Every year millions of individuals diet to lose fat, however, the long-term prognosis of such treatment is poor since these obese persons will not stick to the treatment for obesity. Of those who stick to the treatment, most will not lose fat. And of those who lose weight, most will regain it.
The reasons for this failure are many and exist in a very complex correlation between food intake, metabolic rate, and changes in body composition. To say in short, in response to food deprivation, the urge to eat increases, and the metabolism slows down, thus negating the efficacy of dieting.
Ephedrine A Viable Therapy For Slimming
Pharmacotherapy designed for dampening these compensatory mechanisms is thus a tantalizing adjuvant to support dietary approaches. The latest advancements made in unravelling molecular pathways underlying appetite regulation, thermogenesis, and fat oxidation; coupled with earlier discovery of atypical (β3) adrenoceptors specific for thermogenesis; have provided a vast range of new targets for therapeutic development.
It is thus not immediately fathomable why a drug combination of ephedrine and caffeine used clinically for treating asthma, bronchitis, and nasal decongestion for the last many decades, is still recognized by many in the academic research community to be a potent therapy for obesity.
Some arguments for this recognition are summarized below:
- Ephedrine stacked with caffeine is a time-tested drug that could be put into large-scale clinical trials directly.
- The combination of ephedrine and caffeine present anorectic as well as thermogenic actions, thus supporting weight loss and weight maintenance by influencing both aspects of energy balance.
- The ways that ephedrine and caffeine act and interact, especially in their stimulatory effects on thermogenesis, have been illustrated; with slimming tablets ephedrine stimulating the release of noradrenaline; and caffeine prolonging noradrenaline-mediated thermogenesis by cutting down negative feedback mechanisms that impeded noradrenaline release and actions.
- Most, if not all of the terrible side-effects of ephedrine or the mix of ephedrine and caffeine wane during treatment. Contrarily the thermogenic effects are sustained or even escalated by chronic treatment. This latter action indicates that it may not be required to produce selective thermogenic drugs; if tachyphylaxis and receptor downregulation renders a natural, intuitive mechanism for transmuting a non-selective sympathomimetic into a selective thermogenic agonist.
- In a very long controlled trial undertaken with this drug combination, the administration of 20 mg of ephedrine and 200 mg of caffeine, thrice daily for 6 months, was found to be more effective than ephedrine or caffeine alone in promoting fat losses with good toleration. Moreover, it did not result in loss of lean body mass. Plus, bolsters blood lipid profile.
- In Denmark and several Scandinavian countries, this ephedrine and caffeine combination is licensed, under the brand name of Letigen and is now available as a prescription drug. In the United States, many controlled clinical studies lasting from 2 to 6 months demonstrated safety and efficacy for weight loss, with drug blends featuring either ephedrine and caffeine; or ephedrine, caffeine, and aspirin.
The Sum Up
These above-explained arguments show that slimming tablets ephedrine or a combination of ephedrine and caffeine are found to induce slimming effectively.
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