Ephedra Diet Pills
All diet pills containing ephedra have been banned in the United States. Ephedra was being used in products to increase energy, boost sports performance, to treat the common cold, medications for congested bronchial tubes, and asthma. Ephedra was banned in the United States in 2006 because there were too many reports of serious health problems such as heart attacks and strokes and even some deaths. Since 1994 there have been over 800 serious illnesses and some deaths reported to the Food and Drug Administration. Products like Trimspa diet pills contained ephedra until it was banned then Trimspa replaced the ephedra with hoodia gordonii. Fen-Phen was also a diet pill that contained ephedra. Other names for ephedra are Mormon Tea, Squaw Tea, Ma Huang, and Epitonin, Chinese ephedra, and Herbal Ecstasy. If you see any of these ingredients on any supplement bottles beware because they can be very dangerous. Besides the heart attacks and strokes and death, other side effects reported are insomnia, rapid heart beats, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, nervousness, tremors, and seizures. Ephedra was just too dangerous and too many people were being harmed by it. Although the Chinese have used ephedra for over 5,000 years for lung problems, there are just too many other side effects that many people were experiencing. The numbers of people with side effects were too numerous for the Food and Drug Administration to ignore. They tried to just make it where only lower doses of ephedra could be used but people were still experiencing heart attacks and strokes and other side effects. The amount of ephedra in the products did not matter. Even the low doses were causing problems so the FDA felt that they had to ban the ephedra all together. Some people are trying to get the ruling overturned but it seems that they are only thinking of themselves and not people who might unknowingly suffer or die from the ephedra.
Some of the products that contained ephedra are trimspa, Metabolife, Metabolite, MegaPro, MuscleTech Hydroxycut, Xenadrine, Nature’s Treat Energy Plus, Diet Fuel, Shape-Fast Plus, Ultimate Orange, Ripped Fuel, and Ripped Force. Trimspa replaced the ephedra with hoodia gordonii but it is not known if the other products listed are still on the market or not or if they still contain ephedra or if they have replaced the ephedra with other ingredients. If you have had any serious side effects from any natural supplement you should contact your doctor as soon as possible. You can also contact your local Health Department and the FDA Consumer hotline at 800-532-4440. Do not take a chance with the ephedra to lose weight when there are other very good alternatives that do not have side effects.
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