The Dangers of Fish Oil..... believe it.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

I didn't know it was this bad.... Christ, what have we done. I grew up on a farm in wny, had all the banned chemicals, our science teacher let us geeky boys have MERCURY in our hands... so naturally it became a toy in the classroom, rubbed it into our quarters and put them in our pockets, leaded gas was the rage... after that, it was one tough life for several decades.... sometimes I convince myself that these factors played into my "crash and burn", most likely, they did.

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2005/oct2005_report_fishoil_01.htm


A recent Wall Street Journal article reported on the FDA’s failure to provide adequate warning about pollutant levels in fish.1 The article described a 10-year-old boy who suffered severe mercury poisoning because his parents believed that eating tuna fish was healthy. In attempting to identify the cause of the boy’s newly acquired learning difficulties, a neurologist ordered tests that showed the boy’s blood levels of mercury were nearly double what the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deems safe.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. I know. I try to keep my hubby out of the tuna fish. But some weeks

he eats it three or four times. *shaking head*

[progressivebydesign]

18. We buy the Kirkland cooked chicken in a can at Costco.

I SWEAR it's almost identical to tuna, without the mercury and the overly fishy flavor. Perhaps you should try it!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

30. Overly fishy flavor? What other flavor do you expect fish to have!

Golly.

[LeftyMom]

33. If he insists on eating tuna

chunk light is safer than albacore. If you go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium website they have a little printable pocket guide for every region of the country on which fish is reasonably safe and sustainable and what's best avoided.

[GreenPartyVoter]

50. Albacore in water is all he will eat. I'll just have to try to cut him

back on it.

[sandnsea]

70. Troll caught albacore

Very very spendy, but it has the same mercury level as chunk. Warning, once you've had fresh canned albacore, you'll never buy store bought tuna again. This is the cheapest I found:

http://papageorgetuna.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=PGS&Category_Code=GCP

[musette_sf]

2. I wonder too

since I was a geeky girl who also played with the mercury in class. And lived on tuna salad. Now I eat it once a month, and miss it dearly.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. You don't miss the mercury.... right? Sorry, couldn't resist.... :) nt.

[musette_sf]

6. Dammit, it's the only reason I ate the smelly stuff!

:sarcasm:

But now I work at Earl Scheib and huff auto body paint :crazy:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

9. What color is the sky now?? nt.

[musette_sf]

22. hehehehe n/t

[RagingInMiami]

3. I don't think that article was very well written

My question is: Do fish oil supplements contain lead or don't they?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. I didn't read the entire article, I thought it stated that fish itself is

something to watch out for since I already know full well that it is... in all foods, the smaller shorter lived, the better. You should throw back the big fish, and keep the "barely keepers". Then again there is the transgenerational transfer of toxins... cripes.

Anyhoo.... here is the part about the supplements.... and I give it two thumbs up.

Ensuring the Safety of Fish Oil Supplements
While there is no guarantee that the fish you eat is free of contaminants, the tide has turned when it comes to guaranteeing the safety of omega-3 fish oil supplements. In fact, recent studies substantiate that some supplements are safer than eating fish. For example, analyzing five brands of fish oil supplements, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston found that levels of PCBs and organochlorine pesticides were below the detectable limit in all five brands tested. The study authors concluded that if a person were to eat fish from the Great Lakes at the optimal recommended amount of about 400 grams per week, he would consume at least 70 times more PCBs and 120 times more organochlorine pesticides than if he were to supplement with the average daily dose of fish oil (1.5 grams) for one week.24

[pitohui]

40. that is a supplement selling site

the information from "life extension" is not unbiased

i personally made a choice to discontinue fish oil supplements as well as large fish after reading the u.s.d.a. advisory published in 2004

maybe look up the original u.s.d.a. advice on fish & then decide for yrself

[spooked]

4. Oh yes, It shocks me that they SERVE TUNA in our schools!!

It should come with a HUGE WARNING!

[HysteryDiagnosis]

12. Not to worry dear, they can counteract the effects of the mercury

with ritalin. Tongue in cheek.... kidding of course.

[helderheid]

8. I suppose taking omega 3 fish oil caps is probably a bad idea

[HysteryDiagnosis]

10. My brother's highly educated doc just put him on lemon flavored

fish oil... (omega threes). This is one of the smartest things an American can do.

[helderheid]

19. I take those too - along with BerryGreen and zyflamend

[musette_sf]

11. doesn't your local Air America affiliate

play those ads for pure unsullied deep water arctic fish oil on Sunday mornings, like mine does? :eyes:

I buy the kind at Costco that has the minty outside coating. So I have fresh breath AND whatever the hell is in that fish oil.

[charlie]

13. The brands tested in the article

were all far safer than eating comparable servings of fish.

[skids]

15. Another option is hemp seed oil.

FWIW. Available quite legally.

[CrispyQ]

27. Switch to flax seed oil.

http://www.1001herbs.com/flaxseedoil/


snip...

Flax Seed Oil (Circulatory). Several scientific studies show that consumption of omega-3 oils leads to a substantially lower risk of death from coronary heart disease. Until recently, experts believed the best sources of omega-3 were fish oils. However, flax seed oil contains twice as much omega-3 essential fatty acids as fish oil products, without the fishy aftertaste. Each concentrated softgel capsule contains 550 mg omega-3 essential fatty acids.

===

Refrigerate your flax seed oil.

[Gloria]

34. Flax oil is great, but the Omega 3's are not converted in enough

quantity to the usable components to give you the amount you need.

[Kurovski]

64. Flaxseed oil is a good replacement.

it lowers cholesterol too. Unless my doctor lied to me.

[fortyfeetunder]

74. you can get omega 3 from ground flaxseed

near same properties as the fishy variety!

[TallahasseeGrannie]

14. What about fish oil capsules?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

16. Check their quality and purity before purchasing.... gotta run. nt.

[helderheid]

20. I take Nordic Naturals - seems to be the best brand

[kittykitty]

17. My dad was a dentist--we had a little jar of mercury we would play with--

i. We dropped it on the floor and a drop broke into a million pieces. We would play with a blob abd break it up, an put back together. I guess he didn't know it was dangerous inthose days--late 40's early 50's.And for some reason I now possess a bottle with about 1 C. of mercury in it! It is very heavy! Don't know what to do with it. . . .

None of us are impaired, btw.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

31. Give the bottle to your municipal Hazardous Waste Disposal unit

Call your public works department or your fire department if a careful perusal of the blue pages in the phone book doesn't give you the exact phone number.

[Kurovski]

65. They still don't know. Or at least pretend not to.

At least they've dissuaded dentists from putting Mercury into fillings for youngsters.

It's so controversial, but really, it's just plain nuts to risk putting Mercury into people's fillings.

For those who are sensitive to the compounds created, it can ruin your life.

Some believe a number of diseases are triggered by them.

[Neil Lisst]

21. But the mercury makes the tuna tastes tangy!

At least that's what I tell myself. I love tuna, especially the albacore, and eat it every week. If it's worse than cigarettes and diet coke, then I'm already in trouble.


http://www.webcomicsnation.com/neillisst/

[kestrel91316]

45. The recommendation is no more than once a week with the albacore.

[Neil Lisst]

49. pffff. I drink 6 Diet Cokes a day.

Whose recommendation?

I'll eat pizza that has been sitting out two days. I'm not really concerned about germs, metals, etc. If I can't see it, it can't hurt me.

[Cats Against Frist]

72. lol

I eat healthy, now, and am horrified that you don't care -- but in college, I too, was not afraid to eat a pizza that had been on the counter for two days. I thought I was the only one...:)

[formercia]

23. I have enough Mercury in my fillings to kill 10 people

Must be the reason i'm so liberal. Living with that thought everyday makes me....uh, I just lost my train of thought.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

25. It's over there.....

[Richard D]

24. Fish oil is safe . . .

. . . if it's been through molecular distillation. I doubt that the cheaper brands have done this (Costco, TJ's?) though I'm not sure.

From Nordic Naturals site:

Sustained Molecular Distillation
Here, the virgin oil is molecularly distilled to segregate out the two most important Omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, and to eliminate the potential of heavy metals, PCBs, and dioxins in the product. The molecular distillation process represents a gentle and efficient oil enhancement, and generally takes about 5 days to process. The entire manufacturing process is carried out under nitrogen or vacuum.
This is done to maximize the products’ freshness value, which facilitates the production of favorable prostaglandins. Prostaglandins control an array of vital bodily functions.

Through the use of molecular distillation we are able to deliver Omega-3 products with concentration levels above 80%. A final nitrogen flush removes oxygen, preserving the oil from oxidation and maintaining the ultra low peroxide value.

[helderheid]

26. I just took mine

My doctor suggested 2000 mg per day (2 gel caps)

[Wickerman]

28. That sucks, in my day we had to break open thermometers to get our

mercury. Nowadays kids get it through eating tuna. :eyes: Everything is convenience today, kids don't have to work for nuttin'.

:sarcasm: I hate that I have to consider how much friggin' tuna I consume in a months time and weigh the worth vs. desire. Just one more thing in a long list that we have allowed our consumer culture to come back around and make less friendly. There ain't much time to make some real change.

[alarimer]

29. Avoid top predators like tuna and mackerel

And you should be fine. They eat lots of small fish and so concentrate whatever mercury might be in them. But eat catfish, salmon, mahi mahi, grouper which don't have the same problem. Do eat fish; it is very good for you. But you can pick and choose which species- obviously some are better than others.

[Gloria]

32. Buy fish oil that is OK'd by the European Pharmacopeia and

the International Fish Oils Standards organization out of Canada. (IFOS, I think) They do 3rd party testing of oils that are submitted for all sorts of things, inc. mercury and pcbs. They post the test results.

http://www.nutrasource.ca/ifos_new/index.cfm

The safest oils are those that are pharmaceutical grade, molecularly distilled. The oils sold by the Zone and Dr. Weil, as well as Nordic Naturals are regularly submitted for testing. Personally, I use the Nordic Naturals, 1 tsp a day.

[tocqueville]

35. metallic mercury is "no problem" unless...

there is a mass exposition and intake would be through vapors directly into the blood circuit.

You could eat a drop of mercury and the only result would be that it came out the natural way. For organic or methymercury it's a different story.

Regarding the story of the boy, I don't buy it. Even if the levels of blood mercury are double of the highest intake level put by the EPA (probably 0.5 mg/Kg/DS), it's not sufficient to cause the disorders you name, long way.

"Of the 48 cans of albacore tuna tested, 16 exceeded levels of 0.5 parts per million of mercury. At that concentration, a woman of child-bearing age would be receiving a dose twice the maximum recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the study said."

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/06/19/MN257163.DTL

Note that not ALL the cans have higher levels. Only some. Which lowers the risk for intake of too high doses. Anyway it's not acceptable, but the tuna industry should controll the tuna at the source and not in the cans.

The average concentrations of total mercury in non-exposed people is about 8 parts per billion (ppb) in blood and 2 ppm in hair. From the Japanese studies, toxicologists have learned that the lowest mercury level in adults associated with toxic effects (paresthesia) was 200 ppb in blood and 50 ppm in hair, accumulated over months to years of eating contaminated food.

http://www.fda.gov/fdac/reprints/mercury.html

even if the toxic levels are normally lower for a child, and this one had 16 ppb, we are very very far from the eventual 100 ppb (I cut in two) that would have caused learning disorders in this one (= brain damage). Probably the causes are different.

I have been working with environmental issues regarding poisoning by heavy metals, so I have a good idea of what is science and is media BS.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

37. Are heavy metals affecting our children. link

http://earthwatch.unep.net/toxicchem/heavymetals.php

Cadmium exposure occurs mainly through cereals and vegetables grown on soils contaminated by mining activities and use of phosphorus fertilizers. Shellfish and animal organs also contain high levels. Cadmium accumulates in the kidneys and is implicated in a range of kidney diseases (WHO, 1997).

Mercury accumulates at the top of aquatic and marine food chains and fish is the major source of dietary exposure (WHO, 1997). The principal health risks associated with mercury are damage to the nervous system, with such symptoms as uncontrollable shaking, muscle wasting, partial blindness, and deformities in children exposed in the womb. At levels well below WHO limits, it can damage the foetal and embryonic nervous systems with consequent learning difficulties, poor memory and shortened attention spans (Jorgensen et al, 1997). Low-level exposures can also adversely affect male fertility (Dickman et al, 1998).

[tocqueville]

42. cadmium and lead, etc... yes yes

even mercury, no to talk about ORGANIC compounds like pesticides, antibiotics etc.. you name it...

I don't deny that there is a risk, mostly through food intake. I just noticed that the story of the boy doesn't make sense, because his exposure and the related levels cannot cause the disorders claimed.

BTW I used the references of Jorgensen in my studies about lead poisoning.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

44. Not all have the same "resistance". link.

www.hriptc.org <------ metalllothionein disorder

[tocqueville]

47. true, depends on a lot of factors

but it would imply in the boy's case that he is EXTREMELY sensible. An exception.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

51. If you add "double" and a proclivity towards extra sensitivity due

to a weak metallothionein, you may end up with "extremely sensitive enough" in order to create learning difficulties.

My dad put our house smack dab in the middle of our vineyard, we used/siphoned leaded gas, played with mercury in school, worked in agricultural related businesses.... welded on leaded paint, worked around farm chemicals at the job I had.... I feel that I was adversely affected to no small degree as well. Oh, and I have a mercury mine in my mouth as well.

[bloom]

53. This study cites problems at 10 ppm in maternal hair

The outbreak of MeHg poisoning in Iraq was studied by investigators from the University of Rochester (see reference 27 for a summary). A total of 83 women who were pregnant during the outbreak were identified and participated in a limited developmental assessment of their offspring. Prenatal exposure levels ranged between 1 and 600 ppm as measured in maternal hair growing during pregnancy, an excellent biomarker of exposure. In contrast, MeHg levels seen in fish eaters who consumed multiple fish meals per week in the Seychelles did not exceed 36 ppm in hair.

The Iraqi children were examined for neurologic symptoms at an average age of 30 months, and the mothers were interviewed at that time to determine developmental milestones. The results suggested a dose–response curve associated with delayed milestones that seemed to indicate an adverse effect at exposures as low as 10 to 20 ppm in maternal hair....

After the publication of the Iraq data, several other small-scale studies of prenatal effects of dietary exposure to MeHg were conducted in other locales, including Peru, Canada, and New Zealand, and, more recently, the Philippines, Brazil, and French Guiana. These studies all were conducted on relatively small samples, and some suffered from methodologic limitations. Moreover, the reported exposure levels varied, although they all can be considered relatively low. Although some of these studies showed adverse effects, the results varied from study to study and no consistent pattern of findings has emerged.

Of note are the French Guiana findings of subtle neurobehavioral effects at a mean exposure of approximately 12 ppm in maternal hair, somewhat higher than the other studies.

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/113/4/S1/1023

Japan
.—According to Takeuchi (1960), effluent containing
mercury from an acetaldehyde manufacturing plant was dis-
charged into the small bay of Minamata, Japan. This discharge
continued from the years before 1953, when Minamata disease
began to occur, to September 1958. A total of 121 cases of
Minamata disease were identified in adults, children, and fetuses.
About half of the adults, one-third of the children, and about one-
eighth of the fetal victims died.

Characteristically, the children
and adults had eaten a great amount of fish and shellfish that con-
tained a considerable amount of mercury. From 1 ppm to 50 ppm
were detected in some organs on a wet weight basis. In fetal
cases, all of the mothers had eaten large amounts of seafood and
river fish. This provided evidence that alkyl mercury penetrates
the placental barrier in humans...

http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/2000/c1197/c1197.pdf

IMO - people should avoid tuna and other large water fish. Esp. children and women who may be having children and breast-feeding them. Even older people might want to worry about Alzheimer's.

There are other things to eat.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

55. This provided evidence that alkyl mercury penetrates

the placental barrier in humans<<

This has been proven in sheep many many years ago... by giving pregnant sheep "fillings" and measuring the progression of the Hg into the placenta in as little as 24 hours if memory serves.

[bloom]

59. I mostly posted that

because of the amounts that are referenced.

It does seem that a lot of people are still in denial about how little it takes and how much is in tuna - mostly because people have not been given adequate warnings. I read that in San Francisco - people are working to get grocery stores to have fish consumption warnings.

It makes me crazy how the tuna industry is being protected.

Here is a link to the Wall Street Journal article:

http://chefann.com/blog/index.php?p=74

"The maximum mercury ingestion the EPA deems safe is one microgram a day for each 22 pounds of body weight. If a 130-pound woman ate as much albacore tuna as the joint federal advisory allows, she would exceed that safe level by 40%.

If the joint advisory had been available in 2003 and the Davises, following its advice about “smaller portions” for children, had given Matthew just half a can of albacore a week, he still would have consumed 60% more mercury than the EPA can say with confidence is safe....

At Bumble Bee Seafoods, executive vice president John Stiker acknowledges the federal tuna-eating advice could lead some people to exceed the EPA safe level for mercury. But he says it’s not a big problem because the average American eats only 10 servings of tuna a year, and just 35% of that is the higher-mercury type, albacore.

Food companies have long lobbied to mitigate any FDA action on canned tuna, one of the top-grossing supermarket items in revenue per unit of shelf space. Five years ago, after risk assessments by the EPA and the National Academy of Sciences raised fresh worries about mercury, the FDA began preparing to revise a 1979 advisory that said it was all right to consume four micrograms of mercury a day per 22 pounds of body weight – four times the EPA’s maximum.

Food companies urged the FDA not to single out canned tuna. In private meetings with FDA officials in fall 2000, industry and agency documents show, the industry argued that health data were inconclusive, that citing canned tuna would drive down its consumption by 19% to 24%, and that seafood producers “would face the distinct possibility of numerous class action lawsuits.”


...But food processors lobbied the administration. At the White House, they implored officials not to single out albacore. They said doing so would only drive people, especially the poor, to eat more junk food, says a scientist who was there."


Just what the poor need - mercury poisoning. :grr:

[FlaGranny]

36. Every once in a while

on the news around here, they announce that locally caught fresh water fish should not be eaten more than about 4 ounces a week because of the high mercury levels. They tell you not to give it to your kids. Poor folks get a lot of their nutrition from the fish they catch. You often see them dropping their lines into fresh water canals and lakes to catch dinner.

My omega 3's come from vegetable sources.

I do love tuna though. We eat it fresh occasionally and canned occasionally.

[neebob]

38. Rats! Time to find a new source of protein.

I've lost 50 pounds since May, by (1) obsessively planning and recording what I eat, and (2) changing the content of my diet from mostly processed and pre-packaged to mostly whole and raw. The big exception is my dinner protein, which is usually tuna because it's easy and because chicken, beef, and turkey are starting to gross me out. Fish kind of does, too, but not as much if I don't think about it. A can of albacore tuna is pretty filling, and now Bumblebee makes these albacore steaks in pouches that are pretty good.

I just found out a couple of weeks ago that the government had issued guidelines and albacore is the worst. I don't even want to think about how much of it I've eaten in the last five months.

It's totally time to take the plunge and become a vegetarian.

[crispini]

46. Beans and soy ....

eating lower on the food chain's a good thing. I still do organic milk and cheese and I'm not missing the meat yet. It's cheaper anyway. :)

[midnight armadillo]

52. Beans plus brown rice = complete protein

The classic combo...

I cook the beans in a skillet with some garlic, olive oil, salt & pepper. Serve over brown rice. Super cheap, very nutritious!

[neebob]

68. That sounds good.

I've got the brown rice covered, only I throw other stir-fried veggies on top of it. What kind of beans?

[midnight armadillo]

71. I use black beans or red kidney

but really anything will work. It's easy, tasty, and oh-so-cheap. Ah, the things we take away from grad school :-)

[HysteryDiagnosis]

54. Nutra rats are high in protein... taste like chicken, think I'm kidding?

It happens, grilled or otherwise.

[Warren DeMontague]

63. Tilapia is pretty good

inexpensive, farmed, low mercury whitefish.

[pitohui]

39. don't eat large fish

i'm afraid it's pretty simple, don't eat large fish, farmed or wild

u.s.d.a. acknowledged some time again, maybe as early as jan. 2004, that albacore tuna, salmon etc. should be avoided by the usual high risk groups like pregnant women, children, etc.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

62. What about sardines canned in olive oil?

I love those and I have a can about once a week. I like the ones imported from Norway with the skin removed. Sardine sandwiches with pickles and mustard are great.

[Junkdrawer]

41. A listing of most major brands as tested by OceansAlive.org...

http://www.oceansalive.org/eat.cfm?subnav=fishoil&sort=Company

I use Good 'N Natural EPA and it's rated a "best choice" (not that I looked before I bought..:silly:)

[Lethe]

43. how are we supposed to know which fish to eat?

some people say only eat farmed, because they are not subjected to pollution....but i hear the farm-raised are actually worse than freshly caught because of the toxic stuff they feed them.

[Junkdrawer]

58. Mercury calculator here:

http://www.gotmercury.org

[AspenRose]

61. Thanks for that list

I HATE this administration.

It is literally killing us.

[RebelOne]

73. I am happy to see Puritan's Pride

listed as best choice. I buy all my vitamins from them. Their prices are outstanding. And they usually have buy 1, get 2 free sales.

[Kailassa]

48. Your title is extremely deceptive.

the article you quote from states:
"While there is no guarantee that the fish you eat is free of contaminants, the tide has turned when it comes to guaranteeing the safety of omega-3 fish oil supplements. In fact, recent studies substantiate that some supplements are safer than eating fish. For example, analyzing five brands of fish oil supplements, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston found that levels of PCBs and organochlorine pesticides were below the detectable limit in all five brands tested. The study authors concluded that if a person were to eat fish from the Great Lakes at the optimal recommended amount of about 400 grams per week, he would consume at least 70 times more PCBs and 120 times more organochlorine pesticides than if he were to supplement with the average daily dose of fish oil (1.5 grams) for one week"

I'd suggest you change your deceptive headline before you are sued for libel.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

56. How would you change it? When I say FISH OIL that is exactly

what I mean... I did not say FISH OIL SUPPLEMENTS.

[NNadir]

57. It is not fish that is dangerous. It is coal plants that are dangerous.

Fish were fine to eat for many thousands of years and weren't particularly rich in mercury.

There is no technical solution to coal waste, other than to dump it in the environment.

Coal should be banned.

[McCamy Taylor]

60. Pregnant women have been warned for years to avoid fish.

[bloom]

67. A warning should be on the tuna cans.

And for any other large type fish - but it would be easy to label the cans.

[phylny]

66. My three daughters no longer eat any tuna, and the two that eat other

fish have a serving perhaps once every six months.

I work with a lot of kids with PDD and autism, and I believe that heavy metals will be found one day to be the trigger for those who are genetically predisposed to PDD/autism. Until my daughters are past childbearing years, "No fish for you!"

:)

[HysteryDiagnosis]

69. Autism and PDD you need this link.

www.hriptc.org

http://www.hriptc.org/booklet.html
Metallothionein and Autism
by
William J. Walsh, Ph.D.
Anju Usman, M.D.
Jeffery Tarpey
Tanika Kelly
This booklet describes metallothionein (MT) proteins, their central role in autism, and provides more than 100 references. The Pfeiffer Treatment Center recently discovered that (a) most autism-spectrum patients exhibit evidence of an MT dysfunction, and (b) many of the classic features of autism can be explained by this dysfunction. We believe that autism results from a genetic defect in MT functioning followed by an environmental insult. A metallothionein theory of autism is presented along with discussion of treatment opportunities.