Attention all health conscious Friends:
This story was released today on KOMO news. This is a start the media attention awareness that pesticides are causing harm to our bodies!! Don't assume this pertains only to endometriosis....it won't take long for these same researchers to link many other illnesses, diseases and certain types of cancer to the use of chemicals that, when ingested, wreak havok on our hormones and trigger hormone-related disease. THANK YOU, Fred Hutch, for finally declaring this truth. Now what, you ask?
AVOID PESTICIDES by buying ORGANIC foods as much as possible.
November 5, 2013 -
My emphasis in blue :)
SEATTLE – Researchers at the Fred
Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have discovered two pesticides they
believe cause an increased risk of endometriosis, a condition that can
lead to infertility in women.
Endometriosis occurs when the tissue that lines the inside of the
uterus grows outside of the organ and attaches to other structures or
organs. The condition most often affects the ovaries, fallopian tubes
and lining of the pelvic cavity. While it is not fatal, endometriosis
can cause chronic pelvic pain, painful menstrual periods and
infertility.
The condition affects up to 10 percent of reproductive-age women.
“For many women, the symptoms of endometriosis can be chronic and
debilitating, negatively affecting health-related quality of life,
personal relationships and work productivity,” said Dr. Kristen Upson, a
lead researcher at Fred Hutch.
Unfortunately, Upson said experts don’t know why endometriosis
develops in some women and not others, making it difficult to prevent.
To learn more, a team of researchers at Fred Hutch conducted a study to
discover what role environmental chemicals might play in a woman’s risk
of developing the disease.
Researchers looked at 248 women newly diagnosed with endometriosis
and 538 women without the disease within Group Health Cooperative. They
found women with higher exposures to two pesticides –
beta-hexachlorocyclohexane and mirex – had a 30- to 70-percent increase
in endometriosis risk.
“Since endometriosis is an estrogen-driven condition,
we were
interested in investigating the role of environmental chemicals that
have estrogenic properties (did you just read that?!?!) such as organochlorine pesticides, on the
risk of the disease,” Upson said.
Beta-hexachlorocyclohexane and mirex have both been banned in the
United States for decades, Upson said. But, women are still exposed
through diet, particularly meat, dairy and fish.
“We found it interesting that despite organochlorine pesticides being
restricted in use, these chemicals were detectable in the blood samples
of women in our study and were associated with increased endometriosis
risk,” Upson said.
“The take-home message from our study is that
persistent environmental chemicals, even those used in the past, may
affect the health of the current generation of reproductive-age women
with regard to a hormonally driven disease.”
Pesticides have been shown to have adverse reproductive effects in
laboratory studies, altering the function of the uterus and ovaries, as
well as hormone production.
“Given these actions, it’s plausible that organochlorine pesticides
could increase the risk of an estrogen-driven disease such as
endometriosis,” Upson said.
“We hope our findings will help inform
current global policymaking to reduce or eliminate their use.”
Better late than never, so I'm happy. But be advised, Friends....CHEMICALS CAUSE CHAOS. Reduce your exposure through foods, cleaning supplies, make-up, etc. It's high time we start addressing this truth and begin preventing instead of treating. And if you have daughters, you have the opportunity to be hugely influential on her delicate hormone chemistry by teaching her the importance in avoidance of chemicals that will alter her finely-tuned chemistry.
