New Diet Products, Plans Compete to Take the Place of Ephedra.

Byline: Patricia Anstett

Jan. 13--If you're among the millions of people who have gained an average of 30 pounds since high school, weight loss may be high on your list of goals.

Beyond regular, daily exercise, which everyone agrees is essential to successfully losing and maintaining weight, what else works?

With the federal government's ban on ephedra -- the nation's top-selling weight-loss supplement -- due in coming months, new products are vying to take its place. Here's a look at some of them.

16,000 HAVE REPORTED EPHEDRA REACTIONS: Ephedra, or ma huang, the herb from which it is derived, is a weight-loss stimulant and sports energy booster.

The supplement contains compounds called ephedrine alkaloids, also listed on product labels under names like epitonin, sida cordifolia and sinica.

Ephedra "mimics adrenaline and works as a receptor in the body for stimulants, increasing the heart rate and blood pressure," says James Kalus, assistant professor of pharmacy practice at the Wayne State University Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Allied Sciences.

Kalus is also a Henry Ford Hospital pharmacist.

By Dec. 30, when the federal government issued a consumer alert on ephedra and mailed letters to 62 companies telling them to stop manufacturing ephedra products, (www.fda.gov/oc/initiatives/ephedra), the Food and Drug Administration had received more than 16,000 reports of adverse reactions to ephedra. There have been 155 deaths reported.

About 14,500 of the adverse reaction reports involved Metabolife, a leading ephedra weight-loss product.

One of the deaths involved Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler, who had been taking the supplement.

He died Feb. 16 during spring training.

Numerous groups, including the National Football League, the International Olympic Committee and the National Collegiate Athletic…