Ephedrine and the ECA stack

[Jay Mc]

This post has been adapted from a review paper I wrote. THe full paper can be found here. I feel like everyone agrees that ephedrine works so I'm going to try and address mostly safety issues here. If you wanna know more about the research showing it works check the paper it is covered in depth.

Ephedrine vs Ma Huang

Ephedrine is a chemical controlled by the FDA. It is approved for use only as a drug to treat asthma and congestion. It works by activating the beta 2 adrenergic pathways causing smooth muscles in the bronchioles to relax. Ma Huang is an herb used by the chinese for over 5000 years. Ma Huang is any one of the herbs from the Ephedra family. Most commonly Ephedra sinica is the herb of choice. The Ephedra family of plants contain ephedrine alkaloids (The ephedrine alkaloids are (-)ephedrine, (+)psuedoephedrine,
(-)methylephedrine, (-)norephedrine, and (+)norspuedoephedrine) but the most effective for weight control is (-)ephedrine and E. sinica contains mostly this from and psuedoephedrine making it the best choice. As far as pharmacokinetics (how quickly the drug enters the blood stream) and pharacological aspects the herb and the synthetic version work identically.

Why is ephedrine good for skinny guys

Due to sympathomimetic properties ephedrine helps suppress appetite and works to spare lean muscle and increase protein synthesis. This makes it an EXCELLENT choice as a "cutting" agent. Ephedrine helps gear the body to burn fat while preserving lean tissues. In fact, one study (conducted in vitro showed cellular respiration of brown adipose tissue increased when treated with ephedrine!).

A word about caffeine
Caffeine is a well-studied CNS stimulant with known effects as a pressor agent through peripheral vasoconstriction through an á-adrenergic stimulation pathway. Evidence presented by Battig (1993) shows these effects are seen in doses starting at 200-300 milligrams daily (roughly the amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee) and may engender increases in blood pressure from 10-15 mmHg. Battig points out an interesting characteristic of the pressor effect. The effects of a mid-morning cup of coffee are at least two times less than the effects of the morning’s first cup. In fact, replacement of caffeinated coffee with decaffeinated showed no increase or decrease amongst frequent coffee drinkers. Also, as the reported number of cups per day increases so does the tolerance to the pressor effect. Caffeine has also been shown to cause gastric stimulation.