The dietary and herbal supplement/remedy business is booming; as it gains in popularity, more and more people are beginning to question the safety of such readily-available pills. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration does not consider herbal remedies or dietary supplements drugs; rather they are classified as foods, and fall under different types of regulations. According to the FDA's web site, "under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), the dietary supplement manufacturer is responsible for ensuring that a dietary supplement is safe before it is marketed." A new study looks at how safe one class of such supplements are; their findings: unhealthy levels of lead, mercury, and/or arsenic.
Carried out by researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), the team found that one-fifth of U.S.- and Indian-manufactured Ayurvedic medicines purchased over the Internet contain heavy metals; the results are set to be published in this week's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Ayurvedic medicine is an ancient practice originating on the Indian subcontinent that relies heavily on herbs. One type of Ayurvedic medicine—Rasa Shastra—purposefully mixes metals such as mercury in with herbs, minerals, and gems; according to expert practitioners of this tradition in India, the proper mixtures do no harm.
Ayurvedic remedies are readily available over the Internet; as part of the study researchers identified 25 web sites that were selling almost 700 different varieties of Ayurvedic medicines. The researchers purchased 193 distinct products made by 37 different companies and found that 20.7 percent of these remedies contained detectable levels of lead, mercury, and/or arsenic. Unsurprisingly, the Rasa Shastra remedies were found to be twice as likely to contain metals, and had higher concentrations of lead and mercury.
Out of the approximately 40 different remedies found to have detectable levels of heavy metals, 95 percent of them were available on web sites hosted in the United States, and 75 percent claimed Good Manufacturing Practices or testing for heavy metals. When the researchers looked at the country of manufacturing, either the US or India, there was no difference in the percent that contained high metal levels. These numbers are in line with a previous study carried out by lead author Robert Saper, MD, MPH, director of Integrative Medicine in the Family Medicine Department at BUSM, where he looked at the amount of Ayurvedic supplements with detectable metals produced in South Asia, and available at various Boston locations.
Each of the products identified to contain metal had metal levels that exceeded at least one or more standards for acceptable daily intake of toxic metals. Given that the FDA does not regulate such supplements and relies on the manufacturers to ensure their safety, Dr. Saper states, "This study highlights the need for Congress to revisit the way dietary supplements are regulated in the US. [...] We suggest strictly enforced, government mandated daily dose limits for toxic metals in all dietary supplements and requirements that all manufacturers demonstrate compliance through independent third-party testing."
Journal of the American Medical Association, 2008.