In 2004, the United States Food and Drug Administration or FDA banned the sale of ephedra and other ephedra-containing supplements due to alarming reports of serious side-effects caused by the drug. The effects include dizziness, dehydration, vomiting, nervousness, headache, irregular heartbeat, insomnia, hallucinations, heart attack, hyperthermia, strokes, tremors, seizures and even death. Since then numerous appeals and petitions were made by different corporations to lift the ban, however to this day various types of ephedra remains illegal in the United States.
What is Ephedra?
Ephedra refers to a shrub-like plant called Ephedra sinica or Ma Huang in Chinese. It has been used to treat asthma, hay fever and common cold for 5,000 years. The main active ingredients in ephedra are alkaloids ephedrine and pseudoephedrine. Each stem contains a total alkaloid content of 1-3%, 40-90% of which is ephedrine.
The most common use of ephedra today is for weight loss in the form of dietary pills such as Lipodrene, Ma Huang RP and Green Stinger available at Ephedra Outlet. The pills are sometimes taken in combination with caffeine and aspirin. Ephedra is also commonly used as performance enhancers and consequently prohibited for athletes participating in competitive sport events.
As with most drugs, ephedra should not be taken without your doctor’s consent. Consult your physician and report your full medical history to determine if it is safe for you to take the pill. Ephedra mixed with other substances such as alcohol is known to have undesirable side effects so if you are a frequent drinker this is not for you.
Ephedra and Alcohol
Ephedra and alcohol have opposite effects to the body. While alcohol depresses the nervous system, ephedra stimulates it which could put you in potential danger. Together it messes your judgment so that you might not think or feel intoxicated even after consuming a huge amount of alcohol. This could result to alcohol poisoning and cause death.
Imagine the danger of drunk driving while taking ephedra. You may feel that you are good to drive but your driving skill is now actually lower due to the influence of alcohol. This could put you at risk of getting into an accident and hurting someone else.
Because of the opposite effects of ephedra and alcohol, the brain receives mixed signals resulting in unpredictable reactions. In severe cases, heart failures have been reported as an effect of combining ephedra and alcohol. In 2001, a man was convicted and was found to be temporarily psychotic on two separate occasions. The man was mixing alcohol with ephedra.
Ephedra can also worsen hangover or the morning-after headache after drinking too much alcohol the night before. One reason for that is because you tend to drink large quantities of alcohol while feeling more sober than you really are. Another reason is both the alcohol and ephedra contribute to the dehydration effect causing you to urinate more frequently. Dehydration causes the headache, nausea and sick feeling of a hangover.
So when taking ephedra, do not consume large quantities of alcohol to avoid these undesirable side effects.