2023-05-10 15:36:48
Dear friend, dear friend,
Are you one of those who regularly follow the conferences of the Independent Scientific Council?
This entity was formed during the covid 19 health crisis around independent experts, with no conflicts of interest.
Their wish was to offer scientific information other than that disseminated by the government and the conventional media.
The CSI gives an online conference every Thursday evening. The 103rd took place recently on endocrine disruptors.
I looked at her. Were present Carole Fouché, microbiologist, Philippe de Chazournes, general practitioner, and Christian Vélot, biologist.
The latter explained the interactions that exist between endocrine disruptors and genes. The video lasts 2 hours but it is very informative. If you have time, don’t hesitate to go see it here.
If you’re in a hurry, I’ll give you some of the big ideas presented at this conference as I retained them. I deliver them to you as I have retained them.
1/ What is an endocrine disruptor?
Christian Vélot gives the definition posed by the American zoologist and epidemiologist Theo Colborn who described endocrine disruptors for the first time. It was in 1991.
It is a substance or mixture external to the organism, of natural or synthetic origin, which causes harmful effects on the health of an organism or its descendants following a dysfunction of the function endocrine.
In this definition, several elements deserve to be underlined.
First, endocrine disruptors are often mixtures. The cumulative effect of mixtures can be more than proportional.
Then they can be natural like, for example, soybeans which contain phytoestrogens. Taking too much can have a feminizing effect.
Finally, their effects affect exposed living organisms as well as their offspring.
This has been verified in mice but also unfortunately in humans.
2/ What is the endocrine system?
It is the set of organs, tissues and glands that produce hormones.
It allows to have a chemical communication system coordinated with the nervous system which is itself an electrical communication system.
Nervous system signals are specific and brief, while hormone signals are more general and long-lasting.
Endocrine disruptors create a communication dysfunction within living organisms.
In the human body, the endocrine system is controlled by the hypothalamus which is a very small structure in the heart of the brain.
The hypothalamus links the nervous and hormonal systems.
The hypothalamus controls the endocrine system through the pituitary which is a gland located at the bottom of the brain.
Other glands and organs relay the orders issued by the pituitary and in particular the thyroid, the adrenal glands, the pancreas as well as the ovaries or the testicles.
3/ The main families of endocrine disruptors
There are a very large number of endocrine disruptors. You can find them absolutely everywhere.
These are for example:
- Bisphenols found in food plastics, baby bottles, cans and tins. For baby bottles, we have gone from bisphenol A to bisphenol S, but the problem remains the same. Better to take glass bottles.
- Phthalates which are present in plastic softeners, catheters, blood bags and toys. Patients staying in hospital are therefore exposed to it, as are children who play in their rooms with their plastic figures.
- Parabens which are in soaps and cosmetics.
- Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) which are used to flame retard plastics, textiles and furniture. These are flame retardants. It’s everywhere. They reduce the risk of fire and that is why insurance companies require them. But they also degrade the health of consumers.
- Pesticides ubiquitous in conventional agriculture.
- PCBs which were banned in 1997 but whose particularity is to be stable molecules. It takes 2700 years before 50% of these molecules disappear…
- dioxinswhich are natural when they come from volcanoes but artificial when they are produced by incinerators.
- Some heavy metalsfinally, such as mercury, lead or cadmium which, combined with other substances, can be particularly dangerous for health.
4/ The moment of exposure: a key element of the debate
The problem with endocrine disruptors is that their threat is not always easy to assess.
When we realize that they have caused damage, it is sometimes too late.
What is certain is that it is when the hormones are most active and necessary that endocrine disruptors are the most harmful.
The most critical moment is the growth of the fetus. This was seen with the distillbene scandal.
Between 1950 and 1977, 160,000 pregnant women received distilbene. The goal was to prevent miscarriages.
But it had an effect on the babies. They have often experienced genital malformations as well as an increased risk of certain cancers, particularly genital.
These babies have become adults. They had children in turn. And their children also suffered the consequences of this treatment.
Studies on mice have confirmed that the exposure of fetuses to endocrine disruptors leaves lifelong sequelae which are reproduced in subsequent generations.
5/ The link between chronic diseases and endocrine disruptors
Christian Vélot recalls that for several decades, the number of people with chronic diseases has been increasing.
These diseases include obesity, infertility, type II diabetes and certain cancers.
This fact is not due to the aging of the population. It would be more related to endocrine disruptors.
Indeed, these chronic diseases affect increasingly young people, including children.
For example, a 2012 OBEPI survey shows that we arrive much earlier in each generation at a 10% segment of obese people.
Those born between 1946 and 1951 saw their age group hit by the 10% obesity rate when they were 49 years old.
Those born between 1980 and 1986 saw obesity hit 10% of that age bracket when they were 28.
From year to year the movement is accelerating.
6/ Genes and endocrine disruptors
Normally, when everything is going well, hormones affect gene expression.
Indeed, in the nucleus of the cells is the genetic code of each individual, that is to say 23 pairs of chromosomes, except in the sexual cells where they are not in pairs.
Chromosomes carry genes.
Genes are coded with four letters: AGCT. This is called DNA.
This DNA will allow cells to produce proteins.
Proteins are produced in the cytoplasm, another area of the cell.
It is therefore necessary to transfer the information coded in DNA so that it is expressed in protein language.
This is done in particular by messenger RNA.
The gene information is first transcribed into RNA and then transported and translated in the cytoplasm into protein language which has twenty amino acids.
Some genes are expressed, others on the contrary are turned off. And this phenomenon is essential to life.
This is called epigenetics.
Hormones play a determining role in the expression or, on the contrary, the non-expression of genes.
But endocrine disruptors can prevent this function.
For example, if they mimic the action of the hormone or if they take its place. In this case, the chemical signal does not take place.
And we end up with a gene that expresses itself when it shouldn’t, or on the contrary a gene that goes out when it should express itself.
The problem is that this mechanism is repeated from generation to generation.
7/ Endocrine disruptors and covid 19
Christian Vélot recalls that the SARS CoV 2 virus first struck people whose ground was very weak.
These patients were already sick.
This is what health authorities have called co-morbidities. These are, in fact, the chronic diseases that we have already spoken regarding.
But he recalls that nothing has been done to fight once morest these co-morbidities.
Nothing is being done to free populations from the deleterious effects of endocrine disruptors which weaken everyone and increase the risk of obesity, type II diabetes and cancer.
8/ A few tips for pregnant women
At the end of the video, Christian Vélot gives some advice for pregnant women whose unborn babies are most at risk from endocrine disruptors.
He recommends, for example:
- avoid cosmetics or favor those guaranteed phthalate and paraben free;
- to eat organic to avoid pesticides as much as possible;
- to vary the types of fish consumed to dilute the doses of PCBs received by consuming them and not to take too much;
- to put detox plants at home such as the azalea, the ficus, or the Boston fern;
- to use glass bottles when the baby is born.
To find Christian Vélot’s excellent conference, go here.
Naturally yours,
Augustine of Livois
1683871815
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