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Weight loss Organizations, Plans & Diet Books Information Available Over The Internet Bibliography & Recommended Reading
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The "stack" is a combination of supplements taken together. It's often called the ECA stack as well. E is for Ephedrine (20 mgs. worth); C is for caffeine (200 mgs worth) and A is for aspirin (about 80 mgs worth). This combination gives the following benefits: thermogenesis (raising your body temp), lipolysis (fat burning) and appetite suppression. The combination is called "stacking" because combining these supplements in the correct ratio (1:10 E to C) has been found to be more effective than taking them separately. They potentiate each other (so that 1+1=3.)
Someone, somewhere, discovered that E and C in a 1:10 ratio was a Good Thing(tm.) As for the aspirin component, there are still jihads over that one. Some say a normal sized aspirin (325mg.) Some say a baby aspirin(80mg.) Some say to bag the aspirin because it does nothing. As far as I know the jury is still out on a coherent 'recommended' mix other than that magic 1:10 ratio of E to C. In practice, people who take the stack separately usually ingest 25mg of ephedrine because it's pretty much impossible to find a 20mg ephedrine tablet.
Could be, if abused. It's designed to produce a thermogenic reaction. It does this by stimulating the central nervous system and increases your metabolism by utilizing your brown adipose tissue to burn fat while sparing lean protein tissue. It can cause dizziness, jitters or insomnia. If you are hypersensitive to ephedrine or caffeine, you can experience some heart arrythmia. If you're a damn fool and you try and get high or otherwise overdose on it, you can go into a coma or die. If you have any heart, kidney, or liver problems, bleeding disorders, or high blood pressure, or are on any medication including over the counter meds, it is extremely important to consult with a physician before taking the stack.
Some studies have been done on deaths allegedly attributable to ephedrine. In all the cases I've read, the victim had many many times the recommended dosage in their bloodstream because they were using it to get high or thought that if a little is good a lot would be better. The short answer is therefore "No, people die because they are morons." Don't start popping pills like there's no tomorrow. Be patient, consult your physician, get their buy-in, take the doctor-recommended dose and don't abuse it and it's highly probable that you will lose weight.
Some people try and substitute pseudoephedrine (the stuff in cold tabs) for ephedrine. It doesn't work. Primatene (tablets), a cold tab with ephedrine and guanefesin in it, is okay to use as a stacking element but it's sometimes more difficult to find. Many pharmacies and many countries are removing Primatene tabs and substituting tabs containing pseudoephedrine, which appears to do NOTHING as part of the stack. I don't think anyone's ever discussed substituting the caffeine, although people use an herb containing caffeine (guarana) in some premade formulations. As far as the aspirin component, it's used for thinning the blood and the only thing that will do the job correctly appears to be acetylsalicylic acid, or aspirin. Other pain relievers don't work. Try St. Joseph's Baby Aspirin.
Only you and your doctor can answer that question. If you don't feel like involving your doctor, well, there's not much I can say that's going to slow you down. Good luck and read everything about ephedrine you can get your hands on, and realize that what happens next is between you and your God.
The stack is made in one of two ways, either by combining tablets of the component supplements or by taking a pre-made formulation. The premade formulation will cost more but it is more convenient and easier to swallow.
Most of the pre-made formulations I've seen use Ma Huang, which is the herbal equivalent of ephedrine, as the "E" part of the stack. They use Guarana as the caffeine element, and white willow bark as the aspirin element. Some people dispute white willow bark's efficacy as an aspirin replacement, and some formulations are E and C only, meaning if after your research you have decided to use aspirin, you will have to take the aspirin separately. You can purchase these premade formulations as TwinLabs' "Diet Fuel" or "Ripped Fuel" or "Metabolift" at your local health food store or General Nutrition Center. Be careful to get the ones that have Ma Huang in them. TwinLabs is creating Ma Huang free versions too. Please watch out for pre-made versions. They'll have a number of mg of MaHuang or Guarana and then a percentage that it's "standardized" for the active component (caffeine or ephedrine.) The way it works is to multiply the tab/capsule size times the percentage to get how much ephedrine or caffeine is in a dose. Steer away from bottles that don't report the "standardized" number because you'll have no idea how much you're taking! (BTW, all the premade stacks are 'reputable' and report standardized quantities.) Cytodyne Technologies sells a premade formula called Xenadrine RFA-1. This is the stack that I use. It's expensive and difficult to find at GNCs. It just flies off the shelves there! You can order it from ads in the back of Muscle & Fitness magazine or the only online place I could find, http://www.royco.net/index3.htm The other way is to simply purchase the individual components and take the pills at the same time. If we stipulate that the ephedrine component is the most difficult to obtain, we'll let you figure out where to get baby aspirin (it MUST be acetylsalicylic acid; ibuprofen, acetaminophen and other painkillers won't work) and the No-Doz. Here are some online sites to order ephedrine. There are undoubtedly more, these are just the first valid ones that appeared as I typed the search words into Alta Vista. http://www.ironviking.com/usasupp.htm
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You can get more information from these sources. Sources for premade stack formulations, compiled by moi can be found at http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Village/4999/stackdata.htm Gateway to Medline, a medical search engine Information on ephedrine itself: Information on the stack: Or go to http://www.dejanews.com, enter "ECA stack" in the search box, and hit "Find." You'll find over 500 entries in there.
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What
is the "stack?" 