FDA ISSUES WARNING ABOUT EPHEDRA

In an article slated for publication next month in the New England
Journal of Medicine, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will
warn health-care professionals about the dangers of dietary supplements
containing ephedra. According to the report, practitioners should
caution patients against taking these popular weight-loss supplements,
which have been linked with cardiac arrest, stroke, brain damage,
hypertension and death.

"When I talk to people about taking products containing ephedra to lose
a few pounds, I tell them that the products have caused strokes and
other severe side effects, and ask them to consider if that is an
acceptable risk, noted Christine Haller, MD, the paper,s lead author.

New England Journal of Medicine December 21, 2000.
http://www.nejm.org/

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