New York Man Loads Up On Tuna After The Gym. Then His Body Starts Getting All Tingly

Fish is a popular protein source for many fitness fanatics. But for one TikToker, eating tuna for gains ended up being a cautionary tale.

In a video that has amassed 310,700 views, Kwabbie (@kwabbie.k) explained that he had big fitness goals: Running approximately 80 miles a month and lifting three times a week. In short, he needed protein. To achieve this, he ate tuna every day for a month and a half. Sometimes he even had two cans a day.

But six weeks in, he started developing unusual symptoms, such as tingling on the other side of his body. He then developed vertigo and, in turn, attempted elimination. He stopped drinking coffee and alcohol, and cut out pretty much everything apart from the tuna. When this didn’t work, he went to Urgent Care. There was nothing wrong with his blood work, and the person there suggested adding other things to his diet, like more vitamin E and chicken.

Kwabbie says he went home expecting to feel better—but he didn’t. For a month, he was waking up every night in the early hours of the morning. So, he spent a month without getting a deep sleep.

“I feel like I was going through a little bit of a psychosis,” he admitted. “I was like, I am literally battling an unknown illness, right?”

He went on to explain how he didn’t eat much, including tuna. Additionally, he says he felt anxiety about having a serious illness, which led to him consulting WebMD. From his online research, his symptoms purportedly correlated with one of three things: Diabetes, cancer, or high blood pressure.

He noted that, during this time, his blood pressure was high because he was stressed. Still, because high blood pressure runs in his family, he got a blood pressure machine. After getting a high reading, he determined he had high blood pressure. So, he stopped eating Thai food and calmed down. Following that, he did another reading of his blood pressure, and it was normal. This left him unsure of what was going on.

Did Tuna Send Him To The ER?

Weeks later, he went to the ER. But he noted to viewers that he wasn’t a hypochondriac.

“But in this month, I was everything you can imagine,” Kwabbie continued. “I was the craziest version of myself I was having almost an out-of-body experience watching myself be this delusional and this anxiety-ridden and this psychotic. And I was like, ‘Oh, I understand how people can get to this point.'”

He went to the ER at 6pm and wasn’t seen until midnight. There weren’t enough hospital rooms, so he had a bed in the hallway and what was essentially Advil on an IV. While he praised the nurse practitioner, who said they’d see what the doctor said, Kwabbie noted that, by the end of their shift, another nurse was “not having it” and insisted he was fine.

After a clear CT scan, he went home.

“And so I just wait it out and continued to feel these symptoms but the symptoms like diminish, diminish, diminish, diminish…” he said.

Gradually, Kwabbie says he got better and, looking back on it, concluded that the “only possible reason” for what he earlier described as his “ghost illness” was eating tuna. He says that, upon looking it up, he realized he wasn’t meant to eat that much.

“And I was like, ‘Then I definitely had mercury poisoning. I definitely had mercury poisoning,’ because there was no other possible reason for me to feel this way,” he added.

In an emailed statement to BroBible, Kwabbie added, “Everybody knows the feeling of something being wrong and nobody being able to tell you what. Mine just happened to involve an unreasonable amount of canned tuna. I make jokes out of things like that because it’s how I process them, but the part where you’re feeling awful with no answers is real, and I think a lot of people have their own version of it that has nothing to do with fish.”

People Were Shocked

Some commenters couldn’t believe it.

“Bruh, it looks like you gave yourself histamine intolerance from the canned tuna,” one theorized.

“Y’all please don’t eat tinned fish more than 3x a week omg,” a second said. “They really should start putting warnings on the cans.”

Others admitted that they had similar experiences.

“I’ve been eating so much tinned fish and having such weird symptoms,” a third claimed. “I can’t entertain the idea of mercury poisoning right now.”

While a fourth wrote, “Me realizing I had vertigo after eating tuna ever day at lunch for months.”

Can Tuna Give You Mercury Poisoning?

While it’s rare, it is technically possible to get mercury poisoning from eating too much tuna. According to UK website Bolt Pharmacy, mercury poisoning primarily impacts the central nervous system, which can impact cognitive and neurological function. Notably, the site also says that adults can experience low-level chronic mercury poisoning. This includes symptoms like paraesthesia (a “tingly” feeling), memory issues, tremors, problems concentrating, anxiety, and depression.

It’s also claimed that too much mercury can impact cardiovascular health and renal function.

In an interview with the BBC, biomedical scientist and the Royal Society for Public Health fellow Parvez Haris said that there should be limits imposed on mercury consumption.

“Ideally, we should reduce our exposure to mercury as it’s a toxic substance which isn’t needed for healthy body functions,” he said. “It would be good to have labels that provide information on mercury content so consumers are aware of what they are consuming.”