Please Note: This post does not constitute an endorsement of DMAA. I'm not a medical practitioner, and DMAA is not considered a legitimate medical product. Also, some of the information in this post is no longer accurate. See my update here on the legal status of DMAA.
I didn't choose this subject, it chose me. Backhanded FDA tactics, tweaking Marines, Youtube marketing of an untested synthetic stimulant, and a quick profit buzz followed by a nasty crash. I <3 this stuff.
DMAA aka Methylhexanamine is the latest stimulant to become available over the counter. As of this posting, I have no idea whether it is available at reputable workout supplement store shelves, next to the Horny Goat Weed and the creatine jelly beans. But you can definitely still buy it online. In New Zealand, DMAA was put mostly into party pills and has already been banned outright, much like Piperazines before. But in the USA, the substance has mostly been put into so-called pre-workout blends, extending the half-life of it's legitimacy. These pre-workout blends, like the cult favorite Jack3d, tend to be powder-potions of amino acids, artificial sweeteners, caffeine, and other marginal stimulants like schizandrol and synephrine, designed to get you pumped to pump. Adding DMAA makes these blends way more potent.
What is this stuff? Supposedly it is a trace ingredient in geranium oil, but there is little dispute that most DMAA sold is synthetically manufactured. But that technically shouldn't impact it's status as a natural ingredient by law. A large percentage of the "natural" products available in nutritional supplements are made synthetically, including the vast majority of Vitamin C. What matters is that these ingredients exist in nature, especially in foods or other organic matter with a long history of human consumption. This is a fairly low bar on a planet with millions of species where millions of people have been putting things in their mouths for quite a few years now. So, provided that this stuff really is contained in geranium oil, it is de facto legal in the USA.
What does this stuff do? Nobody knows, or if they do they aren't telling. Most likely, companies that market DMAA are better off that way, because that information could help justify a ban. People have made strong educated guesses based on it's chemical structure and effects on the heart that it increases the concentration of adrenaline and its cousin Norepinephrine in the body and brain. This is the same effect as ephedrine, an ingredient in the Chinese herb Ma Huang which was the ingredient behind blockbuster diet drugs like Herbalife and a handful of cautionary after-school specials, before getting yanked by the FDA due to "cardiac events"--all this after synthetic ephedrine was yanked from shelves in the form of decongestants like the Mini-Thins popular with a pre-stardom Eminem and his ilk. After Ma Huang was pulled, a handful of other ingredients were tried in diet pills and "pre-pump" blends but none caught on like DMAA.
Okay, but what does this stuff actually do? It's a stimulant, and personal reactions to stimulants vary quite a bit. One important thing to remember is that if you have experience only with caffeine or nicotine then that will not always generalize to "real" stimulants (those with a direct effect on dopamine or norepinephrine). Some people do find high enough doses of DMAA to be euphoric or similar to speed, but generally say that they "lose the magic" after trying it just a few times. DMAA has a short half-life in the body, and does not last as long as caffeine, but it might not feel that way for new users because your body is not adjusted to this type of stimulation. There is also a mini-debate online about whether DMAA has a very minimal comedown (making it preferable to caffeine) or a hellish emotional-hangover crash landing that will have you swearing it off forever. For the number of people taking DMAA products right now I am not seeing as much evidence online of addiction as I expected, but the cases I have seen tend to focus on the sex-enhancing and social lubricant aspects of the drug.
Is it safe? I need to reiterate the warning starting this post. The short answer to the question has to be NO because drugs, like cities, oysters, pre-washed spinach, cars, do-it-yourself home repair, cell phones, and intramural sports are definitely NOT safe. Or, at the very least, these things cannot ever be definitively proven to be safe. Some studies have been conducted to establish a safety profile for DMAA, but these studies have mostly been conducted by the companies that market it as a supplement, meaning they do not meet the sample size, control, and oversight standards of pharmaceutical studies. . .pharmaceutical studies which definitively established the "safety" of such balms of human wellness as Fen-phen and Raptiva. The good news is that, taken at recommended doses, DMAA doesn't seem to increase heart rate. Increasing heart rate tends to be associated with some of the nastiest potential effects from stimulants such as tachycardia and heart valve irregularities. It does increase blood pressure, and this is fairly standard for a thermogenic drug (a drug that can cause weight loss by increasing metabolism). Is it healthy to increase your metabolism and blood pressure by taking a drug? Maybe if you have chronic low blood pressure. But for most of us? Well, try composing a sentence containing the phrase "hypertension is healthy". Also note: Eli Lilly trademarked DMAA in 1944 as a decongestant.
Why is DMAA being banned? The short answer is because it is popular and effective. DMAA was first banned in 2010 by the World Anti-Doping Agency who decided that it had the potential to enhance athletic performance. This is the sort of endorsement that money can't buy. Soon Jack3d, which is available in flavors like Grape Bubblegum and Strawberry Pineapple (extra macho!), and a few other products were slanging "germanium" as fast as they could bundle the baggies. The Army pulled all DMAA products from on-base stores after two soldiers had heart attacks with DMAA in their system, although the same Army is also conducting a study on it's own soldiers to see whether DMAA is safe. Just because, you know, the Army is really worried about safety and not, say, interested in performance enhancement. At the end of April, the FDA sent out letters to major makers and retailers of DMAA products that they should pull them from shelves, based both on the arguement that DMAA is unsafe and that it is not actually a constituent of Geranium oil(!)obviously leading to an internet fire sale of these products along with pure DMAA powder and capsules, none of which are actually Federally banned substances at this time. But much to the chagrin of the FDA, big chains like GNC and Vitamin Shoppe did not obey. Retailers and manufacturers are hamstrung at this point: pulling the items from their shelves prior to an outright ban could be construed as an admission that the substance is harmful, and there are already consumer lawsuits alleging that it is. Either way, those who profit from the sales are going to need plenty of cash on hand to defend against these lawsuits, cash they can only get by selling more drugs to more consumers. If the FDA actually had solid evidence that DMAA should be banned it would be, but they haven't done their homework on a product that has been commercially available for at least six years. Maybe they are hoping that the huge surge of consumers buying DMAA in anticipation of a ban will cause a surge in adverse events (deaths, hospitalizations, etc) associated with the drug, helping in turn to justify the ban. You have to love a self-fulfilling prophecy. Meanwhile, supplement companies are combing through millions of "natural" molecules to find the next "weight loss miracle".
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