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Stay Away from Ephedra Diet Pills
Diet pills are a huge market that a lot of companies are trying to get a piece of. While the goal of helping people achieve a healthier life and ultimate weight loss is a noble one on the surface, many of these companies don't have their customer's best interests at heart. A lot of companies have used unsafe or untested chemicals in their weight loss supplements that have led to health problems and even deaths. One example of this is ephedra diet pills.
Ephedra is the name of an extract of the ephedra plant. This extract had been used for centuries as a form of herbal medicine by the Chinese, used for treating things like asthma and colds. Ephedra has several effects on the body. It stimulates like caffeine and also increases heart rate and blood pressure. The stimulant aspect of the pill was what made it function well as a weight loss supplement.
Ephedra was one of the biggest names in diet pills, but it has since been banned in most countries. It wasn't until several people had actually died after using ephedra that ephedra diet pills were banned in April of 2004. It's now illegal to sell ephedra products in the United States, but other countries don't have similar restrictions. Since regulation of these things is difficult over the internet, it's still possible to get ahold of it.
Note that many companies still market "ephedrine-free" ephedra diet pills. These pills replace the key ingredient with another type of stimulant that is safer. So if you see a bottle of diet pills in a store that has the ephedra name on it, it doesn't mean that the store is selling it illegally!
While ephedra diet pills were popular because they worked, that doesn't mean that you should try and find some. While a lot of the horror stores that people tell about diet pills are just rumors, there are actually several documented cases of deaths related to ephedra. The most notable one is the death of Baltimore Orioles pitcher who died of heart complications. The autopsy would later show that ephedra was a key component in his death.
It should go without saying, but you should never risk your health in the name of losing weight. The good news is that you really don't have to. There are several diet pills that are just as effective as ephedra was, but are much safer and completely legal. Many of them are even FDA-approved, so you know that they are safe to use.
One example of such a product is Proactol. Proactol is a diet pill of the fat blocker type. Rather than stimulate the heart rate in order to boost metabolism, what this type of pill does is actually absorb some of the fat you eat. In the case of Proactol, it absorbs about 25% of the fat that you eat. In other words, it's like every month a full week's worth of food just vanishes into thin air instead of sticking in your gut or thighs. Look for Proactol at healthyweightlosspills.com!