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Ephedra is also known as ma huang, one of a group of plants that are sources of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine alkaloids. When synthesized, ephedrine and pseudoephedrine alkaloids become drugs that have been used to promote weight loss, boost energy and enhance athletic performance.
While people taking ephedra have seen some success in these areas, they have also put themselves at risk for serious health consequences, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which recently banned the sale of all supplements containing ephedra. FDA experts caution that the drug has only limited, short-term benefits, while producing no other health benefits. Instead, ephedra may cause deadly effects.
Dangers of ephedra range from mild to potentially deadly. Adverse reactions to ephedra are similar to symptoms associated with stimulants, such as nervousness, dizziness, tremor, alternations in blood pressure or heart rate, headache, insomnia, psychiatric effects, heart palpitations and gastrointestinal distress. A process called "stacking", in which other stimulants are added to ephedra in dietary supplements, has the potential to exacerbate these hyperactivity effects.
The drug has been found to induce central nervous stimulation, bronchodilation and vasoconstriction, all technical terms indicating ephedra''s tendency to raise blood pressure and put stress on the circulatory system. These physiological reactions lead to increased risk of more serious effects including chest pain, myocardial infarction (heart attack), hepatitis, stroke, seizures, psychosis and death.
These dangers are thought to increase with dose, with strenuous activity, and when ephedra is taken in conjunction with caffeine. Certain groups of people, such as pregnant or breast feeding women, and children under 18, are at greater risk of suffering from the dangers of ephedra. People that already have high blood pressure or heart disease are also strongly cautioned against taking any product containing ephedra or ephedrine alkaloids, as they are also at an increased risk of suffering dangerous side effects from the products.
The FDA also cautions that many people affected by adverse reactions to ephedra had no pre-existing conditions lending them to the serious side effects produced by the dietary supplement. Youth and good health did not appear to counteract the dangers of ephedra. In fact, in 1997, the drug was linked to the deaths of at least 22 adolescents and young adults, who were among the more than 800 reports of ephedra toxicity in the United States that year.
By 2003, the number of reports of adverse reactions to ephedra, including heart attack, seizure and stroke, had nearly doubled to more than 1,500. Despite the warnings of the dangers of ephedra, 14 percent of people taking non-prescription weight loss supplements in 2003 continued to take products containing the drug.
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