Is Ephedra Harmless?
Of course if you misuse ephedra, you can come to harm. But to that point, so can you come to harm if you drink too much water – but nobody would recommend banning water. The question for the authorities is what is the correct or most cost effective response to learning that a few people have been stupid with how they have used ephedra in the past. You might argue that the correct response would be to educate the public, but the cheapest response has been to simply ban everybody for using the drug.
Ephedra is used as a stimulant and for mild respiratory disorders, including asthma and bronchitis. In Asian medicine, it is used for fever, swelling, and bone pain. Ephedrine, the principle alkaloid, a popular ingredient in many “herbal” weight loss and body building formulas, decongestants, “legal high” alternatives, and ephedrine-based pep pills.
Asprin, synthetic pain medication, cold medicines, alcohol , and many prescription drugs are far more dangerous. In fact if we use the same guidelines as ephedra, the FDA needs to ban bananas, peanut butter, chocolate, coffee, and nearly every concentrated extract and supplement produced.
The FDA has to act as a drug regulation authority, but it doesn’t operate in a vacuum. If the political or media drivers are powerful, they do adjust their judgments. Drugs, such as stackers fat burner that are used in the bodybuilding world are especially closely looked at by the FDA and it will seek to jump on any drug that can have physiological effects.
If the FDA is able to regulate a drug, it is then able to charge a fee. If a drug is classed as a drug – and not a supplement, the FDA gains monetarily. However, if classed as a supplement, then the FDA can not regulate it and therefore can not impose a charge on its distribution. So there are financial drivers which may also affect the regulators decision making abilities.
There are thousands of legal products which will kill you if you overindulge. It’s a fact that more people die each year from allergic reaction to PEANUTS, than died from Ephedra on a yearly basis.
They “think” they can link about 85 deaths to “misuse” of Ephedra over a 25-year study – less than four per year, and don’t forget about “misuse.”!
I believe that most of the ephedra products recommended a reasonable dosage and, in fact, told you to talk to a doctor first. If you didn’t do those two things and you died, you committed suicide. It wasn’t ephedra’s fault.
The FDA banned a herbal substance they couldn’t get paid for. And now doctors are offering replacement prescriptions the FDA does get paid for. This was only about the pharmaceutical community wanting to capitalize on a billion dollar industry.
Ephedra is an herbal product. It works by stimulating the nervous system, which can increase heart rate and blood pressure.
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