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1,3-DMAA

weak data

Also seen as: Methylhexanamine

The Dose Guy’s verdict
Sep 1, 2026
4 sources

A sharp, effective stimulant that does exactly what a stimulant does: jack up your sympathetic nervous system, spike your energy, and temporarily kill appetite. The problem is the cardiovascular price tag. People have died on it, cardiac arrests during exertion in multi-ingredient stacks, and the FDA pulled it for good reason. The incretins make it obsolete for fat loss. If you want a stim pre-workout, caffeine is boring but alive.

Would I take it?Caution, a real stimulant with real consequences.

What it is

A synthetic sympathomimetic amine, structurally close enough to amphetamine that your dopamine transporter and noradrenaline stores cannot tell the difference. It works indirectly: it kicks noradrenaline loose and blocks dopamine reuptake, which is why the energy is real but the crash and the cardiovascular hit come with it. The “geranium extract” marketing was a fiction, tested and debunked.

On the weight-loss shelf 1,3-DMAA belongs to the old stimulant school: burn more, eat less, push harder, absorb the side effects. That model works for a few weeks and costs the cardiovascular system the whole time. After the FDA removed it from the market, the supplement industry shifted to its positional isomer 1,4-DMAA to dodge the ban. Meanwhile retatrutide, tirzepatide, and semaglutide broke the stim model entirely by solving appetite without the sympathetic ride, and there is no reason to go back.

What the research shows

The pharmacology is mapped in humans. The efficacy for anything useful is not:

After one oral 25 mg dose in seven analyzed men, 1,3-DMAA cleared slowly enough that a morning dose is still active at dinner. The long tail matters: a second dose the same day stacks on top of the first.BMC Pharmacol Toxicol 2013 · PK · n=8
In a ten-person crossover, 1,3-DMAA alone or with caffeine raised systolic and diastolic blood pressure and rate-pressure product without increasing heart rate. Caffeine 250 mg plus 1,3-DMAA 75 mg pushed systolic pressure up about 20% at 60 minutes.Phys Sportsmed 2011 · crossover RCT · n=10
Two soldiers using multi-ingredient supplements containing DMAA collapsed from cardiac arrest during physical exertion and died.Mil Med 2012 · case reports
Four laboratories tested 18 samples from six Pelargonium species and nine oils collected worldwide and found no 1,3-DMAA at roughly a 10 ppb detection limit. The “geranium extract” origin was synthetic all along.Drug Test Anal 2015 · lab analysis
No randomized trial has tested 1,3-DMAA alone for weight loss or exercise performance.as of Aug 2026

Realistic protocols

I am not recommending 1,3-DMAA for fat loss. The incretins do the appetite job better, safer, and without the cardiovascular roulette. If you already have it and intend to use it as a pre-workout stimulant, here is what the community ran and what the pharmacology says about it.

The standard pre-workout dose was 25 to 50 mg, swallowed 30 to 45 minutes before training. Most products paired it with caffeine, which amplifies the blood-pressure spike. Higher doses circulated, 75 mg was common in the old labels, but the hemodynamic cost scales with dose and the benefit plateaus. 1,3-DMAA lingers long enough that a second dose in the same day stacks blood levels in a way shorter stims do not, so one dose was the rule. Never combine it with other sympathomimetics, and never run it under heavy cardiovascular stress in heat. That is the exact scenario in the fatal case reports.

If you insist25–50 mgOral, once, 30–45 min before training. One dose per day, no exceptions.
Caffeinewatch the stackCaffeine amplifies the BP spike. If you add it, cut the DMAA dose.
Durationshort runs onlyNo cycling data exists. The shorter the run, the less exposure.
Ceiling75 mgOld label max. The hemodynamic cost keeps climbing past 50.

Side effects

The side profile is the sympathomimetic profile, dose-dependent and predictable:

commonBlood pressure rise, especially systolic, in acute dosing studies. Amplified by caffeine. A 12-week trial at 50 mg daily found no significant cardiovascular change, so the acute spike may not predict chronic use at low doses.
commonTachycardia, tremor, nausea, dizziness, and numbness or tingling, all reported widely in military surveys and poison-center data.
monitorCardiac arrest and cerebral hemorrhage appear in case reports, all during exertion or in multi-ingredient stacks. The combination of a sympathomimetic, caffeine, and hard exercise in heat is the highest-risk scenario.
anecdotalCrash and irritability on the back end, consistent with the indirect sympathomimetic mechanism and the slow clearance.

Where to buy

All American Aminos–
$30 / unit
✓ verified Sep 12
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