Ancient,but how safe?

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: Like many people these days, Lori Potter, a 50-year-old massage therapist living on Kauai, Hawaii, has explored alternative healing for everything from headaches to skin problems. So when she wanted to boost her immune system and lower her stress levels a few years ago, she made an appointment with a visiting practitioner of ayurveda, a medical system that originated in India thousands of years ago and has gained wide popularity in the United States.

He prescribed herbal supplements, which he tested himself for impurities, to help boost her immunity. Soon, Potter said, she felt more energetic and her digestion was better. After two years, the practitioner stopped visiting the island, and she has not taken any supplements since, she said, because she has not met any practitioners she trusts.

“You never know what’s really in these supplements,” she said. “This is serious stuff, and you can’t just take them without knowing the source.”

Potter may be right to be wary. A report in the recent issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association found that nearly 21% of 193 ayurvedic herbal supplements bought online, produced in both India and the United States, contained lead, mercury or arsenic. Almost all of the products were sold through American Web sites. “Some manufacturers advertised that they test for metals, and their products still had them,” said Dr Robert B Saper, assistant professor at the Boston University School of Medicine and lead author of the study. The average consumer, he said, “has no way of determining which supplement is free of contaminants and which isn’t.”

No one knows the exact numbers of arsenic, mercury or lead poisoning illnesses in the United States related to ayurvedic medicine. Dr Saper estimated that there have been 80 cases since 1978, but he believes that is just the “tip of the iceberg.” In 2005, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a total of 12 cases of lead poisoning associated with ayurvedic products in Texas, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York State and California.

While the Western medical community may be concerned about Dr Saper’s findings, many ayurvedic practitioners and holistic health centers are less so. Of the dozen spas, wellness centers and practitioners contacted for this article, all said they stood behind their products. Some suppliers said they believed that the levels of heavy metals in their ayurvedic products were no greater than in many Food and Drug Administration-approved medicines. Kevin Casey, the chief of Banyan Botanicals, a maker of ayurvedic products in Ashland, Ore, sells three items — mahasudarshan, shilajit and kanchanar guggulu — that are on Dr Saper’s list of contaminated supplements. After the study came out, Casey said, some of his 15,000 clients, who include practitioners and consumers, called. He said he alleviated their fears after he explained that his products are sent to outside laboratories, and they meet “the standards that we adhere to.”

He added that sales had not suffered since the study, which has “created a dialogue — people are talking about it and understanding that there is the presence of heavy metals, but it doesn’t mean it’s toxic or dangerous.”

Dr Saper disagreed. Even with relatively low levels of lead in the bloodstream, he said, “a person can be relatively asymptomatic but the lead can still impact their IQ. It can reduce their cognitive function and increase blood pressure.”

Michael McGuffin, president of the American Herbal Products Association, a trade group, said that eliminating every trace of arsenic, mercury or lead from products was not a reasonable goal. “If it was, we’d have to find an entirely new food supply,” he said.

Many Americans get their first taste of ayurveda at spas. A 2006 survey from the International Spa Association reported that about 31% of United States spas offer ayurvedic medicine, usually limited to hot oil massages and facials. But some spas with ayurvedic practitioners also recommend herbal supplements to some clients to boost their immune systems and alleviate everything from depression to acne.

Dawne Burrowes, the director of the Ayurvedic Rejuvenation and Wellness Center, said she bought supplements from manufacturers such as Banyan Botanicals, which has been in business for 12 years. The Chopra Center buys some goods from Bazaar of India, an importer of herbal and ayurvedic products in Berkeley, Calif., and the source of 17 products that Dr. Saper found contained lead, mercury or arsenic.

Dr David Simon, the medical director of the Chopra Center for Well-Being, said he was satisfied that Bazaar of India sends its products to an independent laboratory and that the herbs they recommend are free from toxic levels of heavy metals.

John Shahani, the ayurvedic practitioner at Exhale Spa in Santa Monica, took a similar position. Two products sold at the spa made by Balance Ayurvedic Products (AyurRelief and GlucoRite) were found by Dr Saper to contain lead, but Shahani, who is technical director of Balance, said that he had the products tested by American laboratories and was not worried about their safety. “We know everything that goes into our products,” he said, adding that he has certificates from the labs to ensure that the products are lead-free.

Kush Khanna, the president of Bazaar of India, defended the safety of the 17 products that Dr Saper listed. All of the items, said Khanna in an e-mail message, have levels of contaminants below the safety levels recommended by the World Health Organisation.

The FDA does not specify maximum acceptable concentrations or daily dose limits for contaminants in dietary supplements. Instead, the onus is on the manufacturer to ensure that its products are safe. What’s more, there are no universally accepted standards for herbal supplements. The Food and Agricultural Organisation/World Health Organisation Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives Secretariat recommends that a 70-kilogram person consume no more than 250 micrograms of lead, 50 micrograms of mercury and 150 micrograms of arsenic per day.

The National Sanitation Foundation International Dietary Supplement Standard suggests a daily limit of 20 micrograms of lead, 20 for mercury and 10 for arsenic. California Proposition 65 has limits of 0.5 microgram of lead per day and 10 micrograms of arsenic per day. There are currently no guidelines for mercury. The presence of metals in certain ayurvedic products may be intentional. An ancient form of ayurveda called Rasa Shastra involves fusing organic and mineral compounds — including pearl, gold, diamonds, copper and mercury — into a medicine and then purifying it into what is believed to be a safe and ingestible form. But the Rasa Shastra products in Dr Saper’s study contained the highest levels of mercury, arsenic and lead — as much as 10,000 times over the recommended limits.

Symptoms of lead poisoning, according to Dr Saper, can include abdominal pain, lethargy, impaired cognition, constipation and anemia. Regardless, some are convinced that the benefits outweigh any pitfalls.