Ephedra Substitutes

Ephedra-free & Thin as Ever

Federal officials announced on December 30, 2003 plans to ban dietary supplements containing ephedra (also known as ma-huang) because of continued health concerns about the product, and warned consumers not to take products containing the herbal stimulant. 

“The time to stop using these products is now,” Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson told reporters. 

Some twelve to seventeen million Americans use ephedra annually.  The plain facts are that it has been shown to be a valuable traditional herbal medicine, but that it can be dangerous when it is abused.  If you’re one of the vast majority of Americans who’ve been using ephedra safely for weight loss, then you’re probably going to be seeking ephedra alternatives as the herb becomes more and more difficult to obtain.

Unfortunately, some of the users were, indeed, abusing the supplement.  It is these relatively rare instances of abuse and the dosages provided to consumers by a few overzealous, irresponsible members of the nutritional product industry that contributed to the proposed ban. 

In the interests of a free market and because our readers tend to be more sophisticated, we would have preferred tougher labeling rather than to ban it completely.  We must be alert to be sure that the government doesn’t further encroach on our health freedoms. 

The New Science of Weight Loss

Fortunately, for Healthy Living readers, we’ve been reporting for some time now on the new generation of ephedra-free substitutes, trying to keep you ahead of the cure.  These products, when designed properly, show us that the future of fat loss for dieters should not focus on reducing appetite alone.  Rather, it should focus on enhancing lipolysis (e.g., fat burning) and thermogenesis (e.g., the heightened burning of calories), as well as overcoming the regulatory mechanisms designed to prevent rapid and substantial fat loss.  All of this might be said to heighten one’s the metabolic rate. 

Increasing the metabolic rate is beneficial in weight loss, since the metabolism becomes sluggish in overweight and obese subjects placed on low calorie diets; by increasing the metabolic rate, weight loss is improved.  Since the breakdown of stored fat is also increased, more of the weight loss comes from fat, and body protein from lean tissues is spared, thus helping prevent the loss of lean body mass that also often occurs during dieting.

This is what ephedra does so well.  But it is not for everyone, and if you’re one of the millions of Americans now seeking non-ephedrine based supplements, one of the nation’s leading natural remedy companies, Metabolic Response Modifiers (MRM), has developed Meta-Burn™ XTP. 

It combines three of the most important upcoming ephedra alternatives—green tea, octopamine and Coleus forskholii—plus complexes for fine tuning thyroid metabolism and enhancing metabolism.

This non-ephedrine formulas can complement other nutritional weight-management formulas detailed in Healthy Living.  It provides similar benefits to ephedra-based supplements but without the jitters or other risks.

Meta-Burn XTP combines the synergistic powers of octopamine, green tea extract, and Coleus forskholii at therapeutic dosages to provide a powerful fat and calorie burning experience without the shakes and jitters associated with ephedrine-based products.  (In addition, Meta-Burn XTP addresses sluggish thyroid function to further aid weight loss, especially among mature dieters—to be covered in an upcoming report). 

Safe Ephedra Alternative

“Weight loss products containing synephrine and octopamine are apt to be the next wave in natural weight loss products,” note Drs. Adriane Fugh-Berman and Tieraona Low Dog.  Drs. Fugh-Berman and Low Dog report participants in a recent six-week long, double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study with a product containing synephrine and octopamine (as well as caffeine and St. John’s wort) “lost a significant amount of weight” (1.4 kg) compared to the placebo group.  The participants lost 2.9 percent of their body fat; there was no significant change in the placebo group.  “No significant changes were seen in any group in the profile of mood states questionnaire, blood lipids, blood pressure, heart rate, EKG, serum chemistries, or urinalysis.  Basal metabolic rate increased significantly in the treated group and decreased significantly in the placebo group; there was no change in the control group.  No side effects were reported.” 

“Octopamine,” they say, “appears to be more potent then synephrine.” 

Octopamine, like ephedra, is a natural beta-3 adrenergic receptor agonist; it is found in minute amounts in various citrus and must be concentrated in order to exert its effects.   In classical tests, these citrus alkaloids show properties similar to ephedrine, with activation of ß-receptors.[i]^{, [ii]} More recently, studies have shown that octopamine appears particularly effective in stimulating fat burning (lipolysis), a postulated β3-receptor effect.[iii]^{, [iv], [v]}

We reported in a recent article that weight-loss scientists say beta-3 adrenergics are important to weight loss, although such recognition did not come until the 1990s when beta-3 adrenergic receptors were isolated in both human white and brown adipose tissues.  Studies from The Sarah W. Stedman Center for Nutritional Studies, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, show us that experimental obesity can be prevented with the enhanced expression of beta-3 adrenergic receptors, especially in brown adipose tissues.[vi]  In fact, it is has been shown that that beta-3 agonist activity could account for at least forty percent of the thermogenesis induced by some weight loss drugs.

Octopamine is thought to be the first selective beta-3 agonist to be isolated and made available as a nutritional supplement; it has been shown in experimental studies to possess strong lipolytic activity in fat cells.  In contrast to some ephedrine-based supplements, a small clinical trial with twelve otherwise healthy but overweight males, found that energy expenditure and fat burning rates increased without any adverse effects on heart rate or blood pressure.

According to published research, “The efficacy and safety of octopamine and related citrus is further confirmed in studies in lean and obese volunteers who, while showing excellent thermogenic responses, failed to reveal any evidence of increased heart rate, blood pressure or central nervous system stimulation.[vii]^, [viii] A clinical study reported also demonstrated excellent effects on weight loss with a total absence of side effects.”[ix]

Comments an expert, “Thus though the citrus alkaloids appear to be at least as thermogenic as the ephedrine alkaloids, they are clearly gentler than the latter and do not cause the minor side effects associated with use of ma-huang (nervousness, agitation, palpitations, increases in blood pressure).  The better tolerance of the citrus alkaloids is thought to be because they do not pass so readily into the brain, and may target fat cells rather more specifically.

But there’s more to this formula, so hold on….

The MRM formula contains green tea.  Among ten healthy men, use of green tea extract resulted in a “significant increase” in both energy expenditure and lipolysis.[x] 

Dr. Abdul Dulloo led the research into weight loss, which was conducted at the University of Geneva.  The Dulloo team studied the effects of green tea on ten healthy young men (average age: 25) who ranged in body type from “lean” to “mildly overweight.”   The study’s participants were put on a “typical Western diet.”  For six weeks, the men took two capsules consisting of either green tea extract plus 50 milligrams of caffeine; 50 milligrams of caffeine alone; or a placebo with each meal.

Three times during the study, researchers measured the men’s energy expenditure (EE, i.e., the number of calories used in a 24-hour period) in a respiratory chamber. They also gauged the men’s respiration quotient (RQ, i.e., a measurement of how well the body utilizes carbohydrates, proteins and fats.  A lower RQ means that more fats are being metabolized by the body for energy.)

Results showed that those men taking the green tea extract experienced “a significant increase in 24-h EE” and “a significant decrease in 24-h RQ” over those taking only caffeine or the placebo.  Men taking the green tea extract also used more fat calories than those using the placebo.

The key ingredient in green tea, scientists beli