Best Weight Loss Products With Ephedra
The best weight loss products with ephedra are probably long gone, at least in the United States. Ephedra was banned in the United States twice. Once in 2003 and again in 2006. If you are looking for ephedra you will have to look outside of the United States because it is no longer allowed to be sold here. Ephedra was causing too many serious health issues and even deaths for too many people and the Food and Drug Administration decided it was time to do something about it. Ephedra is a shrub or synthetic which acts as a stimulant and increases blood pressure and causes the heart to beat rapidly or causes irregular heartbeats. Other side effects reported are insomnia, nervousness, tremors, anxiety, allergies, itching, hives, psychosis, nausea, vomiting, strokes, heart attacks, insomnia, blood vessel restriction, and seizures. There may be other side effects not listed here. There were over 800 reports of strokes and heart attacks and some deaths caused by products which contained ephedra that the FDA received between 1994 and 2003 so they got the courts to ban ephedra for the first time in December 2003. Some people did not feel that the ephedra was that dangerous and they felt that the FDA was exaggerating so they filed a petition in 2004 to get the court to lift the ephedra ban. The ban was lifted on the ephedra because the courts felt that the FDA did not have enough evidence to prove that ephedra was dangerous when used in small amounts of 10 mg. or less. The ban was lifted in 2005. There seemed to be a problem though. The FDA continued to receive reports of heart attacks and strokes from people who were using products which contained ephedra. The FDA collected over 1,000 reports of people being hospitalized from serious health issues related to the use of ephedra and at least 17 deaths. These reports were from people who had used less than 10 mg of ephedra and some were as small as 8 mg. The FDA conducted tests of some of the ephedra products and discovered that some of them were not labeled right. Some contained more ephedra than was on the labels and some contained less than was on the bottles. There were even some that contained no ephedra at all but it was listed on the labels. So the FDA took the evidence back to court and got ephedra banned for the second time in late 2006.
Ephedra comes from the ephedra shrub or is a synthetic which has been used for medicinal purposes for many years by the Chinese, Mormons, Native Americans, and Mexicans. The shrub is found in desert regions. Ephedra can be lethal if taken with aspirin (willow bark, salicytes, and salicylic acid) or caffeine (guarana, kola nut, and cocoa extract).
All Text Copyright © Safety2005.org
| Become a Member |
| Chapter Locations |
| Make a Donation |
| Off the Job Safety |
| Safety + Health Magazine |
| World Congress 2005 |