White Willow Bark – The Critical Weight Loss Assistant (Diet)

Hippocrates was possibly the first person to record the benefits of white willow bark. He did it in the fifth century BC. In 1828 a French pharmacist, Henri Leroux, and an Italian chemist, Raffaele Piria, succeeded in isolating a compound in the gray-brown bark of the white willow (Salix alba) known as salicin. Since then, salicylic acid, an active derivative of salicin, has spread further and found a home as one of the main ingredients in aspirin.

In an effort to get bigger, better, and faster, the bodybuilding industry popularized the concept of “stacking,” or combining certain ingredients to take advantage of their synergistic effect. Synergy occurs whenever ingredients are combined and the specific combination of those ingredients provides a greater benefit than the individual benefits that could be obtained if each of those ingredients were taken independently.

For decades, the ECA stack reigned supreme in popularity in the auto body building industry. This was a “stack” that combined ephedra, caffeine, and aspirin. Although the ratio of this combination varied, 25 milligrams of ephedra was commonly combined with 200 milligrams of caffeine and 325 milligrams of aspirin. Unfortunately, this combination became extremely difficult to put together when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the sale of all ephedra-containing dietary supplements on February 6, 2004. Despite numerous studies demonstrating ephedra’s safety in controlled doses, the FDA would not budge on its finding that ephedra posed an “unreasonable risk of disease or injury.” On August 17, 2006, after being challenged in a federal appeals court, the FDA upheld the ephedra ban with a 133,000-page report citing 19,000 individual adverse reactions. In the wake of this dilemma, ephedra alternatives were quickly found to combine with caffeine and aspirin.

Conceptually, the ECA stack effectively helps with weight loss and increased energy. Certain stimulants, such as ephedra, are known to be “beta agonists,” meaning that they key into a certain gene in the body (by targeting the “beta-2 adrenergic receptor” or “ADRB2”) to unlock a response genetics. Three responses that are believed to be unlocked are elevated norepinephrine levels, elevated epinephrine levels, and elevated cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) levels.

Norepinephrine and epinephrine are quite similar. Both are common neurotransmitters in the brain that also function as hormones in the body. As norepinephrine and cAMP levels rise, the heart rate increases, triggering the release of glucose from stored energy in the body. When taken in conjunction with caffeine and aspirin, this chain of events increases blood flow to muscle tissue and increases body temperature, creating a thermogenic effect in 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 as energy levels increase.

When a stack of stimulants and aspirin (or white willow bark) enter the body, a little light goes on (not literally) telling the body that it has just been stimulated as the metabolism begins to ramp up. In response, the body begins to produce phosphodiesterase inside the cells and prostaglandins outside the cells of the body. Both reactions reduce cAMP levels, which slows the increased metabolism of the ACE stack.

Caffeine prevents cAMP levels from falling by blocking the production of phosphodiesterase within cells, while further increasing the body’s production of epinephrine, which again helps raise cAMP levels. Aspirin (or white willow bark) prevents cAMP levels from falling by blocking the production of prostaglandins outside of the body’s cells. Through these specific actions of caffeine and aspirin (or white willow bark), thermogenesis is maintained for longer periods of time while metabolism is maintained at a higher rate, allowing the body to burn more calories for longer.

Taking this combination of ingredients before exercise should also help with a better workout, as the body will not fatigue as quickly and the muscles will recover and feel fresh faster. With all of that said, remember that your body is not designed to burn stored fat for fuel if you’re eating more calories each day than your body burns for fuel. Taking a dietary supplement can help your body burn more calories, but don’t expect dramatic long-term changes in your body shape without also making changes to your lifestyle, eating and exercise habits.