Drugged Fish

Our fish are on drugs! Another disheartening report was released by Environmental Protection Agency and Baylor University today. It appears that our incredibly over-medicated society is resulting in our medicating the waters and the fish that swim in them. Antidepressants, cholesterol-lowering medications, anti-hypertensives and others have been detected in waterways near 5 major U.S. cities; Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Orlando.

The implications are obvious.

You are what you eat. If we eat drug contaminated fish, we consume those same contaminants. In other words, even if you are not on prescribed antidepressants, you will be ingesting them as a part of your food supply.

In fairness, Dr. Brian Brooks, one of the coauthors of the study, says that you would "have to eat hundreds of thousands of fish dinners to get even a single therapeutic dose."

Frankly, I don't know how many of these contaminants we can run away from. There is 'stuff' in the air, in the food and in the water we drink. Your best best is to enhance your body's ability to detoxify and eliminate these chemicals. The best detox plan? Eat good food and don't eat junk. Your liver and kidneys have a way of taking care of the rest. There may be a need for some of us to do a more formal 'detox plan.' I'll post more on a good detox plan another time.

I wish I had a solution to the problem of drugs in your water. I don't have one. My point is that our drug dependence has environmental impacts, which then have health impacts that lead to a a vicious cycle that degrades our health and our planet.

For all of you who recycle, compost, turn out the lights, vote for leaders who advocate alternative fuel sources and are generally environmentally conscious (as I hope most of you are), then don't overlook your own health and the potential impact your health choices have on the environment.