Thirty-five years have been passing since the outbreak of Kanemi rice oil
poisoning, namely, Yusho in the western Japan. However, even now the patients with Yusho have been still suffering from several objective and subjective symptoms. In order to improve or, if possible, to cure the such symptoms, the most important therapeutic treatment is considered to actively excrete the most toxic causative PCDFs/DDs congeners, that is,
2,3,4,7,8-pentachlorodibenzofuran (PenCDF) and
1,2,3,6,7,8-hexachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (
HxCDD) from the bodies of the patients and to reduce their body burdens. In rats,
dietary fiber and
chlorophyll have been shown to promote the fecal excretion of
dioxins and to reduce their levels in rat liver. In this study, we examined whether such kinds of effect were also observed by FBRA, which was the health food and relatively rich with
dietary fiber and
chlorophyll in nine married Japanese couples. As a result, concentrations of PenCDF and
HxCDD on the
lipid weight basis in the blood of the FBRA-intake group in which they took 7.0 to 10.5 g of FBRA after each meal and three times a day for one year were more lowered than those in the blood of the non-intake
group; Blood levels of PenCDF and
HxCDD in the FBRA-intake group were decreased by 30.5 and 33.9%, respectively, and those decreases were 22.0 and 24.5% in the non-intake group. Their total body burdens just before and one year after the study were calculated on the assumptions that the body fat was also contaminated with these congeners at their blood levels on the
lipid weight basis and the content of body fat was 20% of the
body weight. Then, we computed the average amounts in excretion of PenCDF and
HxCDD from the body in both the FBRA-intake and non-intake groups. Consequently, the amounts of excretion of PenCDF and
HxCDD in the FBRA-intake group were 2.1 and 1.9 times, respectively, greater than those in the non-intake group. Therefore, FBRA seemed to promote the fecal excretion of PenCDF and
HxCDD, the main causative PCDFs/DDs congeners of Yusho, from the human body. We also expect FBRA to reduce their body burdens of patients with Yusho and to improve some objective and subjective symptoms of Yusho patients.