Plastics and Endocrine Disruptors
“Plastics are estrogenic. DNA-damaging chemicals, formed when meat is cooked, stimulate breast cancer cells almost as much as pure estrogen and can infiltrate the ducts where most breast cancers arise.” – Michael Greger, MD, NutritionFacts.org
Excess estrogen increases histamine, which produces allergy symptoms.
Estrogen can, also, interfere with men’s hormones, causing side effects such as:
- Breast development (Gynecomasti) and nipple tenderness
- A decrease in sperm count
- Erectile dysfunction and a decrease in libido
- Mood swings and heightened reactive emotions
- Prostate cancer
Lowered testosterone and elevated levels of the female hormone, estrogen, can be the reason.
It’s best to keep your testosterone/estrogen hormones in balance.
In women, high estrogen may increase the risk of high blood pressure, ovarian cysts, endometriosis, depression, PMS, and breast, ovarian, and uterine cancer.
Estrogen-induced weight gain can be a problem for everyone. Too much estrogen contributes to the storage of toxins in fat cells and causes water retention, bloating, and a host of other health and wellness issues.
We are constantly exposed to estrogen-like compounds in foods that contain toxic pesticides, herbicides, and growth hormones.
Not to worry!
Before you read on, know that plastics are removable!
Excess Estrogen Increases Histamine
When a person’s immune system overreacts to a substance and considers it to be a threat to the body, allergies occur. Then the immune system produces an antibody called an IgE antibody, signaling the body to release histamine. Sneezing, runny nose, itching and rashes are normally thought of as allergy symptoms, however, these are actually the effects of histamine on our bodies. Although many people use antihistamines to manage their allergy symptoms, this is only masking the symptoms. It is not addressing the underlying cause.
Here are some other sources of histamine increase:
Gluten and the casein in dairy stimulate histamine release
Intestinal imbalance of too much of the wrong kind of gut bacteria since some of those species of bacteria make histamine.
Too many high-histamine foods such as aged cheeses, red wine and champagne, bone broth and fish stock, cured meat and fish, chocolate, and vinegar and fermented foods such as sauerkraut.
One of the things you can take to decrease histamine it to supplement with vitamin B6 because it up-regulates DAO, an enzyme called diamine oxidase, which the body normally uses to clear histamine. Many women find B6 incredibly helpful for PMS for this reason Vitamin B6 also boosts GABA, the calming neurotransmitter. Vitamin B6 food sources include meat, sunflower seeds, pistachios and prunes.
Other Sources of Estrogenic Endocrine Disrupters
For over a decade we have known not to heat or microwave plastic, as heating plastic causes the release of xenoestrogens.
Xenoestrogens are a type of xenohormone that imitates estrogen and can be either synthetic or natural chemical compounds. Synthetic xenoestrogens are widely used industrial compounds, such as PCBs, BPA and phthalates,. These have estrogenic effects on living organisms.
Xenoestrogens can mimic the effects of the body’s natural estrogen, adversely affect fertility and thus have been implicated in precocious puberty and other disorders of the reproductive system such as interfering with reproductive development in male fetuses
Phthalates are found in perfume, hair sprays and nail polishes. these substances act as hormone disruptors and cause allergies, damage the liver and kidneys and have been linked to allergies such as asthma.
Alkylphenol ethoxylates are in wide use as wetting agents, emulsifiers, and dispersants in paints and coating, residential and commercial cleaning products, in pesticide formulations, and in textile and paper processing. These non-ionic surfactants are used in shampoos, hair colors and shaving gels to lower the surface tension of liquids so they can foam or penetrate solids. They are usually listed as nonylphenol or octylphenol. Here is a list of cleaning products containing these additives.
Alkylphenol ethoxylates are hormone disruptors that may be carcinogens and cause damage to the central nervous system. They are extremely toxic to fish. They can also cause asthma, eczema and skin irritations. They build up in body fat faster than they can normally be broken down.
As we live in a polluted world, xenoestrogens are everywhere. They are unavoidable. Because you can’t avoid xenoestrogens, since they are in all plastics like televisions, computers, and phones, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to worry about them. Especially since there is a way to remove them from the body.
Again, Not to worry!
They are removable!
That being said, there is no need to increase your body’s toxic load unnecessarily.
Plastic Water Bottles
This is how water reaches your store shelves. The water starts out at a bottling plant. It is loaded into shipping containers that often reach temperatures above 140 degrees. The water is then driven cross-country through hot states like Arizona (or anywhere in the summer.)
From bottler to shelf, estrogens are released. Water filters are a better idea, cheaper in the long run and more environmentally friendly, as well.
BPA
I saw some research indicating that the dose of BPA you get from handling thermal paper receipts will dwarf what you get from food! So avoid touching receipts, or at least wash your hands immediately after.
BPA risk sources in order are receipts, canned goods, processed food and ingredients that come in cheap plastic, and then water bottles.
Soy
Soy is another potent xenoestrogen to avoid. There are documented cases of men developing enlarged breasts from “excessive” soy consumption. in one case, as little as a quart of soy milk a day was consumed. Also made of soy are most vegetarian imitation products, like fake chicken, turkey, hot dogs or whatever.
There are plenty of better sources of protein than soy. Also, you can use almond milk or coconut milk instead of soy milk.Meat is 26% protein, while broccoli is around 49% and kale is 67%. Where do those vegetarian bulls and elephants get their protein?
Paint
Artists who use acrylic paint (a plastic) might want to take note also.
Plastics are Removable!
According to Dr. Sherry Rodgers, Northeast Center for Environmental Medicine – internationally known expert in environmental medicine and author of Detoxify or Die, and Tired or Toxic? there is only one way to remove plastics (which are estrogenic) from the body – the far infrared sauna.
She says that high-tech pollution requires high tech solutions.
In December the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) added estrogen to its list of known cancer-causing agents.
Why Use the Relax Far Infrared Sauna?
It is more effective than wooden saunas because of its reflective silver tent. The reflecting tent is ricocheting the light so that every part of your body is within 1 foot of a FIR Energy Source. In wooden saunas, you need to sit directly in front of the radiator to receive the benefits of the far infrared ray, which is not reflected around but is absorbed by the porous wood. They also cost about 4 times as much and take at least 1/2 hour to warm up.
The Relax Sauna is 5-10 times more powerful than conventional saunas and other portable saunas and heats in about a minute. It costs 12 cents an hour to use.
It is 95%-99% pure far infrared due to its patented semi-conductor chip. Others are from 40% to 60% only and are only 1000 watts as opposed to 1500 watts.
Since it is 95% to 99% pure far infrared, it free of toxic electromagnetic (EMF) fields and actually neutralizes the effects in the body of toxic EMF fields, such as come from cell phones, computer display terminals and high tension power lines.
I love mine and use it every day. Once, when I hadn’t used it in a while, I developed arthritis really badly in my hands. In a panic, I used the sauna for 40 minutes every day for a week. At that point, the arthritis was gone and has never returned. You can imagine why I prize mine so highly!
Here’s wishing you a healthy, happy and long disease-free life.
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