Squalene is a naturally occurring molecule found in humans, animals, and plants. It is used by the body to make essential compounds and can be found in some foods, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. The substance is extracted from shark and other fish livers for commercial use. Squalene is used in some vaccines to help the immune system recognize the vaccine more efficiently, but concerns about its safety are not supported by the WHO or FDA.
Squalene is a naturally occurring molecule that is produced by humans and many other organisms. Humans require it as a raw material for essential compounds such as hormones, and it can be found in some foods, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. Commercially, it is usually extracted from shark and other fish livers. Diets high in the compound can also lower cholesterol. Concerns that including the substance in vaccines is dangerous to health are not supported by the World Health Organization (WHO) or the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Animals, including humans, produce the substance in the liver. It travels through the bloodstream and is used by the body to make hormones and other necessary compounds. Cholesterol is the intermediate step between squalene and molecules like estrogen, cortisol, and even vitamin D.
This particular molecule also seeps out of the body in our fingerprints. The livers of fish like sharks are rich in the material, and this is where industries look for their sources. In addition to livers, it is also present in eggs, meat, and yeast.
Plants also produce the substance. For example, olive oil contains 0.7% squalene. The health benefits associated with the olive oil-rich diet of Mediterranean countries may be due to this characteristic of the oil. Health food companies sell it as “shark liver oil.” Some cosmetics contain the material, as do some medicines.
According to the FDA, the concentration of squalene in the blood is generally 250 parts per billion (250 nanograms per milliliter). Concerns that squalene in vaccines creates health risks are not supported by the WHO or the FDA, as of 2011. The WHO says that one particular vaccine, which is given in European countries, delivers a dose of 10 milligrams of squalene along with the antigen and that this vaccine has not had any serious side effects since it was first produced in 1997.
The material is used in some vaccines to help the immune system recognize the vaccine more efficiently. By itself, it is not effective, but when mixed in an emulsion with other substances, it is. One problem vaccine advocates have with squalene is that soldiers who had been injected with an anthrax vaccine and subsequently developed health problems showed antibodies to the substance in their blood. However, it is now known that everyone has antibodies to squalene, which increase with age, and that the anthrax vaccine in question did not originally contain either substance. Tests that showed low levels of squalene in the vaccines may have been contaminated by laboratory glassware with fingerprints.
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