Personally, I don't think that ephedra should have been banned but...
When I saw my doc last year I specifically asked him about it. I was exercising daily, watching what I ate, lost 10 lbs, but was frustrated with the inability to lose more weight. His comment on ephedra was that "the FDA should ban that garbage. It's dangerous."
Well being the caffeine addict (8 cups a day) that I am, reading the warning labels on the packages and then hearing that from him, I passed on it. However, that was MY choice. It should be MY choice. Not the US Govt's choice.

However, apparently many health professionals feel the same way that my own doctor feels about it. When enough health professionals harp on something long enough, then the FDA will do something, like banning a supplement.

In some cases, banning a supplement is political and a good profit maker for the pharmacuetical companies. Years ago when I worked for a pharmacy chain we were instructed to pull another popular supplement off the shelves because it was also banned. The supplement was called L-Tryptophan and was used safely for decades to induce sleep, reduce pain sensitivity, reduce PMS symptoms, reduction of anxiety and stress and worked wonders for people with depression. The FDA claimed that the supplement could cause a deadly, rare flu like condition known as Eosinophilia-Myalgia Syndrome / EMS. Meanwhile, Prozac had just come on the market. Both L-Tryptophan and Prozac effect serotonin levels in the body. The thing is L-Tryptophan actually produces serotonin which was great for people who had low levels in their bodies to begin with. Prozac and the others like it, only enhance the uptake of the serotonin already present in the body. So people who were doing very well on the cheap dietary supplement for pain, depression, sleep problems, and anxiety were now forced to find an alternative. Yup, costly the prescription drugs like Prozac for depression, prescription sleeping pills, Valium, prescription and OTC pain meds that cost them a lot more and posed a relatively huge increase in side effects. But hey, then pharm. companies made more money this way. Right?

Studies have since been done since the ban in 1989. A few yrs back both the CDC and the Mayo clinic have since traced the deadly outbreak of EMS to contaminants found in a lab in Japan that got into a batch of L-Tryp. THAT'S what caused the problem and yet nobody on this country can get the supplement to this day, because it's still banned. The FDA has no reason to allow it back on the market. That would hurt the pharmacuetical industry. Let the people go see the doc for their Prozac, their Valium, their Tylenol 3's. Don't allow them access to a cheap, safe amino acid.

So guess what will happen with ephedra? It will show up in all kinds of prescription weight loss formulas and you will have to see a doctor to get what you could have just walked into a pharmacy and bought them right off the shelf months before.

It's a shame that the government can't stick their noses out of people's medicine cabinets. Personally, I am not a Rush Limbaugh fan at all, but to investigate this man and perhaps prosecute him for having an addiction? Gimme a break! Ban epehdra because a handful of people who most likely had no business taking it or abused it died? What's next? We are slowly but surely losing our liberties and freedom to choose in this country. If Bush gets voted back in office in the next election, I shudder to think how many more liberties will be lost.

'kay off my soap box, but there's some serious problems with the way this country is being run and I sure hope that all the freedom loving people here on this board will think long and hard before casting their votes this year. If you want more of the same, then vote for Bush/Ashcroft.