Several years back, many inquiries about the safety of the diet pill arose. A lot of reports pertaining to its adverse side effects as well as several reports of deaths related to the use of ephedra products were made public. In the beginning, lobbyist efforts prevented the government from regulating the sale of ephedra, but in time, the US Food and Drug Administration was able to gather enough evidence to finally ban the sale of ephedra diet pills in the United States. Today, the sale of such diet pills continues. However, genuine ephedra has been replaced by other herbal supplements eliminating the problem of dangerous side effects of diet pills.

You should avoid ephedra diet pills at all costs. Studies conducted by the FDA shows that while ephedra can help promote short term weight loss, it was almost entirely ineffectual when it comes to long term weight loss. Also, use of ephedra products greatly increased exposure to side effects of diet pills which include risk of heart attack and stroke. Because of this, the FDA finally banned the sale of ephedra products effective April 2004. However, consumers should not be worried because there are still quite a lot of diet pill products available out there. What’s more, these products are much more effective and much more safer to use.

Consider trying out hoodia diet pills instead of continuing to look for the now defunct ephedra diet pills. Hoodia is an herbal supplement that was discovered in Africa. The worst side effects of diet pills that you get from taking hoodia is a headache from lack of food intake. This is only because hoodia works to counteract the desire to eat, however in the short term. Controlled, regular use of hoodia however, can help squelch hunger, and people can eat less and less without feeling hungry at all. Because of this loss of appetite, they are more likely to eat less, and thus will lose more weight. We should also take into account the great reviews about this product in CBS. Even Oprah Winfrey has done segments on the qualities of hoodia as a great alternative to ephedra diet pills.

There are also “legal” ephedra diet pills, that has the same benefits as true ephedra products without all the harmful side effects of diet pills of this nature. The reason for this is that “legal” ephedra products actually do not contain any ephedra at all, Instead,  ephedra is replaced with similar but safer plants such as bitter orange. We should remember however, that diet pills are ultimately just one of the tool in the weight loss arsenal. Anyone looking at dietary supplements would do well to remember that they are just that – supplements. Dietary supplements cannot take the place of proper dieting and exercise, so it is really best for consumers to focus on these first before considering to use diet pills.