Tension Mounts on Capitol Hill
Over the Unrestricted Sale of Ephedra

photo-4WASHINGTON-The push for more stringent restrictions on the sale of dietary supplements containing ephedra gained some momentum following the testimony of a panel of medical experts before a Senate subcommittee and the release of a government report that analyzed 13,000 consumer complaints submitted to the FDA by the supplement maker Metabolife.

The experts contended that the government should ban the unrestricted sale of ephedra-based supplements and urged the FDA to remove the products from the market due to the numerous reports of deaths and adverse events suffered by users of the supplements.

Medical experts such as Bill Jeffery of the …