UC study finds high arsenic levels in herbal kelp supplements

[Guest guest]

I have not seen this before and know adults who take this stuff all the

time. Scary!!

Elyse

Public release date: 5-Apr-2007

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Contact: Carole Gan

HYPERLINK " mailto:carole.gan@... " carole.gan@...

916-734-9047

HYPERLINK " http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/ " University of California, -

Health System

UC study finds high arsenic levels in herbal kelp supplements

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — A study of herbal kelp supplements led by UC

public health expert Marc Schenker concludes that its medicinal use may

cause inadvertent arsenic poisoning and health dangers for consumers,

especially when overused. Schenker and two researchers evaluated nine

over-the-counter herbal kelp products and found higher than acceptable

arsenic levels in eight of them.

The new study, published in the April issue of Environmental Health

Perspectives (HYPERLINK

" http://www.ehponline.org/ " http://www.ehponline.org/) was prompted by the

case of a 54-year-old woman who was seen at the UC Occupational

Medicine Clinic following a two-year history of worsening alopecia (hair

loss), fatigue and memory loss.

The woman's symptoms had begun with minor memory loss and fatigue. Her

primary care physician initially found nothing wrong with the woman and

thought the symptoms were related to menopause. With no specific diagnosis

or treatment recommendations, the patient started taking a variety of herbal

therapies, including a kelp supplement, fish oil, ginkgo biloba and grape

seed extract. The kelp supplement was the only herbal therapy she took

regularly throughout the course of her illness.

Over a period of several months the woman's short- and long-term memory

became so impaired that she could no longer remember her home address. She

also reported having a rash, nausea and vomiting, which made it very

difficult to work and forced her to leave a full-time job. The woman

actually increased her dosage of kelp from two to four pills a day after her

doctors still could not find a clear diagnosis.

Subsequent laboratory tests finally revealed arsenic in the patient's blood

and urine. At her physician's suggestion, the patient discontinued the kelp

supplement. Within weeks, her symptoms disappeared, and within several

months arsenic was no longer detected in her urine and its levels had

dropped significantly in her blood. She later was referred to the UC

Occupational Medicine Clinic as a follow-up to her primary care.

" It's unfortunate that a therapy that's advertised as contributing to 'vital

living and well-being' would contain potentially unsafe levels of arsenic, "

said Schenker, who is a professor of Public Health Sciences and a leading

authority on occupational and environmental diseases and respiratory

illness. " Concentrations of materials contained in herbal supplements,

including both the expected benefits and potential side effects, should be

studied, standardized, monitored and accurately labeled. "

To assess the concentration of arsenic present in commercially available

kelp supplements, the UC investigators purchased nine over-the-counter

kelp samples from local health food stores. Included were samples from three

different batches of the product consumed by the patient.

The researchers sent the samples to the California Animal Health & Food

Safety Laboratory in , which operates in partnership with UC , the

California Department of Food and Agriculture and others to provide

specialized testing that helps protect both human and animal health.

Investigators found detectable levels of arsenic in eight of the nine kelp

supplements by using a hydride vapor generation method with an inductively

coupled argon plasma spectrometer. Seven of the supplements exceeded the

tolerance levels for food products set by the U.S. Food and Drug

Administration (FDA).

" Part of the problem, " said Schenker, " is that the FDA has limited control

over dietary supplements. It can't scrutinize products like herbal kelp

before they enter the market, so it has to rely on adverse reports to

determine product safety. "

He noted that none of the kelp products in the study had labels indicating

the presence of arsenic, nor were there any warnings about the potential

dangers of ingesting large quantities of the supplement.

Arsenic is a heavy metal that occurs naturally in the environment and as a

by-product of some agricultural and industrial activities. Due to high

arsenic concentrations in algae and marine micro-organisms, seafood is the

highest dietary source of arsenic for consumers. While long-term human

exposure to arsenic from food sources such as fish does occur, it is usually

significantly lower than anything approaching toxic levels. How-ever,

dietary supplements, which are largely unregulated, have raised health

concerns.

There have been a number of published studies highlighting cases in which

the uses of homeopathic remedies to relieve everything from asthma to

rheumatoid arthritis have caused arsenic poisoning. Schenker's findings

offer a cautionary tale for consumers who use herbal treatments and dietary

supplements. The kelp samples analyzed in the study had consistently

elevated levels of arsenic, but they were considerably lower than previously

documented concentrations found in other herbal remedies.

" What concerns me, " said Schenker, " is that chronic exposure to contaminated

herbal supplements, even those with moderately elevated concentrations of

arsenic, can still be toxic. Consumers won't find such label information on

these products, so they could end up like that woman in our study who

consumed dangerously high amounts of a toxic substance without realizing

it. "

###

The complete article -- entitled " A Case of Potential Arsenic Toxicity

Secondary to Herbal Kelp Supplement, " is co-authored by Amster, from

the UC School of Medicine, and Asheesh Tiwary, from the UC

School of Veterinary Medicine and the California Animal Health & Food Safety

Laboratory System. It can be found on the Environmental Health Perspectives

Web site at HYPERLINK " http://www.ehponline.org/ " www.ehponline.org.

UC Health System is an integrated, academic health system encompassing

UC School of Medicine, the 577-bed acute-care hospital and clinical

services of UC Medical Center, and the 800-member physician group

known as UC Medical Group.

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