Blue Green Algae, Lake, ALS, should I swim in it?

July 8, 2017 3:14 PM

I live @ 100 feet from a lake. It turns out that the lake has had blue green algae blooms every summer for the last 3 years. It has been tested and is picocyanobacteria, which has been linked to ALS. The connection is recent and inconclusive at this time. But, jeez, my grandson played in the lake, my son and I swim all the time. It does not provide my drinking water. I'm skeeved; what is the reasonable course of action, given that ALS is horrible, but swimming & boating in the lake are awesome? Swim/ don't swim?
posted by Mom to Health & Fitness (5 answers total)

I wouldn't swim when there is a bloom. As a freshwater ecologist, I don't know anything about the ALS link, but cyanobacteria blooms can be acutely dangerous on their own. I love swimming in lakes myself, and I would not hesitate to do so when there is not an obvious bloom. If your lake is large enough, there may be a lakekeeper or state or federal agency that does monitoring and warns when there are blooms.
posted by hydropsyche at 3:24 PM on July 8, 2017 [4 favorites]

I wouldn't go near a lake with an active bloom but not just because of the ALS link. Cyanobacteria is nasty stuff, you don't want to ingest it or probably inhale it. I also work in the aquatic ecology field.
posted by fshgrl at 4:23 PM on July 8, 2017 [3 favorites]

From your link:

So what is a possible mechanism for how the toxin may lead to the disease? The body may mistake BMAA for the amino acid L-serine, a naturally occurring component of proteins. When the toxin is mistakenly inserted into proteins, they become “misfolded,” meaning they no longer function properly and can damage cells.

Cox and colleagues soon will test two drugs in FDA-approved clinical trials. They’re about to enter second-phase testing with L-serine. The idea, explained Sandra Banack, a researcher at the Institute for Ethnomedicine, is that large doses of L-serine may be able to “outcompete” low levels of BMAA in the body, preventing it from becoming incorporated into proteins.

I think the causal connection is real, but I also think the strategy of out-competing the toxin with l-serine supplements is likely to be effective (a very similar strategy of iodine supplements in the wake of a radioactive iodine release does seem to reduce subsequent rates of thyroid cancer, for example).

Here is the cheapest l-serine supplement I found in a very cursory search, but there is a great multitude to choose from -- I would imagine ALS forums are currently rife with discussions of which are best.

I also have a feeling such supplements will turn out to be far more effective as preventatives than as cures, so I wouldn't be too discouraged if clinical trails with ALS sufferers don't show much benefit.
posted by jamjam at 4:29 PM on July 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

I am not a scientist and I know nothing about lakes or algae. But I have watched someone I love die from ALS. There is no swimming, no boating, no NOTHING in the entire universe that is worth risking that.
posted by mccxxiii at 7:38 AM on July 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: It's hard to tell at what concentration it's most worrisome. From Science Daily: Although there is no officially recognized threshold level, algae can be considered to be blooming at concentrations of hundreds to thousands of cells per milliliter, depending on the causative species.

This is the lake. www.theforecaster.net/getting-to-the-bottom-of-highland-lakes-weird-hue/

The annual meeting of the association is coming up, and this is the agenda.
posted by Mom at 1:05 PM on July 9, 2017