In April 2004 the FDA removed ephedra from the market claiming that it was responsible for dozens of deaths. The legal battle between the FDA and health officials began when the health officials became unhappy with the FDA’s decision to ban ephedra. The FDA had not taken proper action in declaring the ban on Ephedra based products. There reasoning for the ban was that there were too many problems occurring, some of which led to deaths. Ephedra was considered to be a drug that was too risky. The FDA claims that the negatives outweighed the positive aspects of the drug.

Although this didn’t seem to be the case until a baseball player had died sometime after taking an Ephedra based product to increase his performance. The FDA didn’t recognize that the baseball player had miss used the herb. Just like the others who had serious problems with the use of Ephedra; they were the same ones who abused the drug thinking they could increase the benefits by taking more at one time

On April 14 of 2005 a federal judge, Tena Campbell of the federal district court in Salt Lake City Utah reversed the ban on ephedra. This reversal forced the FDA revise their decision to ban products containing Ephedra.. The FDA lifted the ban recently because they where forced to realize Ephedra based products, if used properly, had astounding benefits, especially weight loss by naturally increasing energy and metabolism.

Ephedrine is found in many over-the-counter medications such as Sudafed, Contac, Primatene, and Bronkaid, but it has been used for over 5,000 years. It was used by the Chinese for many health issues including asthma and bronchitis. Ephedra is a powerful blood purifier, being a popular folk remedy for such conditions as arthritis, rheumatism, bursitis and other painful muscle and joint problems. Since Ephedra is a vasoconstrictor, it has also been used to stop internal bleeding.

There is only one company that is able to legally sell Ephedra based products. The rights to market an Ephedra based product that aids in weight loss where bought by the makers of Betafuel. The main goal of Betafuel is to help its users to lose weight quickly and easily. If you are interested in this product, and would like to find out more information concerning Betafuel, it can be found here at http://www.ephedracenter.com.