Lead Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Is Your Child Drinking Lead at School? Why No One Knows For Sure

The AHA! Team — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 05:24:22 +0000

Patrick Tims via NaturalHealth365 – It is no secret that ADHD is on the rise. However, the medical community has not yet identified a clear cause for the increase in ADHD prevalence. It has long been suspected that ADHD is tied to lead exposure, especially exposure at an early age. Lead exposure can also cause seizures, hearing loss, constipation, vomiting, and developmental delays. Instead of pushing Big Pharma pills (and shots) on our kids, schools should start testing lead levels. The details of such potential lead exposure were recently highlighted in a study published in Science of The Total Environment. Lead exposure is quickly becoming a public health crisis that weakens the adults of tomorrow Environmentalists and physicians often highlight how the Baby Boomer generation was exposed to lead during their formative years. Similarly, much attention has been given to Generation Z’s microplastic exposure. However, there’s less awareness about the potential lead exposure faced by Generation Z and Generation Alpha, especially in schools. Lead is a dangerous contaminant because it cannot be seen or smelled, making it an invisible threat. In children, even minimal exposure can cause a range of serious health issues. While lead-based paint was banned for residential use in the late 1970s, today’s students may still encounter lead through the water systems in older school buildings. Many schools in the United States were built before 1986, the year Congress amended the Safe Drinking Water Act to restrict the use of plumbing materials and pipes that leach lead. In these older schools, lead can contaminate water as it leaches from plumbing materials, fixtures, and pipes. A 2018 Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation revealed that nearly 40% of school districts tested showed elevated lead levels in their water systems. State-level studies have uncovered even more alarming statistics. Nearly 50% of schools tested in some states had lead contamination in water consumed by children. In Portland, 99% of public schools tested positive for lead in 2016. Similarly, a 2018 study in Detroit found lead in 16 out of 24 schools tested. The evidence is clear: lead exposure remains a significant risk, and no level of lead is safe for children. How to prevent your child from exposure to harmful lead at school and also at home A child who goes through the typical school system spends about 15,600 hours in school, often drinking water from fountains or sinks. If your child’s school water supply hasn’t been tested for lead, request testing to be conducted. Parents should also have their home water tested for lead. Internal plumbing materials in homes can sometimes contain lead, which can leach into the water. Lead is odorless and invisible once dissolved in water, making it difficult to detect without testing. By testing your home’s water, you can ensure your family’s water is safe. Lead is odorless and invisible once dissolved in water Once your home’s water has been tested and found safe, fill a stainless steel bottle for your child to bring to school. Consider providing an extra water bottle for their locker so they don’t have to rely on potentially lead-contaminated school water. Ideally, the water your child takes to school should be distilled or purified at home to eliminate impurities before consumption. Sources for this article include: Sciencedirect.com Nasbe.org EPA.gov To read the original article click here.

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Heavy Metal Detox Diet

AHA Publisher — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 07:00:44 +0000

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM via Nutrition Facts – What dietary change can simultaneously help detoxify mercury, lead, and cadmium from the body? I’ve previously explored the issue of lead contamination in calcium supplements, such as bonemeal, but bone meal isn’t all that can be contaminated. “Substantial quantities of lead have been reported in some over-the-counter calcium supplement preparations,” and testing has revealed continued public health concern over bonemeal. Thankfully, bonemeal isn’t as popular these days, so most of us aren’t likely to get exposed directly to the lead in bonemeal anymore. We may, however, get exposed indirectly through the animals we eat, as I show at 0:31 in my video How to Lower Heavy Metals with Diet. In the United States, five billion pounds of meat and bonemeal are produced annually as slaughterhouse by-products. What do we do with these millions of tons every year? We feed it back to farm animals, particularly chickens. Now, most of the lead in the bonemeal passes right through the animals into their waste, but we take that waste—that cow, pig, and chicken feces—and feed it right back to the animals once again. So, you can see how the levels of contaminants might build up in their bodies. You may remember that I’ve talked before about what all this might mean for making something like chicken soup, but the original concern about these kinds of feeding practices, such as feeding cows to pigs, chickens, and even other cows, was about spreading prion diseases, like mad cow. This kind of recycling not only magnifies prions, however; it also magnifies other toxic substances, including lead. So, a more plant-based diet may be able to lower lead exposure, and an even more plant-based diet could theoretically lower exposure even more. What happens when you put it to the test? Should we really expect to find a benefit? As you can see at 1:42 in my video, even though lead is one of the toxins found in meat, half of our dietary exposure probably comes from plant foods. In fact, dietary modeling studies in Europe suggest that vegetarians would be exposed to about the same amount of lead compared to the general population, with the exception of those who eat a lot of wild game, which can have a thousand times more lead than most other foods, as you can see at 2:02 in my video. A vegetarian diet may even be higher in lead. It’s not what you eat, though; it’s what you absorb. As I’ve discussed previously, researchers found that the uptake of toxic heavy metals from “animal food sources” into human intestinal lining cells may be higher than from vegetable sources. This is why you can have a vegetarian with some of the lowest concentrations of lead and cadmium in their blood, despite having higher concentrations in their diet. As you can see at 2:41 in my video, there seems to be a tendency towards higher fecal elimination of lead following a change to a vegetarian diet. Researchers found that nine subjects, on average, tripled their elimination of lead, three were unaffected, and four saw their levels drop by about half. The study only lasted a few months, though, and the difference wasn’t statistically significant. So, what would happen in a year? Subjects made the shift to a diet “characterized by large amounts of raw vegetables, fruits, unrefined foods, and whole-meal products [whole grains] and the exclusion of meat, poultry, fish, and eggs” (though it did include fermented dairy, like a type of soured milk). They also cut back on processed foods and junk. Researchers took clippings of their hair before and after the dietary shift and got significant reductions in heavy metals, including cutting their lead level nearly in half. As you can see at 3:28 in my video, within three months of the dietary shift, the mercury, cadmium, and lead that had been oozing from their body into their hair went down and stayed down. How do we know the reduction in toxic heavy metal levels wasn’t just a coincidence? A few years after the study was over, after the participants had gone back to more of their regular diet, their mercury, cadmium, and lead levels shot back up to where they were before. Researchers found the same with a different group of subjects after two years on a vegetarian diet. The drop in mercury is easy to explain, as it’s presumably due to the drastic drop in fish consumption, and the drop in alcoholic beverages may have contributed to the drop in lead. There also could have been a cadmium-like effect, where the decrease in hair lead content could be due to the dietary shift that resulted in less absorption of lead into the body in the first place. I have a 16-part series on lead, starting with How the Lead Paint Industry Got Away with It. The series includes videos with specific food recommendations. For example, check out Best Food for Lead Poisoning: Garlic and Yellow Bell Peppers for Male Infertility and Lead Poisoning? KEY TAKEAWAYS Substantial quantities of lead have been found in some over-the-counter calcium supplements, and there is continued public health concerns over bonemeal. Although bonemeal is not as popular today, we may be getting exposed to lead indirectly through the animals we eat. Millions of tons of meat and bonemeal are produced each year in the United States as slaughterhouse by-products and may be fed back to farm animals, particularly chickens. Most of the lead in the bonemeal passes through them into their, but that cow, pig, and chicken feces may then be fed back once again to farm animals. In this way, levels of contaminants may build up in their bodies. These kinds of recycled feeding practices, such as feeding cows to pigs, chickens, and even other cows, facilitate the spread of prion diseases, like mad cow, but they also magnify other toxic substances, including lead. Lead is a toxin found in meat, but half of our dietary exposure likely comes from plant foods. (Notably, wild game can have a thousand times more lead than most other foods.) It’s not what we eat, though; it’s what we absorb, and researchers have found that the uptake of toxic heavy metals from “animal food sources” into our intestinal lining cells may be higher than from vegetable sources, explaining why vegetarians can have some of the lowest concentrations of lead and cadmium in their blood, despite having higher concentrations in their diet. After changing to a vegetarian diet, there seems to be a tendency towards higher fecal elimination of lead. Indeed, researchers took clippings of study participants’ hair before and after the dietary shift and found significant reductions in heavy metals, including cutting their lead level nearly in half and lowering the mercury and cadmium in their bodies. A few years after the study concluded and the subjects had gone back to more of their regular diet, their mercury, cadmium, and lead levels elevated back up. To read the original article click here.

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Lead Contamination in Calcium Supplements

AHA Publisher — Fri, 24 Sep 2021 07:00:56 +0000

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM via Nutrition Facts – Do calcium citrate and calcium carbonate have as much lead as calcium supplements derived from dolomite and animal bone? You may remember I’ve explored the role calcium supplements may play in reducing lead exposure during pregnancy and breastfeeding, but that assumes the supplements themselves are not contaminated. Supplements with lead? It all started with an extraordinary case report published in 1977, entitled “Lead-Contaminated Health Food.” As I discuss in my video Lead in Calcium Supplements, a doctor prescribed a dietary supplement for a young woman with painful periods. Not just any young woman, though. She was television and movie star Allison Hayes, famous for her roles in films such as Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. And, not just any physician, but Dr. Henry Bieler, physician to the stars, who told his patients to forget about toxic drugs; “food is your best medicine,” as you can see in an advertisement shown at 0:44 in my video. In this case, it was a calcium supplement made from horse bone. She took it every day, but got weaker and sicker, and by “1967, her acting career ended when she became unable to walk without a cane.” Ms. Hayes saw doctor after doctor after doctor, 22 in all, to no avail. She reported she concluded she had three options: “(1) commit suicide, (2) go to a psychiatrist to attempt to learn to live with the pain…; or (3) find the answer myself.” She had some friends drive her to a medical library. By then, she couldn’t even walk and had to be carried in. She sat on the floor inside the library, day after day, and finally came across a book on industrial toxicology that described what she soon realized was a classic case of lead poisoning. She paid to have the calcium supplement tested, and, indeed, it was full of lead. At first, she was relieved. “Then the anger set in.” Doctor after doctor had essentially dismissed her as hysterical, and, ultimately, she had to depend on herself to educate them. The silver lining was that, in a letter, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration actually credited “the intrepid actress for being ‘a key stimulus’” for the agency’s plans to start looking into regulating heavy metals in foods and supplements. Unfortunately, the letter arrived after Ms. Hayes had already died from leukemia, which may have been triggered by the lead poisoning or the 300 x-ray exams she got from those “22 baffled physicians.” Wouldn’t you think the supplement industry would clean up its own act? “It is unrealistic to expect the ‘health food’ industry and ‘wellness’ press to dampen their evangelistic promotion of these products on a unilateral basis,” that is, on their own. Where did the lead in her supplements even come from? Remember, she had been taking a calcium supplement made from horse bone. Lead gets stored in your bones, so when you take supplements made out of bones, you can get exposed. In that case, was that one calcium supplement just the “tip of an iceberg”? At first, we thought it was just from the bone supplements and dolomite, a mineral that can be contaminated with lead, but then calcium carbonate—oyster shell calcium, chelated calcium─was found to have comparable lead levels to animal bone, as you can see at 2:56 in my video. This inspired a comprehensive survey of the lead content of 70 different brands of calcium supplements. As you can see at 3:09 in my video, lead levels “varied by almost 300-fold,” with some two, three, or even four times the tolerable daily intake of lead for children. More than half of the most common, “natural source calcium supplements,” like those containing oyster shell, had lead ingestion rates exceeding the benchmark for children. A follow-up study confirmed that most calcium supplements from natural sources exceeded at least some of the most stringent lead standards, but the levels only got up to about 8 micrograms, whereas some of the synthetic sources were up to three times that, as you can see at 3:27 in my video. A small human study of calcium citrate was performed in which bone biopsies were taken before and after about five years of supplementation. As you can see at 3:49 in my video, there was no change in the control group, as expected, and only a statistically insignificant increase in the calcium citrate group. However, “one cannot assume that a given brand is uniformly safe, because some of their products may have high and others low lead levels.” What does this mean? “Patients and consumers ought not assume safe lead levels from preparations that have brand names or are supplied by recognized pharmaceutical companies”—that is, there’s no guarantee, even if we’re familiar with the manufacturer. There is some good news, though. After decades of concern, lead levels in calcium supplements have come down. In fact, they’ve come down so much that changes in lead levels in your blood, taking the average lead-contaminated calcium supplement, would be minimal at this point. So, these findings on lead contamination of supplements should be a cause for celebration, not alarm—at least according to a consultant to a calcium supplement manufacturer. What an amazing—and amazingly sad—story. KEY TAKEAWAYS The levels of lead in calcium supplements have decreased after decades of concern, but even widely recognized pharmaceutical companies and well-known brand names may not guarantee safety. Lead is stored in bones, so taking calcium supplements made from bones, for example, may give you exposure. Calcium carbonate (chelated calcium, or oyster shell calcium) has also been found to have comparable levels of lead to animal bone. In a survey of the lead content of 70 brands of calcium supplements, more than half were found to have lead ingestion rates exceeding the benchmark for children. Allison Haynes, famed actor from such films as Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, took a daily calcium supplement made from horse bone and deteriorated so greatly she became unable to walk. When doctors were unable to diagnose her, she pored over books at a medical library and, after reviewing a book on industrial toxicology, realized she had a classic case of lead poisoning. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration credited the late Ms. Haynes for being “a key stimulus” for its plans to consider regulating heavy metals in foods and supplements. To read the original article click here.

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Why You Don’t Want “Normal” Blood Lead Levels

AHA Publisher — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 07:00:44 +0000

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM via Nutrition Facts – “By the 1950s, lead—a dangerous neurotoxin that was once buried deep in the ground, far away from humans—had polluted the entire planet.” We have leaded gasoline to thank for this. It’s hard to imagine “a better strategy for maximizing population exposure to a poison than to have it emitted by a ubiquitous mobile source and to line the surfaces of dwellings” and our neighborhoods with it. “Overall, about 5 million metric tons of lead was deposited in the environment as a result of the combustion of leaded gasoline” by our automobiles before it was regulated. A single busy street could receive more than a metric ton a year, and the lead just built up, decade after decade. Finally, thanks to regulations starting in the 1970s, we stopped spewing so much into the air. As you can see at 0:57 in my video “Normal” Blood Lead Levels Can Be Toxic, as lead use dropped, so did the levels of lead in our blood, resulting in a 98 percent reduction in the percentage of young children with elevated blood lead levels. Of course, the term “elevated” is relative. “Prior to 1970, lead poisoning was defined by a blood lead concentration of 60 mg/dL or higher” but “since then, the blood lead concentration for defining lead toxicity gradually has been reduced” to 40 mg/dL, then 30 mg/dL, then 25 mg/dL, and then further down to 10mg/dL, as lead levels “previously thought to be safe or inconsequential for children have consistently been shown to be risk factors” for cognitive and behavioral problems. Currently, an elevated blood lead level is considered to be more than 5 mg/dL. So, under 5 mg/dL, your lead level is considered to be non-elevated or normal. But what does having a “normal” lead level mean? “Virtually all residents of industrialized countries have bone lead stores that are several orders of magnitude greater than those of our preindustrial ancestors.” If you go to a museum and test the lead levels of ancient skeletons buried a millennium ago, they are a thousand times lower compared to people today, “which indicates the probable existence within most Americans of dysfunctions caused by poisoning from chronic, excessive overexposures to industrial Pb lead.” You can see a graphical representation of “body burdens of lead” in a preindustrial ancestor, a typical American citizen, and a person with overtly symptomatic lead poisoning, where he might be doubled over in pain, at 2:30 in my video. What the medical and research communities had failed to understand is that they had only concerned themselves with people with actual lead poisoning and those at “typical” lead levels, but “the new value for natural lead levels in [preindustrial] humans shows that typical levels of lead in humans are quite definitely not properly described by the term ‘very low levels’ at all, but instead constitute grossly excessive, 1000-fold over-exposure levels.” The bottom line? “No level of lead exposure appears to be ‘safe’ and even the current ‘low’ levels of exposure in children are associated with neurodevelopmental deficits,” including reduced IQ. It could have been a lot worse if we hadn’t started restricting leaded gas. Thanks to falling blood lead levels starting in the 1970s, preschoolers born in the 1990s were two to five IQ points higher than kids like me born before 1976. So, when we see our kids and grandkids being such wizzes at technology that it’s hard to keep up with them, a small part of that may be them not suffering as much lead-induced brain damage as we did. And, what that means for the country is potentially hundreds of billions of dollars of improved productivity because our children are less brain-damaged. If that seems like a lot for just a few IQ points, as you can see at 4:26 in my video, what you have to realize is that even a small shift in average IQ could result in a 50 percent increase in the number of the “mentally retarded,” millions more in need of special education and services. So, “removal of lead from gasoline in the United States has been described as one of the great public health achievements of the 20th century, but it almost did not happen.” Indeed, “tremendous pressure by the lead industry itself was brought to bear to quiet, even intimidate, researchers and clinicians who reported on or identified lead as a hazard.” Decent “scientists and health officials faced enormous opposition but never lost sight of the mandate to protect public health.” Two of the “young, idealistic employees” at the newly formed Environmental Protection Agency, who played key roles in the fight, recount how “naïve [they were] to the ways of Washington”: “Our youth was also used against us. Our inexperience was cited as a reason for rejecting the lead regulatory proposals….Finally, in retrospect, our youth and inexperience also helped us to succeed in taking on a billion dollar industry. We were too young to know, that regulating lead in gasoline was impossible.” To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Greger click here.

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Harmful Metals Found in Vapors From Tank-Style Electronic Cigarettes

AHA Publisher — Mon, 30 Sep 2019 07:00:34 +0000

University of California – Riverside via EurekAlert – “Concentrations of the metals, such as lead, in the aerosols increased with more voltage,” Williams said. “Concentrations of some elements – chromium, lead, and nickel – were high enough to be a health concern. We found the concentrations of chromium, copper, lead, nickel, and zinc exceeded the proposed permissible exposure limit from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.” RIVERSIDE, Calif. – A team of scientists at the University of California, Riverside, has found the concentration of metals in electronic cigarette aerosols – or vapor – has increased since tank-style electronic cigarettes were introduced in 2013. Electronic cigarettes, which consist of a battery, atomizing unit, and refill fluid, are now available in new tank-style designs, equipped with more powerful batteries and larger capacity reservoirs for storing more refill fluid. But the high-power batteries and atomizers used in these new styles can alter the metal concentrations that transfer into the aerosol. “These tank-style e-cigarettes operate at higher voltage and power, resulting in higher concentrations of metals, such as lead, nickel, iron, and copper, in their aerosols,” said Monique Williams, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Molecular, Cell, and Systems Biology, and the first author of the research paper that appears today in Scientific Reports. “Most of the metals in e-cigarette aerosols likely come from the nichrome wire, tin solder joints, brass clamps, insulating sheaths, and wicks – components of the atomizer unit.” The researchers examined six tank-style electronic cigarettes and found all the aerosols had metals that appeared to originate in the atomizers. Further, they found the model with fewest metal parts in its atomizer had the fewest metals in its aerosol. Of the 19 metals they screened, aluminum, calcium, chromium, copper, iron, lead, magnesium, nickel, silicon, tin, and zinc were from components in the atomizing units. “Concentrations of the metals, such as lead, in the aerosols increased with more voltage,” Williams said. “Concentrations of some elements – chromium, lead, and nickel – were high enough to be a health concern. We found the concentrations of chromium, copper, lead, nickel, and zinc exceeded the proposed permissible exposure limit from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.” Chromium, lead, and nickel are known carcinogens. Prolonged exposure to chromium could cause gastrointestinal effects, nasal and lung cancer, respiratory irritation, and lung function impairment. Prolonged exposure to lead could produce vomiting, diarrhea, cardiovascular effects, and lung cancer. Nickel inhalation could cause lung disease, damage to the nasal cavity, lung irritation, lung inflammation, hyperplasia in pulmonary cells, and fibrosis. The researchers analyzed the following six tanks and their atomizers: Kangertech Protank, Aspire Nautilus tank, Kanger T3S tank, Tsunami 2.4, Smok tank, and Clone. They collected aerosols from these brands using two methods and found the total concentrations of metals varied, ranging from 43 to 3,138 micrograms per liter with the “impinger method” of collection and 226 to 6,767 micrograms per liter with the “cold trap method.” “When batteries with more power are used in these tank-style e-cigarettes, their atomizing units can heat to temperatures greater than 300 C, which could produce harmful byproducts,” said Prue Talbot, a professor of cell biology, who led the research team. “The presence of heavy metals, including some known carcinogens, in e-cigarette aerosols is concerning because with prolonged exposure they could cause adverse health effects. “Our data on tank-style e-cigarettes and the concentrations of metals they deliver may be useful to regulatory agencies, health care providers, and consumers,” she added. To read the original article click here.

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How Endocrine Disruptors Destroy Your Body + The Dirty Dozen to Avoid

AHA Publisher — Fri, 27 Sep 2019 02:35:15 +0000

Leah Zerbe, MS, NASM-CPT, NASM-CES via Dr. Axe – …[W]hen you’re looking at endocrine disruptors… even seriously tiny doses can lead to devastating health effects. But sometimes these health impacts don’t show up for years or even decades down the line after exposure. And unlike high-dose poisonings, it’s not as easy to make the cause-and-effect connection. BPA’s toxic effects are well-publicized. From the lining of canned foods to polycarbonate hard plastics to even the thermal coatings on cash register receipts, this is one of the world’s most proven bad news endocrine disruptors. BPA is linked to everything from hormone-related breast and prostate cancers to polycystic ovarian syndrome and early puberty. But did you know BPA is just one of at least a thousand chemicals or chemical mixtures that can tinker with our bodies’ delicate hormonal systems, setting us up for disease? (1) Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) like phthalates, triclosan and even compounds detected in fish you should never eat are among the 85,000-plus manufactured chemicals in use in the United States. They’re found in everyday products and throughout the environment. For instance, did you know that things like atrazine increase tap water toxicity? It’s true. Research spanning the last 25 years implicates endocrine disruptors in many health problems, including male reproductive disorders, premature death, obesity and diabetes, neurological impacts, breast cancer, endometriosis, female reproductive disorders, immune disorders, liver cancer, osteoporosis, Parkinson’s symptoms, prostate cancer, and thyroid disorders. Our current laws clearly aren’t working, and policies are needed to protect people from the harmful consequences of EDC exposure. Until Congress makes it illegal for companies to put such toxic ingredients in our products, it’s unfortunately up to us to do our best to avoid hormone-disrupting chemicals. (2) But it certainly makes a strong case for electing officials who back meaningful chemical reform, doesn’t it? It seems unfair busy families should have to go to these lengths just to stay safe. What Do Endocrine Disruptors Do? First we need to ask: What is an endocrine disruptor? According to the National Institute of Environmental Health Science, endocrine disruptors are chemicals that may interfere with the body’s endocrine system and produce adverse developmental, reproductive, neurological and immune effects in both humans and wildlife. The damage is believed to be most severe during prenatal or early pregnancy exposure. (3) “From the day of conception until an individual is born or hatched, the development of each stage of life is fully under the control of hormones. “Changes that happen during development are far less reversible [than those occurring in an adult]; you can’t go back and rewire the brain.”— the late Theo Colborn, Ph.D., zoologist and founder and president of the Endocrine Disruption Exchange What Makes Up Your Endocrine System? Let’s take a step back. How do we define endocrine? What does endocrine mean? The endocrine system, made up of all the body’s different hormones, regulates all biological processes in the body from conception through adulthood and into old age. This includes the: (4) • development of the brain and nervous system • growth and function of the reproductive system • function of metabolism and blood sugar levels Major components of the endocrine system include: • female ovaries • male testes • pituitary gland • thyroid gland • adrenal glands Other components include the: • pineal gland • thymus • hyperthalamus • parathyroid glands • pancreas • Hypothalamus The hypothalamus links our endocrine and nervous systems together. The hypothalamus drives the endocrine system. Pituitary Gland The pituitary gland receives signals from the hypothalamus. This posterior lobe secretes hormones that are made by the hypothalamus. The anterior lobe produces its own hormones. Some of these act on other endocrine glands. Thyroid Gland This gland is critical to the healthy development and maturation of humans. It also regulates metabolism. Adrenal Glands Made up of two glands, the cortex and medulla, the adrenal glands produce hormones in response to stress. Adrenal glands also regulate blood pressure, glucose metabolism, and the body’s salt and water balance. Pancreas The pancreas is responsible for producing glucagon and insulin. Both hormones help regulate the concentration of glucose (sugar) in the blood. Gonads The male reproductive gonads are called testes. The female’s reproductive gonads are ovaries. Both produce steroids that affect growth and development and also regulate reproductive cycles and behaviors. The most prominent gonadal steroids are found in both men and women but at different levels. These include: • androgens • estrogens • progestins Endocrine Disruptors: The Dose Doesn’t Make the Poison When it comes to chemicals and toxicology, it seems logical to think higher doses of something are more dangerous because the health impacts are more immediate and obvious (just think about what happens when someone is exposed to high levels of pesticides — immediate poisoning warrants an emergency situation). But when you’re looking at endocrine disruptors, it’s different. Even seriously tiny doses can lead to devastating health effects. But sometimes these health impacts don’t show up for years or even decades down the line after exposure. And unlike high-dose poisonings, it’s not as easy to make the cause-and-effect connection. Researchers are making huge breakthroughs showing how endocrine-disrupting chemicals impact human health. And it’s not pretty. (It’s also costing the U.S. health care system a boatload. More on that later). “For decades, studies of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) have challenged traditional concepts in toxicology, in particular the dogma of ‘the dose makes the poison,’ because EDCs can have effects at low doses that are not predicted by effects at higher doses.” — Lauren Vandenberg, Ph.D., lead study author (5) Our hormonal systems are so delicate that even tiny exposures to endocrine-disrupting chemicals at key points of development could set us up for disease later in life. We’re taking exposures measured in the parts per billion. To put that into context, it’s like one drop in 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Member scientists of the Endocrine Society issued a report in which they claim: “We present the evidence that endocrine disruptors have effects on male and female reproduction, breast development and cancer, prostate cancer, neuroendocrinology, thyroid, metabolism and obesity and cardiovascular endocrinology.” (6) The ‘Dirty Dozen’ Endocrine Disruptors With more than a thousand potential hormone disruptors out there, Environmental Working Group scientists created a list of the 12 most damaging and prominent endocrine disruptors to avoid: The Brain Drain and Economic Cost of Endocrine Disruptors The negative health effects of endocrine disruptors are so widespread that endocrine disruptors, according to an analysis in Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, cost the United States over 2 percent of its gross domestic product — a median of $340 billion annually. Researchers predict these numbers are even lower than the reality, since only a portion of endocrine-disrupting chemicals were analyzed. This report is a huge deal because for the first time, we’re able to put a conservative estimate on how the ingredients in many everyday products are costing us our health (and money to treat). (7) In my opinion, it just doesn’t seem fair that companies get to profit from this while the citizens are stuck with the bill and illnesses. How to Avoid Endocrine Disruptors Avoid Plastics Plastics contain endocrine disruptors that leach into food and water, particularly when heated. Opt for glass when possible, and don’t heat food in plastic containers or coated paperboard. University of Missouri analysts studying breast cancer growth found that a brand of water bottled in plastic caused a 78 percent increase in the cancer cell proliferation. (8) Grecian researchers at the University of Ioannina found that after heating olive oil for 10 minutes at full power, 604.6 milligrams of the plasticizer DOA leeched from the plastic wrap into the oil. (9) Researchers Oi-Wah Lau and Siu-Kay Wong found that the fat content in cheeses caused the migration of plasticizers from cling wrap to increase exponentially: 60 percent after 10 minutes of microwave heating. (10) Take on BPA This is one of the worst hormone disruptors out there, in my opinion. Animal studies suggest exposure to it today can actually impact three future generations. (11) It’s clear we need stronger chemical reform laws to protect us from these widespread threats. In the meantime, avoid canned food and instead choose fresh or frozen. And just eat less packaged foods in general. In 2016, EWG found 16,000 foods and drinks that come in cans, bottles and jars could contain the estrogen-like chemical BPA. The EWG report found BPA is commonly used in: • The lids of glass jars for baby food, pickles, jelly, salsa and other condiments • Aerosol cans for whipped toppings and nonstick sprays • Bottles and tins of cooking oil • Aluminum beverage cans, metal coffee cans and even beer kegs (12) Use Safe Household Cleansers Avoid phthalates and other hormone disruptors by making your own cleaners. Buy environmentally safe laundry detergents and dishwashing liquid. You can also make your own cleansers of every type, like all-natural homemade laundry soap, homemade oven cleaner and homemade household cleaner. Back off on the antibacterial soaps and cleaners, and use less chemical disinfectants. The FDA is banning triclosan and more than a dozen other antibacterial ingredients, but many will be on the market until September 2017. The replacement ingredients may not be necessary or safe, either, so just stick to regular Castile soap and water. Rethink Your Birth Control Choosing a more natural approach to birth control is safer than hormonal forms of contraception, especially since we now know birth control causes depression in some women. Conventional birth control pills work by putting synthetic forms of estrogen and progestin into the body. Adding unnatural hormones throws off the natural hormone balance in the body, resulting in unwanted birth control side effects. Condoms and non-hormonal IUDs are other options to consider. Read Your Health and Beauty Product Labels The average person uses nine different personal care products a day that contain a whopping 126 different ingredients, according to EWG. (13) While the list of hormone-disrupting chemicals in cosmetics is long, here’s a great trick to quickly weed out products that likely contain endocrine-disrupting phthalates. Look on the ingredients list. If you see “fragrance” or “parfum,” avoid it. Those are catch-all terms that can include 3,000+ chemicals that often include phthalates. You can also rate your current personal care products and find safer ones at Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety database. Change Your Diet What we eat and drink has a great deal to do with how many hormone disruptors we end up with. Anti-estrogenic diets have three major components: eating farther down on the food chain, eating less processed and chemically laden foods, and supplementing your diet with compounds that decrease estrogen excess and help your body to eliminate added hormones. • Avoid processed and refined foods. Besides the many food additives and chemicals that processed and refined foods contain, the lack of fiber and extra sugar overwhelm your colon and liver so that circulating hormones are reabsorbed rather than eliminated. • Avoid pesticides and herbicides. Buying organic can limit your intake of endocrine disruptors in and on fruits and vegetables. • Buy pasture-raised animal products. Your best bet is to connect with a local farmer and learn about their farming practices. The ultimate goal is for the animal to to eat a natural, pesticide- and GMO-free diet. If that’s not possible, look for “American Grassfed” products or “Animal Welfare Approved.” When it comes to eggs, remember that “free-range” doesn’t necessarily mean that animals have access to grass. For eggs, pasture-raised and organic is the gold standard. “Natural” means nothing, so don’t trust that on the label. • Eat detox veggies. The more fresh vegetables you eat, the lower you’re eating on the food chain. Toxins accumulate in the tissues of animals. Fresh veggies have a whole host of health benefits, as well as the ability to deflect excess estrogens. Cruciferous veggies, such as broccoli and cabbage, contain flavones and indoles that are particularly effective at battling estrogen excess. And, of course, avoid the high-estrogen foods. • Buy...

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