Farmed salmon and PLMD

[thorp]

Hi everyone

I would again be grateful for your help on this wonderful site

I have severe RLS and severe PLMD. I take 1500 mgs gaberpentin and 750 micros clonazepam every night .Normally i wake up twice a night,,twitching away, go for a 30 minutes walk, and, if i am lucky, I can get back to sleep again

But sometimes the twitching and jerking is at a totally different level.

I am jerking around like a puppet on a string. Bending in two and then suddenly straightening up again. Totally oit of control.. My whole body is affected not just my legs. My eyes are tight shut, my legs feel like jelly .I cant really stand up let alone walk, My breath only comes in short sharp bursts

My partner forces me to stand up and supports me as i try and walk.After staggering around for about 20 minutes the hideous jerking normally subsides.

But it is terrifying when it happens.And it has started to happen more frequently.

So i have tried to find the cause. Of course we humans are highly complex creatures and trying to find one single cause is of anything alike RLS or PLMD is probably nonsense.But you have to try

I looked at my food diary.The first thing which became clear is that if i eat a fresh orange , even if I eat it well before my eating deadline of 1900, then i am very likely to get this mad jerking

But I also found that since january i have eaten fresh salmon steaks sauteed in simple butter sauce seven times. Five of these times have been followed that night with really bad jerking.Once afterwards i had some jerking but minor and once I had no ill effects at all

So I think maybe the difference is due to different kinds of salmon.Wild salmon is much better for you than farmed but is much more expensive of course And I buy the cheapest.

David O. Carpenter of the State University of New York at Albany , was one of the authors of the february 2004 Science article on “Global assessment of organic contaminants in in Farmed Salmon”. He said recently that “One should avoid farmed salmon like the plague.”

In his analysis, he considered contamination to be unacceptable if it raises the risk of cancer by more than 1 in 100,000. Using U.S. Environmental Protection Agency formulas, he found that staying below that level of risk required limiting farmed salmon consumption to no more than one meal every 1 to 5 months, depending on where the salmon was raised.

He says salmon from Europe is far more contaminated than is salmon from western Canada, the Pacific Northwest, or Chile.

I know fresh salmon is ,for normal people, very good for you.So i dont want to stop eating salmon if it is not causing me problems.

So i would like to ask this expert group; Has anyone else suffered bad PLMD from eating farmed salmon-or am I the only one ?

Thank you for your help

[ChrisColumbus]

Firstly, huge commiserations regarding the violence of your symptoms!

As you've pointed out there have been stories and warnings about farmed salmon for many years, and I don't mean to minimise these. Who knows what might have triggered your symptoms.

Farmed salmon *might* contain various toxins, and salmon generally might contain persistent organic pollutants (POPs), although this study found lower levels of POPs (and metals) in farmed fish:

sciencedirect.com/science/a...

The same study (and others) highlighted the much higher proportions of omega 6 to omega 3 fats in the farmed fish, which it has been claimed can lead to inflammation.

However a Harvard Med piece from 2019 denies this:

"The main charge against omega-6 fats is that the body can convert the most common one, linolenic acid, into another fatty acid called arachidonic acid, and arachidonic acid is a building block for molecules that can promote inflammation, blood clotting, and the constriction of blood vessels. But the body also converts arachidonic acid into molecules that calm inflammation and fight blood clots.

The critics argue that we should cut back on our intake of omega-6 fats to improve the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6s. Hogwash, says the American Heart Association (AHA). In a science advisory that was two years in the making, nine independent researchers from around the country, including three from Harvard, say that data from dozens of studies support the cardiovascular benefits of eating omega-6 fats"

health.harvard.edu/newslett...

All no help to you I'm afraid!

[Madlegs1]

I find both smoked salmon and ordinary salmon give me bad RLS.

I think it is either the red colouring or high salt or both that cause it.

I can eat them at lunch time ok.

[ChrisColumbus in reply to Madlegs1]

It's interesting that you also suffer from evening salmon: I'd missed that as a dietary problem before Thorp and you mentioned it.

My first thought was the natural colour - astaxanthin - but this is an antioxidant and *may* also help to *reduce* inflammation. But farmed salmon could be fed artificial colourants - and who knows what might be used - so you may be on to something.

I'd thought I might have found a clue with the omega-6 fats, but the Harvard report seems to dismiss that...

[Goldy700]

Yes it affects me like that as well - I got the worst RLS ever after eating farmed salmon. I now only eat wild caught fish.

[Amrob]

I tend to eat wild caught Alaskan salmon and have never had a problem with it in relation to RLS/PLMD. I rarely eat it though as being imported it's very expensive. I also eat canned wild Alaskan salmon and that's fine too.

[Oregonmike]

personally I’d look at the clonazepam as the circular cause and solution 1st. I’ve heard others on long term benzodiazepines that get immediate relief then gradual increase. Which in reality is slow withdrawal. Just my 2 cents

Good luck- it sounds awful what you’re enduring at night.

[angelflonne]

I found an informative article here livestrong.com/article/1373...

I eat 240g of farmed salmon a week, the article concludes it depends who you ask, some bodies say farmed salmon is fine, some don't. Apparently Alaskan salmon is uncontaminated, Irish and Scottish is not.

On orange juice, I realised recently dates in the evening are bad for my legs, dates contain fructose just like orange juice, I'd have to try another high fructose food to see if it affects me but I can say if I eat dates earlier in the day there's no problem.

[Eryl]

The main difference between farmed salmon and wild caught salmon is that farmed salmon is lacking in omega 3 oil which the wild salmon get from eating algae.

I get PLMD when I've ingested potassium based artificial preservatives like potassium sorbate (E202) used in margarine, dips, sauces etc. or potassium metabisulphate used in fruit juices, wines etc.