Ephedra

Ephedra is a nearly leafless, jointed primitive shrub, also known as ma huang. Looking similar to connected, branching, thin straws, the Asian ephedra species of plant is the only one that contains the active pseudoephedrine and ephedrine compounds. A wild, related species found in Southwest American, widely known as Mormon tea, does not contain these ingredients. Chinese herbalists traditionally used ma huang for short-term treatment of respiratory infections in the beginning stages and some types of edema, narcolepsy, hay fever, common cold, eczema, and asthma. At the beginning of the 1900’s, Japanese chemists were able to isolate ma huang from ephedrine, which resulted in it becoming a primary asthma treatment in America and abroad. They also used pseudoephedrine, another major ingredient in ephedra, as a decongestant.

Over the last ten years, by both the medical community and the United States FDA among others, began to question the safety of ephedra products used to lose weight, such as diet pills with ephedra and cheap ephedra dietary supplements. Because of the documented adverse effects and even deaths related to the pure ephedra used in weight loss supplements and ephedra diet pills, they made the sale of dietary supplements containing ephedra illegal in the States as of February 2007. Although there are products containing ephedra such as Stacker 3 with ephedra and Stacker 2 ephedra, there are now Stacker fat burners available that no longer have ephedra in them. Instead of using metabolift with ephedra, ephedra free metabolift products help increase energy, stimulates weight loss and increases your metabolism.

Ephedra pills for weight loss often caused concerns or problems when taken for long periods or in high doses. Some problems linked with ephedra included, seizures, high blood pressure, and strokes. Ephedra, taken with stimulants, increased side effect risks such as vomiting, nausea, dizziness, restlessness, and anxiety. Although the FDA banned ephedra weight-loss supplements, people still buy ephedra products and buy ma huang products because many health food stores carry herbal remedies that include these. Herbal remedies slip through due to recent regulation changes allowing nutritional supplement makers not to fully identify their products ingredients. You should still regard the safety of using ephedra even though they class it as an herbal remedy used for several different things. Many people believe that if the label on a product says one hundred percent natural ingredients or is an herbal remedy that there are no risks and it is completely safe to take. That is not true, so always use caution when taking any herbal products.