Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!husc6!necntc!encore!linus!philabs!aecom!werner From: werner@aecom.UUCP (Craig Werner) Newsgroups: sci.bio Subject: Re: Fish Oils (now Polar Bear Liver) Message-ID: <843@aecom.UUCP> Date: Thu, 1-Jan-87 18:46:48 EST Article-I.D.: aecom.843 Posted: Thu Jan 1 18:46:48 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 2-Jan-87 05:37:51 EST References: <941@midas.UUCP> <441@omen.UUCP> <835@aecom.UUCP> <2917@diku.UUCP> Organization: Albert Einstein Coll. of Med., NY Lines: 17 Summary: Polar Bears and Vitamins > other good things, e.g. vitamin D. Before the advent of vitamin pills, the > common way of preventing ricketts[sp?], i.e. calcium deficiency in children, > in Scandinavia, was a daily spoonful of cod liver oil. By the way vitamin D is > toxic in large doses, and this is the reason why Greenland Eskimos never eat > the liver of the polar bear - it's so full of vitamin D concentrated from the > fish the bear eats that it's poisonous to humans. > -- > Lars Mathiesen, DIKU, U of Copenhagen, Denmark Yes, Vitamin D is toxic in large doses, but the Vitamin that's concentrated in sufficient quantity in polar bear liver to kill is the another fat-soluble vitamin, Vitamin A, not Vitamin D. -- Craig Werner (MD/PhD '91) !philabs!aecom!werner (1935-14E Eastchester Rd., Bronx NY 10461, 212-931-2517) "Sometimes you have to run as fast as you can just to stay in the same place."