FDA cracks down on 'Ephedra' found in Metabolife

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greenfreak

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FDA cracks down on ephedra product
Tuesday, October 8, 2002 Posted: 2:17 PM EDT (1817 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sean Riggins was 16-year-old athlete in exceptionally good condition, but on September 2 he was so sick that he couldn't play in a big game with his Lincoln, Illinois, high school football team.

Instead, he sat on the bench, suffering from headache and stomach pain, and later went home to sleep. A doctor, the next day, said he had bronchitis and sent him home. But within a few hours, Sean went into convulsions and stopped breathing. He died at a hospital of what doctors said was a heart attack.

"When my son passed away of a heart attack, I had no idea what to think," Kevin Riggins testified Tuesday at a Senate subcommittee hearing. "He didn't smoke or do marijuana or take drugs."

But an autopsy showed that he did take Yellow Jackets, an herbal drug laced with the herb ephedra, along with a kola nut extract which contains caffeine. The combination can cause blood vessel constriction, a rapid heart beat, a sudden rise in blood pressure.

And that's what killed Sean Riggins, Logan County Illinois coroner Charles Fricke told the Senate Subcommittee.

"The heart was racing so fast it could pump the blood," said Fricke. "It's our opinion that the (heart attack) is consistent with the effects of ephedrine. No other problems were found."

Sean's death was not the first caused by ephedra, a dietary supplement that is sold at service stations and convenience stores as an energy booster and weight control product, said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. He said Food and Drug Administration reports link ephedra to 81 deaths and 1,400 incidents of heart attack, high blood pressure and stroke.

And, yet, said Durbin, the FDA still allows the herbal supplement to be sold.

"We have seen a reluctance on the part of this administration to act to protect American consumers from this product and I just can't understand it," he said.

The FDA on Monday did stop imports of Yellow Jackets, e-mailing the Dutch operator of an Internet site selling the pills that it is illegal to market dietary supplements as alternatives to cocaine and other street drugs.

Ephedra is an herb that is legal to sell as a dietary supplement -- popular for weight loss and body building. But Durbin and some critics have asked the FDA to ban all ephedra products.

One manufacturer, Metabolife International Inc. of San Diego, is now under investigation by the Justice Department about claims by a company official that it had received no reports of adverse health linked to its product.

Lanny Davis, a Washington attorney representing Metabolite, however, testified that many reports of dangerous side effects from ephedra are based on "unverified telephone calls."

He said there have been 30 scientific studies showing that Metabolite's ephedra product "is safe and effective" when used by adults as directed.
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full story at CNN
 
It's also found in Primatine which is an over the counter asma medication. Very addictive and abusable.
 
You just made me have a connection that I never thought of. My brother used to use Primatine all the time when we were younger. Being a kid, I thought that he must get colds a lot or something. But that must have been just another one of his addictions. :rolleyes: Figures.
 
I used to use hundreds of those pills in a 24 hour period. They're the primary ingredient in ecstasy(MDMA) so that gives you an idea of what they do for you. Yes he was probably abusing them. Especially if you found lots of empty boxes sitting around. Mini thins was another one.
 
That wouldn't surprise me in the least. I could tell you stories about what a loser my brother is, but I'll spare you. :)
 
Don't get me wrong, it's not just the drugs and alcohol, although that's a huge part of it, at least for me. He's one of those people who never grows up or learns how to depend on himself. My parents have bailed him out more times than I care to mention but my sisters and I have disowned him. Now he gets to not only screw up his own life, but his sisters, parents and now his kids and his wife too! :rolleyes:
 
Most people who get into recovery don't begin to wake up until their forties or therabouts. When you live that life you don't care about yourself and if you don't care about yourself how can you possibly care about anything or anyone else. Granted it's absolutely a selfish lifestyle. But if people don't give up on him then maybe some day he'll have a reason to turn his life around. I'm not saying you need to ever do anything for him but who knows, if you let him know that you'd be there for him if he ever did decide to turn his life around he might have a reason to seek help when he reaches his bottom. After all isn't that what unconditonal love is? With that said, know that i make no judgements of you whatsoever as i have caused that same pain in many peoples lives and i understand if someone doesn't wish to forgive me. But who knows where i'd be if people didn't keep loving me even with all the suffering i had caused them.
 
I understand what you're saying. I have been through support groups to help me deal with his problems and my dad's problems and how they affected me. I thought the best information I got was that I could still love him and not let his lifestyle and choices dictate my own life. I don't enable him but my parents do. In my opinion, that's doing more harm than good.

I've given up on the hope that he'll ever straighten out. He was doing coke when I was 9, and I hoped then. I don't anymore. He tells everyone he's sober, dumps his kids off on my sister and tells her he's going to a meeting and 3 hours later returns with alcohol on his breath. He contacts his family when he needs something, that's it. And he always wants something. I gave up on him a long time ago.

On a brighter note, my father quit drinking 7 years ago and I've had a great relationship with him ever since. It took 2 years of his sobriety to convince me that it was sticking, and it was for good. He still goes to meetings every week. Now that is something I can stand behind. :)
 
Great to hear about your dad. The way i look at it, when someone makes that decision it's like a child being born for the first time because life literally starts over.
It's hard and extemely hard for your parents i'm sure because people love their children more then themselves and when enabling you really feel like you're helping them even though you're not. The fact is the less people enable you, the more you suffer, and the more you suffer the more unbearable life becomes. When faced with complete misery we begin to grasp for any hope at all. That's what we can be to those lost in that spiral of misery. I glimmer of hope. A friend of mine had a boyfriend who was into crack and all that other crap. She changed her life and told him she didn't want to see or hear from him again until he was a year clean. A year and a half later he showed up on her doorstep with a year clean under his belt. He he was hardcore to and so was i. I figure if we can do it then anyone can. I'm sure your brother still thinks about others though. I can remember after i would get drunk or high i'd sit around feeling guilty and think about my family. So it can happen, but first he must suffer in order to have a reason to change.
 
Well I'm glad you made it through in one piece :) I hope others have your strength to do it.

20 years is a long time and even if he was clean and stopped taking advantage of everyone, it would take a long time to undo the damage. No one has a right to expect people to forgive and forget instantly when they announce they're sober. I find I'm happier only having contact with him when neccessary and living my own life anyway.

He's about to get his suffering, he's going through a divorce and fighting his wife for custody of his two daughters. He'll never get them, not with his past and his present. He's going to lose his house and his kids in one fell swoop. There's a lot of family disputes going on with that too. It's neverending.
 
HeXp£Øi± said:
I used to use hundreds of those pills in a 24 hour period. They're the primary ingredient in ecstasy(MDMA) so that gives you an idea of what they do for you. Yes he was probably abusing them. Especially if you found lots of empty boxes sitting around. Mini thins was another one.
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Yikes, you think ephedrine is a ingredient in MDMA(methylene-dioxy-methyl-amphetamine)

No it is not! Maybe Herbal X which is junk!

Ephedrine does nothing anymore except make me sick! Too much real stuff(CR, Meth, etc...) did that too me! After that mini thins do nothing but make me sick!

All ephedrine is is a beta hydroxy methamphetamine. Only thing ephedrine is good for is making meth. Bad stuff either way you look at it!

X is usually made only a few ways and ephedrine is not one of them. I am a Geology-Chemistry major and at one time was going to be a medicinal chemist. My organic teacher insisted on us knowing many different ways to make speed and stuff. Basically stuff to not do but still know about;)
 
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