6 ms·

IIRC, there has never been a case of mercury toxicity from normal consumption of commercial seafood recorded in any American medical journal. These larger speci

IIRC, there has never been a case of mercury toxicity from normal consumption of commercial seafood recorded in any American medical journal. These larger species you mention could exist outside of that sphere.

jdietrich 8y ago
Define "normal consumption". Some bodybuilders and strength athletes eat large quantities of tuna as a low-fat source of protein; a non-trivial proportion of dieters rely on fish as their main source of protein. These may be unusually high levels of consumption, but they aren't edge cases and aren't prima facie stupid if you're unaware of the risk of mercury toxicity. A lot of smart, health-conscious people end up with dangerously high levels of mercury precisely because they believe that seafood is a healthy option and aren't aware of the risk of mercury exposure. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12676623/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12676623/
idontpost 8y ago
Literally on the first page of google results for "mercury toxicity from normal consumption of commercial seafood": https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4721310/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4721310/ Cites dozens of studies of cases of adverse effects from mercury from seafood.
- xyzzyz 8y ago
  This is pretty worthless study. They are doing multiple comparisons without doing Bonferroni correction. Once you do that, there's no significant finding. On top of that, they have stupidly large 95% confidence intervals, their test metrics are pretty weak, and they only have blood levels of Hg of only a fraction of study participants. They seem to attempt to control for confounds, which is commendable, but with their sample being rather small, there's little hope of obtaining significant finding after controlling and correcting for multiple comparisons. Controling for confounds here is the most important part really. It's like all the studies finding that people drinking wine have better health outcomes -- it turns out that wealthy people both are more likely to drink more wine, and have better health outcomes for reasons other than drinking wine. If you don't control for that, you'll find spurious associations.
chmln 8y ago
I would bet that mercury toxicity is incredibly underdiagnosed, especially if it's not acute. Fatigue, insomnia, and a host of other symptoms are fairly common and not easy to spot as a part of a bigger problem. Anecdata: when I went to a large hospital they laughed off my idea that I have heavy metal poisoning and didn't even have the facilities to test for it. Only months later after visiting a naturopath and getting tested did my suspicions get confirmed. This case will never be on any official health records.
- omalleyt 8y ago
  What was the treatment?
  - joenathanone 8y ago
    >heavy metal poisoning Only treatment I'm aware of is some light jazz or R&B.
  - cogman10 8y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_metal_detoxification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_metal_detoxification Dialysis and depending on the metal Chelation. Both suck and neither were likely prescribed by a naturopath.
- Alex3917 8y ago
  It's actually common in startup founders who sell their startups and then start eating expensive sushi all the time. My understanding is that several billionaires in silicon valley have mild Parkinson's-like tremors because of this.
  - nubbins 8y ago
    High end omakase meals generally come with 1 or 2 .5 oz pieces of tuna. Even at 3x a day it would be comparable to one can of tuna. Of course mercury varies heavily from fish to fish but unless they were living on tuna/swordfish this sounds like an urban legend or could be something else in raw fish like liver parasites or bacteria.
bobthepanda 8y ago
It is worth noting that the FDA recommends limiting fish consumption to 12 oz a week for mercury-related reasons: https://www.fda.gov/food/foodborneillnesscontaminants/metals/ucm351781.htm https://www.fda.gov/food/foodborneillnesscontaminants/metals...
fingerlocks 8y ago
My doctor claims to have treated several fishermen in the past for mercury toxicity. This doctor has been practicing in what was historically a “fishermen’s neighborhood” for some 30 years (Ballard area of Seattle) so it seemed plausible. I have nothing but this weak anecdote to contribute to the discussion. But I’ll ask the doc for details next time I’m in and report back when the topic comes up again.

jdietrich 8y ago

Define "normal consumption". Some bodybuilders and strength athletes eat large quantities of tuna as a low-fat source of protein; a non-trivial proportion of dieters rely on fish as their main source of protein. These may be unusually high levels of consumption, but they aren't edge cases and aren't prima facie stupid if you're unaware of the risk of mercury toxicity. A lot of smart, health-conscious people end up with dangerously high levels of mercury precisely because they believe that seafood is a healthy option and aren't aware of the risk of mercury exposure. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12676623/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12676623/

idontpost 8y ago

Literally on the first page of google results for "mercury toxicity from normal consumption of commercial seafood": https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4721310/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4721310/ Cites dozens of studies of cases of adverse effects from mercury from seafood.

xyzzyz 8y ago
This is pretty worthless study. They are doing multiple comparisons without doing Bonferroni correction. Once you do that, there's no significant finding. On top of that, they have stupidly large 95% confidence intervals, their test metrics are pretty weak, and they only have blood levels of Hg of only a fraction of study participants. They seem to attempt to control for confounds, which is commendable, but with their sample being rather small, there's little hope of obtaining significant finding after controlling and correcting for multiple comparisons. Controling for confounds here is the most important part really. It's like all the studies finding that people drinking wine have better health outcomes -- it turns out that wealthy people both are more likely to drink more wine, and have better health outcomes for reasons other than drinking wine. If you don't control for that, you'll find spurious associations.

chmln 8y ago

I would bet that mercury toxicity is incredibly underdiagnosed, especially if it's not acute. Fatigue, insomnia, and a host of other symptoms are fairly common and not easy to spot as a part of a bigger problem. Anecdata: when I went to a large hospital they laughed off my idea that I have heavy metal poisoning and didn't even have the facilities to test for it. Only months later after visiting a naturopath and getting tested did my suspicions get confirmed. This case will never be on any official health records.

omalleyt 8y ago
What was the treatment?
- joenathanone 8y ago
  >heavy metal poisoning Only treatment I'm aware of is some light jazz or R&B.
- cogman10 8y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_metal_detoxification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_metal_detoxification Dialysis and depending on the metal Chelation. Both suck and neither were likely prescribed by a naturopath.
Alex3917 8y ago
It's actually common in startup founders who sell their startups and then start eating expensive sushi all the time. My understanding is that several billionaires in silicon valley have mild Parkinson's-like tremors because of this.
- nubbins 8y ago
  High end omakase meals generally come with 1 or 2 .5 oz pieces of tuna. Even at 3x a day it would be comparable to one can of tuna. Of course mercury varies heavily from fish to fish but unless they were living on tuna/swordfish this sounds like an urban legend or could be something else in raw fish like liver parasites or bacteria.

bobthepanda 8y ago

It is worth noting that the FDA recommends limiting fish consumption to 12 oz a week for mercury-related reasons: https://www.fda.gov/food/foodborneillnesscontaminants/metals/ucm351781.htm https://www.fda.gov/food/foodborneillnesscontaminants/metals...

fingerlocks 8y ago

My doctor claims to have treated several fishermen in the past for mercury toxicity. This doctor has been practicing in what was historically a “fishermen’s neighborhood” for some 30 years (Ballard area of Seattle) so it seemed plausible. I have nothing but this weak anecdote to contribute to the discussion. But I’ll ask the doc for details next time I’m in and report back when the topic comes up again.