Steroid estrogens (SEs) accumulate in agro-food systems through wastewater treatment and dairy manure, but little is known about their potential health benefits. Some isoflavones, such as genistein, inhibit pathways important to phytoestrogens. Treatment of plants with steroid estrogen hormones or their precursors can affect root and shoot development, flowering, and germination. Estradiol is essential for various physiological functions such as reproduction, growth, food digestion and metabolism, mood expression, and energy.
Plant growth and development involve the integration of environmental and endogenous signals that determine plant form. Treatment of plants with steroid estrogen hormones or their precursors can affect root and shoot development, flowering, and germination. However, estrogens can ameliorate these effects. Auxin causes several responses in plants, including phototropism, downward root growth in response to gravity, and promotion of apical growth.
Estrogens can stimulate or inhibit plant growth in a concentration-dependent manner. Plants exposed to higher concentrations of 17β-estradiol (10 μM) had significantly lower root growth, biomass, photosynthesis rate, primary metabolite, and more. Plant growth and development can be positively or negatively affected by estrogen exposure depending on the concentration, type of estrogen, and species of plant.
Previous studies revealed that progesterone and β-estradiol hormones inhibit the root development of sunflower plants. However, low levels of estrogen have been reported to influence plant reproductive development.
In conclusion, while androgens and estrogens do not have the status of hormones in plants, they are physiologically active and can serve as regulators that support plant growth and development.
📹 How to Fix Your Low Estrogen Levels
I’ve talked about estrogen dominance before. But what should you do for low estrogen levels? For more info on health-related …
Does estrogen slow height growth?
The medical term for slow-growing children is idiopathic short stature, while for rapidly growing children it is constitutional tall stature. Treatment for both cases is believed to improve quality of life. A 2005 study found that 90. 1 of the untreated women were glad they weren’t treated, regardless of their height, while 42. 1 of the treated women expressed dissatisfaction with the treatment decision. Few doctors follow hormone-treated girls into adulthood, and the treatment decision remains unproven.
Which hormone is responsible for plant growth?
Auxin and cytokinin are essential growth hormones in plant development, present at different concentrations throughout the season. Cytokinins regulate various cellular processes and stimulate cell division, with their presence and activity being different from other hormones that act on-off and are present only at specific times. They are synthesized primarily in root tissue and travel upward to shoots and developing leaves. Auxins are primarily produced in areas experiencing rapid growth, such as shoot tissue, young leaves, and developing seeds.
Both auxin and cytokinin regulate senescence (death) and leaf shedding, while they also regulate flower and seed development during reproductive stages. Typically applied in the early vegetative stages, research on the effects of growth hormone application on foliage is largely focused on applications near flowering due to their critical roles in seed development. However, there is limited research on the impact of these hormones on foliage when applied later in the growing season.
Plant responses to cytokinin and auxin have been variable, with some studies showing no difference in pod number, seed number, seed weight, or seed yield compared to an untreated control. Varietal differences exist, with small-seeded varieties having increased seed weights and seed yield following treatment at R3, while large-seeded varieties had increased seed weight and pod number but not increased seed yield with the R1 treatment. The application of growth hormones may increase pod numbers, seed weight, or seed yield, but this will vary based on varietal sensitivity and correct application timing.
How does estrogen affect follicle growth?
The pituitary gland, controlled by the hypothalamus, releases follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) to stimulate the ovaries to produce follicles for egg maturation. A dominant follicle forms, developing more quickly than other follicles. As the dominant follicle matures, so does the egg, which will be released when ovulation occurs. The dominant follicle releases more estrogen, thickening the uterus lining for embryonic development. This stimulates a decrease in FSH, causing other follicles to wither away and reabsorb into the body. The egg inside the dominant follicle reaches full maturity.
Toward the end of the follicular phase, high estrogen levels trigger the pituitary gland to release luteinizing hormone (LH), associated with the luteal phase. LH activates the mature egg to escape the follicle and ovary, allowing ovulation. The follicular phase typically lasts 14-21 days, while the luteal phase lasts about 14 days. The length of the follicular phase may vary at different life stages.
How does estrogen affect growth?
Estrogen plays a crucial role in human bone growth, with high doses suppressing growth and lower concentrations accelerating it, contributing to pubertal growth spurts in both boys and girls. Estrogen is also critical for epiphyseal fusion in both young men and women. A study involving juvenile ovariectomized female rabbits found that estrogen treatment accelerated the senescent decline in growth plate parameters, including tibial growth rate, chondrocyte proliferation, growth plate height, number of proliferative chondrocytes, number of hypertrophic chondrocytes, size of terminal hypertrophic chondrocytes, and column density.
In senescent growth plates, epiphyseal fusion occurred when the rate of chondrocyte proliferation approached zero. Estrogen caused this proliferative exhaustion and fusion to occur earlier. The data suggests that epiphyseal fusion is triggered when the proliferative potential of growth plate chondrocytes is exhausted, and estrogen accelerates the programmed senescence of the growth plate, causing earlier proliferative exhaustion and fusion.
What is the relationship between estrogen and growth hormone?
Adult patients with growth hormone (GH) deficiency require long-term treatment to maintain normal physiological functioning. Endogenous estrogen levels significantly impact the dosing requirements for GH in female patients. Estrogen stimulates GH secretion by decreasing liver secretion of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), stimulating the pituitary to synthesize and secrete GH. Oral estrogen results in a higher concentration of liver estrogen than transdermal administration.
The appropriate dose of GH needs to be determined based on age, sex, concomitant estrogen therapy, IGF-I level, and short- and long-term response to therapy. Clinical endocrinologists are best equipped to manage these variables in a successful therapeutic scenario. The study focuses on girls with Turner syndrome during long-term growth hormone treatment.
What is the function of estrogen in plants?
Phytoestrogens, derived from the Greek words phyto (“plant”) and estrogen, are hypothesized to be used by plants as a natural defense against herbivore overpopulation by controlling female fertility. These compounds can mildly mimic and sometimes act as antagonists of estrogen. Phytoestrogens were first observed in 1926 but were not yet known if they could affect human or animal metabolism. In the 1940s and early 1950s, it was observed that some pastures of subterranean clover and red clover had adverse effects on grazing sheep’s fecundity.
Phytoestrogens are part of a large group of substituted natural phenolic compounds, including coumestans, prenylflavonoids, and isoflavones. Isoflavones, commonly found in soy and red clover, are the best-researched. Lignans have also been identified as phytoestrogens, although they are not flavonoids. Mycoestrogens, mold metabolites of Fusarium, are common on cereal grains and various forages. Although mycoestrogens are rarely considered in discussions about phytoestrogens, they initially generated interest in the topic.
How does estrogen affect cell growth?
Estrogens play a crucial role in cell proliferation and cell cycle regulation, with estrogen-inducible genes like Cyclin D1, cyclin A, and c-myc being targets for ERβ to inhibit cell proliferation and cell cycle arrest. These genes cause quiescent cells to progress through the cell cycle, and their down-regulation is likely a key mechanism for ERβ’s inhibition of proliferation and tumor formation.
In a study, MCF-7 cells were infected with Ad-LacZ or Ad-ERβ, and mRNA and protein levels were measured. The increase in gene expression and protein production was mediated by ERα, as only ERα is expressed in these cells. ERβ inhibited the induction of c-myc, cyclin D1, and cyclin A mRNA and protein levels.
The down-regulation of c-myc is likely a key mechanism for ERβ’s inhibition of proliferation and tumor formation. One mechanism by which c-myc induces proliferation involves the repression of the cyclin-dependent kinase cyclin inhibitors genes, p21 and p27. Antisense oligonucleotides to c-myc prevented E 2-induced proliferation of MCF-7 cells and caused a cell cycle arrest by enhancing p21 synthesis.
To test this hypothesis, ERβ produced a ligand-independent increase of p21 and p27 mRNA and protein levels in MCF-7 cells. These results indicate that ERβ reduces MCF-7 cell proliferation by inhibiting the induction of cell proliferation genes and activating antiproliferation genes, p21 and p27.
In a mouse xenograft model, tumors of comparable size developed from uninfected MCF-7 cells and cells infected with Ad-ERα. ERβ produced a dose-dependent inhibition of tumor formation, with a small tumor developing with 50 MOI Ad-ERβ, whereas no significant tumor developed from MCF-7 cells infected with 100 MOI Ad-ERβ.
How do hormones affect plant growth?
Plant hormones are organic compounds that regulate growth and development in plants, facilitating communication between cells and enabling coordinated growth of tissues and organs. They also help plants adapt to environmental conditions and regulate interactions with other organisms. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B. V., its licensors, and contributors. All rights reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.
What is the role of hormones in plant growth?
Plant hormones are synthesized in one location and move to other locations in the plant, triggering various biological and cellular processes in locally targeted cells. These processes include seed dormancy, growth, metabolism, organ formation, reproduction, and stress responses. Cell type specification and self-renewal in the vegetative shoot apical meristem are key aspects of plant hormones. The stem cell concept in plants is a topic of debate, and the regulation of floral stem cell termination in Arabidopsis is a key area of research.
What is the main function of estrogen?
Estrogen regulates the menstrual cycle and affects various organ systems, including the reproductive tract, urinary tract, heart, blood vessels, bones, breasts, skin, hair, mucous membranes, pelvic muscles, and the brain. High estrogen levels also cause growth in secondary sexual characteristics. The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) was a large study conducted in 1991 to understand women’s health, specifically hormone replacement therapy. The hormone trial included two studies: the estrogen-plus-progestin (HRT) study for women with a uterus and the estrogen-alone (ERT) study for women without a uterus.
Both studies concluded early, showing that hormone replacement did not prevent heart disease and increased the risk of certain medical problems. The FDA advises against using hormone therapy to prevent heart disease.
Does estrogen inhibit growth hormone?
The action of growth hormone (GH) is influenced by estrogen through the expression and signaling of receptors, which results in the inhibition of Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription signaling by GH. This is achieved through the induction of suppressor of cytokine signaling-2, a protein that inhibits cytokine signaling.
📹 Food Plastics = Estrogens in Your Body
It’s true: Chemicals in common food plastics mimic estrogens in your body, potentially causing fertility problems in men, heart …
Low estrogen symptoms: • Hot flashes • Thinning hair • Breast atrophy • Vaginal dryness • Depression • Bladder UTIs • Loss of collagen What to do for low estrogen levels: 1. Cholesterol—you do not want to do a low-fat diet. You want to do the ketogenic diet, which is a higher fat diet. 2. Boron 3. Herbal remedies (black cohosh, fennel, wild yam, Pueraria mirifica) 4. Fasting and a low-carb diet 5. Vitamin E 6. Adjust your stress levels (lower stress) 7. Adjust your exercise (make sure you’re not overtraining) Thank you Dr Berg!
It’s not just females. My husband suffered from a hormonal imbalance and had Hot Flashes from HELL for about 8 straight years, all the way up to when we found Dr. Berg’s articles and went on keto/IF diet. And BAM! They went away almost instantly and he hasn’t had any since. His Bladder UTI’s went away as well, he takes D-Mannose daily as recommended in one of your articles, worked like a charm. Thanks a bunch for your research and generosity to share <3
Thank you, this explains a lot for myself. I am 58 yrs old and have been on the Keto diet since July and have lost 22 lbs but feel like I could have lost more. I am under a lot of stress with taking care of my elderly Mom and 2 grandsons (ages 3 & 21 months), my father in law passed away recently from a lengthy illness and have an adult son who is mentally challenged. Everyday life gets to me sometimes and stress is worse around holidays. I will be talking to my doctor about this next month when I go for my checkup. By the way, my doctor does keto and is the one who got me started. Merry Christmas!
Thank you, Dr. Berg for changing the way I look at food, it changed my life. I was over weight, low estrogen, not feeling a 100% myself. I watched the articles on keto diet, low cabs, and how cabs turns into sugar, intermittent fasting etc. I went on a low cab diet, intermittent fasting, healthy eating with a change mindset. I lost 2.5 stone, my kidney snd liver got better😊 working on getting my estrogen balance right. Thank you😊 I believe in the almighty god and jesus. Seek, knock and hou shall fine.
I found out I had Stage 2 invasive ductal carinoma in 2020. It is the slowest growing breast cancer. My little 17 year old teacup chichuachua Abbey alerted me to my breast cancer. She laid her tiny head across my left breast. I said is something wrong with Mama. Abbey cried tears. I knew. I had bottle fed her since she was four weeks old. Never saw her cry. I lost my Abbey a couple of weeks later. She saved my life. I was tired and had no energy. Only sign I had was Abbey and a dent. Where she laid her head on the side was a large dent. My surgeon told me that I had this cancer for a long time. From 5-13 years. I went into menopause at 38 years old. I am now 59. Five surgeries later, seven lymph nodes removed with four of them cancer. Also went through 14 out of 16 chemo treatments in between my surgeries. Had three blood transfusions. Also blood clot in my right leg. Was told blood clots are 50% higher chance with cancer. My surgeon told me it was a huge red flag to go into menopause that early. My other doctors never said a word. He also told me that my breast cancer was caused by my body producing too much estrogen. Does this make any sense? My Oncologist told me I needed to take Letrozole for ten years. She switched it taking Letrozole 2.5 mg to five years. It is supposed to help my estrogen to keep the cancer from coming back. Joint and bone pain is awful. Is there another way to fix this naturally? Please ladies get your yearly mammograms. Thank you for all of your articles!
Don’t know if anyone else mentioned it but I experienced a huge amount of hair loss after hysterectomy. Went to a dermatologist who did a biopsy on my scalp and it read that it w@s hormone related hair loss. I use Rogaine. It works! Yeah, you have to buy it, and apply it daily, but it’s better than being nearly bald!
WOW I really needed this! Post menopause my immune system also does not work as well as it used to! Also dry eye disease . I thought flaxseed or flaxseed oil or supplements would be important but you did not mention it so I’m going to shift my directions on this topic some. God bless you and thank you Dr. Berg
Dr. Berg, my ovaries stopped working in my early 30`s. I was diagnosed w/ Premature Ovarian Failure/Insufficiency…which also causes estrogen dominance, due to a lack of progesterone. The standard medical community has not been much help. Healthy Keto & IF has helped all health aspects. Thank you & Merry Christmas!
Dr.,your info in this article is very valuable but limited.. You hv tried to put many things in 3 min. What does a fat diet means fr an increased level of estrogen, and how can vegetarian woman take appropriate fat? There r women post 60-65)yrs who get their uterus removed(due to fibroids, uterine cancer Or anything else), what about their estogen levels, does that become zero after hysterectomy?Pls comment
So I need to eat lots of carbs, eat snacks in between, stay away from certain vitamins, and keep stress in my life to keep estrogen low? Because estrogen is what fuels the cancer I have…..stage4 breast cancer metastasized to my lungs. It’s complicated and confusing, Dr. Berg. A double-edge sword. Carbs turn to sugar, and sugar also fuels cancers. Complete hysterectomy in 2004 because of cancer. It’s 2022 now and it’s still trying to take me out. What should I do?
Dr Berg we really appreciate your articles. I’ve just learned only a year ago I’m in the perimenopause stages of life. But unfortunately, 99% of the time I’m still experiencing severe endometriosis symptoms! Along with some of the most awful migraines that I have ever had. Basically it’s a huge estrogen rollercoaster. The usual ideas simply will not work with me, because most of the time I’m still experiencing too much estrogen. If you have any advice on this particular rollercoaster I’d love to know. I never thought after experiencing hellish cramps every single month, that I’d also have this much of an awful time in this perimenopause phase too 😢
My Estrogen levels are very low Dr Berg, but my cholesterol levels are very high…Doctors put me on two different Hrts but I had very debilitating side effects from both…She talked to a specialist who told her nothing will help me as my Estrogen levels being so low were causing my liver to make too much cholesterol…Scared what this meant forvmy future and having debilitating digestive problems i’ve started 4:20 intermittent fasting a couple of months ago…I’ve cut down on carbs, dairy, wheat and increased good fats…Though its made alittle bit of difference in my intense stomach pain n bloating etc it doesn’t seem to have made any difference to my Estrogen levels even though i’ve included Soya n Tofu to my diet…I will try n add Boron n Vit E supplements and focus more on cruciferous veg, praying it really helps as being a carer for several of my family members n my Autistic son having Fibromyalgea n OsteoArthritis myself has depleyed my energy reserves and I am bobbing on empty and suffering daily…Thank you, you have given me some direction…💕
Dr Berg can you please answer my question. I’ve had a hysterectomy so am usually in post menopause with awful symptoms. When I do keto my estrogen levels get REALLY high. If my fat has estrogen in it and I start burning it wouldn’t that make sense that estrogen goes up. The few times I’ve done keto for a few months and lost fat my estrogen levels went through the roof and my labs proved it. Is this right, can you explain this?
If your sore from training and don’t recover well it is because you are in a negative nitrogen balance. Try arginine and increase protein. Women are 4-12x;s more sensitive to testosterone than men, but they need a little bit to be healthy as a base for their estrogen. For men it is just the opposite to be healthy. These two hormones work synergistically, and men who completely shut down all estrogen, do not make gains in the gym. Pro bodybuilders will take a Testosterone base small amount to convert to estrogen if their steroids are blocking estrogen. Just a small amount of estrogen is necessary for protein synthesis. That’s why they stack testosterone with steroids.
Hi, I been perusal ur chanel for years I love eating heathy. Herb and vitamin as well fast food like deep fried food n sweet . But I cut it down alot . Here my problem first i have anxiety.. for 2 years. always nervous problem with sleep, i try many vitamin it only help with sleep or sometimes give me side affect . I have heart palpitations everday plus everything I eat I have to bathroom it’s mean all the vitamin I take it go to waste. What vitamin in ur website you recommend docter ?
What is considered ‘normal’ cholesterol and who determines that and why? Big Pharma perhaps? On a side note, at 68 and over a year on Keto, I am still experiences regular hormonal fluxing. (Don’t and never did take HRTs.) For several days to a week each month, I go through ‘PMS on steriods’ aka, ‘hell on wheels’ including deeper depression! Is that lack of estrogen? Too much testosterone? Both? I do use progesterone cream nightly and have for a very long time now. I thought I was estrogen dominant! I’d like to figure out a way to stop this monthly trip through Crazyland!!!
What exercise or food is good for hot flashes? I’ve been experienced them a lot this week and I’m not sure if it’s because they put me on antibiotics for my tooth… I kind of feel like that’s what triggered it. Am I supposed to exercise? Am I supposed to lean more in taquito and not eat these sweet potatoes with my chicken breast at dinner?
I’m 42 been getting more frequent skipped heartbeats right before my period, what happens before period starts? Estrogen and progesterone drop! So I need to know what to eat that week before my period to keep the Estrogen up so I don’t have such a hard drop causing the palpitations is what I’m thinking
Does anyone know if i can get a hormone test while im in birh control? Going off would send me into a crisis bc of pcos which was maintained perfectly by birth control but im having some different symptoms the last few years and im wondering if it is safe to assume i can take this or that supplement or if i need to get testing or if its not possible . Idk what to do, obviously going to be asking my doctor. Im having excess oil production and acne and itchy scalp and some odd hairs on my tummy. Im not sure what that is… too much testosterone?
Sir im a 33 yrs old unmarried and virgin girl …due to some vitiligo patches or due to my psychology n constant stress i failed to feel confident enough with anyone…these days im losing all my facen body colour n face brightness..also some mild melasma has started…n lso i feel constantly stressed..underconfident n unlovable n unvaluable..my periods are quite regular with average flow….cn there be lack of estrogen in me??? Should i follow diet for increasing estrogen n im also unable to sleep properly or laugh whole heartedly since years now….no matter how hard i try … I feel discouraged all the tym…can this be estrogen …plz suggest n i will be obliged… Thnk u
I work at a food processing facility. Even if you’re buying it in a glass container the ingredients it was made from were still likely shipped and stored in plastic. My company is one of those 100% organic, GMO free, don’t use corn syrup etc. type companies, but 100% of our raw materials are shipped to us in plastic bags buckets or drums.
Yes, avoiding plastics and xenoestrogens is a good practice, but very difficult to do it completely. These compounds are almost everywhere: leeched into the water we drink, dust from our blinds, plastic on our food, you get the idea. A more effective strategy could be to simply minimize their effects through diet modification. Cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, etc) may help in this regard due to a naturally occurring compound: indol-3-carbinol. I3C prevents the conversion of xenoestrogens into estradiol, a more potent form of estrogen. Do avoid plastics as much as you can, but also try working in more broccoli and cauliflower in your diet. Last time I tested my E2 (lab test name: estradiol with dilution), it was well within the normal range.
When I was growing up, my parents had a liquor store. People returned their beer bottles and they would get recycled back to the Beer Company by placing them back into the beer cases. Why can’t we do that today? some genius in distribution should figure out a way to send glass containers for everything back to where they can be reused again.
I worked for a time at a grocery store. One of the big, “I didn’t think about that,” exposures to bisphenols specifically is actually receipt paper. These days all the receipt paper (“thermal paper”) manufacturers have jumped on the, “BPA-free,” bandwagon, but like you mentioned almost at the start of this article, that likely just means either BPS or BPF instead (& usually they don’t exactly tell you with what they’ve replaced the BPA). Ever wonder why you’ve seen a cashier change the paper in their printer but never the ink cartridge? There is no ink cartridge to change. The printer actually just applies heat, which causes a reaction in the coating on the paper so it changes colors according to what’s being printed. That’s also why they turn black if you leave them out in the sun, or, as was one of my favorite things to teach the people I was working with, if you spill alcohol onto them. It turns out that bisphenols are soluble in alcohol, as you’d expect them to be since they look pretty non-polar. You know how there’s often a little bottle of hand-sanitizer gel at the checkout–maybe you’ve noticed it extra over the past year because of the covid-19 pandemic? That hand sanitizer is mostly various alcohols, ethanol and isopropyl, etc. Splash a little drop of that on a piece of blank receipt paper and you can see the elution of the coating on the paper pretty easily. I always used to caution customers who had just used hand sanitizer if I was about to hand them their receipt b/c I figured they’d probably want to know, “hey, let that stuff fully dry before you handle this receipt much because the endocrine-disrupting chemicals on it might leech off it and into your hands via the alcohol.
It always amazed me when I saw coworkers microwaving plastic containers at work. Since I was a kid I was told not to do this and over the last few years I stopped buying plastic containers entirely, just using glass. That being said I primarily buy my meat frozen in plastic packets so I guess I’m not much better off. One way I helped cut down on plastic was by stop buying plastic water bottles. I use a filter for my water and I have glass bottles to store in fridge. That being said, my filter and it’s pitcher are both plastic so… Fuck.
It’s frustrating as a parent that if I want to send certain types of food with my kids to school, it must be in plastic because the school won’t allow glass containers due to breakage. Almost all of the food we bring into the house is packaged in some type of plastic also. It’s a no win situation at this point.
Story Time: When I was living back home with my parents, they used plastic containers for all of our leftovers– y’know, that old trick of keeping the tub of margarine? Yeah, like that. Never got my period the entire time I lived there, but couldn’t ever find out why. Then when I moved out, and started using glass containers like the hippie I am…my body normalized, and I started having regular cycles. Honestly, it was the weirdest thing.
Topics like these are so hard to relate to for someone like me. I’m always struggling to eat healthy. Salad is pretty much a waste of money, because there’s so little energy in it. Canned foods of every kind are a stable (staple?) in my life, as it fits within my budget. I really think the whole “power of the consumer” to change the behavior of the producers doesn’t take into account all the people that just don’t have the option of buying that other thing instead of this thing. Instead, consuming responsibly becomes a selling point rather than a way to force the producer to change.
I should point out, as someone who knows at least a bit about plastic chemistry: these chemicals, BPA, BPS, etc are for the most part additives used to make solid plastics more flexible and less likely to break. Hard, rigid plastics therefore generally have much less of these additives than soft flexible ones. Those stretchy sheets of cling film are gonna have a heck of a lot more BPA in them than a rigid polycarbonate dish that shatters like glass when dropped. The other thing that I’d say is that different families of plastic use fundamentally different sorts of additives than the polyesters and polystyrenes where you find BPA used. Formaldehyde-based resins, like melamine or polyurethane, are more likely to be safe, as in addition to being a lot less permeable, the additives they do leach are usually just other formaldehyde compounds – probably not great for you, but that’s a category of compounds our bodies do at least have mechanisms for dealing with.
Unfortunately I can’t “vote with my wallet” against plastics if there is effectively no alternative. The companies have all the power, we can lean on them, but with our voices and actions. articles like this help to spread awareness. Normal people need to know before they can care. If normal people care, maybe there can be some changes.
I appreciate the research put in and think these things should be progressively addressed but people forget the sheer scale of toxic mixtures we accept into our body. Anyone going to a public pool inhails plenty of chorimine gas (chlorine x pee ammonia, or air pollution from emissions. Living kills and the best thing to do is simply reduce the bad exposure you have and not age yourself with far too overzealous stress of inevitable.
Thanks for this… Really. I live in a bubble sometimes. That said, I was really troubled by the comment on sous vide, as sous vide cooking has been a bit of a passion of mine for the past couple years. This article inspired me to look into non-plastic methods of sous vide cooking. Found some silicone alternative re-usable bags to use with my circulators as well as looking into steam ovens, which can be a pretty good overall sous vide equivalent. Thanks again.
Just FYI, the first two authors on the “all plastics leach endocrine disruptors” paper have HUGE conflicts of interest since they work at two different consumer testing labs that test exclusively for endocrine disruptors in products and therefore have a vested interest in stoking public fear about this issue. Take that for what it’s worth.
I’m lucky enough to be aware of this situation before my daughter was born and my kitchen policy has been “less plastic” ever since. Now at 8 years old my daughter looks a lot less “mature” than her female classmates and I’m not complaining. Just for the fact that I can give her a few more years of childhood it’s all worth the trouble.
Good article Ragusa, one small critique. Boycotting is almost worthless these days. Consumers have very little control of industrial practices. You should’ve gone for the head. As Thanos would put it. Mass organization and lobbying to make it illegal. Like take teflon for example. You can never buy a teflon pan, but the creation process already effed up your world with chemicals.
Government in theory serves the electorate — regulations which penalize plastic use are a good start. What needs to be addressed is privatized gain, socialized losses. Make it more expensive to use plastic in industry by charging a tax on it’s use to fund the cleanup required. If you think this isn’t ineffective, a simple $0.05 fee on those cheap plastic shopping bags has had a marked effect in reducing their use — it isn’t the money, it’s the thought it induces before you go to the store. After a few trips, more and more people start bringing reusable bags. The amount of bag trash in our neighborhood is markedly reduced. Success.
From what I’ve read of the research and papers I could find on the effects of plastics (mostly related to microplastic/nanoplastic, but also endocrine disrupters), polypropylene (PP, recycle type 5) is likely to be the least harmful of the commonly used plastics. Not harmless, but less harmful than the others. Most food containers, electric kettles, thermos lids and so on are made from polypropylene, and that is probably the least harmful choice of plastic. It’s also flexible, sturdy and long lasting. But please don’t put it in the microwave, and always replace any scratched plastic, ideally with something made from stainless steel, glass or ceramic.
Thank you for having the courage to make a article like this — a deeply controversial and flame-attracting subject — with the conclusion “I don’t know”. That conclusion avoids hot-takes and counter-propaganda and reflexive sides-choosing. It makes us slow down just a bit and reflect. And reflection is a better place to learn from than fighting. I’m really worried about this subject, but have a hard time weighing the evidence I can grok; I’m glad for your introduction to the work. Thank you.
I’ve drunk a lot of different drinks (soda pops, juices, iced teas, etc.) in different plastic containers for years, and I think it’s definitely affected me. I’ve started moving to buying only glass container drinks and want to move away from buying foods that could contain these estrogenic compounds. I’m hoping it will help but will just have to see. I think these compounds stick around in the body for a long time.
for me these 3 things help best – You lose estrogen and these bad chemicals while sweating, so do some cardio or get in a sauna and wipe the sweat off with a towel instantly. – Drink more water, drinking water makes you pee, and your pee is also filled with the bad chemicals you get from plastic, so sweat and pee it out more! – Never microwave plastic again.
If you look hard enough you can find diced, crushed and whole tomatoes in glass jars. I think the caps have a plastic liner, but that’s far better than the entire container being lined with plastic. I was told I was worrying too much about fifteen years ago when I mentioned to friends that I believed serving soups and coffees in Styrofoam or insulated wax paper cups and bowls was probably causing the petroleum based wax lining to melt into the soup or the coffee. And lots of restaurants reheat soups in the microwave for to-go orders, to really make sure the Styrofoam gets all nice and melty.
Just a little context (Do with it what you will): “Study finding that most plastics contain estrogenic chemicals” -Yup, though in very small concentrations. “Study showing BPA messes up sperm” -They compared BPA levels in urine to sperm quality, all the men were at a fertility clinic in the first place. “One of Dr. Belcher’s earliest pieces of published research on BPA hazards” -Done on rat cells in a petri dish. “Study finding BPA causes heart arrhythmias in women” -Done on rat cells in a petri dish. “Study finding BPA transfers from women to fetuses” -Exposed the ‘mother side’ of placenta from recent births and after 180min, small quantities were detectable on the ‘fetus side’. “Journal article summarizing research on the effects of endocrine disrupters on children” -“However, many of the potential exposure-response relationships described here have not been adequately explored. For those that have been investigated in multiple studies, results have been inconsistent across studies. There are many possible explanations for variability in study findings, including differences in sample size, study design, study populations, life stage, data analysis approaches, and/or strategies for attaining data on exposure, endpoint, and important covariates.”
Just another FYI The paint used on our roads and crosswalks are nolonger oil based enamel. They use acrylic paint, now and this is why the paint fades away so quickly and the roads and crosswalks look like 💩. Think about it, asphalt is an oil based road material. Then you paint an acrylic paint on it. The paint will not have strong adherence and will break down and flake off in micro plastics which all washes into our drain sewers and eventually back into our freshwater supply. How much of those micro plactics get back to our drinking water? It’s stupid to paint an acrylic paint over an oil base substrate. When we painted roads and crosswalks with oil based paints, they lasted for years. But nooooo if we spray oil based paint on asphalt the VOC’ s get into the air… The silliness is the VOC’s from laying asphalt is many times worse. It’s like ordering a Whopper and fries, yet also getting a Diet Coke, seriously?🤔
If bpa, which only has a slight chance of effecting estrogen and testosterone, is labeled as that dangerous and scary, why isn’t cholesterol treated the same? Yes bpa along with many other biphenol contains products could do things, but cholesterol is much more potent and consumed than bpa ever would be. However, bpa has many replacements that keep profits about the same, whereas if you cut out cholesterol from the average daily diet it would take billions of dollars away from industries. If your being inspected, the easiest thing to do is to purposely place something incorrectly in plain sight. This way the inspector, who has to find something, will catch this smaller violation, feel that their inspection has been fruitful, and disregard many larger violations due to being satisfied that they found something already.
It’s potentially worse than that. We’re also learning how the body stores hormones in our fat cells and burns fat to release them, so years of exposure to these pseudo-hormones builds up. Going clean doesn’t mean being free of them if our very cells have been storing them up for years. The question is not so much “if” this is happening, but “what is the actual impact?” Unfortunately, that we just don’t know. It could be a tempest in a teacup, or it could be that fifty years from now people will look back and shake their heads sadly. But, then again, we know for example that asbestos is BAD and my grandpa happily repaired his muffler with it into his 80s and never got cancer. Just because something is bad doesn’t mean it affects everyone the same. We’re all different.
looked through the sources and nothing in them quantifies the effect just that it “can have an effect sometimes” from the study you cite “exposure to environmental endocrine disruptors and child development” they say “There is a growing body of evidence showing that exposure to a number of chemicals may adversely impact child development through altered endocrine function. However, many of the potential exposure-response relationships described here have not been adequately explored. For those that have been investigated in multiple studies, results have been inconsistent across studies” which perfectly sums up the actual debate. We figure there is SOME effect but cannot find enough evidence to say it for sure and definitely not enough to quantify its full effect. We absolutely need more studies looking into these (and we know of other known, quantifiable hazards anyway) but saying that they have an effect and its bad can be misrepresenting the science.
Watching this I don’t really feel worried, just resigned since it’s borderline impossible to avoid plastics in some amount of your food. Adam brought up a few examples with cans/cartons, but I started thinking about it more broadly. Almost everything you get at a super market will be wrapped in plastic of some variety. Bread, cheese, meat (even if you get it wrapped in paper from the butcher, there’s no guarantee it wasn’t wrapped in plastic when it was delivered to them) heck, even fruits and vegetables. Basically the only thing that won’t have some form of plastic packaging is jarred goods, but you have no guarantee it wasn’t packaged in plastic before it ended up in the jar.
There’s only so much value in making larger changes in your lifestyle for the sake of the environment. The vast, vast, vast majority of pollution is not coming from individuals, its coming from a relative handful of megacorporations. It’s not that you shouldn’t do things like recycle, carpool, or try to avoid disposables, but you’re ultimately not going to contribute much to the salvation of the planet through personal changes. The only real way for the species to survive is to get involved in politics and at the very least regulate heavily polluting industries, if not nationalize them to remove as much of the profit motive as possible. Subbing out your plastic straws for metal won’t work by itself, we need to meticulously vote out any and all politicians that are obstructing action on climate change. And that might require protesting, as a lot of the worst offenders are going to have themselves gerrymandered or similarly protected from democratic processes.
This is an industrial problem that requires industrial and political solutions. As you point out, BPA-free is a marketing gimmick, not a safety label. As consumers we know so little about the processed food chain that any choice we make is likely also wrong, and in many ways we simply can’t make the choice. I encourage everyone to contact your elected representatives and advocate for more research and stronger regulation around these chemicals.
It is very unacademic from you to not mention other researches on that topic and not showing the ratio of papers that agrees and disagrees with that thesis. Working at University, you should understand how unhealthy it is to be one-sided, an as a journalist you definitely know how harmful populism could be. I am not negating what has been said in the article or doctor-degree competences, but medicine and biochemical related topics cannot be sure in 100%, and for every topic you can find papers that confirm and contradict the thesis, and it is normal situation in science and research world. Let’s try to be as objective as we could when talking about science.
Materials Engineer here, designed packaging for food and cosmetics for a decade and did Migration tests on of my designs and many many many others and…. none is safe, governments are veryyy slow with legislation and many companies don’t even know the harm they are doing because the laws for migration are just too lax and labs are expensive. Plastic is not awful, cheap plastic is. …I studied what and in what quantity was released (is not just BPA) if anybody needs some info. Thanks Adam.
Really enjoy the expert insights offered by this website. There’s something comforting about an objective science based/fact based perspective🤓….in a world that seems to be going madly insane at times.🥴 At any rate…this dude’s got some connects…much props…keep it up, bruh 🤗 P.s.- yearning for the learning = satisfied on this website 🤳
I grew up reading a book called Toxics A to Z. It was published in 1991. Avoided plastic sand toxics as much as I could as a child and into my adulthood. But now it’s everywhere. love how this guy ended this article with his exclaimatory mention of glass weighing so much it puts more toxins into the world just to transfer. LOL so hilarious I really appreciate that
Like Adam said, these endocrine disruptors are everywhere. A good portion of US water supply systems use PVC as the main distribution material, and studies such as one done by Ze-Hua Liu have shown that plastics leach out even in those areas. Many of the researchers doing work in this field admit as well that there may be many other chemicals aside from the ones we know about circulating around. And that’s just for water distribution systems that are compliant up to codes and standards. In places of the world where infrastructure has aged and is long past due for renewal (including the US), or even in areas that experience natural disasters that undermine these systems, potable water is a real challenge. Consider also that a lot of engineers choose to go with epoxy-based (BPA/S) pipe patches that expand when exposed to steam to fill in any holes/ruptures along the water line, and don’t choose other technologies because epoxy is cheap and not many studies have come out to prove its ill outcomes. Some things to think about!!!! Edit: have a good day everyone 🖐️
Why the focus on glass? There are other materials as well: stainless steel is very awesome for e.g. food containers. It’s even lighter than glass because steel is so strong it can be made very thin and still be robust. Use double walled stainless steel for things that should remain hot or cold, this insulates even better than any ceramic or glass: French press, soup bowl, cup. Bonus: if it falls on the floor, it’s still working. Maybe it has a small dent, but it won’t shatter like glass. The only real downside: you can’t put it into the microwave. Also, for cutting boards, there’s wood and similar materials (bamboo). They actually aren’t less hygienic than plastic.
Your point at the very end of the article is how I feel every day now. “I DONT EVEN KNOW!?!?” I question things like this all day and keep ending up with a conclusion that every solution causes another problem. There’s always gonna be pressing issues. We just deal with them when they show up I guess? There’s always the scary unknown but we will never progress if we don’t take chances.
Adam mentions one of the issues: even if you are scupulous about plastic not touching your food, there is so much microplastics in the general enviroment that we are still fucked. Did you know that male sperm counts have gone down over 50% in the last 50 years? And it’s continueing – we could be looking at a “Children of Men” scenario in the next few decades. And worse, noody really knows what to do about it – aside from eliminating all plastics, which would be a huge cost and might not ever be possible.
I’ve wanted more glass and aluminum beverage packaging for a while now, just because recycling plastic actually generates much more pollution than recycling paper, glass, and various metals. I’d buy Liquid Death, but $20 for a 12-pack of canned water is ridiculous, it should be less than a 12-pack of soda.
Other sources (“Risk Bites”) say that actual high exposure levels of BPA are 4X lower than the proposed “safe” levels. The moral of the story is, don’t over react to slight “risk” by dumping a safe product who’s risks are actually well understood in favor of a “not known to be unsafe” product who’s risks are not understood.
As someone I’m with a estrogen reactive breast cancer that has come back a few times, the whole plastic thing mimicking estrogens is something that just annoys the heck out of me because there is no much avoiding it. I am under hormone therapy to be artificially menopaused and even that is not enough
Here’s a bit of a tip… I wrap meat and other stuff in Wax Paper or Parchment, then put the wrapped item in my Foodsaver and vacuum seal it… The plastic doesn’t come in contact with the food… Most butchers wrap the meat in wax paper so it’s just a matter of putting that package in the Foodsaver… Done deal. However, that does not address leftovers… Then use glass…
it fucking sucks how bad plastic is for the world and it sucks even more that plastic production and use is still a thing and rising. I’d like to live a plastic free life but it’s so hard in world where a ton of shit you need either has plastic in them or is packaged in plastic! It’s almost like, whats the point of even trying? There is so much plastic in the environment, and even in us, already..
The solution to these kinds of problems is always technology. You can’t expect people to change their behavior when it makes so much sense most of the time. Plastic is everywhere because its effect on manufacturing and medicine have been miraculous, to the point that this is arguably a decent trade-off. But it is absolutely vital that we find some way of limiting the damage, by creating new materials and medicine.
There are a lot of good environmental reasons not to use plastics too, especially single-use plastics like bags, wraps and straws. Glass/Pyrex bowls, stainless steel straws, tin foil, and trying to buy foods that are still sold in glass jars all shift us more towards recyclable, multi-use items. Adam often frets about the environmental impact of eating meat so I’m surprised he didn’t have more to say about the environmental impact here.
Thank you!! thank you!! thank you!! The science to prove it!! I’ve been telling my wife and her mother that we shouldn’t be giving our kids plastic “cute” cups to drink from and they just look at me like I’m some crazy tin hat guy. “oh a little plastic cup here and there won’t hurt anyone!!” Can’t wait to surprise them one day when they return from the grocery store with a theatre size screen in our living room, and play this article with 6’ speakers while wearing a tin suit!
We need to push for the passage of laws that out the burden of shifting the market away from disposable plastics on the manufacturers themselves. Put a 20 cent tax on every item created with single use packaging made from petroleum derived plastics, that is paid by the manufacturer and watch how far the market shifts to biodegradable packaging. Trying to fix massive environmental issues like this from the consumer end is like trying to turn the Titanic away from the iceberg by asking everyone to lean really hard to one side.
I’m a little late to the party on this one. But if what he reported is correct then I am glad I was a child in the 60’s OK young folks sit down as I tell you this, don’t want you falling. In school we had milk break in kindergarten. Our milk came in glass bottles with cardboard tops. In grade school it was still the same thing. My family had milk delivery, we lived in the country and our milk and orange juice was in glass bottles. Yes there was the occasional milk falling off your tray on the way to your seat and splashing. OK maybe at least five times a week. lol I prefer using glass over plastic for mixing food, even over metal at time. Still I’m stuck with plastic storage a lot. I need to get back to my old house and get my old glass canning jars for storage. Thanks for this
I believe that plastics ( derived from petro-chemicals) in our food & environment is the most significant factor in many of our current health problems & what can you do? Not very much, as they are used in everything. It would be impossible to avoid them. Even if you grew all of your own food, they are everywhere.
No one in a position to implement change is putting any emphasis on combating this obvious problem. Numerous peer reviewed studies show detectable amounts of endocrine disrupting chemicals and estrogen mimicking chemicals in nearly every adult tested. Studies have shown that the effects are cumulative, so multiple chemicals add up to greater effects. Even extremely small amounts of these chemicals can cause significant developmental problems in embryos and fetuses. Could this be a link to the higher rates of gender dysphoria and other sexual identity issues today?
this sounds lile a lost cause, like putting out a forest fire with a thimble or water at a time. Right now I am drinking my tea out of a glass mason jar but I know that I can easily find a article/report telling me that here are microplastics in the water we drink, i can also see a plastic gasket around the temperature sensor in my electic kettle….i would have to move to the deep woods and stop drinking water and trhow all my close away……hmmm how would i stop the rain from pouring microplastics on my head
I think it’s important to note thwt chemicals entering your body doesn’t always mean that our body also metabolizes it. For example there is a huge difference between smoking and eating THC. The study shows the chemical entering the body but cannot analyze its effects (that is basically Impossible to test)
Nope. It isn’t the substance but the dosage, and we are talking about very tiny amounts. We also have larger doses of more powerful estrogen-mimics in naturally occurring in foods like soy. There are environmental and safety downsides to being being phobic about plastic packaging. Pick your alternative, and most will involve greater energy expenditure for manufacturing and shipping. Many are less durable.
this article is very interesting as the articles you sourced were not relevant for the most part of what came out of your mouth. a lot of these articles mention that there aren’t enough consistent studies that absolutely confirms that BPA causes any of these effects. Go read the children one. many of these studies have not been fully explored and cannot be reproducible. These findings are bogus. I’m not saying that we should continue to add large amounts of plastics back into our diet but to have a better understanding that not all studies can be relied on. For the sperm study, they only found a positive correlation between urinary concentration and total sperm count; however, we all know that correlation does not equal causation. It even says that there needs to be more future studies so the study can be confirmed.
I now buy only in glass and have thrown away all my plastic food storage containers and cookware and anything made of plastic. I only buy milk in glass, tomato sauce in glass jars and look at EEEEEverything made of plastic near food as No Way! We might not be able to avoid All plastics, but we can put a pretty big dent in it.