements. Apparently, they are willing to pretend that there is no way to help obese people until they can price-gouge us with prescription beta-3 drugs. Meanwhile, obesity scientists are saying that ECA is so safe and effective that it "may not be necessary to develop selective drugs (eg. B3-agonists)" [beta-3 drugs] (11-NA).

This is most remarkable since scientists almost always use careful, measured language. But how much avoidable death can one watch before speaking out? Thus, numerous researchers have been candid about this situation: "the ephedrine/caffeine mixture can promote not only fat loss but also preservation of free fatty mass [muscle] during weight reduction in obese individuals. These properties make these compounds very similar to the ideal pharmacological treatment" (25-NA) [emphasis added]. And now, 8 years after the international symposium the medical industry is still not using -- or even telling obese people the truth about -- the ephedrine/caffeine combination. If obesity was not such a stigmatized condition there would be a criminal investigation of this callous disregard for human life.

Furthermore, as if that's not bad enough, the FDA is acting like a hired gun protecting the investments of the pharmaceutical industry by flooding the media with dubious MedWatch reports designed to scare people away from thermogenic supplements and set the stage for an outright ban of ephedrine. If their evil plan is successful, by the time the prescription beta-3 drugs finally become available, ephedrine and ma huang will be taken off the market. This, of course, would ensure windfall profits for the drug companies and (eventually) FDA officials, who enjoy revolving-door employment with the pharmaceutical industry.

The big losers, of course, will be the obese people who can't afford the "new" prescription drugs (and people who find that they responded better to ECA). Well, I guess you got to break a few eggs to maintain a monopoly. I hope enough people read the medical literature and speak out about this scandalous situation before it's too late.

    
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TOC

1.) Astrup A and Toubro S "Thermogenic, metabolic, and cardiovascular responses to ephedrine and caffeine in man" Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 1993, Vol 17 Suppl 1 Pg S41-3, PMID: 0008384179.

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