King Kabuki said:
Jesus. No pill does the work for you. Thus even suggesting one could believe such a thing is just as stupid as believing such a thing. These kinds of pills are to assist, much like protein, creatine, etc. Anyone who lacks enough common sense to think the pill will do most of the work ought not even leave the house in the morning, as life has a tendency of being very harsh on idiocy ultimately.
LOL. You're rarely this harsh, Kabuki. LCD, dude, take my advice, do yourself a favor, and just take this one on the chin before you start feeling it from posters who exercise a lot less restraint than our beloved Mod.
Also, Kabuki, I didn't realize the ban hadn't totally been lifted at this point. GNC still isn't selling products containing ephedrine?
I had it explained to me this way- this from a woman I talked to at a company selling straight Ephedrine Hydrochloride (this conversation took place about a year ago): the ban on ephedrine was related more to its abuse as raw material for developing methamphetamines than it did for its link to 800 athletes' deaths. This is why when straight ephedrine was illegal- I guess it still is, technically- you could still buy straight ephedrine hydrochloride in most states (New York, for example), but not California, where the meth epidemic is worst and our laws are the most strict. My understanding is that the hydrochloride doesn't change the effects of ephedrine, it only adds a chemical bond difficult to break with traditional meth-processing, so is less desirable to most meth-manufacturers with their crude home-labs.
However, I could buy ephedrine hydrochloride when combined with the expectorant Guaifenesin (which is better for me, anyway, since I'm an asthmatic) even here in California. So that's what I use, Vasopro; it's legal here (at least that's what I've been told).
In case you suspect this woman may have been whitewashing the drug's more dangerous properties, apparently many recent studies reinforce her position; these studies have indicated that ephedrine- when taken in the proper dosages- isn't dangerous to normal athletes. These studies indicate that the deaths involving ephedrine were most likely the result of pre-existing heart blockages in the athlete. Ephedrine is potent pharmacologically, and will speed your heart rate. So these athletes, whose vascular systems were already under strain, and usually failed to take aspirin (which mitigates the blood's tendency to adhere to vessel walls), died because their hearts couldn't handle all these pressures when compounded with intense physical exercise.
I've been told it's still a good idea not to take ephedrine before any activity where you expect to reach your maximum heart rate range; it just eliminates the remaining risk.