Docs speak out about EDCs - BPA, phlatates, DDT, receipt paper

Receipt paper, hard plastic bottles, food can liners, baby bottles, plastic bags, drugs, many cosmetics...what do they have in common? These and other products contain compounds linked by hundreds of research studies to endocrine and reproductive system disruption. Last week, the Endocrine Society issued its first-ever statement confirming concerns about EDCs, or endocrine disruption chemicals (BPA or bisphenol A, phlatates and DDT, etc.) is evidence-based.

The concerns aren’t new. More than 15 years ago at the first World Wildlife Fund Wingspread Conference, expert scientists concluded “Many compounds introduced into the environment by human activity are capable of disrupting the endocrine system of animals, including fish, wildlife, and humans.” EDCs affect the hormones that control physical development.

And a decade ago, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) was given a mandate to develop test protocols to screen for endocrine effects of chemicals.

Since then, hundreds of peer-reviewed studies have shown associations between EDC exposure and adverse impact in humans. During the same period, new manmade chemicals have been added to the synthetic scene, and scientists have expressed concern about EDCs’ potential role in the increasing occurrence of behavioral disorders, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.

Possible impacts on animals include early breast development in young women, breast and prostate cancer in humans, bird deaths, sex reversal and infertilify in fish, birth defects in amphibians, and high levels of anthropogenic (man-made) chemicals in polar bears, beluga whales, killer whales and Arctic foxes.

Skipping breakfast as diet-wrecker, declining testosterone effects among ENDO 09 topics

Robin will be writing for some other publications on some new study findings presented last week at ENDO 09, the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society (endo-society.org). These include:

* The power of a healthy breakfast in taming cravings for diet-busting foods. Another study proves the health value of eating breakfast, but explains why a nutritious breakfast (fruits and some carbs) curb appetite throughout the day. Study participants who skipped breakfast displayed far greater activity in the brain's reward centers when shown high-calorie junk food than those participants who ate a healthy breakfast. So evidently skipping a meal predisposes people on a neurobiological level to go for diet-busting foods.

* Declining testosterone levels in men as they age has now been linked to weight gain and the cluster of health problems known as metabolic syndrome.