Ayurvedic medicines, the allegedly herbal component of a holistic approach to health and wellness that comes to us courtesy of thousands of years of Indian practice, often contain toxic elements. The Los Angeles Times reports on a new study, published in the Journal of the American Medical
Assn., that analyzed 193 products purchased from 25
websites for Indian and U.S. manufacturers. The vast majority
supposedly contained only herbs and no metals. The paper reports that about 80 percent of the
samples showed no detectable metal content, but among the remaining
samples, the toxic metals showed up at similar rates in both U.S. and
Indian-made products. Of the U.S. products, 21 percent contained lead, 3 percent
contained mercury and 3 percent had arsenic. Among the Indian-made medicines,
17 percent had lead, 7 percent had mercury and none contained arsenic.
Read more in the Los Angeles Times.
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Let us not forget or fail to recognize that 80% of the products tested were safe and may well prove to be beneficial.
In the full article, it was also noted that in many instances the heavy metals arise from the soil in which the herbs are begin grown.
With both points in mind, this article can either bring a sigh of relief or a cry of alarm.
One must wonder how many herbs used in food preparation and grown, manufactured and distributed in this country would fair in such test?
One must also wonder about any study that is tied too closely to the AMA which has often had a very biased view of practices from other systems.
Perhaps the best advise is to be careful, be wise and, hopefully, be well.