Hippocrates was probably the first to record the benefits of white willow bark. He did this in the fifth century BC. In 1828 a French pharmacist, Henri Leroux, and an Italian chemist, Raphael Piria, were able to isolate a compound in the grayish brown bark from the white willow tree (Salix alba), called salicin. Since then, salicylic acid, an active derivative of salicin, has been further isolated and found a home as one of the primary ingredients in aspirin.
In an effort to get bigger, better, faster, the bodybuilding industry popularized the concept of “stacking,” or combining certain ingredients to take advantage of their synergistic effects. Synergy occurs when ingredients are combined and the specific combination of those ingredients provides a greater benefit than the individual benefits that could be realized if each of those ingredients were taken independently of each other.
For decades, the ECA stack reigned supreme in the bodybuilding industry thanks to its popularity. It was a “stack” that combined ephedra, caffeine, and aspirin. Although the proportion of this combination varied, 25 mg of ephedra was commonly combined with 200 mg of caffeine and 325 mg of aspirin. Unfortunately, this combination became extremely difficult to put together when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the sale of all dietary supplements containing ephedra on February 6, 2004. Despite numerous studies demonstrating the safety of ephedra in controlled amounts, the FDA would not budge on their finding that ephedra presented an “unreasonable risk of disease or injury.” After being challenged in a federal appeals court, on August 17, 2006, the FDA upheld the ephedra ban with a 133,000-page report citing 19,000 individual adverse reactions. In the wake of this dilemma, substitutes for ephedra quickly followed, along with caffeine and aspirin.
Conceptually, the ECA stack effectively assists with weight loss and energy gains. Some stimulants, such as ephedra, are known as “beta agonists,” meaning they work by targeting a certain gene (the “beta-2 adrenergic receptor” or “ADRB2”) in the body to unlock a genetic response. serve as the key. The three responses believed to occur are increased levels of norepinephrine, increased levels of epinephrine, and increased levels of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP).
Norepinephrine and epinephrine are quite similar. Both are common neurotransmitters in the brain that also act as hormones in the body. As norepinephrine levels and cAMP levels rise, the heart rate increases and the body triggers the release of glucose from stored energy. When taken in a stack with caffeine and aspirin, this chain of events increases blood flow to muscle tissue and increases body temperature, creating a thermogenic effect on the body. It is also believed that during this process, the body begins to burn white adipose tissue, appetite is suppressed and fatigue is reduced while energy levels are increased.
When a hodgepodge of stimulants and aspirin (or white willow bark) enters the body, a little light goes off (not literally) telling the body it was just stimulated as metabolism begins to increase. In response, the body begins producing phosphodiesterase inside your cells and prostaglandins outside your body’s cells. Both of these reactions reduce cAMP levels, slowing metabolism from the ECA stack.
Caffeine prevents cAMP levels from falling by blocking the production of phosphodiesterase inside cells, while increasing the body’s production of epinephrine, which again helps to increase cAMP levels. Aspirin (or white willow bark) prevents cAMP levels from falling by blocking the production of prostaglandins outside the body’s cells. Through these specific actions of caffeine and aspirin (or white willow bark), thermogenesis is sustained for longer periods of time while metabolism is at a higher rate, allowing the body to burn more calories.
Taking this combination of ingredients before exercise should also help with better exercise performance, as the body will not tire as quickly and muscles will recover and feel fresher faster. All this being said, please remember that your body is not designed to burn stored fat as fuel if you are eating more calories per day than your body is burning as fuel. Taking dietary supplements may help your body burn more calories, but don’t expect dramatic, long-term changes to your body shape without making lifestyle changes to your eating and exercise habits.
