Must Read Ephedra Article

[bonebreaker]

Man, the FDA & media really suck. I wonder what will be outlawed
next...milk? Our government officials should be shot they're so friggin stupid!

Enjoy...


12/30/2003

Chinese Point Finger and Laugh at Stupid Americans


DIXON, IL-After 5000 years of safe use today the announcement
was made that the sale of ephedra-containing products
would be effectively outlawed in the United States.


"I can't imagine how stupid the Americans must be,"
said Chinese Herbal Safety Committee spokesperson Zhou
Li Quing. "We've had this stuff for like 5000 years.
The Americans get it for a few decades and screw it
all up. Morons."

------------------

Okay, on with the real story.

The federal government announced on Tuesday a ban on
the sale of ephedra, an herbal supplement used for
weight control that, according to has been linked to
a number of deaths and harmful side effects.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson
said that "based on the best possible scientific evidence"
his agency would issue a consumer alert about the dangers
of ephedra and will send notices to manufacturers to
stop selling the herbs.

"The time to stop taking this product is now," he said.


"They are just too risky to use," said the secretary.


David's comments:

5000 years. 5000 friggin years. Been used to treat
everything from asthma to allergies to colds. 5000
years. And all of a sudden, of all the OTC medicines
and herbals out there, ephedra-containing products
are hazardous.

Here's why ephedra is going to be outlawed in case
you don't want to read any further--mass hysteria and
class-action lawsuits.

The FDA initially started the ball rolling years ago.
The media took hold of the first few "claimed" ephedra
deaths and, as they are so good at, never let it go
from there. 99.5% of Americans couldn't even spell
ephedra, let alone it's Chinese name of Ma Huang just
a few years ago. But in this short time ephedra went
from being a safe and effective brochodilator to KILLER
OF ALL!

In the past couple years salivating, entrepreneurial
attorneys grabbed hold of what they could and made
enough of a civil case to get some cash for their clients.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, was the REAL beginning
of the end for ephedra.

The FDA had failed miserably to get ephedra banned
earlier. Why? Because their evidence sucked and they
were called on the carpet and literally "sent to their
room without supper" and "scolded" by a another governmental
committe empowered to oversee their research and "hazards"
discovered. So, since they couldn't ban it on their
own they found another way -- they created a public
awareness unprecedented in their history in publicly
CALLING for people to report adverse events should
they ever experience them. My God folks. Wake up if
you don't understand human behavior here.

If I had the ear of 2-3 million Americans and put out
a call to report adverse events when they ate hard-boiled
eggs do you know what kind of mass calling in to report
we'd get? It would be huge! People would blame EVERYTHING
that ever occurred negatively in a given day on hard-boiled
eggs--guaranteed.

So, the FDA, backed quite wonderfully by the over-sensationalized
media, SAYS that this supplement has been reaking havoc
on people's lives so if you would be so kind as to
report any events you have if you are a user it would
be appreciated. Oh, and here's the toll-free number
of Medwatch just so you don't have to use your own
money.

I remember in the initial witch hunt of ephedra that
Ripped Fuel got blamed for a death. Man was killed
in auto accident. Bridge girder went through the windshield
and into his head. Killed instantly. Guess what. Ripped
Fuel in the cab of the truck. Guess what got blamed.


How about the shot-gun blast to the chest. Cause of
death? Well, there was some ephedrine in the blood.


I'm not saying some people didn't die from its use.
And any death by this manner is sad. But that isn't
the standard in America. If 10 million doses are consumed
each week and 3-4 people die a year one has to consider
everything before going on a witch hunt like the FDA
and media did thereafter. Don't we? If not, then what
about this ...

***************

Some OTC pain relievers can increase the risk for stomach
bleeding by as much as 2-3 times and account for more
than 16,500 deaths and 103,000 hospitalizations in
the U.S. each year.

****************

Acetaminophen-containing products (Tylenol, Midol,
Alka-Seltzer Plus, Vanquish, etc.) result in over 100,000
calls a year to poison control centers, 560,000 visits
to emergency facilities, 260,000 hospitalizations,
and 450 deaths. From 1996 to 1998 the average annual
deaths directly attributed to acetaminophen averaged
approximately 458. I wonder what the regulatory agencies
would do if a supplement were to kill 450 people a
year?

*****************

In another article we find this.

NEW YORK - Thursday, an advisory panel to the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration recommended that a sterner
warning should be put on acetaminophen, the painkiller
sold by Johnson & Johnson as Tylenol. It's about time:
Forbes wrote more than three years ago that the warning
label on the drug should be made tougher.

The problem is this: When taken as directed, acetaminophen
is safe. But the drug is included not only in Tylenol
but in many over-the-counter cough and cold remedies.
When a patient winds up taking more than the directed
dose, liver damage or even death can result. If the
FDA takes its panel's recommendation, the word acetaminophen
would now be displayed more prominently on drug packaging
and warnings about liver damage would be more strongly
worded.

An FDA analysis indicated that 100 deaths and as many
as 13,000 emergency room visits result each year from
unintentional acetaminophen doses.

http://www.forbes.com/2002/09/20/0920tylenol.html

****************

Always remember this folks. Ephedra is gone but it's
NOT because it is inherently dangerous. It's because
of mass hysteria, misinformation, and class-action
lawsuits. What a joke.

Finally let me add this. I was at the American College
of Sports Medicine conference in Indy a few years back
when I heard the head of the dept. of nutrition at
Harvard rock a room with about 800 people in it by
flat out saying that the mass hysteria and misinformation
over eggs was total B.S. Remember when eggs were evil?
That was just a few years ago folks. But who made them
evil? The media and the parrots that make up much of
the nutrition industry. "Well so and so said it so
I'll just repeat it." That's how a lot of this stuff
goes folks. Anyway, the Harvard nutrition head got
the balls to say what was real and started showing
the studies and asked the room of educated leaders
in the fitness community how in the hell the information
was allowed to get so out of whack.

And this is what it takes to make a change for the
better. Since it was the head of nutrition at Harvard
who got the gonads to tell it like it is guess what
happened? The media grabbed it. They listened! Then
guess what happened. It APPEARED that the RESEARCH
turned on its head and NOW SAID that eggs were okay.
That was crap. The RESEARCH never waivered. It was
there all along. The media had grabbed hold of some
crap report God knows when and NEVER LET GO OF IT always
chanting the "eggs are evil" mantra. So, it became
America's reality. Now, the head of nutrition at Harvard
is making a stand so guess we'll have to change gears.
So, we just spin it that the RESEARCH IS CONFLICTING
and NOW SAYS THAT EGGS ARE OKAY. Wrong! Eggs were ALWAYS
okay and the research was clear.

Like Dr. Phil says. There is no reality. Only your
perception of reality. And the media creates a lot
of reality for millions.

So, if you've made it this far let me give you the
recipe to get a 5000-year old herbal compound off the
American market:

- FDA conducts legitimate research into compound after
few reported deaths.

- FDA gets their feathers in a ruffle when Dietary,
Supplement, Health and Education Act (DSHEA) is passed
in 1994. Sucks thumb and blubbers that they don't have
any authority any more to pull DANGEROUS stuff off
store shelves. Wrong. They've always had the power
IF the evidence indicated a product was harmful. Keyword?
Evidence.

- Supplement industry rebuttal is strong with scientific
evidence indicating ephedra is as safe as other OTC
supplements and meds.

- FDA continues

- Supplement industry begins to rally and begs of FDA
to please look at the friggin research.

- FDA continues, puts out call for public to PLEASE
PLEASE PLEAASSSSSSSSSSSE report adverse events to Medwatch.


- Media really likes this banter between FDA and supplement
industry. Also likes death. Reports all sides--the
FDA's bogus cries of "no longer having power" and "deaths"
and "FDA's call for adverse events" and, oh, yah, more
deaths or maybe just a repeating of deaths already
told. Whatever, as long as it's death it's good. Am
I lying? Read your paper every day folks.

- Supplement industry continues to take it seriously
but after careful review of literature just CANNOT
find legitimate indication ephedra is excessively harmful.
"No worries mate!" Wrong

- FDA releases report that ephedra is a stone-cold
killer. They are scolded by a review committee for
their lack of evidence.

- Attorneys hungry for action sue big $$ companies
that sold ephedra.

- Supplement industry knows they have a good product
but starts getting nervous.

- FDA continues witch hunt. Watches and learns. "We
don't have to regulate it. If enough class-action lawsuits
occur it'll go away anyway. We win! We win!"

- Big companies start paying through the nose in lawsuits.
Others get scared (like me) and quit selling it. Others
follow. Nearly all companies quit making it.

- After the sale of ephedra is flaccid with no rebound
in sight a national, governmental call to ban it is
made. There will be no fight from the supplement industry.
Look how good our government is at protecting us! Again,
listen, there will be no fight from the supplement
industry. Sales are dead through lawsuits. We no longer
care other than being sickened by the imbalance of
it all.

Anyway, in case anyone forgets, someone can save this
email so you know what it takes in case you want to
get a supplement banned. FDA+Public Call for Adverse
Events+Class-Action Law Suits = death of product.

Last but not least. About five years ago I wrote a
friendly guide to the safe use of ephedra. It's still
on The Power Store's website in the articles section.
Check it out if you want to see more good info on claimed,
adverse events and deaths. It's worth a read. Just
use the pull down menu in the upper right and choose
ARTICLES.

See ya Ephedra - man I really had some good workouts
with Ultimate Orange, Dymetadrine 25, E.P.H. 833, The
Stack and others. Anyone remember those products? And
to think too that in the research a stack of ephedrine
and caffeine worked better than prescription drugs
for weight loss. But that's just research published
in peer-reviewed journals. What do they know?

[STALKER]

PURE EPHEDRINE HCL IS STILL LEGAL.. IT DONT MAKE ANY SENSE BUT THATS OK... BECAUSE PURE EPHEDRINE HCL IS THE BEST U CAN GET.. GENERAL STALKER

[Doom]

Just something else that people will make a fortune off black market

ban aspirin, it makes my tummy hurt sometimes!

[mountainman]

psssstttt hey budy

i got pure tylenol here man the good shit man no fakes here
for you >>>>>> my friend >>>> just for you price >>>>> 4 $ each
good deal huh

[BeastLt12]

damn that is a good read, also gets me fuming though