JEREMY PIVEN - PIVEN: 'I HAVEN'T TOUCHED FISH SINCE MERCURY POISONING'

PIVEN: 'I HAVEN'T TOUCHED FISH SINCE MERCURY POISONING'

Actor JEREMY PIVEN has steered away from eating fish after a penchant for sushi saw him struck down with mercury poisoning last year (08).
The Entourage star was forced to step down from Broadway play Speed-The-Plow in December (08), citing severe fatigue. He later told how he had been diagnosed with toxic mercury poisoning due to over-consumption of raw fish.
And the incident has left him with a distaste for seafood - insisting he was forced to change his eating habits after the illness.
He tells People.com, "I haven't had a piece of fish since the doctor told me to lower my blood mercury level. So, it's been almost 10 months now.
"I changed all of those habits. All of these things happen to make us better. So, you've got to embrace that."
But Piven doesn't lay the blame on his love of sushi - insisting his hectic Hollywood lifestyle also played a part.
He adds: "I'm a lot better. What basically happens is when you work your whole life without stopping like I've done, you end up in the hospital. Basically, I had a cardiologist say your body is trying to catch up and it can't. I had a resting heart rate of 47, something called arrhythmia, along with all the mercury poisoning."