Ephedra and over-the-counter decongestantsEphedra, ma huang in Chinese circles, Ephedra sinica in botanical ones, is the allergy sufferer’s best friend. It is also used to treat congestion in general, whether due to allergies or a cold. Its power to open up the lungs and to clear the head has made it one of the most famous herbal medicines. It is so effective that all over-the-counter decongestants contain chemically synthesized replicas of its active ingredients. |
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Ephedra is native to Japan, southern Siberia, and west-central China. It belongs to a rather odd order of plants, the family Gnetaceae, and closely resembles the common broom plant, except that its growth habits are spreading and low rather than upright. It also resembles equisetum, or horsetail, and in the dried state, the two are hard to distinguish. Ephedra is incredibly high in alkaloids, some samples containing as much as two percent. Its medicinal potency lies in its young branches, which are clipped from the plant in the fall sometime before the first hard frost, when the active constituents are most concentrated, and are then dried. The plant also produces yellow flowers and edible red fruits that are said to taste like strawberries, although you couldn’t prove it by me.
The dried stems have joints called internodes between lengths of the stem. Big deal, you say, most stems have internodes, what does that have to do with my health? Never let anyone tell you that herbal medicine is not an exacting science. The Chinese, who have been using ephedra for 5,000 years, recommend the herb to treat athralgia, asthma, bronchitis, chills, cough, edema, fever, hay fever, influenza, lung ailments, malaria, night sweats, rheumatism, trachitis, and urticaria. However, they cut out the internodes when they are using ephedra for congestion because they say that the internodes thwart the action of the bits between them. They say that the bits between the internodes are good for fevers, malaria, coughs, influenza, congestion, and post-partum problems. The internodes themselves are said to cause fevers! When you buy ephedra, make sure that the internodes have been cut out. If they haven’t been removed, do it yourself.
Much scientific investigation has been done in an attempt to delineate the chemicals ephedra contains and how they work to clear the head. The plant has been proven to increase sweating, reduce body temperature, inhibit the influenza virus, dilate the bronchial tubes, constrict the blood vessels, raise blood pressure, stimulate the cerebral cortex and subcortical center, and work as a diuretic. So what does all this mean? In a nutshell, if you are congested or are having an allergy attack, ephedra will relieve your symptoms. Rats treated with ephedra and the influenza virus had a higher survival rate than those treated just with the influenza virus! You might want to consider this added feature should you be suffering from the flu.
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The name ephedra sounds much like that of an over-the-counter medication, and that is because more than one nonprescription drug is made of pseudo ephedrine, a chemically synthesized version of what the plant makes all on its own. Doctors isolated the plant’s active ingredient, ephedrine, in 1887, and all over-the-counter drying-out medication contains chemicals based on their research. Other chemicals present in ephedra include a host of alkaloids, 1-ephedrine, d-ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, norephedrine, n-methylephedrine, and benzylmethylamine.
Whereas using ephedra the way we will here, as a whole herb, yields no side effects, the same can not be said for using the chemically isolated bits, as is the practice among the Western medical establishment. Initially, the first chemical isolated from the plant, ephedrine, was used solely to treat a variety of respiratory illnesses. Unfortunately it also raises blood pressure and makes people nervous. The interesting feature of using ephedra rather than ephedrine is that the alkaloids contained in the whole plant have a series of counteracting actions. While ephedrine raises blood pressure, another alkaloid found in the plant, pseudo ephedrine, lowers it.
Here we see a classic example of the superiority of natural, botanical drugs to their chemically isolated counterparts. For reasons that allude us, natural drugs tend to contain chemicals that act in unison and in perfect balance to perform their function. in isolation, these same chemicals have adverse effects on the human body. Many people find that chemically synthesized ephedrine makes them incredibly nervous, whereas the decongestant tea made of Ephedra sinica doesn’t. Nature does it right, and that’s all there is to it.
Chemically synthesized ephedrine alkaloids don’t work as well or with as few side effects as the alkaloids synthesized by the plant itself because scientists cannot recreate the exact structure of the natural alkaloids, and it’s not for want of trying. Only Ephedra sinica can make real ephedrine; the lab potion will always be inferior.
Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration deems ephedra safe, herbalists don’t recommend it for people with diabetes, cardiovascular conditions, or thyroid or prostate problems. For congestion sufferers who check out okay in these areas, ephedra will seem nothing short of a miracle worker. Not only does it reduce congestion throughout the entire respiratory system, it also lessens the muscle spasms that go along with respiratory infections. This action is why the plant is so useful in treating asthma – it squelches the spasms that restrict breathing. For those whose congestion is due to hay fever, ephedra does double duty. It both clears the congestion and reduces the allergic reaction that causes the congestion in the first place.
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