I recently wrote about how much more attention horses get with regards to nutrition's importance in fertility than we humans do. Since so many of my inCYST friends also seem to be cat lovers, I thought I'd share some pertinent wisdom from the feline world.
You may already know my friend Kate, whose blog http://www.moderncat.net/ is famous world-wide for its information about stylish kitty accessories.
Today Kate has posted some information about handmade pottery dishes for cats. If you've ever had a cat with acne, you've probably been told to switch from plastic dishes to clay ones. The reason for this is that acne-causeing bacteria can grow on the plastic dishes.
Humans don't do so well with plastic, either. Not only is there a risk for bacteria, but some plastics can mimic estrogens. They're not really the kind of estrogen our body likes to use, and it confuses our feedback systems to have the wrong kind of estrogen floating around the body.
As it gets warmer, and we tend to carry water bottles around to stay hydrated, we have to be aware of how we transport that water. Plastic bottles left in purses, cars, etc, are simply not a good idea. Be sure you look for a metal bottle. You can find them in most stores these days, but if you're having trouble in your area, here's one I found at amazon.com: Eco-Friendly Wide Mouth 25 oz, 750 ml Stainless Steel Sports Water Bottle — BPA Free
Now you can keep kitty healthy, yourself healthy, and by keeping all those plastics out of landfills, you are keeping our planet healthy as well. A great and easy way to celebrate Earth Month!
You're likely to have heard this news if you live in Los Angeles, but for those who haven't, it's worth repeating.
California Assemblywoman Betsy Butler's bill, AB 1319, the Toxin-Free Infants and Toddlers Act, banning BPA in baby bottles, formula cans, and similar products, was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown. After July 1, 2013, the maximum amount of BPA in these products, will not be allowed to exceed 0.1 parts per billion.
This is a huge development for PCOS. Even though the bill is oriented toward babies and children, it officially recognizes that BPA is a health risk. It paves the way for more actions to be taken to get BPA out of adult foods and products as well.
If you have five minutes, please take the time to thank Assemblywoman Butler for her advocacy. Even if you don't live in California, or in her district. She's done a good thing for your children…and for public health in general. You can contact her at http://www.betsybutler.com/contact.php
Today I'm sharing a blog post from Dr. Susan Rubin. She talks about purslane, an omega-3 containing"weed" that also appears to have the ability to break down BPA.
If you aren't adventurous enough to try the salad, be sure to throw a handful in your next smoothie!
Bisphenol-A (BPA) is everywhere. In addition to cans and plastic packaging, it is found in thermal paper and carbonless copy paper, which are commonly used for receipts, airline tickets, event tickets, and labels. It is so ubiquitous that it was found in the urine of 95% of all people the CDC tested between 1988-1994.
One study found a strong correlation between body mass index (BMI) and BPA levels. That, to a dietitian, seems like a vicious cycle, since a lot of the foods I personally believe are associated with obesity (sodas, chips) are packaged in BPA-containing materials. So not only do you expose yourself to the chemical when exposing those foods and beverages…you are highly likely encouraging your body to hang on to those chemicals if you're eating them in a way that is out of balance with your daily caloric needs.
Staying lean, however, is not a guarantee you'll be protected. It is looking like BPA can elevate liver enzymes, a common problem with PCOS. And that problem persists even in normal weight individuals.
Scientists do believe BPA passes through the body very quickly. However, some of the problems associated with BPA seem to be nonreversible. And unborn babies and newborns, who are going through rapid development, seem to be highly susceptible to this effect. That means that you can reduce your exposure to BPA and lower your current levels, but you may not be able to undo all of the changes that BPA had the opportunity to make. You can eliminate future problems…but you may not be able to undo all that's been done.
I really want this blog to be positive and not scary. However, this is a very serious issue. Since many of you are eating to conceive and eventually eating for more than yourself, it's important to understand that how you choose to eat can impact more than just you. And it's not just about eating to conceive…it's about eating for a healthier next generation.
The less packaging your food comes in, over time, the less likely it is you'll be consuming BPA.
Gehring, Martin; Tennhardt, L., Vogel, D., Weltin, D., Bilitewski, B. (2004) (PDF). Bisphenol A Contamination of Wastepaper, Cellulose and Recycled Paper Products. Waste Management and the Environment II. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, vol. 78. WIT Press. http://rcswww.urz.tu-dresden.de/~gehring/deutsch/dt/vortr/040929ge.pdf. Retrieved 2009-10-15.
Even though it has been identified that BPA in the body is higher in women with PCOS than with women without it, what to do with this finding has yet to be clarified.
What the study did NOT tell us that still needs to be examined:
1. What level of BPA is associated with the beginning of onset of symptoms. 2. What period of a person's life is it most dangerous to be exposed to BPA--in the womb? Early childhood? Or accumulated exposure throughout life? 3. What is the best way to remove BPA from the body. 4. What rapid changes in weight do to BPA levels and liver/kidney function, since it tends to be stored in fat. 5. Whether or not there should be a"holding period" of weight loss before pursuing conception, to reduce exposure of the baby to any residual biologically available toxins.
I did find a web reference to a physician who sells a detoxifying supplement, supposedly peer-reviewed, but I couldn't find any independent supporting verification for his product. That is why I will not post the link here. It was not scientifically strong enough to convince me to encourage its use. If that changes, I'll be sure to update you.
The bottom line is, it's reasonable to infer that too much BPA in the body has strong potential to interfere with healthy hormone function. We can expect that in the future there will be a solution for lowering blood and tissue BPA levels that is scientifically sound, as well as safe.
And we can do our best to be more aware from this point forward of where BPA comes from and how to avoid it. I'll talk more about those kinds of actions tomorrow.
If you're diligent about PCOS news, you probably haven't missed the press release reporting the finding that women with PCOS have 60% higher blood levels of bisphenol-a than other women.
The question is, what can you do with that information? My hunch is that many of you immediately wanted to know where you could get your blood levels tested and what to do if they turned out to be high. I worked much of yesterday trying to put together some answers for you, because it's highly likely that soon there will be people out there marketing solutions to all of you, some of which might be helpful…and others which are more likely to help fatten the other person's wallet than to improve your own personal situation.
The first thing I looked for was whether or not there was any way you could actually have your own blood BPA levels tested. I wrote to the Environmental Working Group, who has done some BPA testing, and who I trust.
Here is their response:
Thank you for your interest in EWG's work. Unfortunately, testing for toxins in the body is an expensive and time consuming endeavor. Some commercial labs will test for certain chemicals (and your physician may be some help here), but the kind of tests we ran for our BodyBurden reports would be almost impossible to procure for the average individual, not to mention cost prohibitive.
We are not associated with any lab in particular, but you might find the study’s methodologies--and what tests were run, and where--helpful: http://archive.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden1/ http://archive.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden2/
In addition, we do not recommend that individuals seek body burden testing for the chemicals in the Human Toxome Project. These tests rarely provide any concrete information regarding the origin of your condition or the sources of your exposure.
1. Health effects of many of the industrial chemicals at levels found in people are mostly unknown. Most studies measure the toxic effects of these chemicals at high doses in animals. Few studies reveal potential health concerns from the complex, low-dose mixtures found in people.
2. We cannot at this time associate current health problems or predict future health problems from the chemicals that might be in your body. Scientists are only beginning to study the health effects of repeated exposures to trace levels of these chemicals. While studies suggest that some specific chemicals may play a role in certain health problems, risks to an individual are largely unknown. Genetics, timing of exposure, and levels of exposure all may be important.
3. Even if you were to be tested for dozens of chemicals, you would not know the added effect of the hundreds of other industrial chemicals that contaminate the human body at any given moment. The additive effects of the chemical mixtures found in people make understanding the potential health implications of your personal exposures even more complicated.
As an alternative we recommend that you review our site for suggestions of ways to limit your exposure to toxic chemicals, and join us in our fight for more protective policies that limit our exposures to harmful chemicals. Policy measures are the most permanent, cost effective, precautionary and equitable way to protect our health. Thanks again for your interest in our work.
Bottom line: running out and getting yourself tested for your own BPA levels is not a recommended response. Staying apprised and learning how to limit BPA exposure are great preventive strategies.
I'm just posting this release verbatim, no need for an editorial.
Public release date: 21-May-2009 http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-05/hsop-bcu052109.php
Contact: Todd Datz tdatz@hsph.harvard.edu 617-432-3952 Harvard School of Public Health
BPA, chemical used to make plastics, found to leach from polycarbonate drinking bottles into humans
Exposure to BPA may have harmful health effects
Boston, MA — A new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers found that participants who drank for a week from polycarbonate bottles, the popular, hard-plastic drinking bottles and baby bottles, showed a two-thirds increase in their urine of the chemical bisphenol A (BPA). Exposure to BPA, used in the manufacture of polycarbonate and other plastics, has been shown to interfere with reproductive development in animals and has been linked with cardiovascular disease and diabetes in humans. The study is the first to show that drinking from polycarbonate bottles increased the level of urinary BPA, and thus suggests that drinking containers made with BPA release the chemical into the liquid that people drink in sufficient amounts to increase the level of BPA excreted in human urine.
The study appears on the website of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives and is freely available at http://www.ehponline.org/members/2009/0900604/0900604.pdf.
In addition to polycarbonate bottles, which are refillable and a popular container among students, campers and others and are also used as baby bottles, BPA is also found in dentistry composites and sealants and in the lining of aluminum food and beverage cans. (In bottles, polycarbonate can be identified by the recycling number 7.) Numerous studies have shown that it acts as an endocrine-disruptor in animals, including early onset of sexual maturation, altered development and tissue organization of the mammary gland and decreased sperm production in offspring. It may be most harmful in the stages of early development.
"We found that drinking cold liquids from polycarbonate bottles for just one week increased urinary BPA levels by more than two-thirds. If you heat those bottles, as is the case with baby bottles, we would expect the levels to be considerably higher. This would be of concern since infants may be particularly susceptible to BPA's endocrine-disrupting potential," said Karin B. Michels, associate professor of epidemiology at HSPH and Harvard Medical School and senior author of the study.
The researchers, led by first author Janeny Carwile, a doctoral student in the department of epidemiology at HSPH, and Michels, recruited Harvard College students for the study in April 2008. The 77 participants began the study with a seven-day"washout" phase in which they drank all cold beverages from stainless steel bottles in order to minimize BPA exposure. Participants provided urine samples during the washout period. They were then given two polycarbonate bottles and asked to drink all cold beverages from the bottles during the next week; urine samples were also provided during that time.
The results showed that the participants' urinary BPA concentrations increased 69% after drinking from the polycarbonate bottles. (The study authors noted that BPA concentrations in the college population were similar to those reported for the U.S. general population.) Previous studies had found that BPA could leach from polycarbonate bottles into their contents; this study is the first to show a corresponding increase in urinary BPA concentrations in humans.
One of the study's strengths, the authors note, is that the students drank from the bottles in a normal use setting. Additionally, the students did not wash their bottles in dishwashers nor put hot liquids in them; heating has been shown to increase the leaching of BPA from polycarbonate, so BPA levels might have been higher had students drunk hot liquids from the bottles.
Canada banned the use of BPA in polycarbonate baby bottles in 2008 and some polycarbonate bottle manufacturers have voluntarily eliminated BPA from their products. With increasing evidence of the potential harmful effects of BPA in humans, the authors believe further research is needed on the effect of BPA on infants and on reproductive disorders and on breast cancer in adults.
"This study is coming at an important time because many states are deciding whether to ban the use of BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups. While previous studies have demonstrated that BPA is linked to adverse health effects, this study fills in a missing piece of the puzzle—whether or not polycarbonate plastic bottles are an important contributor to the amount of BPA in the body," said Carwile.
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The study was supported by the Harvard University Center for the Environment and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Biological Analysis Core, Department of Environmental Health, HSPH. Carwile was also supported by the Training Program in Environmental Epidemiology.
"Use of Polycarbonate Bottles and Urinary Bisphenol A Concentrations," Jenny L. Carwile, Henry T. Luu, Laura S. Bassett, Daniel A. Driscoll, Caterina Yuan, Janenifer Y. Chang, Xiaoyun Ye, Antonia M. Calafat, Karin B. Michels, Environmental Health Perspectives, online May 12, 2009.
For those of you who do not follow Dr. Aimee Eyvazzadeh's blog, I wanted to share a really important post. It's about the prevalence of BPA's in our world. BPA's are chemicals that can alter hormone function and therefore, infertility.
This has pertinence to all of you for a couple of inCYST-related reasons.
1. First of all, if you're drinking diet soda thinking it's ok because it's diet, it may not be the obvious that's getting into your body that's causing the problem. If I can't convince you to stop drinking soda, maybe at least I can convince you to look for, purchase, (and therfore create demand for) a less hormone-destructive beverage container.
2. Secondly, the issue of destructive chemicals in our environment is huge. But it seems as though, the huger it gets, the more we seem to want to focus on the minutia of carbohydrates, when to time meals, whether brand"x" breakfast bar is better than brand"y"…ad nausem.
The truth is ladies, one of the reasons you may be forced into a situation where your life has become about minutia is because we as humans have a tendency to stick our head in the sands about big, complex, vague problems it's hard to wrap our brains around, We need to be concerned about the way our chemicals are altering our environment. We need to speak out. I'm appalled at how few people on Facebook even talk about the oil slick…but they all have time to watch the latest Lady Gaga spoof and harvest tomatoes on My Farm. Chemicals aren't going to go away unless we speak up about the fact that we don't want them.
It's unrealistic to ask all of you to wear plastic gloves when you shop so you don't have to touch yours hopping receipts. It IS realistic, however, to ask all of you to take a moment or two out of each day and speak out about something you care about. Plastic, abuse, self-esteem, bullying…if we put our time into that instead of e-poking people we barely know…imagine the world your hormones would have an opportunity to thrive in.
