Working to get ephedra banned.(Test inform protect: consumers union in action)

Xtreme Lean. Trim Fast. Metabolife 356. Those are some of the dietary supplements that contain ephedra and are available in supermarkets and on the web. An herbal stimulant, ephedra is often combined with caffeine and acts like amphetamines, or "speed." Millions of Americans use it, mainly for weight loss or bodybuilding.

But ephedra, also known as ma huang, has been associated with serious health problems including hypertension, irregular heartbeat, stroke, and seizures. Some of those problems resulted in death or permanent injury, and occurred in previously healthy people. Recently, a federal jury in Alabama ordered Metabolife International, a San Diego-based supplements manufacturer, to pay $4.1 million to four people who had a stroke or heart attack after taking the company's diet pills containing ephedra.

This magazine in 1995 was among the first publications to disclose the dangers of ephedra in dietary supplements. Consumers Union, publisher of CONSUMER REPORTS, has urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban the use of ephedra in supplements. The American Medical Association has also called for such a ban. (The FDA in 1983 banned the combination of caffeine and ephedrine, or synthetic ephedra, in over-the-counter medicines.)

In the meantime, CU is working to educate the public and to urge the enactment of state and local laws that protect consumers from the potential dangers of ephedra. Last year, CU's advocates helped push for laws in California that now prohibit the sale to minors of supplements containing ephedra and that require packaging to contain warning labels, along with the FDA's toll-free MedWatch phone number so consumers can report health problems directly.

CU also recently asked the California attorney general to investigate whether Metabolife ...