Re: Arsenic?

A few years ago I was often eating some hijiki, a seaweed, in my morning oatmeal. I thought it was good for me and it did seem to be up to a point. After a while I began to have times when in the afternoon or evening I felt just awful... weak and debilitated. Felt too sick to do my work and would have to stop and lie down, which luckily was possible. Every time it happened it seemed to be worse than before. Those days I was working alone at my teacher's apartment. Sometimes I would get so weak and sick I would just have to lie down and hope I woke up in the a.m. [i.e. not die]I had not a clue what was going on. It always seemed to come out of the blue and distress that is caused seemed to be most noticeable in the kidney and bladder areas as far as I could tell. Finally I figured out that it was more apt to happen if I had had hijiki in my oatmeal that morning, and especially apt to be a worse case if I had had more hijiki that morning than usual. The hijiki was supposed to be supplying fluorine which was allegedly good for my teeth and hair. I was not taking iodoral then and did not know anything about halogens. After a really horrendous episode I remembered I had ingested a double helping of the seaweed that a.m. and began to research hijiki online. Turned out several Canada and some other countries had actually banned it a couple of years earlier, due to high arsenic content in product from some suppliers. The USA [FDA] did not ban it though, only put a warning on it that was not very well publicized. I had noticed in that same time frame that hijiki had disappeared from some health food stores, becoming harder to find, but as others still carried it, I had not realized there was a problem. Too bad the stores that removed it from their shelves did not put up signs explaining why. Immediately I stopped eating it and did some things that were indicated for detoxing from arsenic... I forget what. I never had that singular "sick" sensation again after quitting eating hijiki. A while after I started Iodine for problems that is did not realize would possibly be related [though now I am wondering if the fluorine was a part of the problem.] As I understand it, not all hijiki has high arsenic levels and any hijiki might be fine to eat a little of now and then... just perhaps not daily in one's oatmeal. It seemed to take all day long to transit my body and then kick me in the kidneys and bladder possibly on its way out. I wonder if using Iodine could cause either fluorine or arsenic toxicity to be expelled from the body causing your symptoms? Maybe it is in the teeth? I was never tested for arsenic poisoning but "studied" it extensively online and seemed to have it. Apparently the only other way I was apt to have gotten it was by close contact with treated wood and that never happened as far as I know. I think it was the hijiki seaweed. Hijiki is the kinky black seaweed that looks like little black worms. Is used in Japanese food. An Acquired taste. Do you eat hijiki or seaweed salads that might contain it? Tweet