Ephedra

Ephedra is one of those oldest forms of herbal medicines that have been used as a medical alternative on various ailments and diseases. It is most popular among various Chinese civilizations for 5,000 years.

In most cases, the herb was used to treat hay fever, common clods, and asthma. Having the scientific name of Ephedra sinica, the herb can also be drunk as a tea that was pioneered by Native Americans and Mormons. The tea brewed from the plant of Ephedra was then commonly known as Mormon tea.

Generally, Ephedra is both a thermogenic and stimulant. It is thermogenic in the sense that it can increase a person's metabolism that can be well noticed due to an increase in body heat. Its stimulant property is mainly due to its high content of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine that play a vital role in stimulating the brain, increasing the person's heart rate, expanding bronchial tubes which make breathing a lot easier, and constricting blood vessels that causes a relative increase in blood pressure.

These days, ephedra is very popular among many athletes around the world. Despite the lack of proof and evidence, ephedra is believed to have the capability of improving the overall performance of an athlete. When combined with caffeine and aspirin, Ephedra can also be used as an alternative for weight loss. When used in the right way and in a well supervised environment, Ephedra is very effective for a short term weight loss averaging 0.9 kg/month. But then, several serious side effects have been documented when ephedra supplements is used without proper supervision.

There have been many known side effects attributed on the unregulated use of Ephedra and they are nervousness, skin reactions, trembling, irritability, dizziness, profuse perspiration, headache, insomnia, itchy scalp and skin, hyperthermia, dehydration, vomiting, irregular heartbeat, seizures, stroke, heart attack, or even death. Through the years, there have been a lot of reported cases of serious side effects in relation to the use of Ephedra and Ephedra containing dietary supplements.

A very popular incident that was linked to Ephedra was the death of Steve Bechler. Steve Bechler was a pitcher of Baltimore Orioles and had died of complications from heatstroke right after its spring training last February 17, 2003. The autopsy report of Steve Bechler's death revealed that ephedra toxicity played a major role in the person's sudden death. Following such incident, the FDA became stricter on regulating the use of ephedra. Later on, the FDA issued a final rule in banning the sale of ephedra-containing supplements.