Another blow to Ephedra

The AP has posted yet another story on the dangers of Ephedra. I counted no less than 15 news sites linking to it today. Yahoo! seems to have the most text on the subject.

[Sigh.] This is getting rather old. I'm about to throw in the towel and just order up a stockpile of Ma Huang for when "they" finally ban it. What a shame.

For those who will follow the link, allow me to make these clarifying points:

• Ephedra has uses outside the weight-loss and body-building industries.
  
• Doctors did not, as stated in the article, stop prescribing Ephedra in favor of safer drugs in the 30's. Ephedra, and hundreds of other botanical medicines, were railroaded out of existence by the emerging pharmaceutical industry. Not because these synthetic prescriptions were safer or cheaper, but because they were patentable and more profitable.
  

For another perspective on this often slandered but incredibly useful herb, I submit the opinions from Paul Bergner and Howie Brounstein, two highly respected herbalists in and out of the botanical medicine community.

Posted by Evo Terra at February 03, 2003 04:09 PM | TrackBack (0)