Should I be worried about my fish consumption (mercury)?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Susie S
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Susie S

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I eat fish at least once a week, sometimes I'll have it as much as 3 times a week. The amount I have per "time" varies. When I go out to a sushi bar, I have A LOT, but that's usually all the fish that I'll have. I also tend to like the fish that have a lower mercury content (like salmon and butterfish). My boyfriend consistently nags me about my fish consumption because he's worried about me getting mercury poisoning. Thing is, I've been eating fish regularly since I was 5 years old and I'm now 22 and I've never had any problem.

How does mercury poisoning work? Does your body regularly flush mercury out? Is my boyfriend right to be concerned, or is he overreacting? Please help!

Please, no overly biased responses. I don't want to hear from people who NEVER eat fish because they're overly paranoid of mercury, and I definitely don't want to hear from people who think eating raw fish is bad. Overcooking is worse. Parasites are curable; cancer isn't, not to mention that in 17 years of eating raw fish I've never been infected.
 
Mercury contamination in fish has existed for centuries, although it has been exacerbated in the past centuries by pollution and other industrial activities. Mercury poisoning is an important, but controversial, issue. It also varies from state to state and even depends on the body of water. The groups who should be most concerned are women who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or trying to become pregnant. According to a US government advisory panel, pregnant women who eat "too much" tuna may expose their unborn babies' brains to possibly harmful levels of mercury. How much is too much? The panel advised a limit of two 6-ounce cans of tuna each week if tuna was the only fish eaten or one can if other seafood was eaten that might also contain mercury. Small children (under 7) are also highly susceptible to mercury toxicity.

Mercury toxicity mainly affects the nervous system. In adults, mild symptoms can include loss of or abnormal sensation in the hands and feet, tiredness, or blurred vision. Severe poisoning involves vision, hearing and speech impairment, and may later result in coma and death. Long-term exposure to methyl mercury may cause kidney damage. In children, mercury toxicity may result in decreased brain size, delayed physical development, mental impairment, abnormal muscle tone, and coordination problems.

According to estimates from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 8% of American women of childbearing age have enough blood mercury to put their babies at risk for learning difficulties. Eating contaminated seafood is the main source of mercury exposure. The extent of contamination not only depends upon the source of the fish, but its size and age: Bigger and older fish eat or have eaten more smaller fish and thus have accumulated more mercury.

Despite this, fish is considered a highly nutritious food. Women are advised to eat up to 12 ounces a week of cooked fish, including canned tuna, shellfish and other ocean fish.

Mercury toxicity has been linked to a large number of medical conditions, including arthritis, altzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, learning disabilities and ADHD.

Mercury is the second most toxic element on earth, second only to plutonium. The amount of mercury found in one mercury thermometer is enough to pollute a small lake.

There are many other common sources for mercury exposure. Here's a short list:

* Dental amalgams
* Released into the air by coal burning plants
* Fish and shellfish, especially tuna, salmon and swordfish
* Some paints
* Thermometers and blood pressure gauges (especially if mercury from broken instruments was spilled on carpet)
* Fluorescent light bulbs
 
Most mercury comes from big ocean fish. The ones higher up on the food chain. The rest may have some mercury, but its trace amounts and you would have to consume quite a bit and not eat anything else to have it effect you. I don't know if your body flushes it out or not. And I don't remember what the effects are. But i think you're boyfriend is overreacting. Unless you start to vomit uncontrollably.
 
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