Did you know we are inundated with hormonal disruptors in our environment every day? Ever wonder why women and now men can’t seem to get a handle on their hormonal health and live a balanced sane life? Many of the hormonal disruptors cause the human body to increase production of certain hormones; decrease production of others; imitate hormones; turn one hormone into another; interfere with hormone signaling; tell cells to die prematurely; compete with essential nutrients; bind to essential hormones and accumulate in organs that produce hormones. Wow! That’s complete hormonal imbalance and it no wonder doctors and hormonal specialists cannot get a handle on treating patients with imbalances effectively.
Let’s take a look at the top hormonal disruptors and how to avoid them. BPA This is the chemical found in plastic water bottles. Drinking from BPA-containing bottles whether they are water bottles or baby bottles (God-forbid!) they will imitate hormones in your body. BPA has been linked to everything from breast and others cancers to reproductive problems, obesity, early puberty and heart disease, and according to government tests. The consensus is 93% of Americans have BPA in their bodies. How to Avoid BPA Avoid cans lined with BPA. Avoid plastics with PC stamped on the bottle or stamped with #7 on them. Buy a water filter and pour it into a stainless steel or glass container for safer drinking water. Dioxin This one is a bad one. Dioxin disrupts how female and male sex hormones signal throughout the body. Dioxin lasts a very long time in the body wrecking havoc and will lower sperm count in males during their reproductive years. Dioxin is a powerful carcinogen, so it causes cancer and most likely linked to hormonal cancers of the breast, uterus, ovaries and prostate. How to Avoid Dioxin Very difficult to avoid and is found meat, fish, eggs and milk, and is very prevalent throughout the American food supply. Maybe going vegan will help reduce one’s contact with this dangerous chemical. Atrazine This herbicide turns male frogs into more feminized frogs. That means male frogs and lay eggs, so what do you think it’s doing to males in America? Anyone want to tackle that subject? Used on most of the corn crops in America and then it seeps into the ground water affecting the rest of the non-corn eating population. But corn is used in many different foods, so read your labels! Atrazine has been linked to breast tumors, delayed puberty and prostate inflammation in animals, and some research has linked it to prostate cancer in people. How to Avoid Atrazine Buy organic food and buy a water filter for your home. Phthalates This chemical is a cell killer. It induces death of our cells, even though millions of cells die in our body every day, we don’t need to help it kill more cells than necessary. So what cells does it target? Well men, it kills your balls, I mean your testicles. Phthalates are linked to hormone changes, lower sperm count, less mobile sperm, birth defects in the male reproductive system, obesity, diabetes and thyroid irregularities. Men, if you are wanting to have children this is one chemical you want to avoid. How to Avoid Phthalates Stop using plastic containers. Don’t wrap your food in plastic that contains #3 on the label. If a product is labelled ‘fragrance’ this avoid it. This is a catch-all term to let you know if contains phthalates. Perchlorate This is a component of rocket fuel. We all need a boost sometimes, but not like this! Found in produce and milk are the most common places. When perchlorate gets into your body it competes with the nutrient iodine, which the thyroid gland needs to make thyroid hormones. Basically, this means that if you ingest too much of it you can end up altering your thyroid hormone balance. Also, it’s very bad for young children as it can alter their endocrine health. How to Avoid Perchlorate To reduce your intake, install a reverse osmosis water filter in your home and office. In your food, it’s almost impossible to avoid it altogether. So going organic and vegan maybe ways to reduce your risk to this chemical. Fire Retardants Swedish scientists discovered in human breast milk and found in to polar bears. This tells you it’s found everywhere! These chemicals can imitate thyroid hormones in our bodies and disrupt their activity. That can lead to lower IQ, among other significant health effects. These types of chemicals are like a nuclear meltdown. The damage is going to last to decades and those born today will be affected for many years to come. You can thank mankind for these chemicals and their total disregard for the safety and health of the human race. How to Avoid Fire Retardants Almost impossible to avoid. Replace all your filters with HEPA filters even down to your vacuum cleaner as your carpets most likely have it in them. Lead Can you believe we are still talking about lead in this day and age? Yep, this exists. Lead harms children and of course all adults. Lead causes neurological damage. including permanent brain damage, lowered IQ, hearing loss, miscarriage, premature birth, increased blood pressure, kidney damage and nervous system problems. But few people realize that one other way that lead may affect your body is by disrupting your hormones. In animals, lead has been found to lower sex hormone levels. Research has also shown that lead can disrupt the hormone signaling that regulates the body’s major stress system (called the HPA axis). How to Avoid Lead Keep your house clean. Remove old paint and buy a water filter. Eat organically, we healthy food with natural minerals like calcium and magnesium can help remove lead from the body. Using cilantro and chlorella are green foods that bind heavy metals and removes them safely from the body. Arsenic Arsenic is found in your food and drinking water. Just like in the movies if you get enough of it, will kill you. In smaller amounts, arsenic can cause skin, bladder and lung cancer. Basically, bad news. Less well known: Arsenic interferes with normal hormone functioning in the glucocorticoid system that regulates how our bodies process sugars and carbohydrates. Well, disrupting the glucocorticoid system has been linked to weight gain/loss, protein wasting, immunosuppression, insulin resistance (which can lead to diabetes), osteoporosis, growth retardation and high blood pressure. How to Avoid Arsenic Simply buy a water filter and eat organic as much as possible. Mercury This is not the car brand Ford discontinued a few years back, it’s a dangerous heavy metal. Mercury has a half life of 40 years, which means we will never get rid of it, but we can reduce our exposure. Pregnant women are the most at risk from the toxic effects of mercury, since the metal is known to concentrate in the fetal brain and can interfere with brain development. Mercury is also known to bind directly to one particular hormone that regulates women’s menstrual cycle and ovulation, interfering with normal signaling pathways. Mercury can lead to diabetes as it damage the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. How to Avoid Mercury If you want to eat seafood, limit it to organic salmon and organically farm raised trout. Our oceans are full of mercury so you sushi lovers might want to pick something else to eat. Perfluorinated chemicals (Non-Stick Cooking Surfaces) 99 percent of Americans have these chemicals in their bodies. One chemical known as PFOA does not breakdown in the human body or the environment.Talk about killing the planet! You can ban this substance and it will still be found in generations to come. PFOA exposure has been linked to decreased sperm quality, low birth weight, kidney disease, thyroid disease and high cholesterol, among other health issues. How to Avoid Perfluorinated Chemicals Avoid non-stick pans and water resistant clothing, furniture and carpets. Organophosphate Pesticides These are chemicals which are the most common pesticides that target the nervous system of insects. These interfere with the way testosterone communicates with cells, lowering testosterone and altering thyroid hormone levels. How to Avoid Organophosphate Pesticides Buy organic produce and wash your fruits and vegetables before eating to reduce exposure. Glycol Esters Ever tell a man to grow a pair of balls? If he’s exposed to glycol esters, he’ll have small ones and growing a manly pair will be out of the question. The EU says these can be responsible for damage to fertility and the unborn child. Glycol esters are found in common solvents in paints, cleaning products, brake fluid and cosmetics. Check the paint in your child’s room as this can cause allergies and asthma. How to Avoid Glycol Esters Avoid products with ingredients such as 2-butoxyethanol (EGBE) and methoxydiglycol (DEGME). Read the labels on paint and household cleaning products.
2 Comments
Constance
6/6/2018 11:27:30 am
I am really glad that you have touched on this subject as it has been a real concern of mine for awhile now.....I would love it if you would tackle the subject of plastics in our lives as it impacts all of us to one degree or another. ...I recently read that they (scientists experts?) are now saying that no form of plastic is safe. What isn't made of plastic today? Food packaging, toys, garden tools, walk in tubs, etc...Go into any home and we could find a mountain of plastic products.... I always had a suspicion that was true that there were never any really healthy plastics but money is always a bottom line for some corporations. I like glass for storage myself and always have yet I must admit I too have fallen into the habit of using some plastics. It is almost unavoidable even with organic food that I buy at the grocery store as we all know is packaged in some form of plastic. And oh, yea, many of my vitamins are packaged in plastic as well although I do try to buy as much as possible stored in glass bottles. I ask myself many times why companies who sell nutritional products would use plastic to store their clean and healthy nutritional products in....it seems to me if they were truly committed to health they would not support the very industry that hinders most of our health... Organic and vitamin companies who have not already been bought out by Big Pharma need to make the commitment to use glass. We need to form a solid front and invest in glass and write letters to restaurants, to stores, and associations of all kinds, as well as our elected officials and share with them our concerns. America's health issues and Health Insurance issues have so much to do with our food chain...from the soil to the storing and preparing of it. We cannot avoid the truth and we must take responsibility for our own families health and be proactive about it. Thanks for all the great things you do Doctor Ward.....I hope you will tackle this subject even though I know some of your own products use plastic for storage too, I know we get between a rock and a hard place at times, and this is one of those times, unfortunately.....We have to start somewhere to get off this terrible revolving door. God bless you .
Dr Bond
6/6/2018 02:43:39 pm
Hello Constance, you are absolutely right. I do know that many of the plastic bottles that the nutritional companies use are pharmaceutical grade to prevent leaching of chemicals into nutrients. Many avoid using glass only due to the high cost of shipping as the cost is applied by weight. But for our food, plastics need to be outlawed for our safety and also for the sake of the environment. Many of these chemicals take decades to breakdown and can harm our bodies just like the chemicals listed above in the article. Thank you so much for taking the time to write and I look forward to tackling the subject on plastics in the near future! God bless you! Stay passionate! Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
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