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12/30/2003 Archived Entry: "Ephedra ban"
Ephedra ban
Tommy Thompson just announced a ban on the herbal stimulant ephedra in a news conference.
Now, I realize the stuff is bad and should not be sold without any sort of regulation - hell, some young kid here in NY died last year from taking the stuff. The ban can only save lives at this point.
But I'll be damned if I didn't sit here throughout the entire news conference and wonder about the real motives behind the ban. This is life in George W. Bush's America - even when they're doing the right thing, skeptics like myself have come to wonder about ulterior motives as a matter of course.
This sucks. We have to vote this guy out next year. I'm tired of this.
Replies: 21 people speak up
Damn!! I thought the same thing, and my instincts led me to a social hot button like RU-486. Count on it.
Posted by Geist @ 12/30/2003 01:37 PM NY
Me too, I thought the same thing. Was the pharmaceutical industry lobbying for its removal because it competes with prescription diet drugs?
Posted by D-Mo @ 12/30/2003 02:23 PM NY
Same immediate thought - RU-486
Just what he'll need to shore up that Christian base if they start to waiver at the end.....
You heard it from Giest 1st!
Posted by Hillary Pelosi @ 12/30/2003 02:59 PM NY
"Now, I realize the stuff is bad and should not be sold without any sort of regulation - hell, some young kid here in NY died last year from taking the stuff. The ban can only save lives at this point."
Before I launch, I would like to say that I love this site, I loved the Question Mark Campaign-- you HAVE to do one for 2004; you HAVE TO!!-- and I respect your judgment on most subjects. However, you couldn't have dropped the ball harder on this one.
Ephedra has been used in Chinese medicine for longer than this country has been in existence. Every single person who has died from its use in this country has died because they abused it. For example-- how dumb do you have to be to take a thermogenic supplement and then go exercise in the heat?? Pretty damn dumb.
They actually tried to ban ephedra before. Clinton was in the White House back then, and there were fewer Repharmicans in Congress. During the hearing, one of the Congressmen made a comment to the effect of, "This is crap. I can only suspect the motives of whoever it was that brought this to us." I'll check my back issues of Muscular Development for the name of the Congressman and the exact quote.
Bottom line-- ephedra is way way way way way safer than ANY prescription drug-- hell, thousands more people die from taking Advil-- every year-- than the total that have died from ephedra abuse. The media has crying "Shark!" on this one.
. . .all the more reason to take it back.
Posted by Raijin>> @ 12/30/2003 03:10 PM NY
Have always prefered ephedra to caffein. (sorry TMCM). Asprin causes ulcers. Tylenol damages livers. I had an alergic reaction to pepcid ac. A horrible rash covered my entire body. If i just take one pepcid now i start to get a rash. Like i built up some kind of perminate toxic level. If I were in power..."No More Pepcid AC's For Anybody.
Posted by da lurker @ 12/30/2003 03:49 PM NY
I fully understand the paranoia and cynicism over anything this admin does or says. Hell, if an administration spokesperson held a press conference and admonished all of us to eat a balance diet, I'd probably start eating Twinkies.
Posted by Metropolitan99 @ 12/30/2003 04:24 PM NY
Raijin - Good point. And since you brought it up, it makes me wonder even more why they went out of their way to ban it.
D-Mo's theory that Big Pharma is bhind this is making more sense to me now.
And in answer to your request - yes, the QM Campaign will most definitely be re-launched for election year. Thanks for the support - hope I can keep you coming back.
Posted by editor @ 12/30/2003 04:41 PM NY
Damn right Big Pharma's behind this. As already pointed out, ephedra is nearly harmless. But guess what? It can't be patented! Another pointless shot fired in the War on Some Drugs.
Posted by Chesher Kat @ 12/30/2003 04:49 PM NY
NSAID deaths
On February 15th 2003 I reported on the deadly consequences of NSAID toxicity. Recently I was asked to provide a specific citation on my statistics. Here it is.
These numbers document, again, the utter irrationality of drug policy and law in the United States. One would assume that drug laws would be first concerned with reducing harm to the American public. Instead, the priorities are backwards.
....15th most common cause of death in the United States....
Posted by da lurker @ 12/30/2003 05:00 PM NY
As an avid drug user for many years I feel I need to add my two cents here. This will not save lives. There are a hundred other substances one can take to get fucked up. Datura is the most intense and deadly family of hallucinogenic plants I've ever come across, yet you can find them just about anywhere in America.
It's the wak-a-mole effect. You can't crack down on every mind altering chemical. Smack one down, another pops up somewhere else.
The key to saving lives is to educate people on how to use drugs as safely as possible (like sex education.) As in: "Don't take a half dozen ephedra pills and run a marathon in hundred degree heat." People aren't dumb for not knowing this, they are uneducated because the real stupid people think it is better to outlaw drugs and spread lies about their use than to act responsibly to insure the public health.
Posted by C Bryan Lavigne @ 12/30/2003 05:52 PM NY
Greetings, Editor. Still searching my MD archives. This is what I found so far:
* Ephedra has actually been in use for over 5,000 years in China. That's almost as long as civilization has been around.
* The total number of ephedra deaths may have recently broken 100 this year. Compare that to NSAID deaths-- hell compare that to prescription diet drugs!
* Get this-- the FDA says that Adverse Event Reports (AERs) cannot be used to determine the rate of side effects. One guess as to what they used to determine the rate of side effects for ephedra products, anyone? All you'll ever hear about is the huge number of AERs, but the way they are collected is this: You call up and report a symptom. If you get a headache after taking a multivitamin, you can call that in and it goes into the AER statistics. This is, needless to say, hardly scientific!
* A good portion of the deaths blamed on ephedra can easily be chalked up to something else. In most of the cases it is not at all clear-cut that ephedra caused the deaths.
Something's fishy here, folks. But then again, it's but one thing on a long list of things that are fishy with this administration. I wonder how long it's going to be before they start banning vitamin supplements?? BTW, Googling "August 1999" + "GAO" + "ephedra" will yield a number of links about the GAO saying the FDA was basically full of shit.
Anyway, "Greetings From The Cayman Islands" remains my favorite. Keep me coming back? Try and stop me!! :)
Posted by Raijin>> @ 12/30/2003 06:00 PM NY
One more thing and then I'm shutting up about it.
"The tragic death of baseball pitcher Steve Bechler was the catalyst for this inquiry."
...
"Dr. Baden concluded, specifically, as
follows:
I agree with Dr. Perper that the cause of Mr. Bechler's death
was heat stroke. However, I disagree as to the cause of this
heat stroke. Mr. Bechler's poor health, vigorous exercise in
hot, muggy weather, severe obesity, abnormal fatty liver,
untreated high blood pressure, and enlarged heart are competent
factors in and of themselves to be causes of heat stroke. The
coincidental toxicologic finding of ephedrine, which is not
known to produce heat stroke, in my opinion should not have
been linked to the death by the medical examiner--just as the
medical examiner did not link the finding of increased level of
DHEA to his death.
It is my opinion, to a reasonable degree of medical
certainty, based on all of the materials I have thus far
reviewed, on my training and on my 43 years experience as a
medical examiner, that Mr. Bechler died of a heat stroke
precipitated by his morbid obesity, high blood pressure and
heart disease, adverse weather conditions, physical exertion,
and inadequate screening, monitoring and medical supervision;
that Xenadrine did not cause or contribute to Mr. Bechler's
death; and that proper and prompter treatment with intravenous
fluids and cold wraps immediately after he collapsed but was
still conscious may have prevented Mr. Bechler's death.
It should be highlighted that the death of Steve Bechler is the
first time ephedra has been blamed as the cause of a fatal heat stroke.
There is no report of heat stroke associated with ephedra in the Cantox
Report or the RAND Corporation report or found in the online medical
libraries. In literally dozens of studies, ephedra-based products have
been shown to be safe when used properly."
Posted by Raijin>> @ 12/30/2003 06:10 PM NY
First of all, took it. Hated the jitters.
Second, the ban strikes me more as a bailout of those selling the stuff. Right now, the news about it really is like shark attacks or cyanide in the Tylenol. People, at least for now, are going to be looking for it and avoid it like the plague. And anyone still selling it would likely go under. You ban it now, and those potential GOP contributors (you know, like the Savage Wiener) still are in business.
In short, it's government interference to score political points. Libertarians should be incensed.
Posted by Dr. Squid @ 12/30/2003 07:23 PM NY
another illeagle weed
Posted by frankly peidmont @ 12/30/2003 07:47 PM NY
Raijin, what's the rate of use for ephedra products compared to NSAIDs? Giving the number of deaths isn't at all helpful because the ratio of deaths to use is what's important.
Another factor is how many people have died do to ingestion of a blatantly unsafe dosage. I would hazard to guess that many if not most of the deaths from ephedra are due to overdose. People take ephedrine in massive amounts (I know I have.)
But of course, it's every individuals own decision whether to ingest a substance or not.
Posted by C Bryan Lavigne @ 12/31/2003 03:14 AM NY
What doesn't make sense to me, is that we are banning a natural stimulant that can have health consequences if used incorrectly. Often during the deaths it was used incorrectly.
Every year over 400,000 people die of Tobacco related deaths, over 100,000 people die of alcohol related deaths, and close to 10,000 die from deaths related to anti-inflamitories (aspirin/acediminifin), and just to throw this out there - no one dies from Marijuana. Yet everyday in schools Marijuana is labled as a deadly drug, to my knowledge nobody tells kids about the harmful and irreparable liver damage the acediminifin (tylenol) can do.
I'm rambling again... but I think what was mentioned above is correct. America doesn't have a drug problem, America has a drug education problem.
If it was drilled into peoples heads how dangerous ephedra could be when taking multiple pills and exercising while dehydrated, maybe lives could have been saved.
Posted by sellursoul @ 12/31/2003 08:19 AM NY
Well, before the ban, we were talking about *billions* of doses taken every year, same as with popular OTC or prescription drugs. Supplements containing ephedra were/are very popular. Following the link above, something like 16,500 people die from taking NSAIDS every year. The total number of ephedra-related deaths, and this includes deaths where ephedra is not clearly the culprit (e.g. Steve Bechler's death) is about 100. As far as ratios, well, that's 10:2,000,000,000 (assuming a bare minimum number for "billions" and a generous estimate of 10 deaths a year) for ephedra. Statstically insignificant.
Posted by Raijin>> @ 12/31/2003 09:37 AM NY
I don't think I'd put ephedra use in the billions. If it were that high I don't think the pharmalobby would have had a problem killing this ban at birth.
Posted by C Bryan Lavigne @ 01/02/2004 10:25 PM NY
The U.S. Gov't has really become dissapointing being we are the most powerful country in the world and known as the land of the free. Cigarrettes have been to kill you for how long??(30, 40 yrs???)But yet are they banned. No! WHY??? MONEY plain and simple money made. Something that does nothing for you except addict you. But ban something that does have some good. Try taking a handful of potassium and see what happens?? Better yet don't since thats the main ingredient in lethal injections!!! But smoke up America and drink another 5th because that is still ok.
Posted by verydissapointed @ 01/04/2004 09:45 AM NY
That '5,000 years' bit is nice-sounding, but false. There isn't any evidence going back that far. 2,000 years, still a very long time, is about all there is evidence for.
The FDA's previous standard on Chinese ephedra was excellent, reasoned...not this political bs.
If individual manufacturers (like the one that triggered this fiasco) produce unsafe products, let them be individually banned. Meanwhile, the levels of ephedra in legitimate herbal formulas for health care (and not for athletic junkies) is utterly safe when the right people take the stuff.
It is still possible for people to harm themselves with ephedra. And just about everything else in the universe. Let's ban roses...they have thorns.
Posted by Paul @ 01/04/2004 04:31 PM NY
I'll concede the 5,000/2,000 years bit since, as you put it, that's still quite a long time. However. . . ephedra doses in the billions isn't hard to believe at all. If only two million people took three daily doses for a year, that's over 2 billion right there. It's in the best interests of the pharmalobby to promote the ban, though. . . I mean, who in their right mind would take diet drugs much more risky to one's health when something with ephedra's track record is available?
Splittin' hairs, though. At the end of the day, this ban's still going to be unjustified.
Posted by Raijin>> @ 01/06/2004 04:51 PM NY
