ephedra

  I have been taking ephedra for quit some time now.
  It makes me awake and peppy,and if i dont take it i feel tiredan slugish.
  It gives me a fast heart rate around 110 beats a min. And it gives me
  a irregylar heart beat as if my heart stops than starts again.
  I had my blood presure checked while i was on ephedra and it was 149/78
  Are these reactions that my heart goes through bad for me?
  Is ephedra bad for me if i take it for a long peroid of time?
  Is having a high heart bad for me?
  
  THANKS FOR YOUR HELP
  SHAWN
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Dear Shawn,
Ephedra is a stimulant and I would not recommend taking it chronically.  There is a small but potential risk to your heart to have continued fast heart rate and it is obviously elevating your blood pressure as well.  The long term effects of high blood pressure include stroke, heart attack and kidney failure.  For all of these reasons I would stop taking this drug.
I hope you find this information useful.  Information provided in the heart forum is for general purposes only.  Only your physician can provide specific diagnoses and therapies.  Please feel free to write back with additional questions.
If you would like to make an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center, please call 1-800-CCF-CARE or inquire online by using the Heart Center website at www.ccf.org/heartcenter.  The Heart Center website contains a directory of the cardiology staff that can be used to select the physician best suited to address your cardiac problem.