Ephedra Weight Loss Pills
Some of the makers of ephedra weight loss pills have replaced ephedra with another ingredient that is much safer to use and works as well as ephedra did. Ephedra was banned in the United States in October, 2006 so the companies began replacing ephedra with other ingredients. Some companies just discontinued their products. Some of the products which are now ephedra free are Diet Fuel, Energy Fuel, Everslender, Metabolift, Metabolife, Metabolite, Ripped Fuel, Trimspa, Stacker 2, Stacker 3, Stacker Lite, Xelerate, Lipodrene, Hydroxycut, Phentramin, and many more. Some of these products changed the ingredients when ephedra was banned for the first time in 2003. Others waited until it was banned for the second time in 2006. Some people had the courts lift the ban in 2005 because they did not feel there was as much danger as the FDA was claiming there was and the court agreed with them. So the FDA compiled many reports and the results of tests done on some of the products containing ephedra and took their findings to court and got ephedra banned for the second and hopefully last time. The dangers are proven and if some of the companies or people still fight the results it would appear that it is a money issue and not a concern for the people and their health. Ephedra was a strong stimulant which helped many people lose weight fast because it boosted metabolism in the system and burned fat and calories but it also raised the heart rate and blood pressure which made it extremely dangerous for many people. It was very dangerous (lethal or life threatening) if combined with aspirin (salicylic acid, salicytes, willow bark) or caffeine (kola nut, guarana, cocoa extract) and some products contained all three ingredients.
Ephedra is found in the desert regions around the world and is a shrub from which the stems are dried and made into a white powder. Ephedra is also known as Squaw Tea, Desert Tea, Mormon Tea, Herbal Ecstasy, Chinese Ephedra, Ma Huang, and Epitonin. It has been used by the Chinese, Mexicans, Native Americans, and Mormons for many years for medicinal purposes. Some of the many side effects reported from the use of ephedra were heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, rapid heart beat, irregular heart beat, seizures, insomnia, itching, nervousness, tremors, anxiety, nausea, vomiting, allergies, hives, psychosis, death, and many more. There were over 1,000 reports of hospital emergencies and at least 17 deaths from 1997 to 2006 to the FDA which were ephedra related. The numbers were just too large to ignore. People were in danger and were not aware of it until it was too late in many instances.
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