More toxic than arsenic? Eating fish gallbladders can kill you instead of cure you!

□ Science Times reporter Wu Qiong

Recently, a young man from Guizhou was poisoned after eating silver carp gallbladder and was sent to the hospital for two days of emergency treatment. Gao Zhiguang, deputy chief physician of the emergency medicine department of Shanghai Oriental Hospital, said that fish gallbladder is actually more toxic than arsenic.
There are occasional rumors among the people that fish gall has the effects of soothing the liver, improving eyesight, clearing away heat and relieving asthma. "This statement has no scientific basis." Gao Zhiguang told the Science Popularization Times reporter that in the traditional Chinese medicine industry, "fish gall cannot be used as a traditional Chinese medicine" is also an industry consensus.

Fish gallbladder contains a variety of toxic components, such as bile acid, taurocholic acid, hydrocyanic acid and other toxins, among which hydrocyanic acid is the most toxic. Under normal circumstances, if there is no timely rescue, people will die within 15 minutes to 1 hour after cyanide poisoning. If high concentrations of hydrocyanic acid are ingested, they will lose consciousness and suffer cardiac arrest and die within 1-2 minutes after poisoning. Compared with the onset time of arsenic, which can last for several hours, cyanide is obviously more terrible and the rescue conditions are more stringent.

The fish that cause fish gallbladder poisoning are mainly carp, including grass carp, black carp, silver carp, carp and crucian carp, etc. This type of fish accounts for more than 80% of my country's freshwater fish and is a common fish eaten by people.

Gao Zhiguang introduced that the prevention of fish gallbladder poisoning requires attention from the following aspects:

First, when slaughtering, take protective measures, such as wearing gloves and protective glasses;

Second, when cleaning the fish's internal organs, be sure to clean the fish gallbladder;

Third, if the fish gallbladder is accidentally punctured, the contaminated part should be immediately rinsed with clean water, and the fish meat contaminated with the gallbladder should be cut off as much as possible, or even the whole fish should be discarded;

Finally, if you accidentally ingest fish gall, you should seek medical attention as soon as possible and do not take chances.