Ephedrine Caffeine

[undcvr]

I recently began to wonder if my cfs has been caused by or if not exacerbated by my use of Ephedrine. I used to take alot of it in college. I remember that after taking that for a few days continously I would then crash and fall sick for almost a week after. This cycle often repeated itself.

There were times that I would stack it with Caffeine and Asprin too. I am wondering because nowadays i notice that I am very prone to overstimulation and even with milder stuff like just caffeine or the caffeine in guarana I would crash after a few days of continuously using it. I have to take sedatives as a kind of support and counter to the stimulants during the day.

It maybe an oversimplistic way of coming to a conclusion but I am quite sure that it has played some part in it, i think.

 

[heapsreal]

I remember alot of info about it at the time said it was safe, the only concerns were hyertension. I didnt use it regularly but it did get me through a few football games after working a night shift, i wonder too. All these stimulants are said to down regulate the adrenals as well.

 

[undcvr]

Yea you are rite ! I remember that each time I came off it it seemed to exhaust me alot afterwards. Even back then, I knew that taking it disrupts the adrenal gland functions. I dont know if my adrenal glands ever recovered but it took a really long time before I actually felt better after I stopped the ephedrine.

 

[ukxmrv]

Hope you aren't beating yourself up at all. I didn't drink coffee or use any drugs before ME struck me. Something else could have done it if not. Have you had your adrenals tested?

 

[Carrigon]

Ephedrine helps me, but caffeine makes me very sick. Ephedrine raises blood pressure, so it's good for the POTS lightheadedness. But I think caffeine just dehydrates you and helps strip the glands more. I always crashed with caffeine.

 

[caledonia]

I would say, it wasn't caused by ephedrine or caffeine use, but the symptoms you had could be described as early symptoms of ME/CFS - in other words, unusual reactions to drugs.

Also like someone else said, those sound like symptoms of weak adrenals.

 

[heapsreal]

i have low dhea and cortilsol but think this is due to stress of chronic infections, so we will see how i go but treating the adrenals and keeping viral ,load down. My dhea and cortisol have slowly gone down over the years. Stimulants i feel are bteer a dead horse, even ssris etc are whipping that dead horse some more.

cheers!!!