Ephedra to be banned

I have taken (and enjoyed taking, for that matter) ephedra, in the form of the Chinese herb Ma Huang, for several years. In capsules and as tea.

It gives me energy that a cup of coffee does not, seems to help with maintaining my weight, controlling my appetite, and my (admittedly mild) allergies.

I almost always take it on a full stomach, almost always immediately after lunch.

When the health food stores (GNC and Vitamin World) stop selling it in their stores (because of liability issues), then I bought it online.

I suppose I'll continue to do so...

...Above all else, do no harm...

It is stuff like that that really gets me angry. I don't think that it is the government's business. So long as there is a caveat on the bottle, adults don't need "big daddy government" to tell us what to take or not take.

I remember when l-tryptophan was taken off the market. It was a good product, and it helped me sleep. At the time, it seemed that there was one lot that had a contaminated vehicle. It was actually not the
l-tryptophan itself that had caused any problems.

But our government, in its usual wisdom, took it off the market anyway.

The government needs to do what the Constitution intended them to do.............and one thing that was not intended was that it acts "in loco parentis"!

Ephreda, like many things is perfectly safe if you use it properly. I use it all the time and periodically I stop for a week or two.

The ball player that died had already in the same 10 day period suffered from a heat exhaustion based collapse and had a previous heart issue.

The dumb ass shouldn't have been taking ephreda or any other stimulant. It says so right on the bottle.

Remember when they said LSD cause dchromosone damasge in lab rats? they forgot to mention that the dosage they gave the rats was something like 100 times the normal dose for a human and that in those quantities tea sugar and TAP WATER also destoyed their chromosones.

Apparently the war on terrorism is over and I missed the memo. What other reason could there be for diverting the National attention from WMD's to a f**king herb?

The government does stupid things like this when we have bright people in office, so with the current morons running the show I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

In Raleigh we have one brave independent guy who has a supplement and workout dietary products shop who still sells ephreda based products and he'll continue to until they force him to stop. Good for him. This is ridiculous.

Grrrrrrr

Stupid. Ahnold never would have done that if we was prez.

I find it amazing that a Republican administration finds it necessary to tell me what supplements I cannot take.

Even if I thought the product was bad or unsafe (which I don't) then I could not support a governmental ban.

What about tobacco?

What about drivng without my seatbelt?

Aren't those worse?

btw I have ephreda coursing through my system right this very second...I feel great and I'm off to run.....if I have a stroke at least I'll be running under a beautiful Carolina Blue sky with the headphones blasting some Priest in my ears....sure beats dying in bed.....

What about guns, for Christ's sake?

How loud do you suppose would be the outcry if government officials stood before a podium and announced a handgun or assault weapon ban, because their use endangered people?

Have the manufacturers of ephedra simply failed to contribute enough to the politicians to assure themselves of continuation?

We can ban ephedra but we cannot ban the feeding of rendered animal products and byproducts to livestock?!?

pssstttt I'm out of ephreda...while I was our running I pawned squinneys wedding rings to get more.......please don't tell her...I'm a desperate man..

Will this affect the sale of Sudafed, too? My favorite cold medication. Almost makes being sick kind of fun.

More people die each year from alcohol and tobacco products than all "controlled" substances combined; since the beginnig of time - go figure

Sudafed carries all kinds of warnings about safety and who shouldnt use it. And also, Sudafed has analgesic properties. Ephedra has not shown to be effective in any research , while it has shown harmful side effects, like high speed tachycardia and arhythmias. Sort of like cocaine. It also increases BP > I looked for some today, couldnt find it, Does ephedra have similar safety warnings and contraindication information?
If something is potentially harmful if used in its reccomended dosage , that seems to me to be a reason to drop it. Of course I know that this will start a black market ma huang business.

Nobody makes sales claims that booze or smokes will make you pretty or thin.

Don't need a doctors prescription or someone telling me I can't have it.............. There lies the difference. Same is true with rat poison.

"if used in its reccomended dosage" is the key phrase, farmerman. I don't know, but believe it has never been shown harmful in reccomended dose.

The difference between ephedra and most other OTC supplements, is it's an actual drug. It's not OTC in Europe(or it wasn't a few years back), and it should be treated as a drug.
Although millions of people safely use it, and get great results(energy boost, weight/fat loss), it's the handful of careless people that ruin it for everyone else. Kids taking megadoses, ect. Or the baseball player that died...he was overweight, wearing multiple layers while working out in the heat of FL, had an existing heart condition, and took ephedrine. Maybe it had something to do with it, but quite possibly it didn't...either way he, as a pro athlete, shoud have known better to stay away from it, considering his situation.
Because it was so easy to get, alot of people who didn't educate themselves on it, or were just plain stupid, took too much at once and some got hurt. So it got a black eye...just another thing that'll be sold illegally soon.

Farmerman, I'm not sure what you meant by it not showing it to be effective in any research, but ephedrine has been shown in many studies to be an effective fat/weight loss tool. All the products I've seen have extensive warnings on the bottle, and pretty much is dangerous in recomended dosages only to people with conditions that are warned not to take it.

I'm not a consistent user, but I don't think they should have banned it. Chain nutrition stores like GNC already had it off the shelves, so it was getting harder for kids to buy it. But I don't think completely removing it was the best thing to do.

It is speed-lite wrapped in an herbal blanket........

The stuff's a drug and needed to be regulated as such. It's been banned as an herbal remedy for some time here. Canada's a lot tougher with drug testing than the U.S. Ephedra came up as all side effects, no useful benefits.

It seems that a lot of people were using it as a stimulant, without having to ask for a prescription. I don't see any benefit to that. If you're taking a stimulant, your doctor should know about it - especially if you're taking any other kind of medication.