Dear Reader, Ephedra equisetina is a desert shrub from which is extracted ephedrine, a thermogenic aid originally used to relieve asthma symptoms by its bronchodilating action, meaning it dilates the bronchioles that supply the lungs with oxygen. Ephedrine can sharply raise blood pressure and heart rate as well. It also stimulates thermogenesis, a fancy term for heat production. Thermogenesis occurs with exercise, food consumption, and the use of cert ain substances.
Exercise causes an increase in body temperature, which in turn burns calories.
Also, each time you eat, your body temperature rises. Some of the calories simply get burned up as heat in their conversion for use. The thermic effect of food usually accou nts for 10 percent of what we take in. For example, if you eat 2000 calories, then 200 are spent just by the thermogenic effect of food. It is thought that ephedrine contributes to a thermogenic effect by causing the adrenal glands to dump epinephrine into the blood stream, which leads to an increase in body temperature, and, therefore, burns more calories.