ECA Stack - Risks

Risks

"Natural" supplements that contain ephedra (aka Ma Huang) as an ephedrine substitute have been linked to cases of heart attack, stroke, and death in healthy young adults even when taken at the labeled dosage . Evidence of serious harm is based only on self-reports of uncontrolled use by supplement users; when EC has been used as medically prescribed or in controlled studies, evidence of cardiovascular risk has not been proven.

A 2003 meta-analysis of all available studies and case reports concluded that "ephedrine- and ephedra-containing dietary supplements have harms in terms of a 2- to 3-fold increase in psychiatric symptoms, autonomic symptoms, upper gastrointestinal symptoms, and heart palpitations. More serious adverse effects from ephedra use cannot be excluded at a rate less than 1.0 per thousand, and case reports raise the possibility that a causal relationship with serious adverse events may exist." A more recent (2008) case-crossover study that focused on the alleged cardiovascular risks concluded that "prescription of an ephedrine/caffeine product was not associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes. This was found across a wide range of patient subgroups, different cardiovascular outcomes, different assumptions about exposure, and different utilization patterns. "

However, when an ephedra supplement company, Metabolife, in the USA was forced to release adverse event reports, cardiac and psychological reports were recorded in healthy young people at normal dosages.