A Little Bit about Ephedrine versus Ephedra

Ephedra was all the craze earlier this decade. When people think of the fat burning craze they often associate it to the word ephedra. Ephedra and ephedrine hcl contain the same fat burning properties. The difference lies in ephedra being marketed as a weight loss supplement and ephedrine hcl as an over the counter drug. Even though FDA has prohibited the sale of ephedrine based dietary supplements companies can still sell ephedrine hcl as an over the counter drug. A positive outcome of this is that products containing ephedrine now must have “Drug facts” on the box instead of “supplement facts” which will encourage people to take the drug seriously and not treat it as something to be careless about.

Back to the names “ephedra” and “ephedrine”. Ephedra refers to the extract from the raw organic product. It is also referred to as Ma Huang or Chinese Ephedra and has been linked to weight loss for many, many years. This raw extract contains the naturally occurring alkaloids ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, norpseudoephedrine, norephedrine, methylephedrine, and methylpseudoephedrine. Ephedra was marketed as a dietary weight loss supplement for some time and therefore unregulated by the FDA until it was deemed dangerous enough to be taken out of the wild, wild west of dietary supplements. Ephedra has been known to contain elements that could be toxic because of its unrefined nature and lack of regulation. This is why it is wise to stick to well known, reputable brands when purchasing ephedrine weight loss diet pills if you are in a country where ephedra has not been regulated.

Ephedrine hcl is a purified version of ephedra. Ephedrine hcl is generally considered safer for weight loss and is in fact marketed as a bronchiodilation medicine. Ephedrine products, depending on which alkaloids they contain and the purity, can be regulated by the DEA. If an ephedrine product is regulated by the DEA you will need identification to purchase and will be subject to limits on the quantity you can buy. Ephedrine hcl is often combined with guaifenesin for nasal decongestant purposes. Ephedrine hcl contains the same properties as naturally occurring ephedra extract (Ma Huang is the source of most of the ephedrine that is sold over the counter) but has never been marketed as a diet pill and is considered to be safe when sold under the guidelines provided by the FDA for over the counter drugs. As a result ephedrine hcl is available for purchase and is a suitable replacement for ephedra in the ECA stack if the user is responsible and knowledgeable about ephedrine and weight loss.

We recommend that you seek out pure ephedrine hcl if you plan to achieve weight loss with an ECA stack.