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Study finds unpredictable amounts of poorly understood stimulant in sports and weight loss supplements
—–Important Message—–
“Less napping more schtupping”
A student told me he was dating a young woman in her early 20s… And she was insatiable…
“Matt,” he said,
…for most guys, metabolism slows down and it can take days to recover from a hearty meal or some exercise.
But this doesn’t have to be YOU.
Luckily, I use a simple formula to roll back my metabolism and I feel years younger…
And this can happen to you…when you regain a more youthful metabolism…
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Caution: Banned ingredient found in most supplements…
In the United States, the supplement industry has very little regulation.
You can get supplements with certified purity and concentrations (more on how to do that later)…
But, unless you know what to look for, there is no guarantee that a product that says it contains 10 mg of something doesn’t actually contain 2 mg or 100 mg of that something.
That makes knowing what you’re getting…difficult.
It’s even worse when a supplement may be harmful to your health in larger quantities, as is the case with higenamine.
Yes, higenamine IS a naturally occurring substance.
“Higenamine is a natural constituent of several traditional botanical remedies, such as aconite root and Aristolochia brasiliensis…”
But natural doesn’t necessarily mean SAFE.
After all, the flower foxglove is natural AND poisonous…
Arsenic is natural as well, and it can kill you…
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg for natural substances that are dangerous.
So… Just because a substance occurs naturally doesn’t mean you should put it in your body.
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Let’s take a look at where higenamine is put into products…
When is it probably safe?
When should you watch out?
What’s the problem with higenamine?
Higenamine is added to sports and energy drinks and weight-loss supplements.
The problem is that higenamine is often mislabeled – with crazy variations between what the product labels claim is in the product and what actually is in the product.
Yes, higenamine is safe in low quantities…
But in higher quantities, it can cause cardiovascular risks…
Because in stronger doses it’s a powerful stimulant.
“Some of these products contain extremely high doses of a stimulant with unknown safety and potential cardiovascular risks when consumed. What we’ve learned from the study is that there is often no way for a consumer to know how much higenamine is actually in the product they are taking…”
Higenamine may also be labeled as norcoclaurine or demethyl-coclaurine – so you have to know what you’re looking for.
In tests of 24 different products, there were wildly different levels of this stimulant than what the labels claimed.
“The researchers studied 24 products labeled as containing higenamine or the synonyms ‘norcoclaurine’ or ‘demethyl-coclaurine’ and found unpredictable and potentially harmful quantities of the stimulant ranging from trace levels to 62 mg per serving…”
“Of the 24 products tested, only five listed a specific quantity of higenamine on the label, and none of those five quantities were accurate.”
There isn’t a ton of data yet on what higenamine can do to our bodies.
But it is similar to ephedra, which landed plenty of people in the emergency room before it was banned from supplements.
“When it comes to higenamine, we don’t yet know for certain what effect high dosages will have in the human body – but a series of preliminary studies suggest that it might have profound effects on the heart and other organs.”
In addition to the health threats of this stimulant, it’s also banned as a performance-enhancing substance by WADA (world anti-doping agency).
So if you are a professional athlete, then higenamine can show up in your tests and get you banned from your sport.
“While higenamine is considered a legal dietary ingredient when present as a constituent of botanicals, our research identified concerning levels of the stimulant and wildly inaccurate labeling and dosage information. And, as a WADA-prohibited substance, any amount of higenamine in a dietary supplement should be of concern to the competitive athlete.”
Like many other things, using higenamine in traditional botanical cures and treatments doesn’t seem to pose much of a threat.
But when you concentrate it in high (and often unknown) levels it can be a real health hazard.
If you need extra energy, I recommend sticking to coffee.
Black coffee and the caffeine it contains are really good for the body.
Coffee can reduce all kinds of risks for chronic health conditions.
And if you’re drinking it in its well-tolerated form (not concentrated it into pills and supplements) most people tolerate caffeine very well…
Especially if they build up their coffee tolerance over time.
If you want to get higenamine in supplements and know for sure what you’re taking, then it’s a good idea to make sure those products are NSF certified…
That helps to guarantee purity and levels of concentration – and your safety.
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