Ayurvedic medicines often contaminated by toxic metals, study says

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Ayurvedic medicines often contaminated by toxic metals, study says

By Alan Zarembo, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-sci-heavymetals27-

2008aug27,0,1629345.story

Ayurvedic medicines -- herbal mixtures dating back thousands of years

in India and increasingly popular in the West -- are frequently

contaminated with lead, mercury or arsenic, according to a study

published today.

A fifth of the nearly 200 concoctions tested contained levels of the

toxic metals that, if taken at the maximum recommended doses, would

surpass California's safety guidelines.

Dr. Saper, a Boston University professor of family medicine

who led the study, said the findings should spur the Food and Drug

Administration to start clamping down on the largely unregulated

world of pills, herbs and powders classified as dietary supplements.

" It shouldn't be me trying to figure this out, " Saper said.

Ayurveda is a traditional Indian practice that takes a holistic

approach to wellness, employing herbal medicine, meditation and

exercise to promote good health. It exists alongside modern medicine

in India, with its own network of clinics, hospitals and colleges

serving hundreds of millions of patients.

It has spread to the U.S. and Europe with the migration of South

Asians around the world and been popularized by figures such as

bestselling author Deepak Chopra.

There are about two dozen ayurvedic training programs in the United

States. A 2002 survey estimated that 750,000 U.S. residents have used

the herbal preparations, sold under both traditional Indian names and

more marketable labels such as GlucoRite and Ezi Slim.

Saper got interested in the supplements in 2003 after a man of Indian

origin showed up at a Boston-area emergency room with seizures. The

culprit turned out to be lead in the man's ayurvedic medicines. In an

initial study published in 2004, Saper bought 70 ayurvedic products

imported from India and found that toxic metals were common

components.

It was an unsettling finding, because most of the preparations are

intended to be taken as part of a daily regimen to improve health.

" Many, many studies are showing that even small levels of lead in the

blood can increase the risk of high blood pressure, kidney

dysfunction and decreased IQ, " Saper said.

Ayurvedic practitioners lashed out at the research as alarmist,

saying that it only showed there were problems with mixtures from

India, not with U.S.-made products.

They pointed out that in India, many of these metals are purposely

blended with herbs as part of the medicinal recipe. Those metallic

mixtures are rarely used in the United States, they said.

In the new study, published in the Journal of the American Medical

Assn., Saper and his team analyzed 193 products purchased from 25

websites for Indian and U.S. manufacturers. The vast majority

supposedly contained only herbs and no metals.

About 80% of the samples showed no detectable metal content. But

among the remaining samples, the toxic metals showed up at similar

rates in both U.S. and Indian-made products. Of the U.S. products,

21% contained lead, 3% contained mercury and 3% had arsenic. Among

the Indian-made medicines, 17% had lead, 7% had mercury and none

contained arsenic.

The researchers and other experts surmised that the contamination had

less to do with the manufacturing process than with the soils in

which the herbs were grown.

" The raw material is all coming from India, " said Kush Khanna, who

runs Bazaar of India in Berkeley, a manufacturer of ayurvedic

medicines started by his father in 1971.

Heavy metals showed up in 17 of the products the researchers ordered

from his company.

Khanna said two labs in India routinely tested the 80 or so

ingredients he imported.

The problem is that there are no unified standards for what is

considered safe.

Lead levels allowed by the World Health Organization are 500 times

the California limits.

" Based on WHO standards, our products are perfect, " Khanna

said. " They have not exceeded any limits. "

The researchers found only two products that exceeded the WHO

standards for lead content. Both mixtures were from India and

purposely prepared with metals as ingredients.

In California, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of

1986 requires that products containing certain levels of toxic metals

carry warning labels. But the act has no power to ban products, and

companies with fewer than 10 employees, such as Khanna's, are exempt

from the labeling requirements.

The FDA does not specify any limits for metal content in dietary

supplements, leaving it to the manufacturers to ensure that their

products are safe.

Rioux, a medical anthropologist who runs the Integral

Ayurveda clinic in Chapel Hill, N.C., said the research underscored

the need for consumers to consult with ayurvedic experts instead of

buying and taking products on their own.

She noted that the study showed many medicines to be perfectly safe,

but she worried that its conclusions would tar her profession.

" All people need is one study to provoke fear about an entire system

of medicine, " she said.