Posted by 3 Beer Effect on May 10, 2002, at 13:36:47
In reply to Ephedra vs psychostimlants, posted by geno on May 9, 2002, at 19:48:20
Ephedrine hcl (Primatene Asthma Tablets), Ephedrine Sulfate (Bronkaid Asthma Tablets), to a lesser extent Ephedra/Ma Huang (Xenadrine, Ripped Fuel Extreme etc.) are potent beta-adrenergic/cardiovascular agonists compared to amphetamines (Adderall, Dexedrine).
This means that your blood pressure & heart rate increase dramatically, & your nasal/breathing passages vasoconstrict & bonchial muscles relax when taking Ephedrine (which is why ephedrine is still used in otc asthma medications). Ephedrine Hcl is basically the oral form of epinephrine.
Amphetamines are not used for asthma anymore because they lack these potent actions on the cardiovascular/breathing.
As far as a psychostimulant, amphetamines are far superior & safer than ephedrine. One 50 mg dose of ephedrine will dramatically deplete the amount of dopamine in the brain to an extent that the next time you take ephedrine it won't work anywhere near as well as it did the first time, so tolerance to the slight psychostimulant properties ephedrine may have is very dramatic & upping the dose to compensate can quickly lead to an early grave (especially when combined with caffeine). 100 mg or more of ephedrine at once can be fatal, while amphetamines can be tolerated at much higher doses because of their much weaker effects on blood pressure, breathing, & heart rate.
Also, ephedrine is almost totally devoid of the euphoric effects of amphetamines, & these euphoric effects are what allow you to sustain attention when completing tasks you normally find boring. Ephedrine is usually dysphoric (makes you feel terrible), because you can feel your heart racing & pounding (you feel like your going to have a heart attack), & it causes a terrible level of anxiety compared to caffeine & often causes nausea.
The 'natural' herbal form of ephedra/ma huang is best avoided because it is less effective than synthetic ephedrine and unsafe (has been attributed to 100+ deaths in last ten years).
Synthetic ephedrine used in Primatene & Bronkaid Asthma Tablets has been around for over 50 years & ephedrine was never considered a health issue/threat until the herbal ephedra/ma huang came around.Ephedrine Hcl (found in Primatene tablets) is d,l ephedrine, the strongest form of ephedrine. Ephedrine Sulfate (found in Bronkaid Asthma tablets) is l-ephedrine & is a bit weaker than the Hcl. The various ephedra/ma huang preparations contain unknown/various combinations of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine & other unkown compounds & vary in quality/strength.
It is probably better to just stick to regular old Caffeine as a psychostimulant. Caffeine releases dopamine into the prefrontal cortex & increases the firing of neurons in the brain without causing possibly life-threatening side effects like ephedrine/ephedra. I don't know if they have done studies on this, but I think Caffeine is a better psychostimulant than Ephedrine. One problem though is that often people take too much, which causes more errors during certain mental tasks. In experiments the optimal dose of caffeine is 1 mg/pound of bodyweight. In real life it appears that for purely mental stimulation a dose of 100 mg every three hours is probably the most effective, & you shouldn't exceed 200 mg per six hours or anxiety & increased errors in mental tasks are the result.
One last thing, Guarana is being touted as a better, natural form of Caffeine, but has been found in experiments to be neurotoxic to the brain & contains tannin which decreases vitamin absorption in the stomach- so it is best avoided. Garden variety caffeine found in No-Doz or Vivarin is much better. Vivarin came out with Caffeine capsules a long time ago, so you don't have to taste their terrible-tasting tablets anymore but I have yet to see them at any stores yet- (personally I always thought Vivarin were more effective than No-Doz but No-Doz can be cut in half, are much easier to swallow & taste much better).
3 Beers...................
poster:3 Beer Effect
thread:105791
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020510/msgs/105902.html