We go through our normal routines each day. We buy food off of grocery store shelves, spray our yard to get rid of weeds, freshen up with some perfume or our favorite lotion, maybe run through the drive-thru on the way home from a long day. So many of these normal things, though, are actually incredibly detrimental to our health, are bogging our bodies down with harmful chemicals, and even disrupting our body's careful balance of hormones. These chemicals are known as endocrine disruptors, and they are found in SO many of our daily products.
What Are Endocrine Disruptors?
Endocrine disruptors, just like the name suggests, are a group of toxins that interfere with the endocrine system, the carefully balanced system that manages our body's hormones. The endocrine system functions through relatively small fluctuations in hormone levels, so even small changes in the body's careful balance of hormones can lead to significant biological and developmental effects.
Endocrine disruptors can enter the body through the food we eat, the water we drink, and through absorption by our skin, and affect the body in three main ways:
Increasing the production of hormones
Decreasing the production of hormones
Interfering with hormone signaling
What do Endocrine Disruptors do to the Body?
The harms of endocrine disruptors include developmental malformations, reproductive issues like fertility changes, early onset of puberty and low birth weight infants, increased risk of cancer, and disturbances in the function of both the nervous and immune systems. While everyone is susceptible to the effects of endocrine disruptors, the developing fetus, infants, and children are especially vulnerable.
What is the Most Common Endocrine Disruptor?
BPA, also known as bisphenol A. BPA is a chemical that is widely used in cans, plastics, food wraps, and thermal paper receipts, even after years of attention about its many dangers. Though federally mandated to be taken out of baby bottles and pacifiers in 2011, little else has been done to keep BPA out of consumer products. Because of its widespread use, measurable levels can be found in more than 95% of the US population, while over 20 other journals report the presence of BPA in populations throughout the world.
BPA has consistently been found to interfere with estrogen, testosterone and thyroid hormones, and has long been known to mimic estrogen. In fact, BPA was originally identified and used medically as a synthetic estrogen in 1936, but since has been discontinued for that use. Studies have linked BPA to heart disease, diabetes, obesity, learning and developmental disabilities, changes to DNA, infertility, and miscarriage. Researchers have found that exposure to even small amounts of BPA during the final stages of egg development can impact meiosis and lead to chromosomal abnormalities, the most common cause of miscarriage. If you suffer from infertility or have a history of a miscarriage, be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page for more resources.
Common Endocrine Disruptors
While BPA is the most common and well-known endocrine-disruptor, there are many other common endocrine disruptors found in many consumer products. Other well-known and highly used endocrine disruptors include:
Phthalates: Widely used in plastics, vinyl, cleaning products, nail polish and fragrances. You can often identify phthalates in the ingredient list of consumer products by the word, "fragrance."
PFAS: A group of some 4,700 chemicals that are widely used in non-stick cookware, coatings on upholstered furniture, waterproof clothing, and fast food wrappers. These harmful chemicals are also estimated by researchers to affect up to 200 million American's drinking water.
Atrazine: An herbicide used for weed prevention that is found in many American's drinking water. Fun (scary, really) fact - even small levels of exposure to atrazine have turned male frogs into female frogs that produced viable eggs.
Parabens: A group of chemicals widely used in cosmetics and body care products to keep them from molding, and increasing their shelf life. Parabens act like the hormone estrogen in the body, affecting both male and female reproduction and fertility.
How to Avoid Endocrine Disruptors
While it would be a full time job to try to avoid every single endocrine disruptor, some of the best practices you can take to avoid the major offenders are to:
Eat Organic. Produce that is certified organic has many stipulations and is required to be free from use of harmful pesticides that often contain endocrine disrupting chemicals.
Avoid fast food and cook your meals at home. Fast food wrappers contain high levels of phthalates and consumption can drastically increase blood levels of these harmful chemicals.
Choose fragrance free products. As mentioned above, fragrance is a key word for phthalates and are found in SO many consumer products. Choosing products that are fragrance-free can help you limit your exposure to these chemicals.
Reduce the amount of canned items you buy, as the linings of cans are high in BPA and their subustitutes.
Say no to receipts. Thermal paper receipts given out at restaurants, grocery stores, and literally everywhere, contain high amounts of BPA that can enter the body through your skin.
Replace plastic for glass or stainless steel. Plastic items often contain BPA and phthalates, and when exposed to liquid, cold or heat, can release these chemicals and be consumed. Some items to consider are plastic water bottles, food storage containers, kettles, and colanders.
Use a water filter. A good water filter can go a long way in helping remove PFAS, atrazine, and heavy metals, like lead, from drinking water.
Buy products from companies committed to providing their consumers with toxin-free products. I buy all of my essential oils, and the majority of my cleaning products and household items, like baby and kid soap, hand sanitizer, etc. from Young Living as they avoid all of these common endocrine disruptors in their products, as well as many other chemicals that are often in store bought products.
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