Tragedy struck at spring training last week when apparently healthy Baltimore Orioles pitcher, Steve Bechler, died hours after taking several ephedra supplements in an effort to lose weight. It re-opened a controversy that had been out of the news for a couple of years after Minnesota Vikings lineman Korey Stringer died at training camp after using the drug. Ephedra is a stimulant similar to amphetamine, or speed. It increase heart rate and metabolism and contracts the blood vessels in skin--physiological changes that are often masked because they also make the user "feel good" (as in high energy).

Bechler's death gained media attention and the attention of the announcement by the FDA that the weight loss products that contain this drug needed to be more strictly labeled.

It's a joke. Cigarette labeling has not decreased the use of cigarettes and it's not likely Ephedra labeling will have any effect on the use of this drug. People who chose this shortcut to weight loss think "It won't happen to me." They are so eager to achieve the short term weight loss goal they don't want to weigh risks and forget that for every benefit a drug provides there is almost always and equal and opposite downside.

Meantime, spokespersons for the Ephedra Education Council (companies that sell products containing Ephedra) have taken advantage of this newsworthy item to get their own media attention. They deplore this new regulation which might affect their sales and have mounted a counter attack to the negative PR the herb is receiving by respected health promotion and weight management specialists. They remind us ":sixty percent of Americans are overweight the use of this supplement is a valid weight loss tool." and that studies consistently show that "supplements help healthy, overweight people lose more weight than diet and exercise alone."

Well, that may be true, but I don't buy it as a reason to use Ephedra for weight loss. I liken it's use to taking shortcuts when you build a house. The house might get built but you're going to pay later. Driving fast may get me to a destination faster than following the speed limit and cheating on a test may give me a better score but that doesn't make it right.

P. S. Canada has banned all over the counter sales of ephedra. National Football League banned it after Stringer's death. Baseball has banned it in the Minor leagues. It's a start.