Re: selenium protects against mercury

[Guest guest]

There was some white whale/dolphin in the New England area that has all

but died out, and I thought it was due to mercury build-up. If the

selenium in fish protects against mercury, wouldn't it be protecting

the predators of the fish from mercury poisoning? What about the polar

bears? I thought they had tested off the charts for mercury too. Or

is it that the selenium is keeping them from getting sick from it? But

then again, aren't the polar bears in decline?

I did read that selenium just bound to the mercury but didn't get it

out of the body - so it wouldn't poison you but did build up in the

liver, as an inert compound, I guess. So maybe the animals would

accumulate it but were dying from other causes - (over)fishermen

killing the competition or PCB's or global warming, or what not??

>

> I ran across a presentation that claims that selenium protects against

> mercury toxicity. Too much mercury, on the other hand, interferes

> with selenium metabolism and that is one of the ways it causes

toxicity.

>

> http://www.epa.gov/fishadvisories/forum/2005/presentations/Monday%

20Slides%200919/afternoon/Ralston%20Presentation.ppt

>

> It sounds very reasonable and would imply that most fish and shellfish

> are safe to eat because they have much higher amounts of selenium than

> methylmercury. So perhaps we don't need to worry too much about the

> mercury in wild seafood after all

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

From my understanding it selenium will bind tightly to mercury, but it

can't be excreted from the body in that form. If you get exposed to

mercury you definitely need extra selenium to make of for the selenium

that gets bound by the mercury.

It can't be that easy though...to be able to bind it to prevent

damage...many with mercury poisoning have reported significant side

effects from supplementing with selenium...and I even get side effects

from natural selenium from brazil nuts. Something else is probably

going on besides it just binding tightly.

As for the fish and polar bears, its definitely a number of things

that are wiping them out...not just mercury. Humans are exposed to

many more sources of mercury...so maybe eating a lot of fish was safe

at one time because it was the only source of mercury in peoples

lives...but now we may just be overburdened.

-

> >

> > I ran across a presentation that claims that selenium protects against

> > mercury toxicity. Too much mercury, on the other hand, interferes

> > with selenium metabolism and that is one of the ways it causes

> toxicity.

> >

> > http://www.epa.gov/fishadvisories/forum/2005/presentations/Monday%

> 20Slides%200919/afternoon/Ralston%20Presentation.ppt

> >

> > It sounds very reasonable and would imply that most fish and shellfish

> > are safe to eat because they have much higher amounts of selenium than

> > methylmercury. So perhaps we don't need to worry too much about the

> > mercury in wild seafood after all

> >

> >

> >

>

[Guest guest]

this is mentioned on p. 256 of NT.

>

> I ran across a presentation that claims that selenium protects against

> mercury toxicity. Too much mercury, on the other hand, interferes

> with selenium metabolism and that is one of the ways it causes toxicity.

>

>

http://www.epa.gov/fishadvisories/forum/2005/presentations/Monday%20Slides%20091\

9/af

ternoon/Ralston%20Presentation.ppt

>

> It sounds very reasonable and would imply that most fish and shellfish

> are safe to eat because they have much higher amounts of selenium than

> methylmercury. So perhaps we don't need to worry too much about the

> mercury in wild seafood after all

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

> --- <oz4caster@> wrote:

> > I ran across a presentation that claims that selenium protects

> > against mercury toxicity.

>

--- carolyn_graff <zgraff@...> wrote:

> this is mentioned on p. 256 of NT.

Thanks Carolyn. It says that " selenium and zinc are used to protect

against mercury toxicity " . So it looks like zinc is important in this

respect too.

Some of the articles that I ran across said that selenium does not

remove mercury from the body, but binds very strongly to it, with the

implication that the bound mercury would be less likely to cause

toxicity, even though it might accumulate in parts of the body.

In regards to sea food, one of the articles mentions mercury poisoning

in people eating pilot whale in Alaska. Pilot whale has much more

mercury than selenium, but I haven't seen any explanation of how this

could occur, since most seafood has more selenium than mercury.

One of the papers did mention that the effects of mercury vary

considerably from one species to another. Maybe the pilot whales

tolerate more mercury. But even so, it wouldn't explain why they

don't have more selenium than mercury.

[Guest guest]

Selenium is a key component of glutathione peroxidase, which is one of

the liver pathways that detox metals (glutathione is present in most

(all?) of our cells- it reduces oxidative stress, but plays additional

roles in the liver). Incidentally, we all have inactive and active

glutathione. They have discovered that autistic kids have much more

inactive glutathione than the non-autistic population, which is why it is

ill advised just to rely on selenium and n-acetyl cysteine as a detox

protocol for autistic kids. It tried to get here to mention that during

the 5yo metal detox thread, but during our move they had our internet and

phone off for over two weeks. There are 4 selenocysteine molecules in

each glut. per. molecule.

Interestingly, there are also 4 molecules of zinc in every metallothionen

molecule, which reduces metals in the gut and kidneys.

Mercury and lead both bond easily with sulfur- so variation in diet

really can make a difference in what makes it out of your gut and into

your system. Our child with the drastic lead poisoning has always loved

all sulphurous veggies, even brussels sprouts.

Desh

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