Due to the state of the world’s oceans, human biomarkers for fish consumption now include dioxins, PCBs, and mercury.
Hair Testing for Mercury
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Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
Now this was last year; 2009. This year, scientists may have come up with even better biomarkers for fish consumption. Dioxins, PCBs, and mercury. The most important fish consumption biomarkers were dioxins and PCBs—for men, and mercury—among women.
A tighter correlation than even omega-3 levels. You can tell how much fish people eat by the amount of arsenic and toxic waste circulating in their bloodstream.
In fact, you can even take a hair off of someone’s hairbrush and tell how much fish that person has been eating by the mercury content in their hair. This was a study done on children’s hair clippings. Your whole body gets contaminated with the stuff.
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- A. L. Brantsaeter, M. Haugen, Y. Thomassen, D. G. Ellingsen, T. A. Ydersbond, T. A. Hagve, J. Alexander, and H. M. Meltzer. Exploration of biomarkers for total fish intake in pregnant Norwegian women. Public Health Nutr, 13(1):54-62, 2010.
- A. W. Turunen, S. Mannisto, H. Kiviranta, J. Marniemi, A. Jula, P. Tiittanen, L. Suominen-Taipale, T. Vartiainen, and P. K. Verkasalo. Dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls, methyl mercury and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids as biomarkers of fish consumption. Eur J Clin Nutr, 64(3):313-323, 2010.
- K. Kruzikova, H. Modra, R. Kensova, B. Skocovska, T. Wlasow, T. Svoboda, Z. Svobodova. Mercury in human hair as an indicator of the fish consumption. Neuro Endocrine Lett. 2008 Oct 29(5):675-9.
Image thanks to Rubin Starset via Flickr.
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
Now this was last year; 2009. This year, scientists may have come up with even better biomarkers for fish consumption. Dioxins, PCBs, and mercury. The most important fish consumption biomarkers were dioxins and PCBs—for men, and mercury—among women.
A tighter correlation than even omega-3 levels. You can tell how much fish people eat by the amount of arsenic and toxic waste circulating in their bloodstream.
In fact, you can even take a hair off of someone’s hairbrush and tell how much fish that person has been eating by the mercury content in their hair. This was a study done on children’s hair clippings. Your whole body gets contaminated with the stuff.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- A. L. Brantsaeter, M. Haugen, Y. Thomassen, D. G. Ellingsen, T. A. Ydersbond, T. A. Hagve, J. Alexander, and H. M. Meltzer. Exploration of biomarkers for total fish intake in pregnant Norwegian women. Public Health Nutr, 13(1):54-62, 2010.
- A. W. Turunen, S. Mannisto, H. Kiviranta, J. Marniemi, A. Jula, P. Tiittanen, L. Suominen-Taipale, T. Vartiainen, and P. K. Verkasalo. Dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls, methyl mercury and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids as biomarkers of fish consumption. Eur J Clin Nutr, 64(3):313-323, 2010.
- K. Kruzikova, H. Modra, R. Kensova, B. Skocovska, T. Wlasow, T. Svoboda, Z. Svobodova. Mercury in human hair as an indicator of the fish consumption. Neuro Endocrine Lett. 2008 Oct 29(5):675-9.
Image thanks to Rubin Starset via Flickr.
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Title
Hair Testing for Mercury
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
For more on the subject of mercury contamination, check out:
Hair Testing for Mercury Before Considering Pregnancy
Nerves of Mercury
Mercury vs. Omega-3s for Brain Development
And be sure to see my prequel video: Fish Intake Biomarker.
For more context, see my associated blog post: EPA dioxin limit has National Chicken Council worried products could be declared “unfit for consumption”.
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