How Pure do Ayurvedic Medicines need to Be?

Like many other people, I have had my share of a few stubborn health problems that just seem to defy explanation and conventional medicine - I have regular headaches, and I have rashes sometimes. Just once, I thought I could try out some kind of alternative treatment method just to see. I surely didn't have anything to lose - I tried it with Western medicine for so long, doctors lost interest in my problems. So earlier this year I thought I would give the magical ayurvedic medicines of India a chance with a couple of low-level problems I have - I'm always stressed out at work, and my immune system could use a bit of help.

Ayurved is an ancient medical system that comes from a cultural tradition of that part of the world that is millennia old. In the treatment of certain kinds of illnesses, Ayurved can be difficult for conventional medicine to match; and this could explain how wildly popular this exotic treatment method is in this country, 10,000 miles from where it was created. My ayurvedic practitioner picked her up while a unity that could medicines to help me with my problems. It certainly helped; it bucked my system up right away. In a few days, I had more energy than ever before, and my digestion was top notch. The thing that really impressed me about my doctor was, that she gave me her medicines herself, preparing them carefully and testing them for impurities by hand. Why is it important to test for impurities you ask?

If you remember, there were reports two years ago in the papers that customs on American borders stopped and sent back huge consignments of herbal Ayurvedic medicines from India. They were medicines made by reputable Indian companies like Baidhyanath too. The JAMA reported on a story about that time too on how they tested dozens of herbal Ayurvedic medicines bought online from American manufacturers and Indian ones, and how they found that about a quarter of them contained dangerous levels of heavy metals like lead and arsenic. And they were all sold by American retailers too. And even the retailers who claim on their websites that they test for all impurities still sold products with lots of impurities. There is no real federal program to help regulate this. Only five years ago, the CDC announced that it had had determined that several cases of lead poisoning around the country, could be traced to how those victims took contaminated Ayurvedic products.

And yet, most Ayurved practitioners like to shrug the problem off. Everything in our food system contains a certain amount of contamination, they claim. They are sure that if they tested regular medicines for lead contamination, they would easily find some. This isn't as far-fetched as it sounds. Purifying anything to clear out every last trace of heavy metal, can make products too expensive. And it will not make any sense either. Everything on our table that we call food does have a certain level of heavy metal in it. Why must ayrvedic medicines answer to special standards, while everyone else gets a free pass, supporters claim.