FYI - Natural products also need to be researched and not just relied upon.

>this is from Medical News Today:
>
>UC Davis Study Finds High Arsenic Levels In Herbal Kelp Supplements
>10 Apr 2007
>
>A study of herbal kelp supplements led by UC Davis public health
>expert Marc Schenker concludes that its medicinal use may cause
>inadvertent arsenic poisoning and health dangers for consumers,
>especially when overused. Schenker and two researchers evaluated nine
>over-the-counter herbal kelp products and found higher than
>acceptable arsenic levels in eight of them.
>
>The new study, published in the April issue of Environmental Health
>Perspectives (<http://www.ehponline.org/>http://www.ehponline.org/)
>was prompted by the case of
>a 54-year-old woman who was seen at the UC Davis Occupational
>Medicine Clinic following a two-year history of worsening alopecia
>(hair loss), fatigue and memory loss.
>
>The woman's symptoms had begun with minor memory loss and fatigue.
>Her primary care physician initially found nothing wrong with the
>woman and thought the symptoms were related to menopause. With no
>specific diagnosis or treatment recommendations, the patient started
>taking a variety of herbal therapies, including a kelp supplement,
>fish oil, ginkgo biloba and grape seed extract. The kelp supplement
>was the only herbal therapy she took regularly throughout the course
>of her illness.
>
>Over a period of several months the woman's short- and long-term
>memory became so impaired that she could no longer remember her home
>address. She also reported having a rash, nausea and vomiting, which
>made it very difficult to work and forced her to leave a full-time
>job. The woman actually increased her dosage of kelp from two to four
>pills a day after her doctors still could not find a clear diagnosis.
>
>Subsequent laboratory tests finally revealed arsenic in the patient's
>blood and urine. At her physician's suggestion, the patient
>discontinued the kelp supplement. Within weeks, her symptoms
>disappeared, and within several months arsenic was no longer detected
>in her urine and its levels had dropped significantly in her blood.
>She later was referred to the UC Davis Occupational Medicine Clinic
>as a follow-up to her primary care.
>
>"It's unfortunate that a therapy that's advertised as contributing
>to 'vital living and well-being' would contain potentially unsafe
>levels of arsenic," said Schenker, who is a professor of Public
>Health Sciences and a leading authority on occupational and
>environmental diseases and respiratory illness. "Concentrations of
>materials contained in herbal supplements, including both the
>expected benefits and potential side effects, should be studied,
>standardized, monitored and accurately labeled."
>
>To assess the concentration of arsenic present in commercially
>available kelp supplements, the UC Davis investigators purchased nine
>over-the-counter kelp samples from local health food stores. Included
>were samples from three different batches of the product consumed by
>the patient.
>
>The researchers sent the samples to the California Animal Health &
>Food Safety Laboratory in Davis, which operates in partnership with
>UC Davis, the California Department of Food and Agriculture and
>others to provide specialized testing that helps protect both human
>and animal health. Investigators found detectable levels of arsenic
>in eight of the nine kelp supplements by using a hydride vapor
>generation method with an inductively coupled argon plasma
>spectrometer. Seven of the supplements exceeded the tolerance levels
>for food products set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
>
>"Part of the problem," said Schenker, "is that the FDA has limited
>control over dietary supplements. It can't scrutinize products like
>herbal kelp before they enter the market, so it has to rely on
>adverse reports to determine product safety."
>
>He noted that none of the kelp products in the study had labels
>indicating the presence of arsenic, nor were there any warnings about
>the potential dangers of ingesting large quantities of the
>supplement.
>
>Arsenic is a heavy metal that occurs naturally in the environment and
>as a by-product of some agricultural and industrial activities. Due
>to high arsenic concentrations in algae and marine micro-organisms,
>seafood is the highest dietary source of arsenic for consumers. While
>long-term human exposure to arsenic from food sources such as fish
>does occur, it is usually significantly lower than anything
>approaching toxic levels. How-ever, dietary supplements, which are
>largely unregulated, have raised health concerns.
>
>There have been a number of published studies highlighting cases in
>which the uses of homeopathic remedies to relieve everything from
>asthma to rheumatoid arthritis have caused arsenic poisoning.
>Schenker's findings offer a cautionary tale for consumers who use
>herbal treatments and dietary supplements. The kelp samples analyzed
>in the study had consistently elevated levels of arsenic, but they
>were considerably lower than previously documented concentrations
>found in other herbal remedies.
>
>"What concerns me," said Schenker, "is that chronic exposure to
>contaminated herbal supplements, even those with moderately elevated
>concentrations of arsenic, can still be toxic. Consumers won't find
>such label information on these products, so they could end up like
>that woman in our study who consumed dangerously high amounts of a
>toxic substance without realizing it."
>
>The complete article -- entitled "A Case of Potential Arsenic
>Toxicity Secondary to Herbal Kelp Supplement," is co-authored by Eric
>Amster, from the UC Davis School of Medicine, and Asheesh Tiwary,
>from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and the California
>Animal Health & Food Safety Laboratory System. It can be found on the
>Environmental Health Perspectives Web site at
><http://www.ehponline.org/.>http://www.ehponline.org/.
>
>UC Davis Health System is an integrated, academic health system
>encompassing UC Davis School of Medicine, the 577-bed acute-care
>hospital and clinical services of UC Davis Medical Center, and the
>800-member physician group known as UC Davis Medical Group.
>
>Public Affairs
>UC Davis Health System
>4900 Broadway, Suite 1200
>Sacramento, CA 95820
><http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/newsroom/>http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/newsroom/
>
>
>Contact: Carole Gan
>University of California, Davis - Health System
>Article URL:
><http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?>http://www.medicalnewstoday.c\
om/medicalnews.php?
>newsid=67410


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