Environmental Estrogens Work At Very Low Concentrations - Medical Study

[hatrack]

"Scientists have discovered that even extremely small amounts of environmental estrogens - chemical compounds found in pesticides, plastics and detergents, as well as phytoestrogens from sunflower seeds, soybeans and alfalfa sprouts - can cause major changes in endocrine cells, possibly leading to disruption of vital chemical messenger systems in humans and animals.

Researchers have become increasingly concerned about environmental estrogens over the last ten years in the face of evidence linking the chemicals to everything from deformed sexual organs in alligators to damaged fish and human sperm to increased proliferation of breast cancer cells. But lab experiments that aimed to measure the danger posed by environmental estrogens seemed to show that unrealistically high concentrations of the compounds would be needed to produce the observed effects.

The new study, described in a paper published in the November Environmental Health Perspectives and authored by University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) research scientist Nataliya Bulayeva and UTMB human biological chemistry and genetics professor Cheryl Watson, looked at a different mechanism than the one traditionally believed responsible for cellular reactions to external signals. Instead of measuring the responses of the relatively slow-acting genetic machinery in the cells' nuclei, they focused on the much faster chemical responses set in motion by receptors in the cell membranes, the border between the interior and exterior of the cells. (These “membrane-initiated” reactions have only recently begun to receive substantial attention from scientists, although their involvement in cellular responses was first hypothesized in the 1970s.)

“When people were looking for these responses before, they were focused on these macromolecular synthetic events that take long periods of time, 24 to 48 hours, and for the most part they saw very large concentrations being needed,” said Watson. “We were looking at seconds to minutes to hours, and seeing responses at concentrations as much as a thousand to a million times lower than that. These things are just as potent as physiological estrogens like estradiol if you look at this mechanism.”

EDIT

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=17346

[Dogmudgeon]

1. An overlooked cause of the obesity epidemic

We've known for over 30 years that these "pseudoestrogens" cause not only cancer, but obesity, too. But I have yet to see the popular press pick up on it.

Better fat than the effects they have on fish and frogs -- gross deformities like multiple eyes, limbs, even multiple brains.

No, fat is a moral issue ...

--p!

[One_Life_To_Give]

2. Can it cause Gynecomastia?

Fear of the dreaded Man-Tits, might actually get some attention on this.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. Yes

Gynecomastia is "regulated" hormonally. Xenoestrogens (pseudoestrogens) will cause fat to deposit in unnatural patterns, and since they mess with sexualization, pseudo-feminization in men is something to be expected.

Our ideas about physical sexual identity are currently ruled by a fashionable reductionism. For example, any and every unpleasant behavior by men is called "testosterone". But both testosterone and estrogen are only two hormones in a long series of chemical transformations in the body, and neither of them "cause" bad behavior. However, they do control sexual expression on every physical level, including genetic expression of gender.

Worry not; there is A Cure. Estrogen inhibitor drugs, such as Tamoxifen and Arimidex, can dramatically reduce the effects of xenoestrogens. They're anti-cancer drugs, which should come as no surprise. Only $25 a dose, and they'll partially cure the disease that industry gave you in the first place.

So it's not just a metaphor any more: Capitalism has truly made us all, each and every one if us, into its bitch.

--p!