Women hospitalized with lead poisoning from Ayurvedic infertility supplement

A Canadian woman who spent weeks in the emergency department was found to be suffering from lead poisoning caused by toxic herbal remedies.

The 39-year-old Ontario native took supplements rooted in Ayurvedic medicine, an ancient field of holistic healing that focuses on restoring balance to the mind and body.

However, health officials have revealed that some drugs contain lead, arsenic and mercury, which damage the nervous system, increase the risk of several cancers and endanger expectant mothers and their babies.

The unnamed woman underwent a barrage of diagnostic tests to determine the cause of her six-week bout of severe abdominal pain, constipation, nausea and vomiting.

Doctors eventually found that her blood lead level was 55 micrograms per deciliter (µg/dL), about 11 times higher than what is considered the safest maximum concentration.

She had been taking the supplements for over a year to treat her infertility, a fact she only later told her clinicians, delaying an accurate diagnosis.

Lead is sometimes used in traditional Ayurvedic supplements for infertility because of its association with a traditional concept referring to the use of substances that promote overall health and vitality.

Details of the Ontario patient case did not explicitly say whether lead and other metals were added accidentally during part of the manufacturing process or on purpose, although the Ayurvedic concepts supporting its use suggest it was an intentional addition.

Depending on the level of lead exposure, the toxic heavy metal can lead to a wide variety of health effects, such as behavioral changes, anemia, seizures and infertility, which are often misdiagnosed as other diseases.

In addition to infertility, the patient had a history of thyroid dysfunction, which prevented her thyroid gland from releasing enough hormones that are critical for maintaining metabolism, energy production, and overall growth.

On a third visit to the hospital, she was admitted so that doctors could examine whether the patient had gastrointestinal bleeding and anemia – a condition that leads to too few red blood cells.

Diagnostic tests showed that her blood cells were smaller and paler than normal and dotted with dark blue and purple granules, indicating a condition known as basophilic stippling.

The levels of minerals and hormones in her body were normal, as were the tests of her urine, blood, bowel and ovaries, although her bones stored a lot of iron.

Her pain level improved after blood transfusions, which is likely why doctors diagnosed her as anemic.

Two weeks after she left the hospital, her abdominal pain had improved, but she was still fatigued, struggling to breathe, had headaches and ringing in her ears, forcing doctors to reevaluate their initial diagnosis.

They tested her urine again, this time for indications of porphyria, a group of rare genetic disorders that affect the body’s ability to produce heme, a critical component of hemoglobin that carries oxygen in the blood.

They found that she had elevated levels of two substances that are precursors to porphyria, indicating that her body’s ability to produce heme was insufficient.

It wasn’t until a follow-up appointment a full month after her hospitalization that the patient admitted that she had been taking Ayurvedic supplements to help her conceive for about a year and had only stopped after leaving the hospital for the third time.

After stopping, she noticed an improvement in her stomach pains, but resumed them again, only to find that the symptoms returned.

The doctors behind the case study said“Once lead toxicity was diagnosed, clinicians contacted Public Health Ontario, a provincial public health agency that provides scientific and technical support to the Ontario government and healthcare system.”

Public Health Ontario tested 17 different types of pills and two frankincense samples provided by the patient. Of these, 11 of the pills contained lead levels that were much higher than what a test can detect. One pill contained 129,000 μg/g of lead, about 26,000 times the maximum level recommended by the Canadian health authorities and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Meanwhile, four additional pills contain a range of 7,900 to 33,000 μg/g of mercury, a toxic compound that can have adverse effects on the nervous system and organs.

Doctors said: ‘A joint investigation of the Ayurvedic clinic confirmed the practitioner’s non-compliance with natural health product regulations and resulted in the seizure of hundreds of pills.

Health Canada independently tested 15 types of pills seized from the doctor’s clinic and found high levels of arsenic, mercury or lead in 14 of the samples. Three pills also contain prescription drugs, including diclofenac, dexamethasone, progesterone, norgestrel and cetirizine.

The agency recommended that doctors who treat patients who present with similar symptoms and blood test results strongly consider lead poisoning as a possible culprit, although the fact that lead toxicity is quite uncommon means that patients often have to see a range of medical professionals until a diagnosis can be made. made.

The supplements the woman took were proprietary brands, meaning they were unique to the clinic. But many like them have been found to contain more than acceptable levels of lead, mercury and arsenic, often because the heavy metals are believed to retain some healing properties in Ayurvedic tradition.

In fact, an estimated 20 percent of Ayurvedic pills sold on the Internet by US and Indian-based manufacturers contained all three of these heavy metals.

While it’s not clear whether the pills sold at the Kerela Ayurvedic & Natural Herbal Consultation clinic in Ontario were illegal, Canadian health authorities typically have a strict pre-market approval process that first requires supplements to have a particular homeopathic designation. resources, followed by a thorough review of the product’s safety, quality and efficacy.

The process of getting supplements to market is considerably less rigorous in the US, where the Food and Drug Administration does not conduct pre-market research. This means that the agency only takes action, for example by removing a problematic product from the shelves, after a problem such as lead poisoning occurs.

The lenient regulatory policies in the US have helped the value of the supplement industry grow to a staggering $37.2 billion, though some estimates put it closer to $55 billion.

And many reputable authorities have disputed its usefulness. Dr. Tim Spector, a British epidemiologist and genetics expert at King’s College London, believes supplements make “total mugs” of those who buy them “when we should be spending it on real food.”

He said last year, “These supplements are being driven by the same companies…they’re going to be the new giant nutrition companies of the future.

Their budgets are huge. It’s not these artisan little folks in the back of a barn in Somerset who make an exquisite organic supplement.

“They’re all made in huge factories in China and you have no control (over) what it is – and 99 percent of them turn out not to work at all.”