Toxicology: The Dangers of Pickled Herring

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Depressed psychiatric patients taking a "psychic energizing" drug called Parnate (tranylcypromine) went through a disheartening experience two years ago. When they ate cheese or drank red wine their hearts pounded, their blood pressure zoomed and their heads ached in tensely. Last week Parnate patients were notified of a new food to delete from their diet: pickled herring.

In a letter to the A.M.A. Journal, three Minneapolis physicians explained that herring and Parnate had never been considered a dangerous combination until a 54-year-old patient turned up with the same painful symptoms that racked the cheese eaters. Analysis showed that some herring the patient had eaten was rich in the same amines that occur in cheese and wine. Those amines are normally oxidized into harmless body chemicals. But the enzyme that is supposed to do the oxidizing is monoamine oxidase, the very enzyme that Parnate neutralizes to achieve its antidepressant effect. The mixture of drug and delicacy thus overloaded the victims' brains with amines that sent blood pressure soaring and started hearts palpitating wildly.