In this blog, I am going to explain Fucoidan and allergy, especially seaweed allergy. During my 15 years of experience, I had only one client who had a seaweed allergy. Food allergies are a significant health problem worldwide, and it can be life-threatening in some cases.

On the other hand, some studies have suggested that certain seaweed varieties contain polysaccharides with anti-asthma and anti-allergic effects. However, rare but very few people have shown seaweed allergy. With further research, it is apparent that some people are undoubtedly allergic to seaweed, just like my client.

So, I want to discuss Fucoidan and seaweed allergy using the study of “Risk and benefit of consuming edible seaweed” by Paul Cherry et al.

Some seaweed ingredients are attractive as functional food ingredients and excellent supplements for a healthy lifestyle. For example, there are alginate, Fucoidan, phycobiliproteins, phlorotannins, and fucoxanthin. They need more human evidence (including mechanical proof) is required to determine adverse effects. The study summarizes the available evidence of the edible seaweed and the potential risks and health of human consumption of whole seaweed, extracted bioactive ingredients, and seaweed-based foods.

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debromoaplysiatoxin, seaweed dermatitis is caused by the toxins debromoaplysiatoxin produced by seaweed. To show animals respond differently to debromoaplysiatoxin, for example, the response of mice with P-388 lymphocytic leukemia to injection of debromoaplysiatoxin. As a result, after treatment with debromoaplysiatoxin, the mice showed an excellent anti-leukemic response. The disadvantage was that these responses were only measured at doses, where nearly 50 percent of mice died of toxicity.

Thus, the toxicity of this seaweed varies significantly by region, season, and type. Not all strains of the seaweed are toxic. However, this research is that contacted the seaweed and got an allergy, not edible seaweed.

As a few examples of allergic symptoms as edible seaweed, epidemiological evidence shows that Korean men with metabolic syndrome have been reported to consume significantly more seaweed than men without metabolic syndrome.

Although on the other hand, a diet containing seaweed is inversely correlated with all-cause mortality in Japanese adults. Still, no insight into the mechanism has been published.

I have searched for various documents, and most of them showed the advantages of seaweed. There are very few showed to deliver allergies to seaweed. Yet, I am sure that some have seaweed allergies like my client, so I want to suggest that before taking Fucoidan, it is essential to be careful and check whether you have any food allergy.