When it comes to sports supplements there's only one person who
we think is worth listening to - Will Brink. And with all the latest
news about athlete Steve Belchers death being related to ephedrine,
we are publishing here Will's opinion and latest views on the recent
media onslaught.
(Thanks to Will for allowing us to publish this article)
_
Extract: "...already too familiar with the link between
"supplements" and the deaths of athletes, the sports world was
hardly shocked by yesterday's determination that the herbal
stimulant ephedrine probably contributed to the death of Baltimore
Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler, a 23- year-old who died of heatstroke
after a spring-training workout in Florida.
_
An email from Will Brink:
The anti ephedrine camp seems to be making another wave of
worthless emotional based statements, which as usual, lack any real
data. This tactic is of course an old one.
As the once man said:
'All propaganda has to be popular and has to adapt its spiritual
level to the perception of the least intelligent of those towards
whom it intends to direct itself.' - Adolf Hitler, Mein Kamp
Most of you may have heard of a new 'study' supposedly showing
how dangerous ephedrine is and the death of baseball player Steve
Belcher is being blamed on ephedrine.
Both are complete shams!
Ok, below is my lay commentary of this 'study' followed by
BrinkZone members Doug Kalman MS, Jose Antonio, Ph.D., FACSM, and
Richard B. Kreider, PhD, letter to the editor of the journal that
published the study with a nice analysis of the data of the
study.
Finally, is a link to a press released from Miami Research
Associates (also written by Doug Kalmen) that looks at the death of
this base ball player the media is blaming in ephedrine.
Enjoy the read
- 'Anti Ephedrine Campaign's latest bogus
study'. By Will Brink
Well gang the anti supplement powers that be, are at it again
with a new 'study' that supposedly shows the dangers of
ephedrine.
Typical of the 'don't confuse us with the facts' media, this
study is being plastered all over the news and held up as a reason
to pull ephedrine containing products off the market.
At this point, it appears they are so desperate to find proof
that ephedrine is a health hazard, they are willing stretch the
truth to absurd levels.
What am I referring to? A new study called 'The Relative Safety
of Ephedra Compared with Other Herbal Products' published in Annals
of Internal Medicine (2003;138:000-000).
This study is not bad science, it's not science at all.
What the authors did was examine reports put into the American
Association of Poison Control Centers Toxic Event Surveillance
System Database Annual Report for 2001, and make conclusions about
the safety of ephedra based on those numbers.
For example, the authors state:
'Ephedra is widely used in dietary supplements that are
marketed to promote weight loss or increase energy; however, the
safety of this product has been questioned because of numerous case
reports of adverse events.'
Translated: they have already decided that ephedra is unsafe and
are going to prove it no matter what they have to do. Hence, the
authors were biased (more on that in a minute) from the start and
made it their job to confirm their biased belief.
Basically what these authors did was compare the adverse reaction
reports from American Association of Poison Control Centers Toxic
Event Surveillance System vs reports on other herbs and shock of all
shocks, conclude that compared to other herbs such as ginko and
kava, that ephedra has more side effects.
Well Duh. They concluded that ephedra containing products
accounted for 64% of all reported adverse effects from herbs
compared with kava and Ginkgo biloba (see letter data showing that's
not even true).
They state:
'This risk was defined as the ratio of adverse reactions to
ephedra versus other products, divided by the ratio of their
relative use in the United States.'
Translated: a fancy way of saying that they compared apples to
oranges (ephedrine vs ginko or Kava) and concluded ephedrine
accounted for a higher rate of reported side effects.
This is equivalent to comparing coffee (a stimulant) to fruit
juice and coming to the shocking conclusion that coffee has more
side effects than fruit juice!
Now, why didn't they compare it to say other diet products, in
particular diet drugs with similar mechanisms?
You would find that pharmaceutical diet drugs are involved in
considerably more adverse events than ephedrine based products, and
those events, on average, are of a more serious nature.
(Very Important Point....)
Let's not forget the recent study published in the Journal of
Strength and Conditioning Research, that found an ephedrine caffeine
based supplement was superior for weight loss with less side effects
than the popular diet drug Xenical (Orlistat), one of the most
commonly prescribed diet drugs in the United States.
Of course, in truth none of this info from this new report from
the Poison Control Centers can be used to represent the true risk of
any drug or nutrient as it is simply people calling into claim some
product made them ill.
It does tell public health officials if some product in
particular should be looked for un expected side effects, etc, but
it's of little use in making real decisions regarding the safety
profile of any drug or nutrient.
That's what true double blind placebo controlled human studies
are for, of which there are MANY with ephedrine.
What about those studies with ephedrine? Every single study to
date with more than a decade of research-has concluded the side
effects are minor, transient, and short lived.
The authors didn't bother to mention any of the real data that
exists on ephedrine but focused on a single study that had a high
drop out rate from the study.
Of course ephedra is not without risk and there are many people
who should not use it, such as those with high blood pressure and
other contraindications, but as weight loss compounds go, it is
exceedingly safe.
Safer in fact than most over the counter medications found in
stores, such as aspirin and acetaminophen.
Bottom line is, considering the billions of doses sold of ephedra
containing products and the millions of people using such products,
the number of adverse events reported is amazingly small.
The authors of this bogus study conclude:
'Ephedra use is associated with a greatly increased risk for
adverse reactions compared with other herbs, and its use should be
restricted.'
Translated: they had an agenda to show ephedra was unsafe,and
found a unscientific way of showing it vs following the real data
that exists or comparing ephedra to drugs for the same purpose that
are more toxic than ephedrine.
But wait, it gets better.
If you recall I mentioned the authors were clearly biased. Why?
All of the authors of this so called study have worked for various
lawfirms who are involved in anti-ephedra lawsuits!
That's right, the authors of this report are paid by law firms
and called as expert witnesses in cases against companies (e.g.,
Cytodyne, MuscleTech, Next Nutrition, TwinLabs, GNC, Phoenix Labs,
Chemins Labs, etc.) that produce and market supplements
containing ephedra!
Yes folks, that's how low the anti ephedra camp is willing to go;
to any lengths to get ephedra banned, and the facts based on science
be damned.
If you would like to read the full study can view it on line here.
And if you would like to view the annual poison control data to
see what crazy things are reported can see it at the Poison Control
Center web site here.
Finally...
If you want to see my opinion on the best ways to use ephedrine
based products, avoid side effects, etc, should read my book Diet
Supplements Revealed found here.
Ever wonder if
Steroid-Encyclopaedia.com is really legitimate?
Here's a great email that I received recently, and
one that has many questions that I'm sure you may well have
yourself... So here's the email in full and the reply..
Email From Site
Visitor...
To Steroid
Encyclopaedia,
I am just curious to why so
many people on other forums are so adamant about discouraging people
to NOT trust any site that gives a supplier? I have read your
newsletters and reasons for joining but guess what? All sites
similar to yours offer close to the same
thing.
Are you following the
math? Companies claim legit, people say bullshit. Now
please, don't revert back to your testimonials because every site
has them and it would not take a rocket scientist to conjure them
up.
The problem is that there is
truly no way for you to convince me that your supplier list is
legit, and you obviously know that most people join you site for
that reason. I am not saying that the information that you
provide is not useful, it is just not the primary cause for most to
join.
What would stop police from
monitoring your site, without you knowing and writing down the name
of the "suppliers," what supplier would want to take that
risk? Now you can say that why would we put bogus suppliers
for our customers? Because by the time that your customers
have been scammed they are already in the bag. Who cares if
they cancel their membership? There will be more morons lined
up the next day to make the same mistake.
Note that I do not know if
your companies suppliers are for REAL or not, but you must identify
that even if you are not pulling a scam that there is some serious
opportunities to and that it makes people who are willing to do a
little thinking before getting involved very nervous. In a
nutshell, I like your newsletter but it is not enough to make me
join your site.
Just thought that I would
give you some thoughts of a potential customer.
(Name and email
omitted)
The Answers to the
Question...
Hi,
Wow thats quite an email.
And you know something I have to agree with you on most of your
points.
You see when there is no "bricks and mortar" store to
see, or if you are not a name like Amazon it is impossible to prove
beyond doubt what you offer is real.
This is not a problem
unique to ourselves, but the biggest challenge that most 100% online
businesses face - building credibility and trust. If any online
company can solve that problem they will become seriously wealthy
!!!!
Of course I can tell you all day long that we run a real
business, but of course what any individual chooses to believe is
entirely down to him or her.
Your feedback is of course very
valuable, comments of a "could be" customer help us to better our
site, we are therefore grateful for your email.
Here are a
few comments that I would make in reply to yours, although in your
case I don't know whether they will help, nevertheless, here they
are:-
I am just curious to why so many people on other
forums are so adamant about discouraging people to NOT trust any
site that gives a supplier? I have read your newsletters and
reasons for joining but guess what? All sites similar to yours
offer close to the same thing.
- Not true, we are
the only site who offers a guarantee and a supplier
quality
control 100% ran by the members.
Now please,
don't revert back to your testimonials because every site has them
and it would not take a rocket scientist to conjure them
up
- The testimonials we have on the site have email
addresses, it is strategically impossible for us to set up so many
email addresses in different names, with different ISP's and in so
many different countries. Besides that you can read the MuscleMag
review of our site in their mag. We cannot "invent"
that.
What would stop police from monitoring your site,
without you knowing and writing down the name of the "suppliers,"
what supplier would want to take that risk?
- The US feds
have a program called carnivore that does in fact monitor
sites
like ours that are based on a US server. For that very
reason we have our severs outside of the US.
Now you can
say that why would we put bogus suppliers for our customers?
Because by the time that your customers have been scammed they are
already in the bag. Who cares if they cancel their
membership? There will be more morons lined up the next day to
make the same mistake.
- We care if they cancel their
membership. We would be rejected by our payment handlers for
excessive refunds, be placed on a black list and be totally unable
to accept credit cards. Then we are effectivelyout of business. All
online companies face this same position. Which is very positive for
the customer.
Note that I do not know if your companies
suppliers are for REAL or not, but you must identify that even if
you are not pulling a scam that there is some serious opportunities
to and that it makes people who are willing to do a little thinking
before getting involved very nervous
- We know lots of
"steroid supplier" sites who have scammed people. They all have one
thing in common. Scams only have a short lifespan, because people
find out about them and word gets out. Besides that, and as
mentioned above, you cannot continue accepting credit cards for long
if you are a scam !!! We have been in business several years. That
speaks for itself.
In a nutshell, I like your newsletter
but it is not enough to make me join your site. Just thought
that I would give you some thoughts of a potential
customer.
- The newsletter can take up to one week to put
together, and it's free. Try and find a scam that does that much
work :-)
As I said earlier, thanks for your feedback. I may
even include this email in our next ezine. If you wish I will remove
your email address. But then of course people will read it and
think.... "Hey I bet he invented that email himself"...
You
see it's not easy is it??
Take care and Very Best
Wishes,
The Steroid-Encyclopaedia.com Team
And the
Reply...
Thank you for taking the
time to respond to my questions. Your answers were certainly
more reasonable than I had expected. I can't deny that I am
still nervous about the supplier list, but hey, that is the nature
of the beast. I have been most impressed with you and your site
and will strongly consider joining your site for a month to try
it out.
Sincerely,
(Name and email
omitted)
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