In December 2003, the FDA incorporated an ephedra ban making it illegal to sell any products containing ephedra. The ephedra ban was put in place after investigation of several allegations that ephedra caused serious health problems, including death.

On April 13, 2005, a District Court of Utah judge threw out the part of the sweeping ephedra ban that prohibited the sale of products yielding less than 10mg of ephedra per day. The judge ruled that the full scale ephedra ban was not necessary because the FDA failed to prove any danger from 10mg or less of ephedra daily.

Many felt the initial ephedra ban was harsh. After the ephedra ban, some media quoted the number of deaths due to ephedra at 155. However, an FDA commissioned report related to the 2003 ephedra ban stated that five deaths could be attributed directly to ephedra. In addition, it was not completely disclosed that of the 5 related deaths, some already had pre-existing conditions that contributed to the death. Compared to the number of deaths from Ibuprofen, for example, it's pale in comparison.

The initial ephedra ban did not affect the sale of over the counter allergy and decongestant medications which can contain ephedrine in synthetic form. With the ephedra ban lift, we have found only one company, Ephedra Energy, that sells the pure form of ephedra to the public. You can obtain order information by going to www.EphedraEnergy.com

For more information on ban updates, visit www.DietWeightLossNews.org

Todd Brenner is currently the Executive Vice President of Fitness By Design. He serves on the board for Business Consultant Group of North America and has 23 years of business operations experience. He holds a Masters in Business from University of Louisville.

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