Some students eat healthy and exercise regularly to lose weight. Others take the herbal supplement ephedra.
Wendy Freedman said she would rather swallow two pills containing ephedra daily than work out three times a week.
The French senior takes two Ripped Fuel caplets before heading to class or work each morning to increase her metabolism, she said.
“It just gives me extra energy,” Freedman said. “I feel dead when I don’t take them at the beginning of the day.”
Freedman said she has taken some sort of diet pill almost every day since she was a college freshman.
The ephedra phenomenon is becoming more and more popular, especially among college-aged women, said Brian Anderson, a GNC store manager and professional nutritionist.
Students can find ephedra products such as Metabolife, Ripped Fuel, Hydroxycut and Xenadrine at almost any health food store, Anderson said.
“Even if they can’t find it here [at GNC], most people can get it at Wal-Mart or Target or Walgreen’s,” Anderson said.
Wal-Mart even carries a generic brand of Metabolife called Metabolite, he said.
The Smoothie King store on Perkins Road sells about 20 bottles each of Hydroxycut and Xenadrine each week, said employee Billie Watts.
Watts said the store has some regular ephedra customers, but the drug’s popularity increases almost daily.
“We always have new people coming in and asking about it,” she said. “It’s becoming much more common than it was even a year ago.”
Consuming ephedra in large doses or for extended periods of time seriously can affect a person’s health, Anderson said.
Because ephedra is an herb, the Food and Drug Administration does not regulate how much of the supplement manufacturers include in their products.
The FDA also does not approve ephedra because manufacturers add differing amounts of other ingredients to their pills, Anderson said.
Individuals who take too much of the supplement are susceptible to heart attacks and strokes. He said the drug speeds up an individual’s heart rate, causing it to beat irregularly.
Since 1994 the FDA has investigated more than 800 reports of ephedra’s negative side effects, including high blood pressure, insomnia, seizures and 50 deaths.
Freedman said she has not experienced any problems since the first year she took ephedra.
“I think I started out taking too much, and I blacked out once,” she said. “But I haven’t had any problems with it since.”
Even though the drug once made her lose consciousness, Freedman thinks ephedra’s benefits outweigh its side effects.
“I like the fact that I can take it and maintain my ideal weight. I never work out, and I eat whatever I want to,” she said.