Lead poisoning from dietary supplements

(NEWSCHANNEL 3) - A new study has a warning about the supplements many people take to stay healthy.

We take supplements for everything from improving memory, lowering cholesterol and fighting arthritis; but some of those supplements could be doing more harm than good.

A new study has a warning about ayurvedic medicines, they're herbal mixtures from India. The author of the study says that back in 2003, a man showed up in an ER near Boston with seizures. It turned out that his ayurvedic supplements contained lead. The study found that those supplements can also have mercury or arsenic in them.

Newschannel 3 found ayurvedic supplements being sold locally. In India, the supplements date back thousands of years. In this country, the herbal mixtures are becoming more popular and US manufacturers are also selling them.

But Laura Strehlow, a pharmacist at Borgess Medical Center, cautions everyone about dietary supplements, because the F.D.A. doesn't regulate them.

"Unless you go and do tests yourself at a lab, then there's really no way to know," said Strehlow. She says you should be skeptical of any supplement's label and should question what's really inside the bottle.

But Strehlow did say that at least one agency's seal is a sign of quality. USP, which stands for U.S. Pharmacopeia. It's not the federal government, but USP is a standard that could keep any heavy metals out of your body.

"If it says USP on the product, then you can be pretty sure of the standardization," said Strehlow.

The study says that more than 80 people around the world have developed lead poisoning from ayurvedic medicines; that total is from the last 30 years.