Endocrine Disruptors: How Do They Affect Us?

Well, this is another huge topic. And so to keep this blog as concise as possible, I will give you the abridged response. But again, I urge you to please do your own due diligence and learn as much as you can about endocrine disruptors.

How do they affect us? It starts before birth in the womb. What a mother has been exposed to throughout life as well as what she takes in during her pregnancy become the legacy of the next generation. Many exposures during pregnancy don’t even manifest themselves until the child reaches sexual maturity or beyond.

Children are exposed to more chemicals today than ever before. As a result we are seeing a more rapid maturation process. Doctors are seeing eight-, nine-, and ten-year-olds exhibiting signs of early puberty.

Endocrine disruption has also been linked to an increase in childhood cancers & asthma, abnormal development of sex organs; in addition, birth defects, preterm births and low birth weight babies are increasing in number. Lower IQ’s, behavior and attention issues also may be linked to endocrine disruptors.

Problems related to men’s health range from reproductive issues like low sperm count and testicular cancer to other types of cancers such as leukemia and Hodgkin’s disease; and an increase in heart disease has been seen in several dioxin-exposed populations.

There are a number of women’s health conditions that are possibly related to hormone-disrupting chemicals in the body: endometriosis, uterine fibroids, RSD, benign breast disease, PMS, ovarian cysts, thyroid issues, inability to lose weight, infertility and increase in reproductive cancers. And this is just a partial list.

Think for a minute – I bet you have friends or family members who have experienced some of the above mentioned issues. I can tell you that I personally have encountered many of them among my clients and friends, and I truly believe that this is a topic that we must treat seriously.

The information that I have been sharing with you may be alarming to some. But because it is a serious issue that historically has not gotten a lot of press, I am determined to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can. There are things we all can do to alleviate our exposures to endocrine disruptors, but people have to know that they have been exposed to them in order to be proactive about make changes. Spreading awareness is the essence of what I do…I hope you have been enlightened but what I have shared with you.

Endocrine Disruptors: Where do we find them?

In the first installment I defined endocrine disruptors as exogenous substances (coming from outside the body) that act like hormones in the endocrine system and disrupt the physiologic function of endogenous (inside the body) hormones.  So the next logical question would be where are these hormone-like substances found? Some man-made chemicals found in household products that we use daily – cleaners, laundry products, personal care products – are likely suspects. These chemicals are also found in many of the foods we eat. We are exposed through the air we breathe, the food and water we take in, and the products we absorb through our skin (think shampoo, body lotion, cosmetics, etc).

Here is a sampling of chemicals thought to be endocrine disruptors:

Phthalates – used to make plastics more flexible and durable. It is used in PVC plastic found in upholstery material, shower curtains, floor tiles & children’s toys. It is also found in toiletries (especially nail polish), toothbrushes and insect repellents. (This is just a very small sampling.)

Bisphenol A (BPA) – is a component of plastic used in the lining of food cans & bottle tops. It is also in polycarbonate plastics like soft drink containers, water jugs and baby bottles.

Dioxins – not intentionally produced, dioxins are released into the environment as a by-product of chemical processes involving chlorine. Most dioxin is emitted into the air and then deposited on grass and trees and consumed by cows and other animals; or it goes into lakes and streams and ingested by fish. Ninety-five percent of our exposure is through meat, fish, and dairy products.

PVC (polyvinyl chloride) aka vinyl – one of the most common plastics. Manufacturing and burning PVC creates dioxins. It has been used widely in upholstery, home furnishings, children’s toys and hundreds of other products.

Detergents – a class of chemical surfactants that dissolve and remove oils and grease and make products more water soluble. They are found in ordinary household products like laundry detergents, all-purpose cleaners, personal care products like soaps, shampoos shaving foams, cosmetics and spermicides.

Other Endocrine-Disrupting Compounds: Pesticides, lead, cadmium and mercury.

Pesticide are used on food crops and home gardens, and are also found in flea collars, lice shampoo and even under the foundation of your home.

I just want to say that this is a daunting subject and cannot possibly be covered thoroughly in a few blog posts. I would encourage each of you reading this to please do your own due diligence and learn what products you should remove from your homes and replace with safer alternatives.

Primary source of information: Hormone Deception by D. Lindsey Berkson

Endocrine Disruptors: What Are They?

In 1962 Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring was published, creating an outcry that forced the banning of DDT. Since then there has been growing concern that chemicals in the environment might exert profound and disasterous effects on wildlife populations, and that human health is inextricably linked to the health of the environment.
Although researchers had studied the endocrine effects of chemicals for some time, the term endocrine disruptor was coined in 1991 by Theo Colborn at a conference at the Wingspread Conference Center in Racine, Wisconsin. Theo Colborn is co-author of Our Stolen Future, published in 1996. Her extensive research and that of many others firmly establishes that environmental chemicals disrupt the development of the endocrine system, and that effects of exposure during development are permanent.

Although hormone disruption isn’t new, the growing incident of it that we are experiencing today is such that we must consider it a modern-day epidemic. In her book Hormone Deception, D. Lindsey Berkson takes up where Theo Colborn left off by extending the evidence into the realm of human health. If this subject concerns you as much as it concerns me, I would highly recommend that you purchase Dr. Berkson’s book.

So what are endocrine disruptors anyway? According to Wikipedia this term refers to exogenous substances (coming from outside the body) that act like hormones in the endocrine system and disrupt the physiologic function of endogenous hormones (inside the body).

Simply put, our cells have receptor sites which allow hormones to attach to the cell. When we are exposed to environmental chemicals (that mimic hormones) the receptor site doesn’t know if it is the real hormone or an imposter. So, these imposters are reeking havoc with our cells and thus with our overall health.
As Dr. Berkson says in her book “All this points to what can go awry. If something is wrong with the signal, the body will respond to the wrong message. In other words, an unnatural signal may create an inappropriate response. What science is discovering is that hormone disruptors can bind with receptors and send messages the same way our natural hormones can. But these particular messages can significantly alter normal cell function and growth.” [Hormone Deception, pg.13]

Next time: Endocrine Disruptors: Where do they come from and how do they affect us?