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28.3.04
The FDA really has me wondering these days. I mean, we don't hear anything out of them - well virtually nothing - for years, and then all of a sudden, they're banning everything. They just got through with ephedra, and now they're zeroing in on a substance called "andro".
Let's take a look at ephedra. They're claiming that it is posing a "significant health risk" to a certain group of people that use it. This amazing statement is backed up, very scientifically, by evidence of several hundred deaths over the past decade or so. At least, that's what the scientists studying this substance say. The latest high profile death being of a baseball player who collapsed and died on the practice field. An autopsy showed that he had been taking ephedrine based products and that the stress on his heart had contributed to his death.
Now I'm not one to deny the government their right to protect their citizens - that's the whole reason I pay taxes - but, come on, let's take a look at the research that went into this. Supposedly, this ban is being brought about because of a significant health risk (including high blood pressure, cardiac arrest, stroke) that this line of products is supposed to contain. Of all the people that have taken it over the past decades alone (the product has actually been used in parts of China and Asia for thousands of years) the research only points to a few hundred people who died as a direct result of using these products. If this is such a significant health risk, with the multi-billion dollar industry that's arisen just from pushing ephedra products, shouldn't there be a higher mortality rate? Of the millions of people and the billions of doses taken over the past 10 years or so, if there really was a health risk, shouldn't we be seeing mass deaths in the 10,000's or greater? Not to go into a whole different rant, but doesn't tobacco related products kill more than a hundred people per year, much less a decade?
To thoroughly examine the issue, though, it would be remiss for me not to mention that in most of the documented deaths "caused" by these ephedra products, the shear amount present in the victim's system would be enough to kill just about anything. Of course, used properly, I've seen ephedra products do exactly what they're supposed to without any ill side effects. However, in this day and age of typical American philosophy and the recent fitness craze, if one works, then 10 will work ten times better. People uneducated about what ephedra actually does to the human body assume that if they're losing weight taking what the directions tell them to, then if they take more surely it will work faster and better.
Instead of banning a supplement that actually works the way it's supposed to, why not do what we do with alcohol and tobacco products: place a warning on the container, place an age limit on who can buy the products. There's too many products on the market now promising unattainable results, the modern day version of snake oil, to ban a product that actually works and has worked for a couple of millennia. Why ban something that really isn't dangerous when used properly? You know, taken in mass quantities, humans can overdose on water, too, resulting in a very painful, messy death. Better not let the FDA find out, they'll ban that next! (Oh, and watch out for salt, too. That can definitely kill you if you take a few pounds of it. oh, and eggs, they're really bad for you this week, I think.... oh! and be really careful of red meat.... and food high in carbs... and food low in carbs (got to make sure you get energy for yourself)... and lowfat food, all those bad substitutes...and food high in fat, that'll give ya a heart attack....and ....)
I really haven't lived very long on this blue-green orb, floating at ungodly speeds through the universe, however I have noticed things that just need pointing out. That's what this blog is all about, pointing out the things that just need to be showcased. You know the types of things; they usually become topics explored bluntly in South Park or Simpsons episodes. So, while I can guarantee you won't agree with everything I say, I invite you to come and view the opinions of one of the inhabitants of this small speck in the scheme of everything.
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