Nutritional supplements give young bodybuilder the ‘jerks’

LUCKNOW : Natural nutritional supplements, supposed to give strength, can be harmful, too, as it became evident in the case of a 23-year-old bodybuilder of Ghaziabad.

The youth told KGMU doctors over phone that he was fond of bodybuilding and was thus taking multiple supplements to build muscles.

“Thorough questioning revealed that the youth was taking many supplements and this

alarmed us,” said prof AA Mahdi, HoD of biochemistry department at KGMU. Mahdi got his blood samples, along with all the supplement bottles, brought to KGMU’s biochemistry lab and the results were startling.

The youth was suffering from lead toxicity -- a heavy metal toxin known to cause damage to all vital organs and the nervous system – caused by the nutritional supplements.

“While speaking from Ghaziabad on phone, the youth told us that he was suffering lead toxicity due to contaminated water. But as he stated that his blood lead level was 57-microgram/ deciliter (permissible level is 10- micro gram/ deciliter) we were sure that water could not take lead toxicity to such a high level in the body,” said Mahdi.

Though he appeared wellbuilt, there was damage in his kidneys and during the night his body experienced ‘twitching’, along with other symptoms of heavy metal toxicity. It was only then that he contacted KGMU doctors.

The youth reported typical neurological signs of lead toxicity like irritability, frequent headache, mental dullness, generalized pain, muscle weakness, numbness and tingling as also twitching and shaking of legs while sleeping.

“After tests we discovered that his blood lead level had risen to 90- micro gram/ deciliter, which was life-threatening. Alarmed, we conducted tests of the supplements and found all, but one, had lead content under permissible limits,” said Mahdi.

One supplement had to be tested at least 10 times as the equipment failed to measure its lead content level. “Finally after diluting it several times we got the readings, which was 10,000parts per million (PPM) lead despite the permissible limit being 10-PPM,” said Mahdi.

The professor said he immediately advised the youth to stop taking all the nutritional supplements and prescribed him medicines to control the problem. “We managed to pinpoint the lead source and he (youth) will be normal soon,” said Mahdi.

Explaining the reason for presence of lead in naturally sourced supplements, Mahdi said since ground water remains polluted with heavy metal also, it is possible that lead enters plants and thereby into supplements made from them.

“It is advisable that when a supplement is selected all its ingredients and standard testing protocol, as prescribed by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), be ensured before consuming it. Since supplements are consumed for months and sometimes years, any toxicity, particularly that can’t be dissolved by the body such as lead, can give very bad results,” the professor said.