Subject: Warning Spirulina causes liver damage !!!
Spirulina is potentially contaminated with microb according to the article...and there is currently no act/regulation to control the quality of the algae since it's just supplemental food, not drugs... Something about spirulina.....enclosed is a disturbing finding about the health supplement many plp are consuming nowadays,called spirulina. ....that it actually causes liver damage!!!remember Andrea Decruz?? phua chu kang's brother, chu bing's real life girlfriend who took Slim 10?? well....it was found that she has actually been taking health supplement...SPIRULINA. p/s: seorang dr pakar dari ampang puteri specialist pernah melarang saya mengambil spirulina ni, time tu ramai sangat ejen promosi kebaikan spirulina. Please take your time to read the articles (from The Straits Times S'pore) and if u want to have more info/ research findings about it, i do have more...all are independent research results of the US and Canadian authorities. Note: forwarded message attached. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- POND scum may cause liver damage. This possibility surfaced when British liver specialist Julia Wendon testified in the High Court recently that actress Andrea De Cruz's liver failure may have been brought on by a health supplement that she was taking, called spirulina. Detractors call it pond scum, but not a few people here have taken to this blue-green algae. It is hyped as 'so low on the food chain it has to be packed with nutrients and energy - and it is!' Fans say spirulina is so rich in protein, vitamins, minerals and other beneficial nutrients, it is 'nature's perfect food, capable of sustaining life without the need for other foods'. Yes, it has eight essential amino acids and high levels of vitamin B, beta-carotene, calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium and zinc. Yes, it contains vitamin B12, otherwise found only in animal meat - but humans cannot absorb its B12. The Aztecs ate spirulina as a food called tecuitlatl, if records kept by the Spanish conquistadors are to be believed; the Kanembu people of Central Africa have harvested it from Lake Chad from ages past, and eat it as sun-dried cakes with a salsa dip. As algae reproduces very quickly and individual plants stick together, spirulina is easy to harvest, so fans call it 'a food source to nourish the world's population'. True, dried spirulina is 70 per cent protein by weight, but the United States Food and Drug Administration says that the claim is meaningless: You will need to consume many mouthfuls of expensive spirulina capsules in order to get enough protein every day this way. It is easier and cheaper to get the protein by eating grains or meat- and to get iron from dark greens, or carotenes and vitamins from common fruits and vegetables. Spirulina is taken as a powder mixed with water or in tablet or caplet form. It is purportedly good for medical conditions ranging from cancers and high cholesterol to Aids and obesity. Very preliminary evidence from very small studies suggests that spirulina - like other nutritious plant foods -may help in some of these conditions. But the findings have yet to be confirmed by larger and longer studies. Spirulina consists of one or more members of a family of blue-green algae, with some characteristics of bacteria and some of algae. Under the microscope, it appears as a blue-green spiral of long, thin threads. Blue-green algae grows in shallow, warm , slow-moving or still lakes, accumulating on the surface as blue-green scum that,at high enough levels, makes the water smell and taste bad. Out of the 1,500 species of blue-green algae, a few - such as spirulina, chlorella and aphanizomenon flos-aqua - are popularly used in supplements. Not unlike cultured table mushrooms being safe while wild ones can be poisonous, most types of algae appear to be non-toxic. But some varieties produce microcystins, or toxins made up of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. The problem is that these toxins may contaminate the algal supplements which you buy in health stores. In 2000, the Department of Health in the US state of Oregon surveyed 87 commercially available blue-green algae products and found 85 of them were contaminated with microcystins. How toxic are microcystins? In February 1996, when a haemodialysis clinic in Caruaru, Brazil, used untreated water for dialysis during a water shortage, about 60 out of 100 patients with kidney failure died. The cause: The water was contaminated with microcystins. That was dramatic but unusual. More generally, microcystins accumulate in the liver over the long term and cause toxic problems. Evidence from China suggests a link between microcystins in drinking water and primary liver cancer. In 1999, after several blue-green algal products were found to contain microcystins, Canadian health authorities sampled those being sold. They found that only products which were made from spirulina blue-green algae harvested from controlled ponds contained no microcystins. Other blue-green algae such as chlorella and aphanizomenon flos-aqua harvested from natural lakes contained microcystins in excess of World Health Organisation standards. So cultured spirulina can be grown free of microcystins, and consumers deserve products that are certified to be toxin-free. Spirulina is commercially grown in large ponds that depend on sunlight to evaporate the water off. Yet, how much toxin other algae may produce while in the water and how much toxin, if any, is present at harvesting cannot be predicted, as it depends on environmental factors such as the amount of sunlight, depth of water, minerals in the water and time of harvest, among others. Contamination levels will thus vary from batch to batch. This makes it difficult to assess the risk in each brand, and even different batches of the same brand. Screening each and every batch calls for phenomenal resources. To compound the problem, there are different levels of toxicity in microcystins, varying according to their molecular structures. The means used to elucidate molecular structures are only available in research institutions. Since spirulina is a food supplement and not a prescription drug, it is not subject to the same strict regulations that cover the latter. Makers do not have to declare fluctuations in toxin levels, how they monitor them, and if they do it consistently with every batch. So because of the potentially variable composition, and until there are rapid, sensitive and reliable tests available for microcystins, a reasonable rule of thumb seems to be: Think pond scum. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Log on to Messenger with your mobile phone! http://sg.messenger.yahoo.com ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Would you Help a Child in need? It is easier than you think. Click Here to meet a Child you can help. http://us.click.yahoo.com/sTR6_D/I_qJAA/i1hLAA/TXWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of Hidayahnet unless sanctioned or approved otherwise. 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