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Please don't disrupt my endocrines!
Unless you've been living under a rock these past few years, or purposefully avoiding the newspaper, you've likely heard the term 'endocrine disruptor.' And it has a serious ring to it, doesn't it? Like when you hear the phrase you get an immediate sense that endocrines should definitely not be disrupted, and a sinking feel that maybe yours aren't safe. And you'd be right on both counts.
What's an endocrine, anyway? First off, it's the endocrine system, not just one lone endocrine (as I once thought). And this is one important system. Why? It produces and manages hormones, that's why. It accomplishes this through a complex system of glands and receptors throughout the body (familiar sounding glands like pituitary, thyroid, adrenal, ovaries, and testicles). Hormones (such as insulin, estrogen, and testosterone) are produced in these glands, travel through the bloodstream, and bind with matching receptors. These hormones control a bunch of important functions in the body, like growth, reproduction, blood pressure, and food utilization, to name but a few.
Now that you know all about the endocrine system, what's a disruptor? So glad you asked! A hormone disruptor is a substance from outside the body (yup, exogenous) that comes right in and acts like a hormone from inside the body (endogenous), thus disrupting a very delicate balance, preventing those endogenous hormones from doing what they do so well: bind with receptors. Check out this animated illustration of it all.
So what's the matter with that? As you saw if you watched the animated illustration, the exogenous hormones hog up receptors that the endogenous ones are supposed to connect with, disrupting the physiological function of the endogenous hormones. In other words, the unnatural, external substances enter the body and prevent our natural hormones from doing their jobs properly. Ugh. This malfunction can potentially interfere with our many hormonally - driven body processes.
Where do the exogenous hormones come from? People come into contact with chemcials that have estrogenic effects all the time - they're called EDCs, or endocrine disrupting chemicals. Some examples may sound very familiar: phthalates, bispheol-A, and PBDEs.
Concerned? So are we. Check out our healthy home tips to minimize exposures - they're easy and effective.
Learn more. And if you want to hear all this straight from EWG, watch
[diagram courtesy of WikiCommons]
Lisa, adding you to the staff was a great move on the EWG part. Super post and I'm so happy that we have the EWG to advocate for us. Ken's presentation is great. I will be sharing this over and over.
I would like to know how to clean apples. Nothing here tells me that. Thanks, Bette
Bette, You might find this past post on washing fruits & videos of interest re washing apples: http://bit.ly/97CYY.
Can you fix the link to Ken Cook's presentation? Would like to watch but not finding it easily. Thanks! And thanks for this explanation of EDCs--easy to understand for beginners.
If you are in the Rochester (NY) area, I teach educational classes on this topic. Contact me to schedule one today!
Hi
Have been reading your articles for a few years now and am wondering if any such work is done in Australia?
Secondly, would it be right to assume that the safe food list that you produce from US standards would be different for Australia?
Thanks for your great work which is a major contribution to public health.
Aggie
I found http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbwYnWN1zMg&feature=channel by Ken Cook, which I found interesting, but not sure if it is the talk that you are talking about. See http://bonnvie.healthyhometour.com/