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What are xenoestrogens? What is this new hypothesis of the
cause of PMS? John Lee, M.D. believes that an excess amount of estrogen causes PMS. Cattle and chicken
grown for consumption are routinely given estrogens to fatten them up. The cattle have water retention and increased
fat to make the meat more tender and weigh more. The same thing that happens to the chicken and cattle are happening
to America's women. PMS is increased weight gain and water retention.
Dr. Lee believes that xenoestrogens that we ingest in our environment
and estrogen supplements cause PMS.
Xeno literally means foreign. So xenoestrogens means foreign estrogens.
Some of the 70,000 registered chemicals for use in the United States have hormonal effects in addition to toxic
and carcinogenic effects. Also the synergistic effects are well documented but also largely unknown. The field
of xenohormones is new, and only been in existence since about 1991.
The body's hormones are at levels of parts per trillion. However,
many of the chemicals that affect the hormone systems are routinely found in the serum after sauna at parts per
billion. In other words, these chemicals that affect the hormone systems of the human body occur at 100 to 1000
times greater concentration than that of the normal human hormones. Additionally, many of these mimicking hormones
were thought to occur in pesticides. However, many of the newly discovered xenoestrogens are found in every day
previously though to be inert materials. The following is information taken from Our Stolen Future by Theo Colborn:
DDT
A study published in the Proceedings of the Society of Experimental
Biology and Medicine in 1950 by two Syracuse University Zoologists Lindeman and Burlington described how doses
of DDT prevented young roosters from developing normally. They injected DDT into roosters by injecting the pesticide
into forty young roosters for a period of 2 to 3 months. The daily doses of DDT did not kill the roosters or even
made them sick. It made them look weird; they looked like hens. The birds testicles were only 18% of normal size.
Their combs and wattles remained stunted and pale. The roosters were chemically castrated.
Micheal Fry, a wild life toxicologist, at the University of California
at Davis injected eggs from western and California gull colonies with DDT and a breakdown product of DDT, DDE,
and methoxychlor (another synthetic pesticide known to bind to estrogen receptors). He found the feminization of
the male's reproductive tracts. Typical female cells were found in the testicles, and in cases of higher doses,
the presence of an oviduct, the egg-laying canal normally found only in females. Despite all this internal disruption,
the chick looked completely normal.
DDT was found to bind to the estrogen receptor sites. It is now
considered one of the classic xenoestrogens.
DDT was banned in the United States. However, world wide production
of DDT has never been higher. In fact, some DDT is manufactured in the United States and shipped to third world
countries. DDT is metabolized to DDE in the human body within a few months. DDE then may last in the human body
for several decades. However, some medical doctors occasionally find DDT in the serum routinely following intensive
sauna. So where is this new exposure to DDT coming from? The United States ships DDT to third world countries that
spray it on vegetables and fruits. This agricultural produce is shipped to United States supermarkets where Americans
consume it. In 1991, the United States exported 96 tons of DDT.
Another source may come from your living area. If your house is
near or built upon old agricultural land, DDT will persist in the soil for several centuries.
Plastics, Spermacide, Detergent, and Personal Care Products
At Tufts Medical School in Boston in 1987 Soto and Sonnenschein
serendipitously discovered that plastic test tubes thought to be inert contained a chemical that stimulated breast
cancer cells to grow and proliferate wildly. They were experimenting with malignant breast cancer cells that were
sensitive to estrogen. When exposed to estrogen the cells would grow and multiply, and when isolated from estrogen,
the cells would stop multiplying.
During the course of their experiments, they found that the test
tube manufacturer changed the formulation of the plastic test tubes that they were using. The manufacturer had
used p-nonylphenol one of the family of synthetic chemicals called alkylphenols to make these plastics more stable
and less breakable. Manufacturers routinely add nonlyphenols to polystyrene and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). These
new test tubes caused their estrogen sensitive breast cancer cells to proliferate, multiply and grow. Thus, they
concluded that p-nonylphenol acted like an estrogen.
One study showed that the food processing industry and packaging
industry used PVC's that contained nonlyphenols. Another reported contamination of water that had passed through
PVC tubing. Even a compound found in contraceptive creams nonoxynol-9 breaks down inside the animal's body to produce
nonylphenol. Breakdown of chemicals such as those found in industrial detergents, pesticides, and personal care
products give rise to nonylphenol. Global production of alkylphenols polyethoxylate was 600 million pounds in 1990.
Although the products purchased by the consumer are not themselves estrogenic; studies have found that bacteria
in the animal's bodies, in the environment, or in sewage treatment plants degrade these alkylphenol polyethoxylates,
creating nonylphenol and other xenoestrogens.
Plastic Drinking Bottles
In 1993, at Stanford University Medical School of Medicine, Dave
Feldman, professor of medicine was experimenting with a yeast estrogen protein that binds to estrogen. They found
that the polycarbonate bottles used to hold drinking water contained bisphenol-A. They used the polycarbonate lab
flasks to sterilized the water used in their experiments. Bispheol-A nicely bound to the estrogen protein found
in the yeast. This polycarbonate plastic is routinely used for the giant jugs used in shipping water.
The manufacturer was aware that the bottles would leach particularly
if exposed to high temperatures and caustic cleaners and so developed a washing regimen that they thought would
solve the problem. However, the researchers discovered that the manufacturer could not detect samples sent from
their lab. Samples that were causing proliferation of estrogen responsive breast cancer cells. This proved to be
a detection limit in the manufacturer's lab equipment. The Stanford team found that 2-5 parts per billion of
bisphenol-A was enough to cause the breast cancer to proliferate.
Professor Feldman noted that though bisphenol-A is 2000X less potent
than estrogen, "it still has activity in the parts per billion range."
Detergent Breakdown Products
John Sumpter a biologist from Brunel University in Uxbridge began
to study in sexually confused fish reported from anglers fishing in English rivers. Many fish caught in the lagoons
and pools just below the discharge from sewage plants looked quite bizarre. Even experienced fisherman could not
tell if a fish was male or female. The fish showed male and female characteristics at the same time. They were
perfect examples of intersex where an individual is stranded between both sexes.
Sumpter used a marker that helped identify female fish. Normally
in females a special egg protein is made called vitellogenin, in response to estrogen from the ovaries. On the
estrogen signal from the ovaries, the liver produces vitellogenin and the protein is incorporated into the eggs.
Since the response is dependent on estrogen, vitellogenin levels found in male fish would be a good indication
of estrogen exposure.
Caged fish raised in captivity and then kept in the contaminated
pools made 1000X to 100,000X more vitellogenin than control trout kept in clean water.
15 sites were sampled with soaring vitellogenin levels. It was a
national problem. Alkylphenol levels from detergent breakdown products are high on the suspect list. However, Sumpter
suspects that it is the synergistic qualities of several xenoestrogens acting together.
Canned Foods
Two Spanish Scientists at the University of Granada decided to investigate
the plastic coatings that manufacturers use to line the metal cans. The coating is added to avoid the metallic
taste of metal in the food from the cans. These linings are present in about 85% of the cans. Fatima Olea and Nicolas
Olea an M.D. specializing in endocrine cancers worked with Soto and Sonnenschein. In a study analyzing twenty brands
of canned foods purchased in the United States and in Spain, they discovered bisphenol-A, the same chemical that
the Stanford researchers discovered in about half of the canned food up to levels of 80 parts per billion. This
is 27 times greater concentration of bisphenol-A needed to cause the breast cancer cells to proliferate in the
Stanford Study.
Commercially raised Beef, Chicken and Pork
Commercially raised livestock are routinely given xenoestrogens
to fatten them up and cause them to retain water. This results in greater profits for the farmer. It is an effective,
cheap, quick way to fatten them up. In the 1970's and 1980's there was an epidemic in Puerto Rico of early puberty
in girls as young as a year old and even young boys who developed breasts caused by meat and dairy products containing
high levels of estrogen. In the United States, the use of estrogen compounds is now slightly better regulated,
but it is still very much used and abused.
The companies claim that the hormones used to fatten cattle wash
out of the cattle in several days. They routinely measure the urinary metabolites of the hormone in the urine.
When no metabolites are found they declare the animal hormone free! However, there is some evidence to suggest
that some of the artificial hormones are stored in the fat and may persist for several months. Therefore, even
if the animal that you eat is declared hormone free after a week of ingesting hormones, there may still be significant
hormones present in the fat of the animal. Chances are that whenever you eat commercially raised meat, you are
getting a good dose of hormones as well.
DES (diethylstilbesterol), a type of synthetic estrogen, was the
first hormone to be used by the meat industry to fatten up livestock until it was discovered that it causes cancer
even in extremely minute amounts.
Birth Control Pills
Birth Control Pills contain a synthetic estrogen and a synthetic
progesterone to force the body to cycle in a normal manner even though conception may have occurred and different
hormones levels are supposed to occur. Is it really nice to fool mother nature? Adding extra estrogen to a women's
body may exacerbate PMS.
Why not use a simpler method of birth control such as condoms? Use
one that does not use a spermicide such as nonoxynol-9. Researchers found that once nonoxynol-9 gets into a rats
body it breaks down into nonylphenol - a known xenoestrogen.
Summary
From a strictly research point of view there may not be enough evidence
to create public outrage and shift public opinion. However, it is disconcerting to note that the breast cancer
rate is now 1 out of 11 women where before breast cancer in the 1940's was rather rare. Dr. Lee believes that overdose
of estrogen either by pill or by xenoestrogens is the cause of PMS. So what do we do?
- Use glass or ceramics whenever possible to store food
- If you must use plastics, do not heat them up in the microwave
oven or leave them in the sun.
- Use a simple detergent with less chemicals Nature Clean may
be a good choice
- Use a simple soap Simple Soap may be a good choice
- Use natural pest control not pesticides - Healthy Living in
a Toxic World by Cynthia Fincher Ph.D. is a good place to start
- Don't use herbicides; change your mind on what looks beautiful
- Weeds are beautiful - a mastectomy is not.
- Buy hormone free meats to eat
- Buy "Organic" produce, produce grown without pesticides,
herbicides or synthetic fertilizer
- Use Condoms without spermicide for Birth control
Vendors: Living Source (254) 776-4878 Jim Nigra (818) 889-6877 Green
Co. (802) 254-7605
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Contact drjamesmd@juno.com for more information.
 
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