Ephedra faces its toughest challenge

Diego Marradona, the Argentian world cup soccer hero, found out the hard way about using Ephedra in sports. After a breathtaking performance he was then disqualified from the tornament as Ephedrine was found in his system in a random blood test.

This is alarming when you think that Ephedra, has a history spanning over 5000 years as a chinese herbal remedy. And has even been considered as one of the 50 most important herbal remedies.

Yet Ephedra's future of being used to help speed recovery and weight loss as it now banned by sports bodies.

Considered its frequent use in Eastern Asia it will be interesting to see how many atheletes, take heard of the olympic boards revised books of banned substances.

But is there a real reason to worry. Looking at the 1990 games there may be. China under the reign of coach Ma Junren, produced a remarkable series of gold medals and record beating atheletes. Was Ephedra to blame?. No, rigorous training and cocktail of turtle blood and caterpillar fungus.

Not everyone is taking the risk seriously. 7-foot-6 Houston Rockets Mao Ying, is quite happy to take Ephedra for the stress fracture he is suffering. He feels this will help him prepare for the olympics and allow him to be ready on time.

As Feng Shuyong the current China boss said when he was asked about Ephedra and other herbal remedies.

``There's no magical formula of traditional Chinese herbs that once you take them, you can be a superman,'' he said.

Ephedra sinica has over 5000 years of history behind it as a chinese herbal remedy. It has many medicinal uses including: viral infections, relief from asthma symptoms through the relaxation of
the constricted airways and bronchial symptoms. Ephedra's medicinal benefits come from the alkaloids it contains. An alkaloid is a nitrogen-based compound found in plants and shrubs. The main
alkaloid in Ephedra is Ephedrine. Ephedrine acts in the same way as adrenaline and actually works better than caffiene. The other alkaloid in Ephedra is pseudoephedrine. This is found in many over the counter products
such as ibuprofen and tylenol.

The other most popular variety of Ephedra (Ephedra Virdis) has a more colorful history. It was first introduced to the early pioneers by the Native Americans. They also found a variety of uses for Ephedra. From healing
cuts and bruises to a substitute tea, called 'Mormon Tea'. It's other uses were not so morally correct. It was actually used a cure for syphilis. This was given out at whorehouses and brothels.

Based on this it looks like this is another chapter in Ephedra's colorful history.

Article Source: http://www.orbitaloc.com/

mark Hutton writes articles on health, nutrition, vitamins and supplements for www.bingproducts.com

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