Scientists have discovered that mercury in fish and other seafood might be one factor of having ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. Though it is still not final, scientists are advising people to limit or lessen their intake of fish that has more mercury in them.
ALS or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a very complicated disease. It gets worse every time as it affects the person's brain and spinal cord. It makes the people containing it have weaker muscles. It makes ever move like walk, talk, eat and even breathe, hard. If people do not want to have this disease, scientists are telling them to lessen their eating of fish or seafood with high mercury content like sharks and sword fish, not all seafood, Web MD reported.
ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease has no cure. Scientists and doctors are still finding more things about the disease as it affects hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. One factor that might play in getting it is having more toxins in the body. Having toxins like lead and pesticides are one but scientists have found out that mercury is another, Medical News Today.
The experiment took a 518 people as a sample; 294 individuals with ALS and the remaining without. They gathered information about the participant's seafood diet. From that, scientists have concluded the amount of mercury each participant takes a day or in overalls. With different fish and other seafood, there are also different amount of mercury in them. Bigger fish and the older ones have a higher amount because they consume more.
They also studied where the fish and seafood were caught. The origins of the fish and other seafood have an impact to its mercury levels too. Lastly, the scientists took some toenail sample of the participants for mercury contents testing.
Fish and seafood are healthy. Not all seafood and fish are bad. Salmon and sardines have lower mercury contents unlike shark and swordfish. Scientists are just warning people to be wary of the food they eat as it may impact their health.
