My name is Christine Marquette and I'm a registered dietitian with the Austin Regional Clinic, and I'm going to talk to you about how ephedra works to lose weight. Several years ago ephedra was available as a dietary supplement found in many different products, fat burners for example, you would see ephedra listed as one of the ingredients. And what was thought to happen was that when ephedra was combined with caffeine, the two stimulants together would speed up your metabolic rate. This was a very modest increase in metabolism but it could result in a modest amount of weight loss. However, since then there have been many, many, many reports of adverse reactions, the mildest being insomnia, the worst being death. So because of this, ephedra is no longer sold in the United States. It actually has been banned by the FDA. This ban occurred in the early two-thousands. And it was appealed by the supplement manufacturers but it was upheld ultimately by the Supreme Court. So, again you can no longer buy ephedra in the United States as a weight loss aid, and remember the reason why ephedra was banned from the United States, was because it can ultimately result in death. So it is not a good stimulant to use for weight loss.