By Berkson
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We live in a chemical soup. Every one thing affects everything else. Is this part of the unity that spirituality discusses? Is this what the philosopher Bucky Fuller meant when he referred to our planet as “spaceship earth”, meaning all we DO and ARE affects all of mother earth and you and I who live on it?
New research suggests that our chemical soup lowers blood levels of nutrients. This chemical soup especially reduces blood stream levels of your all-important vitamin D.
We live in a blend of over 85,000 manufactured chemicals. Many of these are now referred to as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC). This means they can adversely affect our major Internet signaling system in the body—our hormonal system. Veggies are important and so is exercise. But nothing is as important as our ability to signal. Thus, hormones rule. And chemicals that may usurp this rule are a serious issue. Especially for your unborn and young children.
Bisphenol A (BPA) is a well-known EDC. It is found in plastics and other consumer products. Food cans are lined with BPA. This includes those cans you buy that contain those organic garbanzo beans. Industry has been striving to discover safer alternatives but the ones they have come up with so far are just as dangerous as BPA so that BPA free label on those cans, at this moment in time, is rather useless.
Another group of chemicals linked to hormone disruption are phthalates. These are found in personal care products such as most perfumes, cosmetics, children’s products, food packaging and even medical tubing.
A new study looked at 4,667 adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) in the later half of the last decade. NHANES is a study looking at health issues and nutrients from samples of US folks just like you and me.
In this study these people had their blood tested for EDCs and vitamin D.
When I first wrote Hormone Deception two decades ago, most publishers didn’t think it was worthy of a book until McGraw-Hill did. When Dr. Oz interviewed me on his radio show at the time, even he was incredulous. Everyone has now changed their position. In the last several years various nations are publishing in peer review (well respected) journals that up to 90% of serious health woes are caused by or greatly influenced by the chemical soup we find ourselves flaying about in.
EDC disruption of nutrients may be one of the underlying mechanisms by which EDC exposure is being linked to so many illnesses. Even if you get adequate sunlight or take vitamin D supplements, EDCs may thwart your efforts. There are the studies that look at surfers exposed to sun for longer durations than most humans on the planet, and yet many of them had insufficient or low levels of vitamin D. EDCs at work?
More than 1,300 studies have found links between chemical exposure and health problems, including infertility, obesity (adult and childhood), diabetes, neurological problems, cognitive decline and hormone-related cancers.
Nearly every person on the planet is exposed to BPA. Pilot studies run at the prestigious Scripps Institute have shown that even healthy pregnant women have multiple chemicals in their amniotic fluid. The developing fetus is exposed to these EDCs all throughout a “healthy” pregnancy.
The understanding that EDC chemicals may even slightly reduce vitamin D levels has widespread implications. Vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium. Calcium directs the electrical system of your body. If the electrical system in your house went out, your life would be stymied. The same with the electrical system in your body. It’s critical. Vitamin D is also being implicated in outcomes of numerous conditions such as MS, chronic viral and bacterial infections, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, dementia, cancer and more.
EDCs are ubiquitous. This study found that phthalates were the most powerful inversely related compounds to levels of vitamin D in the bloodstream, even in tiny amounts. Phthalates are found in especially high levels in perfumes, which are applied after being in the shower when pores are open due to the hot water exposure. This may be why the link between phthalates and low blood levels of vitamin D was significantly stronger in women compared to men.
Hypothyroidism is rampant. Look at the success of Dr. Izabella Wentz’s book on hypothyroidism, the only self published book to make it to the NY Times Best Seller’s List. Why? The thyroid is one of the most sensitive organs to adverse effects of EDCs. The next most sensitive though highly unappreciated victims of EDCs are the lining of your gut and your pancreas, critical players in your immune system and how you take in food to nourish you.
In Hormone Deception I referred to one World Health Organization study where the more mercury amalgams a pregnant mom had in her mouth, the more likely her baby was to be born with a thyroid disease. This may also be the case with white dental fillings, which are BPA, and thyroid health in your baby or yourself.
5 tips to help protect yourself and your developing baby:
- Do not get dental fillings done while pregnant or breast-feeding. That is why planning a pregnancy is optimal as you can get whatever you need to get done before you get pregnant.
- Do not use perfume or nail polish or any non-organic make-up while pregnant or breast-feeding.
- Do not buy a new car while pregnant or breast-feeding as that “new car smell” are phthalates.
- Do not consume foods in cans while pregnant or breast-feeding.
- Consider “PRE-CONCEPTION DETOX” with experts in the field such as myself ([email protected]) or naturopaths and health coaches trained by environmental courses to do it safely and appropriately. Mild safe forms of detox are possible even during pregnancy. This then reduces the large amount of EDCs that mother’s milk delivers to the infant!
- Remove shoes before entering home as diverse EDCs are carried into your home on the bottom of your shoes.
- Lauren E. Johns, Kelly K. Ferguson, John D. Meeker. Relationships Between Urinary Phthalate Metabolite and Bisphenol A Concentrations and Vitamin D Levels in U.S. Adults: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 2005–2010. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2016; jc.2016-2134 DOI: 10.1210/jc.2016-2134
- Hormone Deception, 3rd printing 2016 Awakened Medicine Press
- Binkley N, Novotny R, Krueger D, Kawahara T, Daida YG, Lensmeyer G, et al. Low vitamin D status despite abundant sun exposure. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2007;92:2130-2135
- Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis: Lifestyle Interventions for Finding and Treating the Root Cause, 2013, Izabella Wentz PharmDand Marta Nowosadzka MD