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The correct use of Ma Huang/Ephedra and misunderstanding about Chinese Herbs, weight loss, and metabolism

Ma Huang ("big yellow") is the Chinese name for Herba Ephedra. The plant from which pseudoephedrine is derived (as in Sudafed), its American counterpart is commonly called "Mormon Tea".

Its use as a 'weight loss' stimulant in the Nutritional and Fitness markets of the West have created a dilemma for those of us who practice TCM. While we may still be able to prescribe this herb (and it is one with dangerous side effects that should be prescribed), the current climate makes our continued ability to get this herb questionable.

Our dilemma: this herb is actually used therapeutically for acute asthma, giving us an alternative to offer to those patients who don't like the side effects of anti-asthma pharmaceuticals. Having a history of safe use for hundreds of years, Chinese medicine documents how to use the herb, what symptoms to use the herb for, how to prepare the herb (cooking it changes its effects and side-effects) and what herbs to combine it with to not only make it safer, but to make it more effective.

There is one classic Chinese formula that incorporates Ma Huang that has been used recently in the treatment of obesity. This paradigm may have been the impetus for Ma Huang's abuse by the nutritional supplement/fitness supplement industry. As obesity itself is a life-threatening condition, the herbs with which it is combined in this formula make sense from a Chinese medicine perspective. However, the formula still could not be used for people with high blood pressure. It's use to 'boost metabolism' may be more from its American heritage as Mormon tea, where the herb was used for stamina in high altitudes (not unlike the use of coca leaves by Peruvian mountain dwellers).

This effective, and for an asthmatic, life-altering herb has been the victim of selling for its side-effect (increased energy and increased heart beat) rather than its therapeutic effect (increasing lung capacity). Both TCM practitioners and their asthmatic patients lose out when an herb such as this is considered 'unsafe'. What was unsafe was not the herb, but how marketers desiring profits chose to manufacture, distribute, and promote it. Weight loss in order to be attractive and lean isn't something that requires potent herbs; helping an asthmatic breathe is.

Licensed or Certified Acupuncturists in the US who have also received training in writing herbal prescriptions will be familiar with how to prepare, and whether to use, Ma Huang. Any health care provider, or any person, who may be taking a supplement for weight loss (or even one for common cold) containing Ma Huang should consider contacting a local acupuncturist to find out safer alternatives.

Herbs are natural; yet herbs are also drugs. The history of safe use of Ma Huang is proof that a strong herb can be abused to the point it is taken off the market. The fact that such an herb can be abused points out the lack of education about herbal remedies on the part of manufacturers of such supplements, as well as on the part of other health care providers who rely upon mass media slanted journalism to be informed about herbs and their proper, safe use.

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