Here's Why

Ciguatera Zombie Poison

In Haiti, Voudon sorcerers mix up Zombie making powder that works largely because of two nerve poisons found in the puffer fish used in the recipie. Ciguatoxin, which blocks the calcium electrochemical channels in nerve cells, and tetradotoxin which blocks the sodium channels.

Ciguatoxin is a water and fat soluble protein that isn’t restricted to puffer fish, its also made by dinoflagellate protozoa - micro-organisms that attach themselves to algae that grow on dead, damaged or dying pacfic coral reefs. Small fish eat the toxin-salted algae, and are eaten by larger and larger predator fish. The poison is concentrated in each step up the food chain. By the time you get to big fish like the skipjack tuna used in fish oil supplements, or barramundi, coral trout, sea perch, mullet, cod, red snapper, and mackeral, (to name a few) that you may choose for your dinner table; there’s enough poison not to make you a zombie, but to make you suddenly and dramatically ill.

I should know, it happened to me just over a year ago.

I ate some omega3-enhanced food supplemented with fish oil or some contaminated fish, I don’t remember. Cooking and freezing have no effect on the poison, and kits to detect the poison in fish have only become available in the last two years. The first symptoms last only a few days , with damage to the nervous system lasting from months to decades. A study released by Professor Hoegh-Guldberg at the Queensland University’s Centre for Marine Studies reports that the frequency and severity of outbreaks of ciguatera fish poisoning in Australia are increasing as the coral reefs are dying.

Traditionally zombie slaves can be spotted by their strange lurching walk, their glazed eyes, and their odd voices. The changed voice is attributed to the voodoo god Baron Samedi, Lord of the burial grounds. These are all among the symptoms of ciguatera fish poisoning, and are caused by subtle brain malfunctioning. The changed voice is from damage to the speech centres such as happens in aphasia and aphragia, the glazed eyes are from being zonked out and mentally exhausted, and the lurching walk comes from dizziness, muscle weakness and nervous system overload.

Your body recognizes the poison and tries to eliminate it, but because its fat and water soluble, it just gets absorbed again, and again.

Ciguatoxin causes nervous impulses to trigger more quickly, but it slows the transfer of information, and then slows the cells readiness to be triggered again. You can also be exposed to the toxin and have a small reaction the first time, which sensitises you. If you eat poisoned fish again, your next time may be a much more severe reaction.

The key diagnostic flag for this poison is body temperature problems. Hot things seem hotter, cold things seem colder, and sometimes they get reversed. This can be a very strange sensation in the shower!

The CSIRO invented a technique by which tuna oil can be made into a tasteless and odourless powder that can be added to foods such as bread, baby formula, and breakfast cereal to give consumers the healthy omega-three fatty acids that they want in their food. Omega-3 oils in food have been shown to be good for the brain and the heart, and the products have become very successful in the marketplace. I’m still waiting for an answer to my query about whether there is any testing in place to reduce the risk of ciguatera contaminated oil reaching the supermarket. Even chicken fed with fishmeal has been reported to have caused ciguatera poisoning.

In the USA there is a hundred-dollar-US monoclonal-antibody blood test available, and fish testing kits are available in Australia for around $2 per fish. In the Carribean Islands, the locals test their fish by leaving a small chunk near an anthill. If the ants eat the fish, so do the people. Dr. Hokama who invented the blood test, believes that ciguatoxin is the agent that causes Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and in clinical trials, ninety-six percent of suffers had ciguatoxins in their bloodstream. Dr Hokama suspects that his American patients haven’t all had trips to the Pacific, instead they may have their own mico-organisms zombiefying them - from the inside.

A few years ago, a study of fish sold at the Sydney Fish Markets showed that some had never even been described by scientists, let alone named. There is no information on how these animals live, how long they take to breed, or how many might be left, yet they are being caught and sold with no knowledge of their biology. - Abbie Thomas

I lost seventeen kilograms, my voice changed from baritone to tenor, and often fades completely. My eyes saccade when I focus on near objects, I have clumsy attacks, and I get dizzy, weak and exhausted if I’m upright for more than a few minutes. I sometimes have to use a walking stick or lean on furniture. My hands shake, and without medication, I have small seizures that shake the bed while I sleep. I have a kind of hiccup-belch that starts being occasional in the afternoon, but becomes more frequent as it gets later at night, sometimes keeping me awake. I suffer from episodes of mild aphasia where I have trouble speaking clearly, and trouble understanding spoken or written words. I have trouble doing simple arithmetic, and get a bad headache if I force myself to work on calculations or speech or reading. Medication can help with a few symptoms.

It isn’t certain whether I’ve been affected by a one-off poisoning in November 2002, or whether I’m infected with some organism that produces the same toxin continuously. Its possible that eating bad fish just triggered a prior sensitivity. This may be the mechanism of CFS laid bare because it became severe after fish poisoning, or it may be a poisoning that made my existing CFS harder to deal with. So I’m now on a regime of seven drugs to counteract some of the symptoms.

Neurological symptoms Paraesthesias in extremities and around mouth including numbness, tingling, burning, and pain. Temperature reversal where hot feels cold and vice versa. Temperature sensitivity Vertigo Dental pain Blurred vision Tremor Psychiatric Pain on urination	Gastrointestinal symptoms Nausea Vomiting Diarrhea Abdominal pain Dyspepsia Abdominal cramping	Cardiovascular symptoms Bradycardia Tachycardia Hypotension Arrhythmia Sudden blood pressure spikes
Other symptoms Dermatitis, itch, rash, aches and pains, arthralgia, myalgia, general weakness, salivation, breathing problems, dyspnea, neck stiffness, headache, ataxia, exhaustion, fatigue, sweating, depression, and metallic taste in the mouth.

This table was taken from Graham Williamson’s Ciguatera Fish Poisoning page

Resources:
Ciguatoxins and Ciguatera
FDA Foodborne Pathogenic Microorganisms and Natural Toxins Handbook
CSIRO; Fishes n’ Loaves
Neurotoxin Discovered in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Holistic Health Topics - Ciguatera Fish Poisoning
CIGUATERA: Fish Poisoning - MIAMI MEDICINE / AUGUST 1992
Ciguatera Fish Poisoning , NIEHS Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Center
emedicine Ciguatera Toxicity
SEA SICKNESS July 11, 1999 The New York Times Magazine p. 18 by ANDY NEWMAN
FISH SICKNESS
Barrier Reef just 50 years from death
Successful Treatment of Ciguatera Fish Poisoning With Intravenous Mannitol
The Ciguatera Epitope: So What Do We Really Know Thus Far?
Ciguatera - Chronic Debility: One cause of the CFS
REAL ZOMBIES by Ian Woolf
Witch doctoring
Ciguatera management
neurotoxins: Diagnosis and Treatment Information for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia and other Mystery Illnesses
Ciguatera Fish Poisoning - a review in a risk-assessment framework
Neurology of ciguatera
Fish Poison Problems
The Science Show - Ciguatera
Ciguatera blood testing
Tip-Top Bread UP Omega 3 DHA
Ciguatera fish tests
Thanks for all the fish

About the author: Ian Woolf lives in Sydney, has a degree in Applied Physics, worked as a solar astronomer, software engineer, systems programmer, webmaster, Cisco CCNA tutor, Computational Theory lecturer, and subject coordinator; while changing his career to professional writing and broadcasting. Listen to Ian on the Discovery science show on radio 2SER 107.3Fm Mondays at 9am in Sydney or streaming audio on www.2ser.com, or listen to the Discovery sound archives.

Posted by iwoolf at April 13, 2004 05:57 PM | TrackBack