newf said:
I've used xendrine, thermo pro and a few others a few years ago. There's a reason it illegal don't you think? Anyway, just this guy is quick to say he's a pro and quite frankly is trying to lure people to his forums. Which is ok to me but don't try to tell people they shouldn't workout at home. That's stupid.
Well, for starters, I believe photo312 is a trainer on Zegee.com, not an actual administrator of the site. Secondly, as I said before, ephedrine wasn't made illegal, EPHEDRA was. Ephedra is the herbal form of ephedrine, and ephedrine are the saponins found in the herbal form. The point was that it wasn't to be sold as a weight loss supplement, but had numerous other applications.
Ever hear of Sudafed? That's ephedrine.
There have been proven side effects of ephedrine. I teach a National personal trianing certification course, and I make sure I tell them never to suggest any supplements to anyone!
Aspirin kills more people each year than ephedra ever did, but you don't recommend people stop taking that for headaches do you? The fact of the matter is that supplementation (and I'm not just talking about weight loss or performance supplementation here) is a different side of the fence than allopathic medicine is in the U.S. today.
Right now in the U.S. we have a medical industry in which a lot of money is changing hands, but there are still very basic health needs that aren't being addressed for the majority of the populace. Even supposedly well-tested drugs (Vioxx, Celebrex, Betaseron, etc.) are found later to be very detrimental, even life threatening to their patients - whereas the majority of supplements (barring steroids, of course) are perfectly safe when used as directed - except in cases of say, allergic reactions.
The naturopathic/preventative approach of supplementation is to prevent disease BEFORE it happens - whereas allopathic medicine, the predominant system in the U.S. - mainly seeks to cure diseases once they come up. Fighting disease rather than preventing it.
As for condition based supplementation - e.g. weight loss, sports nutrition, performance enhancers, weight gainers, etc - when used as directed (for by definition anything is bad for you when you take too much) are very safe.
Many of the ephedra/ine deaths (under 155 related deaths in the U.S.
ever) were later proven to be caused primarily by other conditions (most notably dehydration). Those who suffered heart related conditions either had a history of high blood pressure (which the labelling on ANY stimulant clearly warns of) or were taking well over the recommended dosage. It's also worth noting that Mua Huang (the native name of the ephedra herb) has been in circulation for thousands of years - but it wasn't until an athlete who died of dehydration was found to have been taking ephedra did they seek to ban it.
However, I can understand how as a trainer you may be more reluctant to suggest something that has been linked to any deaths whatsoever as, like you said, you wouldn't want that hanging over your head. To shut out all supplementation? I consider that very naive, especially for someone who is making health recommendations for others.
