Available Ephedra Products
There should not be any ephedra products available in the United States because ephedra was banned in October, 2006. Ephedra was proven to be too dangerous to your health and the FDA had received too many reports of serious health issues and even death to ignore the problems ephedra was causing its users. If you live in another country you might be able to still find ephedra products made in your country. Most of the products in the United States have either replaced ephedra with another alternative ingredient or they have discontinued the products containing ephedra.
Some of the products that did contain ephedra but are now ephedra free are Metabolift, Metabolife, Metabolite, Diet Fuel, Energy Fuel, Everslender, Ripped Fuel, Trimspa, Hydroxycut, Phentramin, Zantrex, Stacker 2, Stacker 3, Stacker Lite, Lipodrene, Xelerate, and many more. Some of these products have replaced ephedra with Hoodia Gordonii (P57) which is a much sough after weight loss ingredient. Hoodia Gordonii comes from a succulent cactus like plant found in the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa. It has been used for over 25,000 years by the SANS tribes as a food supplement and also for medicinal purposes. They would eat the stems of the hoodia plant and they could go for days without food and water while on long hunting trips into the desert. Scientists have studied hoodia as a possible weight loss aid and in every case study done in humans and rats there was substantial weight loss without side effects or diet or exercise. Some people even reported an increase in energy. There has been no research done on the medicinal properties hoodia may contain. The tribes used hoodia for pain, indigestion, high blood pressure and other medicinal purposes.
There were over 800 reports of serious illnesses and some deaths from 1994 until 2003 caused by products containing ephedra so the Food and Drug Administration had ephedra banned in 2003 for the first time. The numbers were just too great to ignore. The side effects reported were strokes, heart attacks, seizures, high blood pressure, insomnia, rapid heart beat, irregular heart beat, nausea, vomiting, itching, hives, psychosis, anxiety, nervousness, tremors, allergies, death, and more. Some people did not feel that ephedra was as dangerous as the FDA claimed it was so they filed a petition in 2004 with the Federal court to get the ban lifted on ephedra. The court agreed with the people and in 2005 lifted the ban on ephedra. The FDA did not give up. They received over 1,000 reports of hospital emergencies of serious health issues such as strokes and heart attacks from those who had used as little as 8 mg of ephedra and at least 17 deaths from 1997 until 2006. The FDA also had some of the products containing ephedra tested and some of them contained more and some less than the amount listed on their labels. Some of them contained no ephedra at all. The FDA reported all of this to the court and in October, 2006 ephedra was banned in the United States for the second time.
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