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Oct 27, 2008

Ayurvedic Heavy Metal

Posted in Science at 1:00 pm by David Bradley -- 9 Comments; add your comment

nagarjunaBefore reading on, and specifically before asking why I’ve used a picture of Buddha in an article about Ayurveda…it’s not Buddha, it’s Nagarjuna, redactor of the Sushruta Samhita a sixth century BCE text on surgery, the only treatise for two of the eight branches of Ayurveda. The snake is part of Nagarjuna and is usually depicted as a protective canopy, I’ve never seen Buddha depicted in that way. Apologies for any confusion, but please no more comments or emails telling me I’ve used an inappropriate photo. I don’t believe I have.

Ayurvedic medicines can contain dangerous quantities of heavy metals, including lead, mercury, thallium and arsenic, clinical toxicologists in London have warned. Writing in the International Journal of Environment and Health, they suggest that recent European legislation aimed at improving safety of shop-bought products will have little impact on medicines prescribed by traditional practitioners, imported personally from overseas or bought over the Internet.

The problem is that the heavy metals are not simply inadvertent contaminants of natural herbal products, they are added deliberately in order to supposedly return the body to health by rebalancing allegedly essential minerals. You can read the full article on this via AlphaGalileo.

There are wide and wild claims for Ayurvedic medicine including the ability to treat diabetes, flue, cancer, asthma, flu, acne, boils, diarrhoea, headaches, and that perennial of the alternative remedy market, sex drive. Unfortunately, Ayurveda, although ancient, is no panacea.

Some practitioners are hoping to modernise the Ayurvedic system. However, until it is more widely recognised among users that adding arsenic, lead, thallium and other potentially toxic heavy metals to so-called medicinal preparations is unacceptable, it will remain a practice more associated with the past than contemporary medicine.

Paul I. Dargan, Indika B. Gawarammana, John R.H. Archer, Ivan M. House, Debbie Shaw, David M. Wood (2008). Heavy metal poisoning from Ayurvedic traditional medicines: an emerging problem? International Journal of Environment and Health, 2 (3/4), 463-474

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9 Responses to “Ayurvedic Heavy Metal”

  1. 9
    David Bradley Says:
    November 9th, 2008 at 9:35 am

    @Srimal Who said anything about Buddha? The picture, as I explained, is not of a statue of Buddha.

  2. 8
    Srimal Says:
    November 9th, 2008 at 2:36 am

    How the Buddha is related to “Ayurvedic Heavy Metal”. Buddhism and Ayurveda is completely two different things. Just because the both related to India, it doesn’t mean they are related. If fact they are not related at all.

    How can you call this a “science” blog if you do not do even a background study about the things you write?

  3. 7
    La medicina ayurveda contiene concentraciones metales pesados peligrosas | Genalia Says:
    October 28th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

    [...] Vía Sciencebase. [...]

  4. 6
    David Bradley Says:
    October 28th, 2008 at 10:39 am

    @Prashant It’s not Buddha, it’s Nagarjuna, redactor of the Sushruta Samhita a sixth century BCE text on surgery, the only treatise for two of the eight branches of Ayurveda.

  5. 5
    Prashant Says:
    October 28th, 2008 at 7:22 am

    btw, what’s with the Buddha pic? Didn’t get the reference.

  6. 4
    Prashant Says:
    October 28th, 2008 at 7:20 am

    Thanks for the pointer to the study. This is a big problem in India and blind faith in traditional Ayurvedic remedies makes it worse. People I know are biased also because of the claim that these medicines only contain “natural” ingredients.

  7. 3
    David Bradley Says:
    October 27th, 2008 at 5:26 pm

    Thanks for the input Jo. Yes, I don’t think the team is claim that this practice is anything new, and Edzard has certainly mentioned it at least once. I think they’re importantly trying to get the message across that it’s not just a contamination issue and that practitioners are deliberately adding poisonous metals in some misguided belief that it can “rebalance” the human body (whatever that means).

  8. 2
    Jo Brodie Says:
    October 27th, 2008 at 4:02 pm

    This is referenced in the above-mentioned paper
    Ernst E (2002) Toxic heavy metals and undeclared drugs in Asian herbal medicines. Trends Pharmacol Sci 23:136-9.

    Jo

  9. 1
    Jo Brodie Says:
    October 27th, 2008 at 1:29 pm

    Thanks for that - more useful background information for my document (for pharmacists) on the use of herbal remedies used by people with diabetes. I might have mentioned this article before but it is a case study of a man who managed to improve his diabetes control by taking ‘herbal balls’ bought in India. On checking the pills it was found that they contained a drug that used to be prescription only (chlorpropamide) but which is no longer recommended.

    The advantages and disadvantages of a ‘herbal’ medicine in a patient with diabetes mellitus: a case report - http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=15788849

    If memory serves, and I may be wrong on this, I think plants are generally rather good at hoovering up metals from the soil - I seem to vaguely remember something about barley and aluminium, but forget the particulars. Adding it in deliberately though… not helpful :-)

    Jo
    P.S. The Musical Box were excellent :)

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