Ephedrine Hydrochloride

Ephedrine is a stimulate drug that belongs to a group of medicines called sympathomimetics. Specifically, it is both an alpha and beta adrenergic agonist similar in action to the popular weight loss drug clenbuterol. In addition, ephedrine enhances the release of nor epinephrine, a strong endogenous alpha agonist. The action of this compound is notably similar to that of the body’s primary adrenergic hormone epinephrine (adrenaline), which also exhibits activity towards the body’s alpha and beta receptors. When administered, ephedrine will notably increase the activity of the central nervous system, as well as have a stimulatory effect on other target cells. This may produce some effects that will be beneficial to a bodybuilder or athlete. Ephedrine is an old medication, and has been used in the U.S. for a number of medical applications over the years including that of an appetite suppressant, decongestant, and hypotension treatment associated with anesthesia. Today, it is approved as an over the counter medicine, and sales are mainly from this sector. The drug is also a common ingrediant in methamphetamine and because of this regulations have been put in place to regulate large sales of the drug. Many believe that due to the rising problem of meth use in the United States that ephedrine will eventually become a controlled substance.

The stimulatory effect that ephedrine has on the central nervous system offers several benefits to athletes. For example, this enhanced stimulation should allow for an increase in the force able to be generated in skeletal muscle contractions. Obviously this could result in increased strength that a user could generate and/or more explosive actions or movements during athletic endeavors. Other such possible beneficial results of this increased activity in the central nervous system include such things as improved lung function, anaerobic capacity, hand-eye coordination and cardio-respiratory endurance, among others. These listed potential benefits should not be looked upon as absolutes however due to some contradictory research that indicates no such benefits were seen with ephedrine supplementation. Despite these contradictory findings however, the vast majority of research does indeed indicate a direct correlation between ephedrine use, an increase in central nervous system activity and an improvement in numerous athletic performance measures. A second, related benefit of ephedrine administration is the increase in metabolism and lipolytic effects in the body. For the most part this is accomplished by the thermogenic effect that the compound produces. In much the same way that a drug such as clenbuterol does, although clenbuterol is a selective beta-2 agonist while ephedrine is an alpha and beta adrenergenic agonist, ephedrine raises the body temperature of the user which creates the increase in metabolism. When taken alone ephedrine should deliver these benefits for the user quite adequately. Among users and producers of products containing ephedrine however, other compounds are often administered along with the ephedrine to increase the effect of the supplement. The most popular compound to include with ephedrine is caffeine. It is thought by many that this is due to the thermogenic nature of caffeine and that it would be of added benefit in this regard. This is not true however. The actual effect that is trying to be produced by using caffeine with ephedrine is to attempt to prolong and intensify the effects of the ephedrine.

Athletes and bodybuilders looking to take the drug for weight loss will usually take 25-50mg per application 2-3 times per day. Because it’s a beta agonist the receptors will eventually down regulate and the drug will lose its effectiveness over time. Because of this, users usually choose to run the drug for a schedule of 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off. The effectiveness of the drug can be measured usually by checking body temperature.