Diet Pills With Ephedra

For more than 4000 years Ma Huang had been used in China to treat symptoms like asthma and upper respiratory infections. Ma Huang is another term used for Ephedra and is a member of the herb family known as Ephedracae. A variety of this herb grows also in India, Afghanistan, Europe, and Australia. Native to dry southwest, American ephedra was used as a tea by the early settlers and was called Mormon tea and Squaw tea. It is used to treat fevers, headaches, hay fever, and colds. Over-the-counter cold and allergy medications contain the mixture of this herb.

Ephedrine is the main property in ephedra, which is a bronchodilator and stimulates the sympathetic nervous system. It has very essential antispasmodic properties, and acts on the air passages to relieve swelling of the mucous membrane. The other alkaloid contained in ephedra is Pseudoephedrine, which is a nasal decongestant with less stimulating effects on the heart and blood pressure. Doctors use these alkaloids to treat bronchitis, emphysema, bronchial asthma, persistent coughs, shortness of breath, and wheezing.

Ma Huang can rid the body of fevers and clear blocked sinuses. Alkaloids are effective in the treatment of allergic reactions like hives; it can treat low blood pressure, narcolepsy, and rheumatism and can also relieve the body of universal pain.

Ephedra suppresses the appetite and stimulates the thyroid gland, which in turn stimulates metabolism. Ephedra has a stimulating effect on the nervous system so it is found in many common weight loss and energy product. Ma Huang had recently been the center of scientific research for obesity due to its thermogenic fat-burning effect on dietary intake. Some of the side effects of ephedra are increase cardiac stimulation and blood pressure, peripheral vasoconstriction; therefore, it is mixed with other tonic herbs to help to contradict these effects.

Many energy products and drinks contain Ma Huang and are used widely by athletes to get extra energy without draining their reserves. This ingredient also increase alertness and perception if people. Ma Huang is often combined with ingredients like kola nut or guarana, which has caffeine. Concerns about the strength of Ma Huang herb and its isolated alkaloids have prompted scrutiny and regulations, and have forced the industry to place warnings on the labels. Ma Huang must list the possible negative side effects that a person may experience when taking this pill. Some contraindications listed are cardiac arrhythmia and heart disease, weakness, high blood pressure, poor digestion, nervousness, heart disease, and sleeplessness. Pregnant women and nursing mothers should not take Ma Huang.

The Food and Drug Administration, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the medical community have been very skeptical for years about dietary supplements that contain ephedra, because of the high rate of serious side effects and deaths caused by ephedra. For this reason the Food and Drug Administration banned on April 12, 2004 the sale of supplements containing ephedra. A Federal District Court judge in Utah upheld the suit by the ephedra manufacturer on April 14, 2005. The Food and Drug Administration appealed the ruling, and the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the Food and Drug Administration’s ban of ephedra on August 17, 2006 for the Tenth Circuit. Since February 2007, the sale dietary supplements containing ephedra and dietary supplements containing ephedrine alkaloids became illegal in the United States.