65-year-old Bengaluru Man Gets Dementia Due to Lead in Ayurveda

Doctors find excess lead in the patient who is been taking Ayurvedic medicines since five years.

Leaves being ground to prepare Ayurvedic medicine. (Photo: iStock)

Ayurvedic medicines, that has been praised for its traditional and natural values, has also come under the lead scare radar.

A 65-year-old man in Bengaluru was admitted to a hospital following signs of dementia. Doctors were shocked to find excess amounts of lead accumulated in the body of the patient, who has been taking Ayurvedic medicines for the past five years.

According to aTimes of India report, two of the seven ayurvedic drugs he was consuming for the past five years had high lead content.

The patient, brought to St Johns Hospital in the city, showed memory loss, mood swings, confusion, irritability and urge to run away from home, reported the daily. Doctors found 150 microgram of lead per deci litre in his blood, which is 10 times higher than the permissible limit, and the cause for the neurological disorder.

The man has been taking the medicines as he was a cancer and diabetes patient, doctor GRK Sarma, head of the hospital’s neurology department, was quoted as saying in the Times of India.

We sent those medicines for testing. The results were shocking, as two of the seven drugs were high in lead content.
—Dr GRK Sarma

One of the drugs contained 5,000 ppm (parts per million) of lead whereas the other contained 10,000 ppm of lead, when the permissible limit is 25 ppm, said the report. The drugs were tested in National Referral Centre for Lead Poisoning in India (NRCLPI).

However Dr Sharma clarified that not all Ayurvedic drugs have lead. He said most of the medicines are prepared of leaves and bhasma.