Of the 193 supplements in the sample, 21% showed a positive amount of the metals even though labels claimed they'd been successfully tested. The ayurvedic products were all purchased online through American sites and were manufactured here or in India.
The lead researcher in the study says it is unknown how many lead poisoning illnesses may be linked to the ayurvedic supplements but estimates at this point that there have been 80 such cases in the last thirty years.
The researcher's concern (and I am sure it will be shared by many) is that people can be asymptomatic for lead poisoning and still suffer effects on the body and brain, such as decreased cognitive functioning and increased blood pressure.
The report also scrutinized one kind of ayurvedic herbal supplements that purposely mixes metals into the formula at levels practitioners consider to be safe and ingestible. The JAMA study showed those supplements in particular to have up to 10,000 times the levels deemed safe by American organizations.
I have personally greatly benefited from practicing ayurveda, the sister science to yoga that offers guiding principles for diet, exercise, meditation, skincare and lifestyle choices based upon a person's constitution. I have loved the lovely ayurvedic tinctures and teas, oils and recipes. But what I do not love are the supplements.
For what felt like a long time but was really about six months, I was on a regimen of herbal supplements under the guidance of several wise ayurvedic practitioners. One of them is quoted in this story on the metals within supplements, and I don't think less of her. In fact, although I thought the ayurveda was hard work, it did work for me. My skin looked great, my body felt better and I believe I was healthier in those months than I had been for many years before I found ayurveda.
I just could not take the supplements that I was told to take in multiples, multiple times a day. Now that this report is out, I can't imagine I will go back to the ditched, half-used supplements sitting in a big Ziploc in my medicine cabinet. I certainly won't give up on ayurveda - it has been far too centering and calming for me - but I don't think I will feel compelled to pop the supplements again until there is more information, more research and more clear understanding about how much of these metals are in them.
What do you think? Would you keep taking your ayurvedic herbal supplements if there was any possibility of having lead, mercury or arsenic in them? Or would you wait and see?
[photo credit: Getty Images]
