Heavy metals in supplements

[godlovesatrier]

Someone I follow on Twitter did the reseafch. Ive also done the numbers for my own supplements and they weren't great. I'm going to switch brands and monitor more closely in future:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1542432049566449664

I got a HTMA done in 2021 which showed uranium, lead, arsenic and mercury. Mercury in 2018 already existed but none of the others did. So somehow I got uranium from one of my supplements. No idea which one it was. Egcg maybe or reishi. I used to buy egcg from supplement.co.uk until I realised it was from China and they wouldn't release the heavy metals certificate to me. The one of there website looks very fake.

So yeah food for thought maybe.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

So yeah food for thought maybe.

I saw all that but its heavy on math and decimal points. Do you think the issue is that its one thing to get a bit of lead, another to get it in 24 doses over the course of the day..,...

(then got into it with my supplement addicted husband. Who just told me he hardly takes any. He takes about 30 things, three times a day, and large amounts of other powdered substances.)

RE: testing chinese herbs: All the herbs I get are tested for heavy metals by the wholesalers who import them. So you want to be using these tested brands. And the testing is more rigorous than most testing of supplements in the US.

I would want to get my mushrooms from a wholesaler who is testing.

And thats really freaky about the uranium. I'm in California and for some reason, suspect I have some radiation...

 

[Rufous McKinney]

So yeah food for thought maybe.

I was curious: Why Natto? (here I am on an n=1 Nattokinase experiment, to get rid of metals and its adding metals....and its featured in the data)....

Reading about how its manufactured, they inoculate soy beans .

I'd say its pretty likely the soy beans are not organic. So they are tainted.

Then obviously supplements involve concentrating some one thing...and other things tag along for the ride.

 

[godlovesatrier]

Hey,

My levels weren't super high but it was about 1mg of lead per day. Now I assume the brand's I take are a lot worse than the ones disclosing the numbers but it can go both ways I must admit.

Even so 1.3mg of lead isn't good. As the max suggested amount is 9mg per day and I'm not sure how any can be good?

Also I have nothing at all for life extension. I need to contact them actually to find out. Life extension and now don't even disclose the amount that's in their products. They just make sure it's below a certain amount. But that amount is about 30 times higher than the ones that DO disclose the amount.

Labdoor does have a few things on it but not a lot I noticed. I think if you take things once a day you're prob ok but three times is definitely the dose I need to stay on top of things.

Funnily enough l lysine and bcaas had among the highest levels of heavy metal contamination among the supps I looked at.

Obviously I'm not saying you'd immediately see issues here but if you're taking ALA like I was then you could be moving the heavy metals into the brain. Also in the far flung future it could seal the deal on alziehmers or dementia. But hard to say for sure how much if any heavy metal has been deposited in the brain.

Which made me wonder if intranasal glutathione (script only) would have better efficacy at chelating or binding out some of the metals.

Tell you what though. On my last HTMA lead wasn't even registering. So either lead is excreted well by the body or its not showing on a htma. Bit contradictory anyway...

 

[godlovesatrier]

Well this pharmacist says it's because natto is derived from earthworms...I think. So contamination is very easy. That or I'm confusing it with lambruniskase? Which I can't spell.

That's how I understand it anyway.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

Well this pharmacist says it's because natto is derived from earthworms...I think.

yes they isolated it originally from earthworms in soil but they grow it in labs....

 

[Rufous McKinney]

Well this pharmacist says it's because natto is derived from earthworms

Here they describe: Whey left over from manufacturing....waste product...so there is another potential source of metals.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214714420304116

Abstract
In this study, cheese whey – a nutrient-rich industrial waste was utilized as a low-cost fermentation medium for the growth of Bacillus subtilis and nattokinase production.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

So contamination is very easy.

its my understanding that China has shifted much of their commercial traditional medicine production....to the west....to the deserts out in the Uyghur. Because the soil is so contaminated further east.

 

[Mumbo_Jumbo]

Someone I follow on Twitter did the reseafch. Ive also done the numbers for my own supplements and they weren't great. I'm going to switch brands and monitor more closely in future:

I saw this as well. Did you find any brands available in the UK that have safe levels? I'm trying to find a good quality Serrapeptase (among others).

 

[godlovesatrier]

Not in the UK no. If you go on iherb they have a filter where you can search for brands that show the metal content. That's the best idea.

 

[Mumbo_Jumbo]

Not in the UK no. If you go on iherb they have a filter where you can search for brands that show the metal content. That's the best idea.

Oh I didn't know iHerb had that feature. I'll have a look. I spent ages trying to find who manufactured Lake Avenue products before finding out its one of iHerb's own brands.

Thanks for the info!

 

[godlovesatrier]

I didn't know that! No probs.

 

[Pyrrhus]

The company LabDoor also tests common supplements for heavy metals and actual ingredients.

Fortunately, they make their test results public:
https://labdoor.com/rankings

They are also open to suggestions for new supplements to test:

How does Labdoor decide what products to test?

First, we prioritize new product categories based on the number of people following each of our upcoming rankings. Then, we select products based on market research of popular supplements plus a tally of votes for specific products whenever we receive direct suggestions from consumers. To request a product for testing, please email contact@labdoor.com or message us directly here .

 

[Pyrrhus]

The company LabDoor also tests common supplements for heavy metals and actual ingredients.

Fortunately, they make their test results public:
https://labdoor.com/rankings

They are also open to suggestions for new supplements to test:

@Shanti1 @Hip You may be interested in this post...

 

[Shanti1]

Heavy metal and microbial count testing is something every supplement should be doing. The company I am affiliated with (which shall remain unnamed) tests every single batch of every single product and makes them available on request as a COA. Many products in the pipeline never see the light of day because raw material doesn't meet testing standards.

In the US, the first goal for heavy metal testing criteria is to fall below California Prop 65 heavy metal limits, as they are the most stringent. If a product does not pass Prop 65, the next target is to fall below US Pharmacopeia levels. If a product does not pass Prop 65 limits, any bottle shipped to California must have a "Prop 65 warning" on it. If a product does not pass USP limits, it should not be sold.

Labdoor is a good place to check product ranking, but consumers should be aware that they will mark a product down for having an overage of an active ingredient as well as an underage. Many companies will will release products with an overage of some ingredients, such as CoQ10, probiotics, or the Omegas EPA/DHA so as to account for degradation and still meet label claims at the date of expiration. Also, they do not frequently update to match the latest version of products, so the score you see for a product may be from a version from even 5 years ago.

 

[Pyrrhus]

Many companies will will release products with an overage of some ingredients, such as CoQ10, probiotics, or the Omegas EPA/DHA so as to account for degradation and still meet label claims at the date of expiration.

Wow, I did not know that but it makes sense. Thanks for sharing this.

Do you know if companies routinely test for residual solvents, too?

 

[Shanti1]

Do you know if companies routinely test for residual solvents, too?

Most companies do not routinely test for residual solvents or pesticides. If they do, the target is the USP guidelines for limits of specified solvents and pesticides:
https://www.usp.org/sites/default/f...rk/DS/2015-dsc-chapters-561-616-1010-1092.pdf (Surprisingly, Glyphosate is absent from the pesticide list, thus it is not tested for by labs offering USP pesticide testing panels)
https://www.uspnf.com/sites/default/files/usp_pdf/EN/USPNF/generalChapter467Current.pdf

Ideally, a company should choose ingredients that do not employ toxic solvents as part of the extraction or purification process of their active ingredients, but rely on solvents like alcohol instead. Synthetically produced compounds may use various chemical compounds as part of their production.

There is a short list of brands that have USP verification: https://www.quality-supplements.org/verified-products Brands that have USP verification pass USP guidelines. Getting official USP verification is expensive and suits companies that have a limited and static line because reverification must take place whenever there is even a minor change in amount or sourcing of the active or inactive ingredients.

Other companies may also meet USP standards, but do not pay to get the official USP seal. If you are concerned about solvents/pesticides in a brand, it is best to call them and ask them if they test. The company I am affiliated with requires USP solvent/pesticide testing verification from all raw material suppliers and then spot checks raw material batches, however, we do not test every single batch of finished product like we do for heavy metals / microbial count. Almost no company in the industry tests for glyphosate.

 

[Pyrrhus]

Most companies do not routinely test for residual solvents or pesticides. If they do, the target is the USP guidelines for limits of specified solvents and pesticides:
https://www.usp.org/sites/default/f...rk/DS/2015-dsc-chapters-561-616-1010-1092.pdf (Surprisingly, Glyphosate is absent from the pesticide list, thus it is not tested for by labs offering USP pesticide testing panels)

Wow, thanks for sharing that.

I recently heard about a recall due to residual benzene in a product, although I think that was regarding a shampoo, not a nutritional supplement.

I fear what we will learn if we ever start mass testing for glyphosate.