this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2023
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Not surprised at the Portugese. A friend of mine did her Erasmus exchange to Portugal and ate so much fish she developed (a mild case of) mercury poisoning.
I'm sorry but how is that possible? I'm here and I have eaten fish all my life, 50 years of it.
Had bloodwork done a few weeks ago that included count for heavy metals.
No sign of any kind poisoning.
The whole country should have from mild to heavy poisoning by now... And yet they don't.
How do you explain this discrepancy?
How much mercury did your friend had before coming here? How much was it acquired here?
Fish of all kinds is a staple of mediterranean common diet, there should be people dropping left and right...
She was a med student at the time, developed vague symptoms, and the doctors diagnosed her with mild mercury poisoning. She said that she basically subsisted on fish alone, I have no reason to doubt that.
I don’t, I’m retelling a story. I have not aquired her lab results and also didn’t do any sort of testing of heavy metals testing before her departure.
So is wheat, but if one eats nothing else they’ll still develop scurvy.
So your friend moved to Portugal and not only she adopted a Portuguese diet but went beyond and had a 100% fish diet that led to mercury poisoning? Sorry, but I'm also not buying this wild story.
You know there are McDonald's in Portugal as well and fish is far from being the cheapest or more common dish in university canteens in Portugal.
Erasmus is a semester up to max of one year.
It is impossible that condition came from eating normal food here, compared to a lifetime somewhere else.
Take my grand aunt with 102 years of age as an example, she would be a walking pot of mercury by now.
She ate fish all her life and due to location, way more fish than meat.
What about me at 50 years old and not even an hint of poisoning. I eat more fish than meat.
How does that work?
Here are the numbers for heavy metal poisoning for 2022, ordered by rank and Country:
https://epi.yale.edu/epi-results/2022/component/hmt
I'm very sorry for your friend and wish the best without reservation, but her condition was not from eating fish during a semester in Portugal.
She didn't show signs of mercury poisoning before she left, ate loads of fish for months, developed symptoms and was diagnosed with mercury poisoning. It's entirely possible she has a lower renal clearance and it just hasn't been an issue so far, maybe it was from another source, maybe she went to the doctors at the slightest of symptoms, maybe it was an incidental finding. Maybe the doctors were wrong and you're just a lot more qualified to talk about this specific case. Who knows.
It is not easy to go from healthy background levels of mercury to mild poisoning in max 700-ish meals.
Each fish in 700 meals would have to be 100x the normal average of mercury, every single one, every single time, for every single meal, consuming up to a kilogram of fish in each meal.
It wasn't fish, it's more complex.
I'm quite aware we're discussing a real human, your friend.
If it was from eating fish and I'm completely wrong, I'm sorry. Wish the person a fast recovery as best as possible.
I won't respond any further.