Serious side effects of Ayurvedic medicines

Dr.Barai

Lead poisoning due to ingestion of Indian herbal remedies.

1: N Z Med J. 2005 Jul 29;118(1219):U1587
Roche A, Florkowski C, Walmsley T.
Department of General Medicine, Christchurch Hospital, Christchurch, New Zealand. anne.roche@cdhb.govt.nz

A case of lead poisoning is presented. The patient had recently returned to New Zealand from the Indian subcontinent. This prompted a search that identified lead contamination of ingested medicinal products that had been prescribed in India. There have been several case reports of lead toxicity due to contamination of Indian herbal medicines, though none, to our knowledge, previously reported from New Zealand.

arunchs

So what are these several cases Dr. Barai?

How did you get hold of this story? Any links?

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haritha

This could happen if the siddha medicine is given by not properly trained people. Otherwise chances are rare. Where are our Ayurvedic Experts

Dr.Barai

Severe lead poisoning due to Ayurvedic indian plant medicine.

Weide R, Engelhart S, Farber H, Kaufmann F, Heymanns J.
Praxisklinik fur Hamatologie/Onkologie, Koblenz. Haem.Onc.Ko@t-online.de
HISTORY AND CLINICAL FINDINGS: A 39-year-old woman with a history of slowly progressive muscular dystrophia was transferred to us for further evaluations of a hypochromic, microcytic anaemia. The patient complained about progressive muscle weakness, loss of appetite and constipation, sleep disorders as well as muscle and back pain. Clinical examination revealed a tetraparesis without any detectable muscle reflexes and atrophic muscles of the extremities. A bilateral radial paresis was found with a loss of power. INVESTIGATIONS: She presented with a hypochromic, microcytic anaemia with a haemoglobin of 7.9 g/dl. Re-evaluation of her peripheral blood smear showed basophilic stippling of the erythrocytes. Bone marrow biopsy revealed a marked dyserythropoiesis with 50% ring sideroblasts. After the examination of the bone marrow, the blood lead level was found to be grossly elevated up to 880 microg/l. DIAGNOSIS: Re-evaluation of the patient's history revealed that she had been to India for an Ayurvedic treatment approach to improve her muscle dystrophia. She had taken regularly 4 different natural plant pills which she had bought in an Ayurvedic health centre. Toxicologic analysis of these pills revealed one to have a lead concentration of 50.4 mg/g. TREATMENT AND COURSE: The patient was treated with 16 infusions of sodium-EDTA followed by a 4-week treatment with dimercaptopropionic acid orally. Her neurological condition improved and the radial paresis resolved gradually so that she could return to work. Her haematological parameters normalized. CONCLUSION: This case report underscores the importance, while asking patients for their drug history, to ask additionally if natural plant medicine is taken or applied regularly. The report reveals that Ayurvedic pills from India may have a high concentration of lead and may cause severe poisoning.
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U can look for such case reports in the hardcore medical website
www.pubmed.gov or for ametures google may be good enough !!!!!

greenchutney

are you against alternative medicines and therapy?....you posted something against ayurveda, dug up some research disapproving homeopathy...what goes? can you elaborate where are you leading with all these?..just curious~

Dr.Barai

totally against any unscientific way of treatment.I feel sorry and shocked when i hear people from abroad coming to India for alternative treatment wihthout knowing what lies inside.Those people with open mind should know what is what!!

Sir if you are so convinced about homeopathy u can take up the challenge by Mr James Randi !!! U can get richer by $1 million in no time !!!!!

Karan321

Well..its not uncommon in India for Ayurvedic medicines even branded ones to have more than acceptable levels of potentially dangerous heavy metals. In a recent report published in JAMA the popular so called blood purifier Safi, was found to contain levels of Arsenic forty times the maximum limit. This testing was done on ayurveda medicines imported from India and commercially available in the Boston area. Following this India has tighteened its scrutiny on Ayurvedic and Unani drugs by random testing of several formulations every month.

greenchutney

ha!! what is unscientific anyway?..science has prolly many years to catch up with a lot of things we do..heck, its proving that old grandma recipies have some worth..why they couldnt sort out coconut oil for so many years..good trans fats, bad fat, and now again research is coming out that cocount oil is after all good and how they were mistaken...as if all the keralites are dying out from eating that much cocount...

i really think science is becoming victims to many whims and fancies of governments or big business...where integrity is lost and shady practices of mucking with it are ever increasing. its easy for the big pharma to come and toss a few grenades about alternative medicine now and then..sure ~

your allopaethic nonsense of rampant pill pushing then also has gone to the extreme doc..treat the heart while screwing the liver..and then give something for the liver that messes up the kidney and something to treat the kidney makes ya hella fat ~ it goes on.. ..

science has its place and so do others..and hopefully it will catch up or better yet come to conclusion realise that there are areas that it just cannot explain.



why bother doc?..it works for me and for many i know. why go challenge some who whatever and for what?

if you are so science uppity about things..how can you make statments like no time?..after all it does take time for anything..how can it be 'no time'..has science come out with a concept of 'no-time'?

if he wants to crow about it fine..go do it..it becomes a problem when he decides that he want to stop it, does a taliban and bans it~

greenchutney

well go look at what your western medicine does to your body...everybody should open their mind and know what is what there..prozac, antibiotics, blood pressure medicine....why even your tylenol..(paracetomol i think causes liver damage..a study last month came out with....)..

while i agree that there is plenty of corruption or spuriousness in ayurvedic medicines..just dont diss a ancient science that you have no clue about. the scientists in india just dont have that much money to research..and whatever research they have done is scattered. the government of india pouring money into research of all this is negligible to what it should be done and you know how the beaurocracy works here.

most of the money for science research is coming from western governments, universities and pharmaceutical companies. and they have their strings to how they can spend the money to research or what focus they have..or how much they want to research or what is lost in translation...and with that patent stuff, who know what is else is going on beyond closed doors~

tell me when your scientific medicine become holistic, then i say you have arguments againsts alternative forms of therapy..

Nick-H

I think it is good for these things to get some bad publicity.

People should take care to whom they go for treatment, and what that person is prescribing.

Too many people approach 'alternative' medical systems with blinkered attitudes that anything 'natural' or 'ancient' must be harmless, non-poisonous and without side-effects.

This is untrue, probably about most systems of medicine. It is good for us to have our eyes open.

Then we can go to our Ayuveda etc, and why not? Alopathic medicine kills people too!

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Karan321

I think maybe we are mixing up two things here.
There can be no doubt that both Ayurveda and homeopathic forms of medicine work for a lot of people. Its success cannot be merely attributed to the placebo effect. But in the absence of any clinical trials and testing, post marketing survellience etc. many manufacturers are lax and negligent unlike allopathic manufacturers and medicines which are more stringently regulated. Also unlike allopathic medicines where the side effects are known (usually) in Ayurveda it is difficult to link the medicine to the side effect.
There is an immediate need for the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare to ensure the safety of such medicines.

Dr.Barai

See problem is that Ayurvedic doctors claim loudly that these medicines have no side effects (For example Roulfina Serpentina {SWARPAGANDHA} extract is used by ayurvedic doctors as a side effect free medicine for high blood pressure the same extract was once used in western medicine also but since has been discarded because if causes severe depression and promotes suicidal tendencies). Where as in allopathic system we acknowledge that there are side effect and toxicity of every drug and try our best to prevent them or to reduce them.

greenchutney

yeah right~~~~..you try to prevent my side effects..or reduce them...by prescribing something else that has other side effects. and it goes on. get off your high horse. allopathic medicine has plenty of issues..and it does have its limitations as well~

its individual preference..some people see short term and some long term. some people need that instant pain relief, some can tolerate pain, some of us care about holistic treatment.

yes ayurveda could use some authority for regulation and enforcement. but for you to dismiss anything alternative just because they are non-scientific...or all alternative therapy patients suffering from psychosomatic tendencies is bull crap!~....

i think i made my points..later~

Nick-H

Well said!

Bigzero

I think the good Doctor should try some triphala

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