Hi Bill

Ayurvedic healing treats the body according to the constitution of
each individual, there are three main types Vata, Pitta & Kapha - then
overlaps as some people are of more than one type.  What to eat or not
eat is based upon constitutional type and the disease the needs
healing.
Ayurveda is a very complex system taking many years of study to
master. You are in the UK so you may have access to a practioner in
your local Hindu community.

isi

Subject:     Ayurvedic medicine.
Date:   Thu, 22 Mar 2007

<
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080122/folk_medicine_08012
2/20080122?hub=Health

A raw form of the herbal remedy palo azul, also known as palo dulce is
held up at a yerberia
Folk medicines contain lead: health officials

Updated Tue. Jan. 22 2008 1:33 PM ET

The Associated Press

HOUSTON -- Maria didn't mean to poison her children. Quite the opposite.
Worried about her daughters' lack of appetite, the young Houston mother
was merely following her grandmother's advice when she gave the two girls
and a niece a dose of "greta" -- a Mexican folk medicine used to treat
children's stomach ailments.

What Maria, who asked that her last name not be used, did not know then,
but now will never forget, is that the bright orange powder is nearly 90
percent lead.

Fortunately, doctors detected the dangerously high levels of the toxic
metal in the little girls' blood during a routine checkup a week later.

But others are not so lucky. Health departments around the country say
traditional medicines used by many immigrants from Latin America, India
and other parts of Asia are the second most common source of lead
poisoning in the U.S. -- surpassed only by lead paint -- and may account
for tens of thousands of such cases among children each year.

Dozens of adults and children have become gravely ill or died after taking
lead-laden medicine over the past eight years, according to federal and
local health officials.

The dangerous medicines are manufactured outside the United States and
sold in the U.S. by folk healers known as curanderas and in ethnic grocery
stores and neighborhood shops that offer herbs and charms. They are
usually brought into the country by travelers in their suitcases, thereby
slipping past government regulators.

"No one's testing these medications," said Dr. Stefanos Kales, an
assistant professor of environmental health at the Harvard School of
Public Health who researched the problem. "There's no guarantee it doesn't
have dangerous levels of lead."

Lead is added to many of the concoctions because of its supposed curative
properties, even though doctors say it has no proven medical benefits. In
other cases, powders and pills become contaminated with lead from soil or
through the manufacturing process.

"Instead of doing something good for them, I did them more harm," said
Maria, whose children have shown no ill effects. "I was so afraid of all
the things that could happen to them. It was a terrible experience."

In Harris County, which includes Houston, traditional medicines are blamed
for nearly one-fifth of all cases in which children were found to have
high levels of lead. In Arizona, home remedies account for one-fourth of
childhood lead poisoning cases.

In Texas, California and Arizona, lead poisoning has been traced to
Mexican remedies such as greta, azarcon and rueda -- powders that are
given to treat constipation in children and contain as much as 90 percent
lead. In New York City and Rhode Island, high lead levels in the blood
have been tied to litargirio, a powder containing up to 79 percent lead.
It is used by Dominican immigrants for such ills as foot fungus and body
odor.

Dangerous amounts of lead have also been found in ayurvedic medicines,
which are used in India and commonly found in South Asian immigrant
communities in New York, Chicago and Houston. These medicines include
ghasard, a brown powder given to relieve constipation in babies, and
mahayogaraj gugullu, for high blood pressure.

Traditional medicines may account for up to 30 percent of all childhood
lead poisoning cases in the United States, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. The Environmental Protection Agency
estimates 240,000 U.S. children were diagnosed with high blood lead levels
in 2004 to 2006.

Many more cases are almost certainly going undetected. Only 14 percent of
children are tested for lead nationwide. And the source of lead often
cannot be traced in cases where paint is not the culprit.

"I don't think anyone has a good handle on the exact prevalence of use,"
Kales said. "I'm sure it's underreported because doctors don't generally
ask about this and patients don't report it."

The use of folk medicine is rooted in generations-old cultural traditions.
Ayurvedic medicine, for example, originated more than 2,000 years ago in
India, where 80 percent of the population uses it.

"People think, well, my grandmother did it, so it's not a problem. It's
extremely hard to change cultures and beliefs," said Brenda Reyes with the
Houston Health Department.

In Houston, where one in four residents is foreign-born, Health Department
officials routinely pay undercover visits to herbalist stores and try to
buy remedies known to contain lead. Often, however, storekeepers are
reluctant to admit they carry the medicine, bringing them out only when
they know the customer, Reyes said.

In Houston and other places, health authorities can do little more than
ask stores to take such products off their shelves.

In a 2004 study that found high concentrations of lead in ayurvedic
medicine, Boston University researcher Robert Saper bought 70 different
ayurvedic remedies at 30 stores within a 20-mile radius of Boston City
Hall. One in five contained potentially harmful levels of lead, mercury
and arsenic.

After Saper's study was released, health inspectors in Houston, Chicago,
San Francisco and New York City conducted sweeps, and also discovered
dangerous ayurvedic remedies on store shelves.

Lead poisoning can cause lethargy, confusion, learning problems and
convulsions, and in severe cases can lead to irreversible brain damage and
death. In severe cases, children are often given oral medication to reduce
the lead in their bodies, or undergo chelation therapy, which captures
lead in the blood and allows it to be removed through urination.

Patients sickened by home remedies often have more serious cases of lead
poisoning than those poisoned from other sources because the medicines
frequently contain extremely high concentrations of lead and are
deliberately swallowed, said Mary Jean Brown, chief of the CDC's lead
poisoning prevention branch.

In 2004, the CDC reported 12 cases of lead poisoning associated with
ayurvedic remedies in Texas, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York and
California. In one case, a 37-year-old woman, hospitalized with abdominal
pain, nausea and vomiting, reported taking five different traditional
medications for rheumatoid arthritis.

Many state and local health departments have issued warnings about lead in
folk medicines, and sometimes use questionnaires to screen youngsters in
poor neighborhoods and immigrant communities for lead poisoning from folk
remedies. The Food and Drug Administration has also issued alerts about
certain medicines, including litargirio.

Maria is doing her best to spread the word about the dangers.

"I told everyone in my family, all my friends, not to use this anymore,
not to give your children anything if you don't know what's in it," said
Maria, who purchased greta during a visit to her hometown in Mexico.

Maria gave each of the girls less than a teaspoon of greta -- enough to
send their blood lead levels well over the safe limit. A year later, their
levels are still high, but inching closer to the acceptable range. The
amount in their systems was not high enough to require any treatment.