The woman had more than 25 times the normal amount of lead in her blood after taking Ayurvedic pills for a year.
A woman in Canada who was repeatedly hospitalized for concerning stomach pain and vomiting had developed lead poisoning from taking Ayurvedic pills — a popular alternative medicine — a new case report reveals.
The 39-year-old woman had taken up to a dozen pills of Ayurvedic medicine daily for a year to treat infertility. Ayurvedic medicine is a form of Indian traditional medicine that has been used for 3,000 years but whose products sometimes contain dangerous amounts of lead, mercury or arsenic.
After weeks of fatigue, nausea and pain in her belly, the woman was eventually found to have more than 25 times the normal amount of lead in her blood, and she was treated for lead poisoning.
The core concept of Ayurvedic medicine is „Ayurveda,“ or a focus on treating patients with natural therapies, such as herbal remedies, and lifestyle changes, for example diet adjustments or exercise. Around 240,000 American adults use Ayurvedic medicines, but there’s little scientific evidence to support this system’s purported health effects, and the medicines‘ contents raise safety concerns.
Heavy metals are sometimes used because of their believed healing properties, and people can obtain Ayurvedic medicines by „importing them privately,“ the case report authors wrote.
