American's & Stimulants, paper I wrote. Check it out
wrote this about 2 years ago. When doing the research, thought this was interesting. let me kno what u guys think
Stimulant Supplements by ADAM BANKS
Why are people so interested in the use of dietary supplements? The reason is simple, to enhance overall physical appearance. Living in California especially makes this goal more desirable because plastic surgery is more common in this state and warm weather means people show their body more often. Physical enhancement is sought after by millions of people. People are infatuating with losing weight to enhance their over all look. They will do anything to achieve this look the easiest and fastest way possible. Americans are generally impatient people because everything Americans do in life is quick and easy. Most Americans would probably watch less or maybe even no television at all if they did not have a remote control because they just do not want to put forth the effort to getting up and changing the channel. Why bother with all that effort when you can just use a remote to do all the work for you? So in turn, Americans expect looking fit and healthy should be just as easy as changing the channel on television with a remote control.
An easy way to seek faster improvements in body contour is by using the popular sports supplement that may help a person achieve weight/fat loss, increase energy and enhance athletic performance is “Ephedra (Ephedra sinica), also known as Ma-Huang, Ephedra is an herbal stimulant drug composed of two active compounds (pseudoephedrine and ephedrine) they are ingredients in many over-the-counter products.” Ephedrine is derived from a Chinese plant called Ephedra or (Ma Huang). China mainly uses its substance as a brochodilator to aid in the fight against asthma, allergies, nasal congestion and upper respiratory symptoms. Ephedrine causes the bronchial tubes to dilate and blood vessels in the nose to shrink.
Another common stimulant by the name of (caffeine) is found in our everyday morning drink (coffee) is also added to these dietary supplement stimulant fat burners. Caffeine is added to the supplement for the ultimate boost in energy or blood pressure I should say. Caffeine is the most widely used stimulant drug in the world, it is usually ingested in the form of coffee, tea, soft drinks, chocolate and now sport supplements. When caffeine enters the body it is well absorbed by the stomach and intestine. Peak blood levels occur about forty-five to sixty minutes after ingestion.
When caffeine enters the blood stream, blood pressure rises, pulse rate and stomach acid production are increased. Fat stores are then broken down, and fatty acids are released into the blood stream. The effects usually last for a few hours or more. After continual use with caffeine the body will build a tolerance. For example, caffeine will increase blood pressure and pulse rate in a first time user; a regular user will not notice any significant change with the stimulant. Caffeine and athletic performance is a controversial topic because researching data is conflicting. I was able to find some general agreements in some of the areas discussed about caffeine, one “Caffeine does not appear to benefit short term, high intensity exercise (eg. sprinting) and two, caffeine can enhance performance in endurance sports. I thought this was a significant quote to how caffeine works in the body and essential to know because seventy-five percent of all Americans drink coffee.
“Glycogen is the principal fuel for muscles and exhaustion occurs when it is depleted. A secondary fuel, which is much more abundant, is fat. As long as there is still glycogen available, working muscles can utilize fat. Caffeine mobilizes fat stores and encourages working muscles to use fat as a fuel. This delays the depletion of muscle glycogen and allows for a prolongation of exercise. The critical time period in glycogen sparing appears to occur during the first 15 minutes of exercise, where caffeine has been shown to decrease glycogen utilization by as much as 50%.
Glycogen saved at the beginning is thus available during the later stages of exercise. Although the exact method by which caffeine does this is still unclear, caffeine caused sparing in all of the human studies where muscle glycogen levels were measured. The effect on performance, which was observed in most experimental studies, was that subjects were able to exercise longer until exhaustion occurred.” 1
Now that you understand how caffeine is used in athletic performance I would like to give you an idea about what brands of supplements carry some of the mentioned stimulants. The list I have created contains the following ingredients: caffeine, Green tea extract, Bitter orange extract and Ephedra/Ma Huang.
I would like you to note that, not every brand contains all stimulants in them that I have listed; only a few contain all. These stimulants are found in: Metabolife 356, Ripped Fuel, Hydroxy Cut, Extreme Ripped Force, Diet Fuel, GH Fuel, Herba Fuel, MetaboLift, ThermiCare, ETA Stack, Xenadrine RFA-1, Ultimate Orange, UltraCuts, Vasopro, Adipokinex, ThermoPlex, Thermogenic Power, Chinese Ephedra, MetaCuts, Chinese Ma Huang, Stacker 2, Lipokinetix, Clenbutrx, BetaLean HP, Diet Pep, Diurlean and Dyma-Burn Xtreme. As you can see with all the different brands there are a plethora of supplements out on the market. Why are there so many? It all boils down to one thing and that is money, supplement companies know how much money is involved with dieting so they are trying to convince you “the dieter” that their supplement is superior from all the others with occasionally exceptional research, testimonials, clinical studies and let’s not forget those ridiculous before and after photos.
The price of this supplement is mildly expensive. To see significant results you would probably have to run about two cycles of this product. That would cost roughly about eighty dollars give or take. You really cannot obtain any stimulants through food so I would say this is a somewhat of a fair price for a drug that does give significant results.
Most of these stimulants have been discovered over a thousand years ago so there are tons and tons of information on them, especially caffeine and ephedra. There is not as much information on green tea extract and bitter orange extract as there is caffeine and ephedra but still a fair amount is acquired.
When looking on advertising websites that wish to sell you a stimulant-inducing product they claim that you should see results in about four to six weeks with an adequate diet and exercise. From personal use I know that the dietary supplement works as soon as it is taken orally if you are just looking for an extra boost in the gym, but as far as seeing in physical results in body shape, that takes longer. Websites selling this product claim that it raises your metabolism. Most websites claim that Ephedrine is not an magic a pill, it will not just suck the fat out of you. Ephedrine will only work with an adequate diet and exercise. The websites obviously do claim that this dietary supplement has a magical ingrediet and that would be Mu Haung, after all this pill would not work if it did not contain this ingredient. Another ingredient that I think is kept in the dark is the caffeine that is added along with the ephedra. Most people think it’s mainly the ephedrine when it’s really both of these ingredients giving this effect, that’s why is produces that jittery feeling.
According to Pharma-Help.com which is website that does sell this product. They have evidence and testimonials as well that concludes that this product is very effective at achieving significant fat loss. Their website research indicates, “Clinical studies have shown exceptional weight loss and fat control results achieved with Xenadrine. One study, had shown that the Xenadrine group achieve 759% more weight-loss than the placebo group in 6 weeks. The Xenadrine group also had much more increase in lean muscle mass than the placebo group. A positive note from these studies had shown the subjects did not experience any negative side effects.” 2 I personally do not think this is a significant study. The study does not note how many people were involved which could potentially just ruin the whole experiment all together, also it does not note what type of people were used such as in their over all athetic condition, were they obese or did they have average health? Lastly, no control group was stated. A placebo group was used. I personally will only give credit for significant studies to people who have good creditials, usually well known university professsors and highly decorated Doctors.
This study has none of this which means they have little validty and it has no reliability. Here is a testomonial I grabbed from pharma-help.com that was written by Scott Stevens. "I'm 43 years old and I'm in the best shape of my life. Xenadrine RFA-1 allowed me to lose my beer gut that I spent years accumulating. I always had plenty energy for my workouts too." 2 Once again this tesmonial really boosts the oral stimulant more than it should from my knowledge. In Stevens testmonial he states that the ephedra allowed him to lose his beer gut that he spent “years accumulating” and was able to get himself in the best shape of his life. It does state wheter his diet was changed nor if anything else in his life was changed. By reading this testomial I would have to indicate that they are hyping it up way more then it really is, this testmonial describes it as magic, magic it not.
In another study that I found where the website was not selling the product but only giving information about it had said Harvard University medical university had done a study. In their study they used a 167 men and women, they were given at random either a combination containing Ephedra and Caffeine or a placebo. The results showed that the group that was given the Ephedra/Caffeine combination lost an average of 15.2 lbs over a six-month period verses a loss of only 6.8 pounds for the placebo group. A similar study at Columbia University was done that had similar results. These studies have good validity and reliability and prove that the product does give desired results. From the research that I have been doing I noted that a large volume of Americans use stimulants. I would not say that any particular group uses them. I would say mainly anyone seeking to lose weight, male and female and generally athletes use this product.
In most of the advertisements we see online and in stores, they usually are showing physical transformations that are made in people. In one transformation I saw a middle-aged man go from approximatly 25% body fat to about 6% body fat which is phenomenal! Of course, when a dietary supplement that is that phenomenal, it is most likely too good to be true. It just really is not possible for most average people to drop that much body fat all from a stimulant-inducing pill with in a three month period because I know from personal experience and other articles that I have read.
It is exceptionally difficult if you are an beginner to dieting and fitness. For some people it could take up two years to reduce their body fat to percentages as low as that. When those pictures were taken others factors were most likely involved such as the use of other drugs, personal trainers and them probably not being a newbie to the fitness world. I’ve even seen some before and after pictures where the before picture of the person was definetly not a beginner, judging on their body contour. Meaning that the before picutre was probably a bodybuilder in his bulking stage where he had more fat because they were taking in additional calories. Then when they appear in the after picture they are smiling, tan and have shedded most their body fat. Professional and amateur bodybuilders go through these phases all the time making it very easy for them to gain or lose body fat.
On December 31, 2003 the well known supplements containing ephedra/Ma Huang is banned by the Food and Drug Administration. Commissioner Mark McClellan of the Food and Drug Administration said that products containing ephedra “present an unreasonable risk of illness or injury.” 3 After the Ban of ephedra, the FDA notified sixty-two companies that produced it letting them know to take it off the market.
In my opinion I think the ban of ephedra was due to the fact that the professional athlete of the Baltimore Orioles Steve Bechler passed away. A medical examiner said that ephedra was linked to the twenty three year olds tragic death. On a side note, to this drug really being that dangerous. Industry groups say ephedra is safe when used properly. Twelve and seventeen million Americans use it each year before the ban took place.
So now that ephedra is no longer readily available, other alternative stimulants have taken it’s place which are Bitter orange extract and Green tea extract. I did not find information indicating that these stimulants were less effective but obviously they are because they would have never used them as an alternative. Both of these stimulants are all natural and are thermogenic inducing. Let’s take a look at bitter orange extract. Bitter orange extract is the whole, unripe fruit of the madarin orange. The Chinese have used this herb for thousands of years to help improve liver function, stimulate gastrointestinal functions, and treat indigestion. In regards to weight loss “bitter orange is used in weight loss supplements due to its ability to bind to B-3 receptors, a subgroup of B cell receptors. This binding causes an increase in the rate at which fat is released from body stores for energy production, and increases the resting metabolic rate.” 4 Long term effects or potential harm from high dose of bitter orange ingestion is still not fully understood.
The safest stimulant off all that I mentioned is Green tea extract. Green tea extract is and antioxidant as well. This stimulant does not raise blood pressure but if used it will increase the risk for bladder cancer according to Dr. Mercola who submitted comments about green tea extract in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Now that I have a better knowledge of the subject I would advise anyone that uses stimulant supplements to use as directed and to be cautious when using the supplement. Even though ehpedra is still banned I would say it’s still okay to use it only if you’re a knowledgeable athlete who uses correctly. I would say all beginners should stay away from it.
Work Cited
www.rice.edu - https://www.rice.edu/~jenky/sports/caffeine.html
2 www.pharma-help.com - https://pharma-help.com/xenadrine/exp...and-reviews-of xenadrine
3 www.cnn.com - https://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/12/30/ephedra/
4 www.wellfx.com - https://www.wellfx.com/Newsletter/April_Newsletter.html
Re: American's & Stimulants, paper I wrote. Check it out
Re: American's & Stimulants, paper I wrote. Check it out
