In connection with the safety and legality of Ephedra based products, there has been a popular misconception that all ephedra diet pills are banned products by the FDA since 2004. However, nothing can be further from the truth as it has always been an integral part of weight loss dietary supplements and has been available all across the United States at all times.
Whole ephedra or ephedrine alkloids?
People have mistaken the Ephedrine alkaloids for Ephedra and the close similarity of the names has only served to confuse the issue further. The fact remains that Ephedra has never been banned by the FDA and that most if not all dietary supplements in the past contained ephedrine alkaloids that were actually found to be harmful with vicious side effects.
In spite of this, ephedrine alkaloids themselves were not direct victims of an FDA ban but the products that are sold as dietary supplements that contained them were. The FDA’s web site contains the entire deliberations on the subject and you could get verified and correct information there. So what this boils down to is that these and any other pills that contain ephedrine alkaloids are properly legal and are not banned, only dietary supplements containing them were and are still banned. This should clear the air considerably on the ban on ephedra or ephedrine containing products.
The reason behind Ban
The ban on these products is the result of a sustained and prolonged monitoring of products containing ephedrine alkaloids following several complaints from users who reported instances of cardiac arrests and strokes following which it was conclusively proved that long term exposure to such products were indeed harmful and could even prove fatal. Which is why in 2004 the FDA approved the ban on products containing ephedrine alkaloids.
Subsequent to the ban, new wight loss products containing Ephedra were manufactured and launched in the market by many companies that did not contain any ephedrine alkaloids but alternatives that were as effective in weight loss and so you can comfortably go in for such new version products safe in the knowledge that they will not be harmful. An even safer alternative would be to go in for those pills that contain anti-oxidants like green tea or are composed of octopamine, quercetin and trimethylglycine, which are all helpful compounds.