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Healthy Living in a Toxic World

Proximity to Pesticide Use and Risk of Birth Defects, Fetal Death – (03-08-01)

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Proximity to Pesticide Use and Risk of Birth Defects, Fetal Death

Not only do we have to pay attention to the things we knowingly put into our bodies in order to stay healthy, but we also have to be aware of other sources of toxins from the environment: polluted city water, air pollution, pesticides from home use as well as from nearby agricultural use. The scary thing about this study is that the most dangerous time for exposure to the developing fetus is 3 to 8 weeks–many times this is before a woman even knows she is pregnant.

Epidemiology. 2001:12(2):148 The study, which involved almost 700 women in 10 California counties, showed an increased risk of death among developing fetuses, ranging from 40% to 120% among those whose mothers lived near crops where certain pesticides were sprayed. A report on the study will appear in the March issue of Epidemiology. “Our study showed a consistent pattern with respect to timing of exposure,” said Dr. Erin M. Bell, who earned her doctorate with the research at the UNC School of Public Health, and is now an epidemiologist with the National Cancer Institute. “The largest risks for fetal death due to birth defects were from pesticide exposure during the third week to the eighth week of pregnancy.”That span — much of the first trimester — appears to be a special window of vulnerability for birth defects, Bell said, as earlier research has suggested.”The risks appeared to be strongest among pregnant women who lived in the same square mile where pesticides were used,” she said.

Drug company fined for excessive hospitality – (03-01-01)

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Drug company fined for excessive hospitality

Do I really need to comment on this?? All decisions for patient care should be made with one question in mind: Will this benefit my patient? This decision should be unadultered with memories of extravagant trips, daily lunches at the office, free continuing education seminars and ads seen everywhere imaginable. Pharmaceutical marketing to the public SHOULD NOT have an impact on prescribing habits. Every doctor should review the evidence from an independent and unbiased source to determine its safety and effectiveness. Maybe you could actually consider the lack of gigantic advertising budgets for nutriceutical companies a good thing–the physician then relies on medical research and personal experience to make recommendations to their patients.

bmj.com Sheldon 322 (7283): 382b

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Male Infertility Problems? Could Monsanto Be to Blame?

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The blame for infertility usually falls to the female. Rarely is the evil eye cast upon the chance of male infertility problems.

As with the female half of fertility, lifestyle plays a large role in the number and viability of sperm.  Despite this knowledge, visits to fertility “specialists” are usually limited in scope to the female side of things.  This is because we can DO things to the female like give hormones to force fertility or, even more creatively, give hormones to the female to force fertility.  The best known, most successful fertility specialists will even use hormones to force fertility in the female.

On the male side, there are few things we can DO to the male to increase sperm viability.  This is because sperm is usually negatively affected by lifestyle and toxic exposures that need to be improved (with lifestyle) or eliminated (with toxic exposures).  Fertility specialists are not all that great at identifying toxic exposures that will decrease the viability of the sperm.  So what can help or harm male fertility?  Here are a few I’ve touched on over the years:

There are, of course, many other factors, but chemical exposure is high on the list.  Phthalates are compounds found in plastics as well (think “new shower curtain” smell) that are well known to affect fertility in females and males.

All of this sets the stage for this particular article, but before we get into this, you need to understand the concept of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO).

Monsanto, the archetypical evil corporation, makes (among many other toxins) the herbicide Roundup.  Roundup indiscriminately kills growing things.  It would be a bad idea for a farmer, therefore, to spray his fields with Roundup because his crops would get wiped out along with the weeds.  On a white horse rides in Monsanto.  Their scientists twist Nature, splicing in a gene into the seed so that the plant is resistant to Roundup.  Now the happy farmer can coat his fields in Roundup without having to worry about his crops dying.

This is done to a variety of crops like wheat, corn, soy and alfalfa and the process continues to creep into all crops.  So why all the hubbub over GMO crops?  Just because it is completely messing with Mother Nature’s design shouldn’t have anyone worried, should it?

Of course the answer is yes.  Roundup contains a compound called glyphosate.  Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the US, so you can be pretty sure that, unless you are eating all organic, you’re getting a hefty dose of it.  And, at least if you’re a rat in this study, it kills off the Sertoli cells of the testis (these cells support the development of sperm).

Doesn’t sound like a good thing.  Drinking away some brain cells in college is one thing, but eating away the cells that help us guys make sperm is another thing altogether.

Keep in mind that this is a rat study, but here are the specifics:

  1. Roundup exposure was given at low doses (36 ppm) for 30 minutes.
  2. This created oxidative stress and turned on multiple stress-response pathways leading to Sertoli cell death.
  3. Roundup basically led to calcium overload within the cells, which set off oxidative stress and cell death.
  4. Roundup decreased the levels of reduced glutathione (GSH) and increased the amounts of thiobarbituric acid-reactive species (TBARS) and protein carbonyls.
  5. Roundup stimulated the activity of glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, glutathione S-transferase, γ-glutamyltransferase, catalase, superoxide dismutase, and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, supporting downregulated GSH levels (basically, the cells were trying to protect themselves, albeit unsuccessfully).

So the next time you see the Millions Against Monsanto or the Occupy Monsanto FB page, instead of thinking that these are a bunch of fringe-environmentalists, it might be a good idea to listen to what they have to say.

NCCAM Director Foresees Slowdown in Alternative Medicine Grants – (02-15-01)

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NCCAM Director Foresees Slowdown in Alternative Medicine Grants

$89.1 million is 2001 budget the National Advisory Council for Complementary and Alternative Medicine to be given out for research grants. Compare this budget to NIH’s overall budget. Not much of a dent. So we have a small percentage of money going to CAM research and now reduced approval of incoming grants. And mainstream medicine loves to comment on how there is no research on CAM therapies. That’s because there’s pennies for research compared to the money that the pharmaceuticals can produce for researching their products. But we do have, in some cases, thousands of years of experience….

(article) After an initial few years of budget growth and an increase in grant awards, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) will cut the number of new grants for fiscal 2001, center director Stephen Straus said on Monday. “We’re going to slow down the pace of new initiatives,” said Straus, whose center is a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Outlining the state of the NCCAM to the National Advisory Council for Complementary and Alternative Medicine here, Straus explained that despite a generous increase in its budget for the fiscal year, which began on October 1, the center’s previous grant commitments mean that there will be less room for new awards. The NIH gave NCCAM $89.1 million for fiscal year 2001 compared to $68.3 million in 2000. In terms of awards, about 35% of the budget will go toward research grants, 23% to designated centers of excellence — which are organized to study specific disease states or categories — and 10% to training current providers and educating new providers. The remainder will be allocated toward administration and other initiatives. In 1999, the year NCCAM was founded, it was easy to award grants, said Straus, noting they were usually “low-hanging fruit” and of high caliber. Almost half of the 23 applications that year were awarded, he said. In fiscal year 2000, 31% of 144 applications were granted, which was in line with the overall NIH average that approved 26% of 33,000 applications in that fiscal year. This year, the NCCAM estimates it will receive 212 applications, but will likely support only 18%, partly because of budget constraints held over from funds granted in 1999 and 2000, but also because of quality concerns, Straus said.

 

Potential Adverse Effects of Alternative Rx ‘Growing Exponentially’ – (01-27-01)

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Potential Adverse Effects of Alternative Rx ‘Growing Exponentially’

There are several ways to look at this article. First, the list of adverse effects (potential, actually…) could keep growing exponentially for many years and still not touch the numbers associated with pharmaceutical drugs. On the other hand, we really do need to come to terms with the power of natural medicine and stop taking it so lightly. There are many, and I would venture to say most, patients using a specific natural medicine based on something their neighbor told them or they read in Reader’s Digest. It’s not that easy, and almost always, involves some aspect of lifestyle changes to augment the therapy, such as consistent exercise.

(article) The number of known nutrient-to-nutrient and nutrient-to-drug interactions is growing exponentially, panelists said here Monday at a complementary and alternative medicine symposium at the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral nutrition’s 25th Clinical Congress. Though herbs and plants have been used to treat medical conditions for thousands of years, “we don’t know what effect our culture has on these herbs,” warned Georgia M. Decker, a nurse practitioner at Integrative Care in Albany, New York. The speakers emphasized that even benign-sounding herbs can be dangerous in combination with other therapies or if taken by patients with certain diseases. For example, garlic can worsen a hypoglycemic patient’s symptoms, and ginger should not be taken by patients with gall bladder disease. Another drawback is that alternative therapies sometimes mask patients’ symptoms and thus their underlying diseases. That means patients need to be asked not only what they are taking, but how much, panelists said. “Licorice wafers do help settle the stomach when there’s a lot of acidity,” Decker explained. “But if somebody is saying to you, ‘Oh, I take five, six licorice wafers a day,’ then what’s the gastrointestinal symptom that would require five or six wafers a day?” The presenters encouraged healthcare professionals to continue to learn what they can from the literature that is available. “We simply cannot say, ‘No, you can’t take that,’ because there aren’t several big prospective randomized trials that have come to the same conclusion,” said Kathryn K. Hamilton, a registered dietitian and instructor at Columbia University in New York. “In all likelihood, these trials are not going to happen.”

Prescription drug shortages plague US – (01-22-01)

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Prescription drug shortages plague US

This is supposed to be a bad thing, a “plague?” In many cases I would consider this a blessing. A ridiculous example given involves oxytocin, a drug used to induce labor. Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston uses this in “almost every one of its 10,000 annual deliveries.” (What ever happened to nature???) The truly ironic quote by Dr David Acker, the hospital’s chief of obstetrics, was that, when doctors had to cut back on their use of the drug, “Fortunately no patient suffered.” Okay, okay. So WHY do we use it at all?? No patient suffered because they did not have a drug to try to best nature? Forward this one to any midwives you know and they’ll pass out laughing….

bmj.com Charatan 322 (7279): 130a

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EPA Says US Children Face Environmental Health Threats – (01-22-01)

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EPA Says US Children Face Environmental Health Threats

I don’t mean to diminish the importance of maintaining a clean environment. It is unquestionable that we have toxins in our environment that negatively impact our health. The best way I can illustrate my concern is with a conversation I had with an asthmatic’s mother recently. The mother had done everything she could think of; got rid of the cat, uses air filters, covers on the mattress and pillows, etc… But she never once considered attacking the problem from inside. By improving her daughter’s health. The rates of asthma are increasing, and I’m afraid we are going to blame it all on the external environment, and not claim any personal responsibility for the internal environment.

(article) Fewer US children now live in counties with heavily polluted air, but children face other growing environmental health problems such as asthma, the US Environmental Protection Agency said on Monday. Outgoing EPA Administrator Carol Browner used the report to highlight concerns of the Clinton administration, which has fewer than 2 weeks left in office. “The Clinton-Gore administration has made the protection of children’s health one of its highest environmental priorities,” Browner said in a statement. “We especially are concerned about such issues as exposure to lead and pesticides and rising incidence of childhood asthma.” The report showed there has been some progress in curbing environmental health threats to children. For example, data showed a decline from 28% in 1990 to 23% in 1998 in the percentage of American US living in counties where one or more of a half-dozen key air pollutants exceed national air quality standards. Those pollutants include carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and lead. The EPA also noted a decrease in the percentage of homes with both a tobacco smoker and a child under age 7. That fell from 29% in 1994 to 19% in 1999, the study said. Another improvement occurred in the availability of safe drinking water for children. The percentage of children living in areas that logged violations of drinking water standards fell from 19% in 1993 to 8% in 1998. But other trends are worrisome, according to the EPA, which found that environmental health problems are consistently higher among low-income families. Poor black children have a higher rate of asthma than children in other racial groups and income groups. Also, the prevalence of asthma among all children in the US increased from 5.8% in 1990 to 7.5% in 1995, the agency said. The EPA said that its report could not offer any quick fixes to the health issues, and instead it outlined how the federal government needs to develop better measurements and data to address children’s environmental health issues. The EPA separately announced that it will require companies to make public more information about their lead emissions into the air, water and land. The new rules will require companies that annually use more than 100 pounds of lead and lead compounds to provide information to the EPA under the agency’s consumer right-to-know program. Previously, reporting rules applied to users of more than 10,000 pounds annually.

 

Volunteer’s Death Prompts Review – (07-02-01)

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Volunteer’s Death Prompts Review

Think this one will pass FDA approval? You might be surprised… All kidding aside, just remember that many times the general public serves as the true guinea pigs for many new drugs. The list of drugs that were pulled off the market after dangerous side effects were found after the drug was approved is quite long. The ironic thing is that many natural compound have literally thousands of years of safe use and yet their use is looked upon with skepticism by much of the medical community.

Science — Marshall 292 (5525): 2226b

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