Scientists from the University of Saskatchewan found that the chemical form of mercury found in the brains of people who ate a lot of fish over a lifetime is completely different from the mercury form found in the brains of people who were poisoned.
The research is published in ACS Chemical Neuroscience and was conducted by Dr. Graham George et al.
There is concern about mercury in the human diet because the type of mercury in fish, methylmercury, when given in large quantities causes severe health problems associated with the brain.
Thus, as many populations worldwide rely on fish as a primary or sole source of protein, clarity on the consequences of ingesting low levels of mercury from fish is an important issue for global food security.
On the study, the team analyzed mercury compounds in brain tissue.
They compared the form of mercury in brain samples from two individuals who had consumed fish regularly over their lifetime, and samples from two individuals who died after accidental mercury poisoning.
One was an eminent researcher who died 10 months after direct skin contact with dimethyl mercury.
The other was a child poisoned at the age of eight and survived in a debilitated state for 21 years after eating pork from an animal that was fed seed grain dusted with an organic mercury pesticide.
The form of mercury in the brains of the two fish-consuming individuals is essentially unchanged from the form found in fish.
There were no neuropathological consequences and neither had known neurological deficits that could be linked to mercury exposure.
But there were striking differences found in the brains of people poisoned with organic mercury, which contained mixtures of mercury compounds, including strongly elevated levels of mercury selenide compared with low-level exposures.
Selenium levels in the high-fish consumers were comparable to levels in the brains of a control group with no known mercury exposure.
Selenium has a complex relationship with mercury. Depending on the species of mercury, and whether selenium enters the body before or after exposure, it can cancel or increase the toxicity of mercury.
The team advises against eating anything that contains high levels of mercury.
If you care about nutrition, please read studies about the best foods for brain health, and this diet could help reduce high blood pressure, diabetes.
For more information about nutrition, please see recent studies that cocoa could help protect your liver health, and results showing most Americans’ diets lack this essential nutrient.
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